UOB’s offering in Thailand understands its customers. Source: Shutterstock

UOB’s TMRW is proof banks are making an effort to understand customers

By Tech Wire Asia | 5 March, 2019

LESS than 12 percent of Thailand’s population is above 65 years of age. In fact, a majority of them are young, digitally savvy, and use smartphones on a daily basis.

As a result, UOB’s decision to launch a mobile-only bank in the country makes sense.

UOB’s TMRW, pronounced “tomorrow”, is aimed at millennials looking for a smart alternative to traditional banks including offerings from parent company UOB.

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While UOB’s team believes that the offering provides a markedly better customer experience, there are a few features that the app-based bank offers that truly prove that the bank has been listening to customer demands and understands customers.

First, UOB TMRW gamifies the concept of savings in respect of financial services for the user to motivate them to save more (with the app).

Customers live in a virtual world where a growth in their savings balance corresponds to a growth in the size of their virtual city. Is this truly representative of the real world? Maybe not. But it definitely is engaging for the demographic that the app is expected to cater to, at the very least.

The bank also uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help customers find services they use frequently and provides alerts for increased spending or unusual transactions.

UOB understands that today’s millennials prefer to chat with a bot rather than pick up the phone and speak to a customer service executive, at least from a first contact standpoint.

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As a result, the UOB’s TMRW provides customers with a smart chatbot and call function that allows the recall of chat history for future use.

UOB’s Head of Group Retail Digital Dennis Khoo spoke to local media, and revealed that the bank’s partnership with two fintech firms resulted in it learning the importance of exploring behavioral insights in order to deepen customer engagement.

Before its launch, UOB trailed the new app and digital bank programme with 1,500 customers in Thailand. Upon launching the service, UOB is working on setting up 350 TMRW kiosks to help onboard customers via self-service registrations and biometric systems.

If the initiative is a success, the bank will launch TMRW in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam by the end of the year.