[Music] [Christopher Young] So good afternoon, everybody. My name is Christopher Young. I'm the Senior Director of Global Industry Strategy. Today's session is Bringing It All Together, How to Advance Personalization in Financial Services.
Just by show of hands, by the way, how many of you-- I do a session like this once a year, how many of you have been to one of my sessions? See, I'd like to take credit for this crowd, but if like 40% of you have never-- You're the only ones that have seen me before, so I can't. So it's just pure luck that you're all here. So thank you. Here's another question for you.
You're at Summit, 12,000 some odd attendees. Where do you think financial services ranks in the top attending segments or industries that attend? Who said two? That's correct. Again, that takes the drama out of, all right, that's it, I'm not doing this anymore. Everybody enjoy your time now. But yeah, two. And I think this is a testament when we think about the speakers that we have today, this is the testament to a global community that we've developed over the years in financial services. And one of the things I like to concentrate on is just bringing in a lot of different speakers to give their own lived experience in terms of how they have done this in a regulated industry that is as complex and matrixed and intensely regulated as possible. So our panel today consists of Bonnie Thorne from AMP, as well as Xenia Lane from Truist.
And we'll talk more about what their sessions, what they're going to cover, but let me just jump right in. Let me give you a perspective.
The Enterprise is under pressure. And I realize this might be a little too dramatic, so sorry about that. Way too dramatic. In a world where-- So the Enterprise is under pressure. Just show of hands, do you feel like you're under pressure? Show of hands.
Okay, a good chunk. And some of you are not being true to yourself. It's a safe-- These are like 300 of your closest friends. Yes, we're all under pressure, okay. Safe space here. So when you think about some of the things that you are tasked to do in terms of getting efficiency out of your platforms, tech modernization, reduction in operation costs, we've got to reach new segments, we've got to get younger customers, we've got to grow our market share. These are the things that you are all dealing with and they generally fall into two categories. The increasing of revenue growth, how do we grow, and then how do we become a more efficient operation? And this is what our survey data tells us as well. So 85% of financial services firms have identified growth as a strategic priority, but customer experiences as that means of unlocking that growth. And in that process of improving customer experiences, 91% think that increasing operational efficiency in that process is equally as important. These are two sides of the same coin. These are two sides of the same coin that we believe. So when you see all the presentations and think about the applications and the innovations, think about it in two ways. One, how does it change the end customer experience, whether it be for you or a business or an employer or another institution? And then what it means for you and your teams in how they operate? New ways of working. Faster, better ways of operating. Think about that in these two terms.
Lastly, let's refocus ourselves with more dramatic slides. Let's refocus ourselves. At the heart of digital transformation in this industry has to be the customer. And that every innovation that you see or think about in this conference, every advancement has to directly tie to improving or enhancing the personalization of that journey. And in that process, to not just deepen engagement, but what's so important in our industry, which is trust.
So let me pivot-- Have you all, a show of hands have heard of the Digital Trends report? Digital Trends report, thank you. We do that every year, and if you didn't, we'd feel bad about that too. But the Digital Trends report, and I actually bypassed the single slide. So before we get into the Digital Trends report, Chris, you're doing a tremendous job already. It's 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Okay, but even before we get into the Digital Trends report, that concept of advancing the customer journey, deepening engagement and trust, these are the priorities that we see that the financial services industry is trying to accomplish and they're very much aligned. So good for all of you. But let's think about this, personalization, but not just offers, but the products and services that you deliver to a consumer or business. Seamless integration, this is actually thinking less about your journeys but the journey of the individual and how you embed yourself in that process where the financial need is needed. Okay, I mess the one of two. Product interconnectivity. You have to solve for the totality of someone's financial challenges. And that gets into connecting things like loans, and investments, and deposits, and even insurance. Enhanced user experience. What that means is like we look, there's a lot of complexity and paperwork and maybe some of the interfaces aren't as friendly. How can we make that better and frictionless? Financial wellness, this is at the center of it, isn't it? How do we improve the financial health and well-being of our customers? And all of these things have to be done with the highest degree of security to maintain that level of trust. So this is how we're thinking about the priorities of the industry.
Has anybody heard of the Digital Trends report? I'm kidding. Now let's get into it. Okay, so I get to ask a few questions and I ask this question every year. And one of them is simply the top organizational goals of the industry. And every year, thankfully, I get the same answer, which is again, offer meaningful digital interactions that improve financial health and well-being. Because if your customers are interacting with you more digitally, then the higher order recommendations, and guidance, and advice that you can provide cannot be analog, it can't be in-person only. So again, smarter decisions with their money, it has to happen through digital interactions. And you see the usual cast of characters here, right? Modernizing experiences to get younger, accelerating time-to-market, selling more to compete with digital entrants, and then deflecting or reducing cost in interactions. But I assure you, if your North Star is that 47%, these things will come. These things will come. They'll stick to their channels of choices. They'll engage more digitally. You'll sell more. You'll attract younger audiences and you'll get faster in terms of your speed to market in delivering that for this individual.
How many of you-- So look, that was the top response by the industry, but I also wanted to look at the differences between the various industries that make up financial services. So show of hands, how many of you work for a bank? Okay, so yeah, it's the same. And if you think about, and what I'm looking at is, where the averages were the biggest differences, where they stood out? So the average 47%, banks was at 50. So again, if you think about what you are trying to accomplish from taking day-to-day transactional relationships and make them far more meaningful, this makes total sense. And you offer a wide breadth of products and services. How many of you are in the wealth management space or asset management space? Okay. Well, I think the focus here was 39% average before, 45% for this industry is yes, you're looking at a looming transition of wealth. You're looking at the next generation of investors that are looking to invest completely differently and getting into far different types of asset classes. So how do we modernize and get younger and make sure that wealth is maintained within our firms? How many of you are in the insurance space? Insurance industry. Great. This is like a pretty good mix. This is pretty good. So yeah, I think at times insurance can be transactional, moment in time needed, and yes, how do we compete with digital entrants that are selling more directly to consumers in many cases. So these are the differences between the three.
Let's get into the difference. So as part of this Digital Trends report, there are about 658 financial services responders, but also 1,300 consumers. And what you're looking at is the blue line is what they expect in terms of importance. And then the black line is what they actually believe their brand delivers. So the top areas, 90% were obviously handling my data responsibly, okay? The other top was at 79%, is the consistent experience between digital interactions and physical locations. So how do I really connect my interactions with an advisor and my mobile app, my interactions online and with the bank? And where they were the lowest in terms of the gap, the difference, was transparency when using AI. And I'll give all of you a mulligan for that because this is totally new. But obviously, this is a new thing. We have to start setting expectations and being more transparent in terms of what we're doing. But the second was the anticipation of needs.
So again, when we think about all of these things, the transparency of using data, the connecting of physical and digital, the anticipation of needs, we have to think about, "Okay, what does this mean for how we're organized, our capabilities? What does this mean for what data do we have to bring in, and how quickly can we use it to get from responding to anticipatory?" So these are the things that we need to think about over the next two days at this conference.
I asked this question also, "Where do you think the priorities in terms of reshaping the customer experience?" When I asked this question two years ago, AI wasn't even on the list. Wasn't even in the top five. Last year it was one. This year it's fallen second to enhancing self-service, and I'll get back to that one in a second. But these are the things, these are the core things that I would expect. Innovation with AI, the data activation for personalization purposes and going back to that anticipation in terms of where we can do better to meet those expectations and then the agile organizational evolution. This is something that we have to talk about quite a bit because it's not just a technology problem. It's a people and a process issue when bringing in this new technology of how to use it effectively. But this one bothers me a lot, the enhancing self-service. How many of you believe your top priority is enhancing self-service? Okay, good, let's throw this survey out. It doesn't make sense. The no hands were-- Because this is the thing that bothers me of, okay, when we think about some of the things that we have to do with our own personal finances, sometimes they're too complicated, sometimes it's really boring, and a lot of the time, we're pressed for time. So when we think about like, Agentic AI and AI and anticipating needs and doing, why not do more things for them as an example, with the right levels of permission? If I see some folks from Vanguard here, if I have another application and my beneficiaries aren't added, is there a quick way to say, "Hey, we noticed that your beneficiaries aren't the same in these two accounts. Here's a way to quickly add them." These things simplify the lives of others versus just allowing them completely to do all of these things that they may not want to do themselves.
So there are a series of questions we had around generative AI, and I am contractually obligated to talk about it in my session. But let me just simplify some of this. So what are the motivating forces? What I mean by that? Okay, so where is the pressure in adopting generative AI? Well, two clear places. One, to increase the flow of content and meet the demand for personalization. And the second is to increase engagement of the activities that we're doing.
Where do they think they're going to get the most? These survey responders are going to get the biggest measurable impact over the next 12 to 24 months. That is the tailoring of interactions through that higher volume of content and the quality of those interactions through a higher degree of personalization.
Where do they think they're going to get revenue for 2025? One is the personalization of recommendations. Yes, the more tailored I can get, the more adoption I would get. And the second goes back to that other question that we had previously around meeting consumer expectations around connecting channels. Yes, to help seamlessly help our customers interact. And that is through that content creation that gets extended to multiple channels and through that consistency. So these are the big picture with AI.
How many of you find it easy to get AI type things approved? Show of hands with it. No? So sorry, I didn't see that one coming. Okay. So what are ways that these survey folks...
Had the ability to get generative AI approved? And I assure you that there are many customers in this room that are currently POCing, piloting, and actively using our capabilities. So there is a way. There is a way. And a lot of it has to do with education. But the first thing you would say is, "Okay, they mitigated concerns around data quality and compliance risk." So they addressed risk as one.
Then they looked at things like training AI teams, aligning their usage, evaluating tools. By show of hands, how many of you have AI committees? Groups, yes. So that's a huge sign of maturity, in my opinion, that you have a cross-functional committee that's looking at what tools we should use and for what purpose. And that gets into governance and standards. So I've mitigated risk. I've got some sense of what we're going to do in a standardized way for my enterprise. And then we get into demonstrating that these things can be done and they can provide value. Defining clear business objectives of what we're going to do with this, other than massively iterate different types of content. And then the establishment of metrics and a means of tracking success. So this is proving the value of what you're doing. And at least 84% of the responders chose one of these.
So let's level set to where we are today. And let's transition to our great customer speakers. This is where we are today. There is data in different places. You're dealing with all sorts of different disparate technologies, different business units. It's a highly complex and matrixed organization that you work with. Decisions are made in various places.
And what I find is, the stories that I hear from our customers, again, because it is not a technology challenge alone. It is bringing these departments together. It's bringing this data together. It's bringing it all together. The name of this session is what's going to allow you to advance your digital and personalization initiatives. Think about it in these terms.
So with that, let's bring in our first customer speaker, Bonnie Thorn from AMP. Warm Summit round of applause for her.
[Bonnie Thorn] Thank you, everyone. It's great to be here, all the way from Australia. And let me tell you a little bit about AMP. So AMP Limited, we're one of Australia's leading financial services. It's been around for 175 years, which will give you some context about the complexity of our business.
We are a banking, superannuation and retirement solution organization. And I'll talk a little bit about superannuation a bit later as one of my use cases. And we have 1.3 million customers and a lot of money under funds under management.
So let me tell you a bit about our starting point. So when we embarked on our digital transformation, there were some key problems that kept us from achieving our desired customer experience. And essentially when you do digital transformation, that's what you're trying to get to, a fantastic digital experience. The inability to connect offline and online data to deliver omnichannel experience. And what that meant was we were driving a whole heap of traffic to the website, but we didn't actually do any personalization. We didn't actually know what they were there for. You can do funnel management, you can send people down product pages, getting them to start application, getting them to end application, but we actually didn't know whether or not they were prospects or existing customers.
Then we also have about a six email automation systems.
So we had a fragmented marketing technology stack which meant that we couldn't actually deliver a unified customer experience and we had data in different places and data using different email platforms so we couldn't unify that all into one customer engagement strategy.
We had expensive disconnected decisioning platforms and we could use it ourselves. So we had consultants help us. We also had technology help us build them, which meant that we couldn't scale and we couldn't get that speed to market that we wanted. And we always needed assistance, which actually leads us to the fourth point, which is our desire to be self-sufficient. We wanted to run our own campaigns. We wanted to be the owners of our campaigns. We wanted to be the drivers of our own destiny. And then we've got real-time reporting across the journey. So it doesn't matter whether it's real-time reporting or real-time in general. Real-time is important. So for us, we were trying to make sure that we had this real-time activity or reporting to actually help us with some of our decisioning and activities. So what that meant was, in our app, we have something called Next Best Interactions, so NBIs. So when you display an offer or a notification in there, want to make sure if a customer accepts it or dismisses it, that they didn't actually see another offer or the same offer again and are not being annoyed by it. But they actually see something that was the Next Best Interaction. But if you have a delay in that, and if you can imagine you've got online banking apps, you open the app, you dismiss the notification, and then you're still in the app, it's in less than 30 seconds, you take a look at your bank balance and then you come out of your app, you don't want to see the same thing over and over again. So that real-time was actually quite important for us.
So why now? These problems are probably not unique to us at AMP. It's probably what most organizations have as an issue. So it's not unique to us. There was a time that was actually ready for us to actually embark on a digital transformation. So for AMP, growth is a key focus area and two years ago we launched our new brand platform which was called whatever wealthy you want. And by bringing it to life you can imagine in a customer journey, you see these great ads on TV, and you go to our website. It's the old website, the old branding, and into our app and all our digital experience. So we'd had a really fragmented digital experience, and it didn't coordinate from an experience lens that we were looking for.
We also looked at our organization, 175 years, meaning lots of legacy platforms, a lot of tech debt, and so we were looking at how do we simplify our technology across the organization, but also how do we have just one single platform and one stack to help us do all of the marketing. And that's how we consolidated six email platforms to one. And earlier this year, we launched our new digital bank. So for AMP Bank, we launched a new propositions and small meeting business banking, and we also looked at a new app as well. So today we've got My AMP app, which is for old banking products and superannuation, and a new banking app for our new proposition. So we started to take a look at how we actually start to piece all that together and start to integrate.
Then we're looking at how we're a direct-to-consumer focus area. So traditionally, AMP is a B2B organization. So we've got brokers, we've got advisors, and that's why we've got a wealth platform as well. So traditionally, being more of a B2B organization, we had a desire to actually go directly out to customers and actually grow that direct-to-consumer base.
And then finally, to be able to compete successfully, especially if you're going to hit direct-to-consumer, you go to be able to compete with your peers and your competitors in place. So that means that we wanted to start to take a look at what does that look for us in terms of the customer experience we wanted to deliver across our entire customer journey, understanding all of those different customer journeys and those customer touch points, all of those different channels and how we bring that to life.
So this is what our three-year plan looked like. Pretty simple. There's probably a lot more complexity to it.
Our first year back in 2023, we put a business case together. And actually at the time, it was probably the fourth time we put the business plan together over that period of time was when we actually got it over the line. And I would say that one of the key areas of our success in being able to get that business case over the line was how we partnered with technology with that. So you can't run marketing technology with just marketing team, you actually really need to partner to have technology and marketing help you deliver that. So they supported us through the business case, they supported us through the whole implementation process which enabled us to be able to deliver successfully.
So then last year we spent our time implementing the stack and we made a decision to decommission platforms and also implement, and so we looked at AEP, so the customer data platform, also AJO, email platform and decisioning, and also CJA, which is the Analytics platform. We also decided to build a new website last year as well, which took us about 12 months. And we always had AEM and Target, but you can start to see how we start to piece all that together with how we were going to launch into personalization at scale.
And then this year, now that we've-- You can probably get the idea, AMP just moves really fast. New digital bank in 12 months, marketing technology implementation, 10 months, new website. Previously the year before, new brand platform. And essentially this year is the exciting year where you actually start to use all of this technology. So you start to actually build personalization campaigns, you start to actually embed the tech, and we start to take a look at what that looks like for us in the future.
So talking about implementation last year, without making it seem so simple because it was complex...
We took a very pragmatic approach with how we were going to do it. So we looked at use cases, what does marketing do today, and what are the type of campaigns that they were doing. And then we started to look at what data did they need to actually be in the platform first up. So we took a program back to the page, so 175 years. We did not take 175 years of data and put it into the platform. We worked out what data that we needed and just put it in so it's fresh, it's clean. And we put those governance, those rules together so that we weren't going to have those complications of having just put any data in there because the data part is actually quite important. And so first up, in five months, we put in our online data, which came from our website, so behavioral analytics, and then we also took a look at our app data as well. And then we also looked at what type of B2C, so our consumer data for banking and superannuation, and then also what B2B data that we wanted to actually also incorporate. So we took a pragmatic approach, we got it out in five months, and then we started a slow release thereafter. So we're taking a look at implementing AJO, our implementation channels, SMS channels, our app. We also looked at things like decisioning, and we also included NBIs, our Next Best Interactions, into the core center. So our CDP, AJO, was actually helping us provide channels of offers and decisions into all of those different channels for our existing customers.
And we finished the project in 10 months, including decommissioning, the six email platforms.
So what does that look like today? So today we are the owners of our destiny. So we're able to build journeys two and a half times faster, and we're able to send out emails eight times faster because we're actually able to build and do that ourselves, which means that we have got great results from our overall click-through rate and also the amount of journeys that we're actually able to build.
And by doing that, sometimes what happens is that all that use case and all that data that we had put in originally, it means that marketers end up going, "I want to be able to do more." And so we needed to be able to scale and try and move faster for them. So as much as we can do this today, you've got to find a way to scale and automate. And building journeys allows you to do that.
So I was talking about superannuation before and some of you guys might know what superannuation is, but back in Australia we have something called superannuation which is everyone, every employee, so if you start a job at 14 and 9 months at McDonald's, you actually open a superannuation account. So what it is, is your employer will give you your base salary, as well as today it's 11.5% into a super fund. So it's for your retirement. So it's like a retirement pension fund. So everyone in Australia has that, it's mandated by the government. And you can choose which super fund you choose. So you start a job, say you earn 100 grand a year and you take home 100 grand minus tax and then your employer will also put in 11.5% into a super fund. And so that's AMP, so banking and super and wealth platform. So here is one of the campaigns that we built as a proof of concept, but it was just timely because we end up launching this into consumer and launching this to market. So it was called get super close to your super. And the first half of this diagram, nothing new. I'm sure all of you guys do it. You send a campaign, or you start off a launch, above the line. You go above the line, you go TV, out of home, etcetera. That's not unusual. And then you also have campaigns going to existing customers and you're segmenting them. And then you're also going to non-customers doing digital acquisition and digital performance. So that first half of it, nothing new. But when you actually start to incorporate personalization and when you start to actually invest in your marketing technology stack, it allows you to do the second half, which is that personalizations type part where you actually start to capture data from all of these different sources into your CDP and can make decisions around what's your Next Best Interaction, your next best offer. You can work out if they're a prospect and they've turned into a customer and then you can actually stop marketing to them so you actually save money on your media dollars, and then you can actually create more journeys that allows them to have specialized, personalized journeys for each one of those segments. So you can build as many as you like, but that's what enabled us to be able to get a lift of about 18% off our baseline with our revenue. So this campaign was really great example of helping us make use cases of why the investment in marketing technology was a win for us.
So looking ahead, I know I'm making it sound really, really good...
But it's not without some challenges. It is hard. And we continue to define our processes. We talked about people, process, and technology. We continue to do that. Because something about this stack you've got to realize is that when you have a platform that's on, that's AEP, it's CDP, CJA, and AJO.
You need to work out how they all work together because when you get expertise and talent, they are either AJO specialists or AEP, and really you need people to actually understand how it all works, so that when you have the right quality of data in there, you're also getting the right real-time reports, and you're also being able to send real-time campaigns and automation out as well.
So we continue to define our processes. We're also investing in our people training. That takes a bit of time, but you've got to invest in your people. So we're constantly re-baselining what that maturity curve is. So in working with Adobe, we're working out beginner, intermediate, where do we want to get to, how do we train our people, how do we get them certified, and also how do we scale faster because now that we're rolling out, we're finding businesses and marketers really want to use this and they want us to move faster and we seem to have a bottleneck but we want to try and move faster and try and enable this more. So some of the key focus areas for this year for us, I mentioned we took a pragmatic approach with data, so we're taking a look at how we get more data in and what types of data and trying to forecast before marketing asks us for these particular campaigns, what data can we get in there. And then also, as you know, CDPs allows you to also connect and bring in external data sources, so digital media publishers, etcetera. You want to be able to try and bring that in eventually down the track as well.
As I mentioned, we're defining and embedding our people, process, and technology. And something to consider as well is single point dependencies with these platforms. Talent is a bit of a shortage, which means that every time you skill someone up in your team, they're going to get poached by one of your competitors. So you want to try and get more people learning about your platform, rather than just a team that looks after AJO, a team that looks at CJA. You want to be able to allow lots of users, you want to give access to marketers to take a look at CJA and take a look at building their own reports or take a look at the dashboards and not having just single teams where you create bottlenecks.
So if I was to leave you with three key things or three key learnings through that implementation phase that helped us move so fast, besides taking the pragmatic approach of data, is one of the best advice I've got when I started was get your data ready before you start. And what that means is you understand what AEP is, but you also understand what data you need to bring in, the use cases, but you don't take everything.
We've got a lot of data sources, lots of policy admin systems, and so we're not looking at trying to integrate all of that. We're taking a look at what we need and then transform it before it goes in there. So we took a different approach of data, and that's likely why we were able to get that up and running in five months first.
Choosing the right implementation partner also ensures your success. So when you're launching a new platform, it's unlikely you will have these subject matter experts in your organization already. So having a really good implementation partner that's going to help you coach and guide you, talk to cyber, talk to technology, etcetera. Architecture, help guide through that period of time, which actually may help enable it a bit faster as well, but it helps you get through the bottlenecks. And then lastly, we had a Change Manager through this project, and they were instrumental to the whole project being able to help us communicate to the right stakeholders, organize training for us and trying to really embed that change in an organization instead of doing it afterwards. So we we're able to move through all of that, over that 10 months' time and into the end of the year. And as we were learning more of how we were doing things, they were actually helping us along the way and actually creating those opportunities for change and making people comfortable with the change that was going to happen.
And that's it. Awesome. Thank you.
Bonnie, thank you. Thank you so much for that. That was great. So another warm Summit round of applause for Xenia Lane of Truist. Let's welcome her to the stage.
Nice, kind of the love.
[Xenia Lane] All right. Well, I'm very happy to be here with you today to share our story of how we've been advancing personalization at Truist.
So I'll first start off by sharing a little bit about Truist. We are a purpose-driven financial services company, and our purpose is specifically to inspire and build better lives in communities. We believe that through a focus on care, we'll be able to meet client needs, be able to help empower our teammates, and ultimately lift up our communities. We are headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Our footprint spans 17 states, including DC, and we serve 15 million customers today.
So now to introduce myself. My name is Xenia Lane, and my background spans operations, analytics, marketing, specifically in product management focused on the Adobe products to try and bring them to life within our organization. Over time, I have led various analytics organizations and have had a special focus on omni-channel engagement, which really was, I think, able to shape how we were thinking about our data strategy, working with our technology teams to try and bring these capabilities to life within our channels. So just to give you some context around the products that I work very closely with, those are going to be AEP's RTCDP, AJO, CJA, Decision Management, which we use to present personalized messages and channels, and then the integration of some of these capabilities into our channels, we have them integrated into our digital space today, as well as in our branches and contexts and our through integration into our proprietary CRM system.
So our start began with the merger of BB&T and SunTrust. And so we brought two organizations that were very similar culturally and tried to establish a organization that was deeply rooted in our purpose. And for us, as we were bringing these organizations together, we actually recognized that there was an opportunity for us to establish technology that would allow us to support an enterprise personalization strategy, again, to deliver care to our clients. So in modernizing our tech stack, our goal was to shift our client engagement from campaigns to conversations.
So for us, personalization and digital transformation matters because it really is no longer a competitive advantage. Our clients are expecting it. As we think about how we live our daily lives, automation and some of the convenience that we are seeing in everyday tools, everyday channels, we understand that that's shaping how our clients want to interact. Additionally, it's recognition of the fact that, as a bank, we have access to rich data. Of course, we want to use that in a way that's responsible, that is in keeping with our regulatory requirements, but even so, being able to use that data to help provide enhanced guidance, recommendations that really care for the client's financial well-being. And so the other side of that too is that there are efficiencies to be gained as a result of enabling these capabilities. If we think about being data informed, in terms of how we engage with our clients and establishing then experiences that are always on. So they are aligned to moments that matter for the client and when the client is experiencing that moment, whether it be today, tomorrow, there will be an experience in place for them to help care for navigating them through those moments. And that really is where the efficiencies lie because it's no longer a campaign that's one and done. You invest time in actually setting up the experience, and then that's available to you, really, in perpetuity. Of course, you want to monitor it and enhance it as you go, but it does give you a good framework to be able to establish how you're going to be engaging with your clients.
So to turn this vision into reality, there were three key areas that as an organization we focused on. That included platform modernization, how we were approaching our use cases and the prioritization of those use cases and even how we were aligning our operating model to the capabilities that were being delivered.
So I'll start first with the modernizing platforms.
To begin with I think that there are just common challenges that we faced. It was understanding what data was going to be important for the experiences that we were building and how much data. So Bonnie had mentioned you don't want to bring everything in. You want to be very selective in what you're bringing in. We also wanted to think about the channels where we were activating and how we were going to be activating within those channels. So both of those, from our experience, was a phased approach, especially around the data, because for us, we had the added challenge of bringing two organizations together, and so we were settling on either a BB&T system or a SunTrust system to remain at Truist.
And so we were bringing in populations of clients that maybe didn't have any history in that particular platform. And so we had to be very focused on what are the MVP requirements to allow time for those clients to actually build history within those platforms and then for us to be able to rebuild our analytics and our insights so that we would be able to leverage for personalization. So when we first started, it was a very MVP view of the CDP understanding types of products that they had, the services that they had, for example, whether or not they belonged to certain line of business segments, all of that to be able to then personalize at a MVP level, but then knowing that we would grow into the data. And we have grown into the data, largely use case driven. We want to make sure that when we have a request for data, we understand the experience that's going to support and then how we could potentially leverage that data in multiple ways, not just for a specific journey, they really thinking about overall personalization, how we're sharing audiences, for example, for on-site personalization. All of that factors in to how we're evaluating the data.
Additionally, from a channel's perspective, we started first with digital. And for us, it made sense because we wanted to ensure that in a channel where we don't have that high touch with our teammates, we want to be able to personalize those messages and at least spur the conversation to be able to either bring them back for exploration or even take them to a branch. And the timing of it was actually very good too because we were building a new Truist digital platform. So we had the opportunity to build this experience in parallel with the activities that were required for mobile banking teams, online banking teams to integrate the technology into their build.
So another consideration we had as well as we were thinking about the phased approach was the fact that we did have some prior capabilities and we had to make the decision, do we build something that is fresh new start or do we build something that is modeled after capabilities we had previously? And for us, because we had very tight timelines, we were bringing together these two organizations, we needed to be ready to serve our client for our client day one activities. We chose to use the framework of a previous capability to help us build. Now there are some drawbacks to that. It would have been great to think of it, start fresh anew and maybe build something in a different way. However, we didn't have time for that exploration. So we ended up borrowing what we had before. But even so, we still evaluate the experience and look for opportunities to optimize. And even if retrospectively we're trying to look for efficiencies, it is something that we keep in mind as we're moving forward. And then which new platform features to activate and when? So this is something that we iteratively consider. As new features are being released within the Adobe platform, we evaluate our readiness for that. What channel will that feature work in? What are some of the use cases we can support? And because we do work in an agile way, especially with our technology partners, all of this really is in partnership with our technology teams. We also want to make sure that we are timing that work to be able to coincide with their capacity and availability.
All right. So then the second category I had mentioned that was a focus area for us was the use cases. And this was especially important because we were using our use cases to help prove out the value of the platform. So I'm not going to lie. There is always some level of resistance when you're bringing in new technology. People aren't comfortable with it. They don't want to give up their old ways of working. For us, it was specifically talking about how do we move from campaigns to conversations. Our lines of business are very comfortable with having email blasts that go out to be able to get responses, and we were asking them to shift. We were going to be intelligence-based in terms of our targeting, so very laser-focused, which means that you narrow down your populations. And then there's concern that we're not going to get the appropriate clicks or accepts of those messages. So we had to really change our focus and say, it's about the value to the client. And we were using these use cases to prove out value to the client. Number one, that it was very client-centric. Number two, that we would monitor and ensure that we were getting similar performance, if not better. So we did use our use cases to be able to demonstrate that. The other thing with the use cases is it will start to highlight where you have conflicting priorities. Because for us, we didn't build an organization that was already aligned to the new ways of working. We were borrowing from resources that were supporting both campaigns, as well as the personalized experiences. So as we were going through this, we needed to be able to say, these are use cases that are going to help with the personalization, putting the client first. But that requires then that you have to have at least one executive leader that really says, "This is the way that we're going to be moving, and so allow for that capacity, allow for that prioritization to occur." Another challenge that we had was there's difficulty in quantifying those benefits. When you first launch with these capabilities, you may not have the maturity to be able to identify the full end-to-end impact of your personalization use cases. So for us, what we did was we started with MVP KPIs. What is it that we could measure in the short-term as we were building out the new reporting required, collecting new data to help provide the end-to-end view. And we really did it with just identifying, well, is there something that we can do in the short-term? How many clicks are we getting? How many clients are we touching through this experience? And then allowing the teams to be able to build out the reporting that was required to really provide a more comprehensive view.
Finally, balancing short-term versus long-term gains. We used our use cases to help get the support that we needed within the organization, and that was a trade-off. We had to pick less complex use cases to be able to show those quick wins. And so at the very beginning, we tried to look for what's viable within the system, how can we start to prioritize and build it, and then show the value through the early monitoring.
Okay, so that third area that I said was really important for us from a focus perspective had to do with our operating models and really rethinking how we were approaching these personalized use cases. For us, again, product-centric to customer-centric engagement required us to be more data informed in terms of what are the behaviors that are important for us to identify to be able to proactively engage the client. There was also recognition that our traditional workflows are not aligned to our agile ways of working. We were launching these experiences with the support of our technology partners who operate in agile. The business does not always operate in agile. So while we have to identify the capacity, plan it out, understand which iterations this work is going to be picked up, our business was not always aligned in that way. And so it really would create some concerns and maybe mistiming for capacity on both sides. And that's something that we have to work through. We still are working through, although we've started to address it through some other organizational items which I'll cover in a second. But these POC use cases did allow us to prove out, number one, test out the ways of working, who were the teammates that were required to support these activities, how much capacity was required of their time, right? And so we were able to then come up with a framework, a playbook for how we would be going to market with these use cases that then helped inform our overall structure.
And then finally, slow experimentation and iteration. This is probably the biggest challenge is because there are risk guidelines, concerns around how we're using the data. We really had to partner with our risk teams to really understand and make sure that we were in keeping with our regulatory requirements, but what we were trying to do was can we share those results? Can we share the lessons learned and celebrate the wins very early to help influence how we are going to be organizing our areas? So our progression of use cases and how we were operating to advance personalization started first with the POC use case. In this case, we were looking at a journey that was based off of signals, clients visiting our HELOC pages, for example, showing an interest. And this is where we started our first attempt at this personalization experience. Had a big kickoff, brought in the appropriate teams to be able to have these conversations and say, "What's the support required to be able to build these campaigns?" And at that time, running through this effort, we actually saw a 13x lift in the click rates associated with these messages compared to a similar HELOC campaign. And for us, what this demonstrated was really, number one, efficiency, because we were moving from couple million of clients who were being emailed, and then the response rates were very similar with the journey with only-- I wouldn't even say 100,000 clients who were receiving an email. So there was efficiency in terms of who we were targeting, which reduced risk for us in terms of less opportunity for people to opt out of our messaging, as well as message fatigue. And so that was the start, when we were able to demonstrate that, this is where our CMO was like, this is definitely the way that we need to move. And he was really supportive of being able to invest further in our learnings and the capacity that was being given to these use cases. Fast forward to another year or so of activity where we started to expand the signals, life events that were occurring, building experiences through journeys to be able to message clients through email, but also when they walked into the branch or if they logged into online banking or mobile banking they had similar messaging. So we were coordinating those messages. And what that allowed us to do was actually practice the routines of what's required to be able to support a personalization use case or a personalized experience. And during that time, we were able to reduce by 40% the delivery of those use cases. So again, it was able to give us a repeatable playbook that allowed us to be more efficient in the actual build of those experiences. And then now, what we've done is we've taken these learnings and applied them to how we are organizing our operations today. We have dedicated cross-functional teams, so we still are bringing together multiple areas, but they are dedicating time and capacity to these use cases. And we're basically applying agile-like routines to the business. So it's not just within the technology side, we're also bringing it to the business so that we're able to move faster. And we have now, through the help of the broader organization because now we have our marketing leaders who are involved with the strategy and the experiences, they're creating prioritized backlog for these use cases that are then going to be the roadmap for the data that we're bringing into the CDP to help support on the longer term, as well as identifying how much and where do we need resources to support these efforts. And so I would just say that-- And then the other focus is these teams are also focusing on identifying foundational reporting. What are the KPIs that are needed? Really maturing that practice of measurement so that we're able to apply to future use cases. And so that's in progress. Love to be able to share next year how we do on that end.
So for us, just to talk about the personalization framework, it really starts with the data, ensuring that you have the right data to be able to personalize in the moment. Again, it's not all of the data. It's the key data that's going to be activated in real-time when they're walking into the branch, when they're calling into the call center or even logging into their digital banking. Connected channels is also important for us because we want a comprehensive experience. So no matter what channel the client is engaging in, we want the messaging to be relevant. If they respond in one way in one channel, we want to remove the message in another so that again, we're increasing the relevancy. And then we're focusing on personalized content, ensuring that we have a good inventory of content to support these expanded conversations that we're building. From a design experience or from a client experience perspective, we're also thinking about the long-term design. What are those moments that are occurring within our clients' lives that we want to ensure that we have some engagement to help support them? And then insights development, as our analytics teams continue to explore existing data and new data sources, and that being able to identify those insights, bringing them into the CDP so that we're able to activate in real-time helps further the acceleration of our use cases. And then finally, measuring, learning, and iterating. We want to make sure that we have a good foundation for how we're going to be measuring the success of these programs. So we're working very closely with our analytics partners to ensure that we've got a robust framework for reporting within the platform and even outside of the platform to be able to really identify the full end-to-end impact.
Okay, so our lessons learned. Technology is not the leader, people are. And what you will find is you can bring in all the technology you want. If the people are not supportive of it, you're not going to get the adoption and you're not going to get the value. Proof of concept for transformation. We really focused on identifying some use cases knowing that we didn't have all of the answers. It's almost like a dress rehearsal. You want to go through the process, see what works and what doesn't. You want to test, learn, and then adapt your approach based off of what you're seeing through your proof of concept use cases. And you want to measure what matters, ensuring that you have KPIs in place to be able to monitor and measure the success and ultimately drive the support. And then an early engagement with partners to avoid roadblocks. Especially in a regulated industry, you want to ensure that your risk partners are riding along, that they are understanding the capabilities, right? Because a lot of this is new to them. We have to educate them and bring them along. And then as they get educated, they may see where there's going to be some roadblock thrown up, even by other partners, let's say privacy teams, etcetera. But they start to understand the value and are able to present where we need to have controls in place and why we need to move forward with those capabilities despite the fact that there are risks. But again, there's always some type of control that we can put in place.
So a departing thought I would just say is, "Don't underestimate the power of trust and shared purpose." It's very important to ensure that when you're going through a transformational journey like this, that you have support at all levels of the organization. It can't just be top down, and it can't be bottom up. It needs to be at every level. People are committed to these new ways of working and are going to be there to help you achieve that success. So yeah. Awesome. Thank you.
That was great.
Tell her that's fine. Thank you. - Thank you. - Thanks a lot. All right. Sounded like they were bringing it all together. So let me wrap this up with a few closing thoughts as we come to the conclusion of day one. So what are some of the key takeaways from the presentations you heard today? One is, remember what we saw from the Digital Trends report about having the customer at the center, focusing on their financial well-being, the things that we do will help them make smarter decisions with their money. The second is you hear this a lot, but you get a sense of how important this is, especially, if we think about how we're going to evolve into Agentic AI, that data foundation is super important. And also getting to that anticipatory ability, again, data is at the center of that. I really, what Xenia said before around bringing the organization together, how do you do that, right? Coercion, probably not, but having a-- You could try, but-- All right, but creating a shared purpose, that is extremely important. And then building that culture and that movement towards personalization in digital. And then Bonnie mentioned something that was really interesting to me because the challenges that our customers have are associated with change management. Why not have people that are focused on that? Dedicated "Change Managers" that shepherd this process. I mean, only a few years ago I heard of roles of like MarTech enablement roles, like, "Hey, my responsibility is to train and get people to use this stuff." This is just another evolution of that.
So with that, I want to make sure to, if you-- The last year there was people had trouble finding the survey. So I made them change the slides like this is where the survey is. So please, if you like the session or you didn't either way give us the feedback that's super important. And I wanted to again thank you all for attending this session.
Thank you to the speakers. Those were really great presentations, and I really appreciated the energy in this room late at 4 o'clock in Vegas, and thank you again, and enjoy the rest of Summit. Take care.
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