Interview with Lourdes Arana Navarro, Director of Actinver Digital Channels

At Infocorp, we continue to talk to different women who lead change and inspire the organizations where they work. Below we share the Fireside chat interview organized by Connect Global Group where Héctor Deambrosi, Latam Head of Sales at Infocorp, spoke with Lourdes Arana Navarro, Executive Director of Digital Channels at Actinver, the financial group expert in investment management in Mexico.

For almost 4 years, Lourdes has been responsible for the 100% digital investment business lines, focused on the youth segment; and for Actinver's digital channels.

Hector: We are in a historic moment, a transformative era thanks to technology, processes, innovative ways of thinking and making decisions in uncertain environments. Banks are betting on digitally reconverting. You lead bigger challenges like a neobank What are the elements you take into account when carrying out an initiative that has a lot of uncertainty ahead of it? How do you measure the value of a customer to the bank?  

Lourdes: At Actinver, we measure long-term customer value using an indicator we call “Customer Lifetime Value” (CLTV). This indicator considers different factors such as the income that the customer is generating for the group, the duration of the relationship, the amount of assets they manage with us, the transactions they carry out with their debit card in other products and also the engagement or penetration that we have in it, since we offer them, in addition to investments, credits, insurance, the possibility of making changes, etc., so all these elements are part of this “Customer Lifetime Value”

Hector: “Customer Lifetime Value” is very representative of a customer when the bank is in a different business. For example, for a consumer or business or investment client, how would the indicator be qualified for each case?

Lourdes: This indicator adapts to the different businesses we have. “Customer Lifetime Value” is completely different of a digital business customer of that of an Actinver private banking customer. They are very different elements that generate value for each one. In the case of DINN, which is a business in which onboarding and every interaction of the person, is 100% digital and where the offer is very simple since there are relatively limited investment products, but with a very interesting transactional offer; the ”Customer Lifetime Value” has a very strong focus on all the transactions he does with us and that weighs a lot more than what would happen with a private banking client.

In private banking, what is valued, fundamentally, are the investments that customers have with us and the different products they purchase, while at DINN, the investment actually has a much smaller weight

In short, we define the CLTV according to the critical variables of each business.

Héctor: In other words, the methodology applies to both cases, but the parameters that make up the determination of value are different and are adapted to the type of customer or business they are in.

Lourdes: That's right, because we have to think that if we are in a company and we have shareholders, we must generate value in all businesses. To ensure that either digital or face-to-face in all of us, we must be looking for a model that is efficient and that provides value. It generates returns for the shareholder and obviously it adds up for the customer because if this doesn't happen neither of us will choose us.

Héctor: If we think about these dimensions of profitability and, that may depend on the type of project, what would you think is a taxpayer in justifying an investment, for example, increasing revenues from services, new services being created? How do you think that a project in digital banking can be justified either by operating cost savings or by a mixture of both, some yes and the other no? How would you see it from your experience in the different projects you have handled?

Lourdes: My experience is that it has to be a combination of both. In the case of Actinver, investment in digital projects is really much more justified because it opens doors for us to enter other segments of the market in which we were not. Until now, investing in these segments has allowed us to grow rapidly in the volume of customers that we could never have served otherwise and would not be scalable models for the group. The essential justification comes with the possibility of entering other market segments offering a different business model, of great value for the customer.

With the pandemic, people's access to e-commerce, driven, in large part, by retail companies such as Amazon or Netflix, accelerated completely. In this way, users adopted and got used to incredibly good digital experiences that they now demand in digital banking as well. Our investment in these digital channels also has to do with the goal of retaining our customers, not just attracting new ones. We must offer digital experiences that generate loyalty, similar to those they have been offered, and that is part of our challenge.

Héctor: Today there is no pandemic, but the customer doesn't go back. The customer remains digital and wants to continue living unique digital experiences. Now, when you are going to attract new customers, what difference do you see between recruitment and loyalty actions to extend their life process, to make them feel unique and faithful?

Lourdes: What I see is that what we call digital onboarding is a tool that allows you to attract a segment of very digital customers. And this really speeds up customer acquisition with a much better experience, which, in the first instance, generates a certain loyalty, but that's only initially. After a while, when the customer has been with you for a while, they forgot how they opened an account with that onboarding. Then you need to generate engagement on your digital platform and at all points of contact with it. This engagement is done in different ways: by digital means: sending you information, customizing your offer according to the type of transactions you make, offering you specific promotions, and others. Provide value to the customer/individual through these offers or even empower them, provide them with content that can help them better understand the financial world, educate them. Continue working with the customer either on digital platforms or on all the channels where we interact with them.

Thanks to Connect Global Group for coordinating these conversation spaces and, most especially, to Lourdes and Héctor for sharing their points of view.

Relive the Fireside from here https://bit.ly/3CqUrmN