Q) What were the key reasons for revamping your website?
A) Firstly, technology is disrupting our lives at an accelerating pace - it is therefore important for every organization to be agile in updating its technology offerings including the website. Today, a company’s website is the first point of contact for the external world - whether someone wants to seek information, do business, transact or simply request for a call back. Talking specifically about mutual funds, a website plays a key role in helping connect investors and distributors with us. This is even more important because mutual funds are push products with low penetration. A smart website not only acts as a great two-way communication tool, it also brings a great deal of transparency and convenience to our stakeholders, besides helping new investors learn about mutual funds.
So to answer your question, change is constant and with the pace at which this space is innovating, change was inevitable. What we have consciously done is not just change but evolve! Hence I can very proudly say that this isn’t just a new website, but an entire digital ecosystem which we have planted and will constantly look to nourish and enhance.
Q) What were the key deliverables envisaged when you began work on the new digital ecosystem?
A)The Digital Ecosystem project was conceptualized with four key deliverables –
- Improved user experience: Responsive website with enhanced user experience, easy to access across devices – desktop, mobile and tablet
- Self-serve capabilities: Allowing wide range of services on a “self-serve” framework
- Customized engagement: Personalization through robust back-end integrated intelligence capability
- Enhanced customer service: Service wherever and whenever it is needed and with contextual capability
Q) How will doing business with Franklin Templeton change with the new digital ecosystem?
A) Doing business with Franklin will certainly change for the better. Let me first talk about distributors who are a key link between us and investors. To sell mutual funds, distributors need instant supply of data, information, tools, collaterals, transaction / payments systems, MIS, among others. Before starting out on this project, we had conducted a benchmarking analysis not only within the mutual fund industry but also across industries to get a more holistic picture of needs and capabilities. Besides, we had collected detailed feedback from our key distribution partners on their pain points, and expectations from a mutual fund’s website. We have tried to address this and much more. On the investor side too, our endeavour was to simplify content, provide a seamless transaction experience, improve transparency, and reduce the turnaround time (TAT) for pre and post-sale activities.
Q) Could you give some examples of the features available in the distributor section?
A) Some state-of-the-art features we have introduced for distributors include -
- Dashboard Feature: Key data points about investors are presented in a crisp manner covering business highlights, transaction status update, SIP portfolio details etc.
- More Power to Transact: Full suite of transactions under 'Distributor Initiated Transactions' (DIT) for existing as well as new investors are now available in a seamless interface. This is across transactions like Lump sum purchases, SIP set up and modifications, Switches, STPs, Redemptions and SWPs.
- My Investors' Section: provides a bird’s eye-view of a distributor’s selected clients at a PAN level. This includes their account statement, transaction history, subscriptions etc. Now PAN level views of investors with folio and account drill down are available with a single click.
- Account statement with returns – Distributors will be able to view their investors’ account statements with scheme level returns. Individually too, their investors will start receiving the same online to begin with and subsequently on an offline basis.
- Power of Data Intelligence: Distributors can identify cross sell opportunities to potential clients backed by strong data analytics of their business with us.
- Repository of Collaterals: A repository of product / investor education literature is now available and can be shared with investors seamlessly by uploading a list of investors at one go!
To avail these features, distributors need to simply follow the process of creating a login ID (D-PIN ID) and password to access their respective data.
Q) Investors feel that mutual funds are a complicated products, how have you simplified mutual funds for them?
A) Information for an investor has been simplified manifold and made visually appealing. We provide investor education videos, market insights and a funds & solutions section. In case of funds, we have specified not only the fund features but also its benefits, investment horizon, the goals one can achieve by investing in that fund and what the fund could be an alternative to. The latter helps to connect better with a particular fund. For example, in case of liquid funds, we say that they are suitable for parking of short term or an emergency corpus besides being an alternative to a savings/ current account. There is also a fund comparator wherein key fund highlights of up to 3 Franklin Templeton funds can be compared to help investors take better informed decisions. All these aspects of a fund have also been explained through individual fund videos. In the solutions piece, we help investors plan for their goals by providing help with setting a goal taking into account the effects of inflation, and helping determine the SIP instalments and/ or lump sum investments they need to make to reach their target.
Q) What excites you most about this digital ecosystem?
A) What I like the most about our digital ecosystem is the reach and convenience it offers to our investors and distributors. Today, distributors can attract investors from multiple geographies because of technology. Being digital helps them to spend less bandwidth on operational aspects using features like distributor enabled transactions. They can therefore invest more time on investor engagement, education, and new client acquisition. Investors too benefit with the convenience of access from even the remotest corners of the country. The government too is focused on the trinity of Jan Dhan, Aadhar and Mobile (JAM) to enable quicker and better services to citizens. I feel that with the progress of e-KYC and c-KYC, we have arrived in a new digital world where every step of the process from on-boarding to transaction processing can be a quicker and seamless experience, which can help enhance investor participation in mutual funds.
Q) But many distributors are concerned that technology could impact their business? Your comments.
A) I always say that it is ‘Technology with Humans’ and not ‘Technology Vs Humans’. Let me explain. As a first step, one should understand areas which are technology relevant and those which are not. Areas such as onboarding, transaction processing, goal mapping, portfolio tracking, asset allocation assistance and fund selection assistance fall in the former. However, other areas, which are even more important for a trust based business like financial services and cannot be managed by technology alone include - behavioral aspects like building a relationship, understanding a customer’s context beyond a few risk based questions and most importantly, hand holding customers during times of volatility.
So, a pure online model may not be fully effective in India where we still have relatively low levels of financial literacy and penetration. Investor stickiness, and with that long term wealth creation, can only come if investors follow a disciplined investment strategy and stay invested even during periods of turbulence. While pure technology platforms will emerge to address a segment of the population, the most successful models will be those that combine technology with human touch - this is also the emerging experience globally.
Q) What next after the digital ecosystem?
A) Next on the agenda is to release an upgraded version of our investor log-in section and an App with all the features available on our website. Further, enhancing and refining the digital ecosystem will be an ongoing process – we will continuously monitor and enhance this basis market requirements and participant feedback.
Follow this link www.franklintempletonindia.com to navigate the new digital ecosystem of Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund. Click here for a video tour of the site and its features.
