Working on AI-driven chatbots, a mobile app focused on traders & advisory platforms, reveals Vamsi Krishna, head of Digital Business, Product and Marketing:
Axis Securities, a subsidiary of Axis Bank, is engaged in distribution of wide range of financial solutions and broking services to retail customers. Customers can avail wide range of lending solutions. Axis Direct is a brand under which the company offers retail broking and investment services. Axis Direct account brings all investment options together under one roof, giving the customers the power to diversify their portfolios.
Mehul Dani: How have you implemented the digital strategy of the company and how successful has it been?
Vamsi Krishna: One of the key focus areas of our digital strategy is to build an ecosystem of tech-enabled advisory products across all value segments. We have launched Smallcase, SmartEdge, SmartOptima, and MF Advisory for our retail customers. All these products, though in an early growth stage, have garnered a record high adoption. We have over 1000 customers with an AUM of over Rs1 billion built in just 2-3 months. This year, we have started revamping all our digital platforms, adding features across investor and trader segments. We would be adding model profiles in stocks based on the risk profile of the customer. The strategies would be value and growth investing. For traders, we are working on quant-based option strategies, market scanners and multi leg orders.
How much business is garnered approximately online as of 2019-20 and in the current financial year?
At Axis Direct, the customer acquisition is primarily driven by its employees with almost no intermediaries. Of the overall business that we do, over 85% comes through our mobile app and website. We have one of the highest mobile adoption rates in the industry. As much as 40% of our clients have traded through Axis mobile app. We acquire over 60% of our customers via digital platforms.
How have you gained by deploying analytics to increase business? How is technology put to use for CRM?
We have built a customer value management model to cater to our customer needs. The model captures customer transaction and interaction data in addition to demography, geography and trading psychograph. The model tries to gauge the customer’s current emotions based on the trading outcome, interaction and activity levels. This information helps our staff to serve our customers better, enhance their satisfaction and thereby have a positive impact on the business. As a part of our digital transformation, we are working on AI-driven chatbots, a mobile app focused on traders and advisory platforms. We are targeting Q3 of this year for all the revamped platforms to go live. We are working with a couple of partners, with a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) agreement in place.
How strong is your presence on social media? Can you also briefly describe the online marketing and promotional activities?
Axis Securities has reached out to its customers with an innovative campaign called Chalo-Online, especially to train the ‘new to online’ and ‘dormant’ customers. We have ensured that all our customers get access to our digital platforms, making it simpler to manage their portfolios. We have also conducted several webinars to train our employees and customers, which helped them in the current scenario. Our research and advisory teams are actively present on social media (Facebook, Telegram and Twitter) connecting with over 300,000 customers. We have a healthy community of followers on our digital platforms. We hope to engage more meaningfully with this base through our current and upcoming digital initiatives. We have been recognized as ‘Top Equity Broker of year 2019’ at the BSE Commodity Equity Outlook Awards.
In the post-covid- scenario, what are your targets and plans for IT and digital initiatives in the current FY?
Going forward, we are keen on sharpening our focus on digital-led solutions. We have increased our technology investments this year by 20-25%. We are a team of close to 50 people working on digital initiatives.