In today’s episode of the Gupshup Conversational Messaging Podcast, Beerud and Srini welcome guest Pratekk Agarwaal, an experienced financial advisor of FinTech companies.  They discuss how the integration of messaging to FinTech services is an absolute win not only for the brands, but more importantly, for the consumers. 

Customers’ Habits Evolved

Customers are long done with downloading dozens of apps that serve different purposes. Their needs and habits have changed to being able to do all online activities at once, including finance, regardless if it’s through WhatsApp, or anything they use for messaging. Therefore, FinTech services, being one of the most powerful industries in the digitised era, needs to move forward along with its consumers. 

“Since 10 years ago, there have been multiple things which have changed and everything which had to have a physical presence is now converted, or it's now changed into a digital way.” - Pratekk Agarwaal

Who Stands Out

As FinTech has grown massively, many brands appeared left and right, with varied things to offer to customers. Some would offer great user interface or great user experience, while some would entice customers with great interest rates. For Pratekk, when the competition is tight, that’s where customer experience comes into play, as the brand that offers the most seamless and satisfying experience gains the highest customer loyalty. 

“We are now wanting to build and start asking for where it's more personalized and it's focused on customer experience, and it's transactional level banking.”  - Pratekk Agarwaal

What Satisfies Customers

It’s an absolute win for FinTech to offer their services through a messaging app instead of going through the complex, not to mention expensive, the process of building a separate app. From the customers’ perspective, on the other hand, these apps are painful, time-consuming, and outdated. Pratekk believes that the integration of conversational messaging in FinTech services is what would bring customers exactly what they need, which would have countless returns for the brands. Less complex processes means more customers will buy insurance, open a savings account, get a personal loan, etc. 

“I think the moment we start introducing these features, and people start using them, you will see an immediate adoption and immediate movement from app to appless FinTech.”  - Pratekk Agarwaal

Bio:

Pratekk Agarwaal is a passionate intrapreneur and Fintech expert with over 18 years of multi-industry expertise in setting up successful businesses from scratch to scale with focus on the financial services domain. He held key positions with leading Fintech and NBFCs like Bajaj Finserv/Bajaj Finance, Fullerton, Selfin, IndoStar Capital, ftcash, and BharatPe. 

Beerud is the co-founder and CEO of Gupshup, the world's leading platform for cloud messaging and conversational experiences. It is used by over 100K+ customers and developers and handles over 6 billion messages per month. He previously founded and led Elance (now Upwork, a publicly listed company), the pioneer of online freelancing and the gig economy.

Srinivas has over 2 decades of experience in running marketing for high-growth technology companies and managing corporate marketing, product marketing and demand generation. Prior to Gupshup, he held marketing leadership positions with Qubole, Pluralsight, Mobileum and Tejas Networks.

Resources:

Gupshup.io