How machine learning helps Afore XXI Banorte anticipate customer needs

Transcript

Afore XXI Banorte is the largest pension fund provider in Mexico – and it plans to maintain its pole position, with a strategy focused on three targets: transforming the customer experience, technological innovation, and redesigning the investment process. In the second of three interviews with XXI Banorte executives, CEO Juan Manuel Valle Pereña discusses the technological innovations that the Afore is bringing to market, including deploying machine learning on social media to better understand its customers and anticipate their needs. Part one with Juan Manuel Valle Pereña explores XXI Banorte’s renewed customer experience, while part three with CIO Sergio Mendez Centeno discusses the Afore’s investment process.

Juan Manuel Valle Pereña: Afore XXI Banorte is a very professional team, capable of offering through innovative solutions a service of excellency to all our customers, and make their savings grow towards a better future.

The way we are doing this is by transforming customer experience, technological innovation, and by redesigning our investment process.

World Finance: We’ve talked about customer experience; what technological innovations are you bringing to market?

Juan Manuel Valle Pereña: Part of what we have been doing is to move into a more technology-oriented company, where any of our customers is available to reach us in any possible way.

Although the best possible scenario is to have everyone using the app, because it’s easier to contact them, and if we can contact them, we can provide them with information that they need. Or that they don’t know that they need, but we do know! By using machine learning in social media, we might be able to know what people of different profiles, of different ages, are looking after, and we can provide that information.

So, technology is a key element for us, and we have been working for more than a year in providing these kinds of solutions to our customers.

World Finance: How are you transforming your internal processes in order to enable this kind of digitisation?

Juan Manuel Valle Pereña: By moving everything into a customer centred organisation, what we are doing is concentrating first in those processes that are related to the customers, and once we are concentrated in those, taking away anything that is not required.

Just an example: we realised that a lot of people go in to our offices because they needed to start one of the processes. They usually came back two or three times, not only one. So one of the things we are doing is that, once you go, you download the app, and you can follow on that process from your house. You don’t need to go back; if you need to send some more information, you are able to do it through the app. So those kind of things will make everything easier for the customer, and once we have the simplest approach to any process, we will move that to our platforms.

World Finance: What feedback have you had from these improvements?

Juan Manuel Valle Pereña: It’s not so long that we started. But what we have seen, even in a few months: it’s a positive feedback. People going to our offices, people calling our call centre, people using the app; they are approached for a follow-on with the net promoter score, and we have seen a gradual improvement. And we expect that by the end of the year, the numbers are quite different from what we saw in the first month that we were doing this.

World Finance: And what’s next for XXI Banorte’s digital transformation?

Juan Manuel Valle Pereña: Well I think technology is a never-ending story. So we will continue improving the experience, introducing whatever new elements we believe will be helpful. Even in things we introduce that have been successful, we need to be adjusting things so that until we find the perfect way to address every single issue, every single topic, with our customers.

World Finance: Juan Manuel, thank you very much.

Juan Manuel Valle Pereña: Paul, thank you very much also.