Tomas Dang: Okay. So on today's podcast, we have Martin. Hi, Martin.

Martin Obetko: Hello Tomas.

Tomas Dang: So you are working for Adastra Slovakia, namely as an account manager and you're governing business development within the company. So what are our main accounts?

Martin Obetko: First of all, I'm very glad that I'm here meeting you. We know each other for quite some time. And we haven't seen each other for quite some time. So coming back to your question. My main accounts are currently around KBC, so KBC group. But we've been having large projects and programmes in all of the entities spanning from Bulgaria to Ireland, also in Slovakia, Hungary, Belgium, etc. So this is one of the biggest accounts. However, this is not the only one. I'm responsible also for public development. For instance, we have National Bank of Slovakia as our customer. I'm working in health care, for instance Dovera or Penta hospitals. So there is flexibility in my work.

Tomas Dang: So basically our tentacles are spreading from banking sources, public domain and also health care, which is for sure challenging. So how are you balancing the work life balance? What are you doing in your free time just to ease up the conversation at the beginning?

Martin Obetko: Well, regarding my free time. You're right. It's quite a lot on the table. And sometimes to be able to cope with all of this, you have to be a bit more on high level. So not deeply involved in all the projects and all the nitty gritty details. However, anyway, you need a work life balance. What I'd like to do is travel. We are going with my wife to Canary Islands with a caravan.

Tomas Dang: Oh sounds cool.

Martin Obetko: Yeah. Usually people are shocked - with caravan to Canary Islands? So travel is something that I really have passion for. Also sports and like all sorts of things that everybody likes.

Tomas Dang: So today's main topic is customer experience and lead management, which for sure you are taking care of in these accounts. So what is the customer experience and why is it so important?

Martin Obetko: Well, if I had to say it in simple English, I would say that it is about making the life of the customer easy. So when you talk about customer experience, it's a very important topic and I will explain why. Usually my accounts or, you know, the place where I started my career are banks. And banks usually at least some time ago were not pioneers of the customer experience and user experience. However, today we have companies like Facebook, Google, Spotify, etc. and people are not comparing banks with banks, but banks with Spotify or Google. And the customer experience is very important because a customer expects the same service, the same principles everywhere. So that is why I would say that customer experience is really on top. And also what has happened in past years is the customer centric approach. About customer centric approach companies have been talking for quite some time. However, right now I really see that the customer is at the center of the focus. And with this, of course, the customer experience I come across.

Tomas Dang: Usually back in the days the banks never had the necessity to call the customers. The customer always came along to them. But since the times are changing, they are feeling the pressure from the customer that he's basically in the first place.

Martin Obetko: Yeah, exactly. I mean banks didn't use to have competition. But now with all the fintech companies and all this Google Pay, Apple Pay and stuff, you know, they feel the pressure, you know, the digital transformation is here. It's not coming in a few years, it's like really right now happening and they have to adapt. And however we are talking about banks, but this is not only about banks, it's also about grocery stores, it's about health care, it's about going on a vacation. It's about grocery stores everywhere.

Tomas Dang: It's fascinating how the data is basically spreading through all the industries and all the industries are basically becoming interdisciplinary fields which are connecting the specific industry like health care and it's also connected with the IT parts. So how would you explain the customer experience? It's a very broad topic. And what should the companies focus on if they want to increase their customer experience and attract their customers?

Martin Obetko: As I said, in simple English, simple words, customer experience is basically making the life of the customer easier. Yeah, you can distinguish it in, let's say two main categories, distribution channels and communication channels and of course all the marketing around etc. However, these two categories are very important and this is the field that we help our customers become more customer centric for their clients. When we talk about distribution channels, for instance, there is a lot of turbulence, for instance, in comparison to the brick and mortar, traditional offline world and the digital. Like, where is the focus, where should the focus be, you know, some banks say digital first…

Tomas Dang: Yeah, by brick and mortar, you mean traditional shops? On the  streets?

Martin Obetko: Yes. This is it exactly. So you walk into your favorite grocery shop and you shop there. Digital, on the other hand, is ordering the food online, for instance, just to make the comparison. And here, you know, the companies are asking what to focus on. Is it the digital or the brick and mortar? And we've seen a lot of development in the past years, especially driven by the situations in health care, driven by COVID. Suddenly everybody had to stay at home and we weren't prepared for that, at schools, at most of the bricks and mortar, in the offices, etc. And what I liked a lot was the speed of the adoption that from one day to another we just had to adapt. The companies bought new notebooks so the people can work from home. And here I would stress, you know, the importance of the customer experience, especially when you look at schools. The children stayed at home,  the teachers stayed at home and they didn't know what to do. And the customer experience was very poor, you know, and also the level of teaching was very poor. In the period of one or two years, I mean, you could see a tremendous breakthrough. Like the customer experience increased and I saw it on my wife. She's studying medicine and I saw the switch. Also the schools adapted to the situation. So there we can see the customer experience.

Tomas Dang: We could settle on a new terminology like learning experience, learning situation. I had many colleagues who are parents who had kids in different kinds of schools, elementary etc. And it was interesting to see that, for example, certain children who had younger teachers who were let's say, I don't want to say educated, but they were swimming better in the I.T. world. They were willing and able to adopt, as you said, faster. And those who had, let's say, teachers from older generations, it was a bit troublesome. So maybe this was also the accelerator that for example, the younger teachers also taught the older generations.

Martin Obetko: And we can learn a lot from this. Especially when talking about what is the right channel. Because for everybody, the right channel is different. It's very individual. Someone really likes to go to brick and mortar because they like to discuss. They like to meet people.
Tomas Dang: Or feel the product in their hand…

Martin Obetko: Or feel the product in their hand. Yeah, of course the others like to shop online because you know, like they can save time, etc. And it's not only about the person but also about the mood and about the product typology etc. So when you were asking like what to focus on, it's not about focusing on one channel, digital or brick and mortar. You have to be in the omnichannel environment to be where the customer is.

Tomas Dang: So now we basically grab the two main concepts, then let's say offline and online channels. And if we switch to the digital world, what kind of channels are there? On which channels should the companies focus on? And for example, is there some kind of best channel based on which you can reach the most customers for your products?

Martin Obetko: This point of view, I would say, well, I would say it differently. Of course, there is a channel that might be the most popular. Some time ago it was email, let's say, now it's push notification, etc. And also we have to distinguish between like distribution channels and communication channels, how to communicate with the customer because there is a huge customer experience as well. And what we help the customers with is a combination of the channels in the right way. What does that mean? You don't look at specific channels, you know, like I will focus on this because it will have the biggest impact. Quite the contrary. You focus on individual customers and adapt the channels and communication channels to that individual. If it will be a push notification, then fine. Tomorrow it can be visit to the branch. So there is no one direct channel that you should focus on. We see it in the trends as well, generalized by design. So these are in the products, the services, the processes in a way that are not dependent on the channel. So not having the product that is sold only on brick and mortar in the branch or only online, but you as the customer decide where you want to go.

Tomas Dang: But also to basically use secondary channels. For example, if a customer is not responding, let's say I'm more responsive to messages. And for example, for quite some time I broke my phone. Right. And you will realize, based on the customer tracking that I didn't respond for quite some time. And if you have available other channels, then you can switch, for example, to email since for example, I have a broken phone, but of course, maybe I have a computer since I'm, you know, working in I.T or whatever. And this is also part of the advantage.

Martin Obetko: Exactly. And that's I think very likely right now. Sometimes the customers can say, you know, I like to be contacted by email or push notification or whatsoever. But the beauty about current growth and about all the data that are around is that the companies can understand the client better. So like when a phone is broken, it can be identified from many events that are tracked. So if I see that push notification is not delivered, I have the alternative channel, let's say SMS or maybe to call you. Hi, Tomas. Are you okay? Do you need some help? So, you know, like being there for the customer, not for the channel.

Tomas Dang: Isn't it a bit scary? You know, that for example, the companies know so much about the customer. Let's say in banking, you have some pre-approved loans. We know your preferences about the products. They know, of course, that they have various kinds of data and they can profile the customer. What do you think about this?

Martin Obetko: I would answer in a way that, you know, like open Facebook or open Instagram or open whatever. Look at your government watch. People tend to share the information, all the data very freely. Yeah, of course, there is a question about data privacy and you know, like personal data, etc., and these have to be taken care of very seriously. For instance, I personally had some implementations of GDPR solutions to make sure that the rights of the customers are insured and also that the IT security of the customer data are insured, especially for security.
Tomas Dang: Especially in Europe.

Martin Obetko: Especially in Europe. However, this is one side of the story, but the fact that people would be scared that the bank knows about me something or that Facebook knows about me about something. I mean, the people are expecting it. What I mean by this is as a customer of a bank, you expect it…look, I'm your customer for past ten years, you know all about me, all my transactions, etc.. So just give me the pre-approved loan because you know me. Why should I bring all the papers? And this is what the customers expect. The customers expect that you know them and you pay attention to them, to each individual. So I wouldn't call it scared. It's like an expectation.

Tomas Dang: I totally agree with you. And I'm like sometimes people and you mentioned Facebook, etc. and they like to talk that, you know, yesterday I was talking about this product and suddenly I had suggestions, you know, the phone is listening to me, but that's the example how well everything works because they are basically collecting the searches, etc, like clicks on certain products. And this is the example of how, let's say suggestions work. For example, even as you said, for banking, for example, sometime ago, let's say ten years, how long it took until you got the loan? It took several weeks. And to get a loan for example, for an apartment for a bigger amount, it took a month, maybe two. Now you can get it within weeks. And it's that speed, right? Which is also one of the preferences of the customers. And it's part of that experience.

Martin Obetko: This video you mentioned and one way how to track the customer experiences, you know, like the speed, how the customer can get what they desire or what they want. And now we can see much written for instance, in Slovenska Sporitelna. Now I opened the account, it took me maybe 5 minutes and I could do it with my phone, no visit to the branch, etc.. This is something that was unbelievable even ten years ago. Ten years ago, when I started working for Zono you know, maybe some remember the name, it was a small online bank, part of Raiffeisen. And by that time, you know, like online and mobile applications just started. And there we had the debate and somebody was telling me, imagine who would click on the small device on the phone, who would do the transaction, you know, put there all the digits. And now all the transactions that I do are through the mobile.

Tomas Dang: And you can just scan it you know, you have your QR codes now which are vastly used. Yeah. So, so we had that move for example, my experience also with this, let's say quick getting of loan was that I had a pre-approved loan and there was before the pandemic hit, there was a slight crash on the market and it was still cheap. Also the interest rates, the rates were low. So I really calculated it through everything and I was like, okay, this is the best time to buy certain stocks. And within two days, I had the money on my broker account, and this is amazing.
 

Martin Obetko: Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

Tomas Dang: Good. So coming back to the omni channel we were talking about, is there a way to optimize it? Could you elaborate a bit more on the topic of omni channels? And what does it mean?

Martin Obetko: Yeah, of course, omni channel means that, you know, like as we discussed, there is not one channel that is preferred by the customer or one specific channel that is for the customer. What omni channel means is that imagine a conversation to, yeah, now we sit here discussing the omni channel and customer experience, but later on, you know, like when we, when we go home, we will continue the discussion, let's say on WhatsApp and the next morning we meet again and we continue the discussion. So we switched the online with the offline quite frequently and this is what happens also in the customer world. You start a conversation with the call center agents, you go and discuss something on the spot in the branch. You continue with the application form online, etc. So you have one customer experience switching the channels and this is the omnichannel. Yeah. So the companies have to know what is happening everywhere and all the communications have to be synchronized, I would say. Yeah. So this is omnichannel like switching the channels and not prefer one channel, but to be in the omnichannel world.

Tomas Dang: That now totally diverges from the topic. But the one thing I hate is what you just described. For example, I'm talking with somebody on Facebook. Then continuing the conversation on WhatsApp, then on Signal, on Instagram, on teams, etc. And I have to, you know, manage all the messaging applications just to find the right conversation. Maybe in the future, like within the, let's say, B2C world, some kind of aggregator would be a good way to go.

Martin Obetko: And actually, if I may, this point is great because, you know, like you to navigate in all the conversations with one person, it might be a nightmare. Imagine the situation of the company that, you know, like sometimes you call the call center, you go to the branch, you write an email, you send the service, etc., etc., and the company needs to synchronize all the conversation. So I think here is the beauty of the customer experience. Yeah.

Tomas Dang: So it doesn't get frustrated as I am with the messages.

Martin Obetko: Exactly. Exactly.

Tomas Dang: Good. So what are the new trends within omnichannel communication and also the lead management?

Martin Obetko: To start with, I would go more, maybe from a helicopter view. I mean, the main trends as I see them and generally not just in the omnichannel world or lead management, is sustainability. Absolutely number one, is the topic about Mother Nature. Yeah, about the environment. It's translated in almost all the industries.

Tomas Dang: So by sustainability you mean basically to notify people about their carbon footprints.

Martin Obetko: This might be one topic. Another topic might be even, you know, like everybody should start with himself. Yeah. Like going to work on the bicycle. If you talk about companies like banks, we can see, you know, like financing of the environmentally friendly projects with better interest rates for instance. Yeah. So supporting environmental change, what I saw in the CSOB Czech for instance, they started to use plastics from recycled plastics.

Tomas Dang: As secondary material.

Martin Obetko: Another thing might be, you know, like…

Tomas Dang: Better interest rates. I think you mentioned them for sustainable projects for example, for renovations, for houses with better energetic certificates, even.

Martin Obetko: I have my own experience. I took a mortgage and I took a mortgage from a bank where they give me a better rate if I have an energetic certificate at some level, which I like a lot. Yeah.

Tomas Dang: Because I think 360 bank had it. If you have at some point, if you have level one, you get 0.3, 65% interest rate and also other conditions at that point of time.

Martin Obetko: Yeah. So sustainability of course is one of the topics that is spread in all other areas then community banking, community groups on Facebook, in the surroundings, etc. with the connection and social networks, I mean, the communities and the growth of communities, I think it's, it's quite intensive and especially in the online world. So of course communities and advisory. So coming back to the customer centric approach, not selling the product but understanding the needs of the customer and then advise what can be the best product, the best service. Or maybe the customer can be better off without any new product because his onus is fine. Maybe just small adjustments.

Tomas Dang: Getting back to the community trend. What do you mean exactly by for example, if there are certain groups of people who are following certain trends to support these small communities, for example, small cities or villages. Okay, I will get back to the first trend, but certain communities which are promoting sustainability or sustainable life or are some kind of agricultural.

Martin Obetko: And again, coming back to the customer experience. One bank in America is really focused on community banking. What does that mean is support local community in a way that they had childcare for the mothers during the day so the mother can come there and put children in for 1 to 3 hours and can focus on the development of herself. So helping the community that is around you, not just creating the business.

Tomas Dang: So not only searching all of the existing communities, creating small communities and supporting them within their needs. With this small project, for example, let's say very, very traditional projects which are supported by banks and supermarkets are playgrounds, right?

Martin Obetko: Mm hmm. Again, supporting the local community somehow. You have a grocery store and you build something on top of that. You don't just go and buy your milk, but you have something on top.

Tomas Dang: Understood. Thanks. And getting to the lead management because we mostly discuss the customer experience, right. We broke it down to channels, to omni channels and their trends and now we are getting to the lead management. So what can we imagine under it and what are the trends there?

Martin Obetko: Lead management or campaign management, lead management is basically following a lead and even an importance of the customer lifecycle and addressing it with either a communication or a service offer or a product, etc.. So lead management is understanding of the events and the leads coming from the customer and addressing them. Yeah. So in simple English it is communication with the customers.

Tomas Dang: Is lead a customer already or is it a future customer?

Martin Obetko: When we look at few years ago, lead management was considered only as a potential customer. So this is your lead. But this is, I would say, old fashioned point of view because the lead is, you know, like any potential that you can see lead for a conversation with your existing customer, lead for sales of a new product. It can be a lead of, it can be a negative one as well. So for instance, you would have a claim from your unsatisfied customer and it is a lead for the company to like convert it to a satisfied customer to, you know, like understand the pain point and to solve it with you, to call you proactively, etc. So lead is any kind of potential for communication with the client.

Tomas Dang: So also a service.

Martin Obetko: Also service also sales for instance, it might be, you know, like you identify in a certain community an area that, you know, like customers don't use, usually a certain ATM, but they go a bit further. So for instance, you can help them, you know, like addressing and it's not an offer, it's a communication. Like, look, here you have your ATM just 300 meters from your door, from your house. Maybe you didn't know about that. Next time, when they need your money, it will be available for you. So just an example about customer care communication. So it's not just about sales but also about care.

Tomas Dang: And it's advisory.

Martin Obetko: And advisory as you mentioned. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tomas Dang: And how about the trends in the lead management we mentioned?

Martin Obetko: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, like we already mentioned the customer centric and you know, like people that are our listeners might say customer centric. Everybody says, yeah, it's here.

Tomas Dang: It's sexy.

Martin Obetko: We really for the past 20 years had to be customer centric. But now I see the switch in the way that customer centric is not just a word and buzz word is the reality in many of the institutions. Yeah. At least for those that we work for, where we deliver to the customer, the omni channel solutions, omni channel customer experience, we optimize the processes, etc. So there is always a customer at the center which I like. Then hyper personalization. If you would like to imagine. Like, what does that mean? Like personalization. We know. It's just. Hello, Martin. You don't say hello, customer, but. Hello, Martin. But hyper personalization, I mean…

Tomas Dang: It's. Hi, Martin. I know your temperature is 35 degrees. You need to go. You need some…

Martin Obetko: Kind of but not exactly. It is about, you know, like a product of one. So you don't have a product for that. You sell and you find the customers for you, if you don't have the product for a segment of the customers, but you really have the product and specific communication for yourself, a product of one. So not communicating, just, you know, like, yeah Tomas, we see that, you know, like you would like to buy a new car. We're happy to offer you a loan, but you can communicate. Hi, Tomas. We see that you like all the A4, etc., etc., like really understand the fixed.

Tomas Dang: Specific products.

Martin Obetko:The specific products. Yeah. Really understanding you as a customer and tailoring the products for you and communication of course. So this is second, then conversational banking we already mentioned. What I mean by that is the advisory, so not trust you know like here is the new mobile phone just by but advising like what do you need? What do you need the mobile phone for? They want to do more pictures or just have it more as a tablet. Yeah. So understanding the need and advising.

Tomas Dang: So conversational banking also includes chat bots and assistance. Right?

Martin Obetko: Chat bot assistance. And I wanted to come back to it, like virtual assistant or virtual assistants. This is really a new trend. We see it in KBC, for instance, they have a new virtual assistant, Kate, that is being deployed in all of the countries.

Tomas Dang: Is it a voice assistant?

Martin Obetko: It's a voice assistant at the beginning, also like a mobile assistant. And it should also have in the future the voice capability. For instance, we go for a beer and I forgot my wallet. So instead of going, you know, like to ATM withdrawing the money, I would say, hey, Kate, please send €10 to Tomas and she will do it instead of you. So some kind of Siri in the banking world.

Tomas Dang: We had a project where we were implementing a chat bot and it was really funny at some point when we were defining like various variations of the answers and questions which the customers can have, because you basically have to capture any kind of scenario and the chatbot has to reply basically, I don't want to say as a human, but it has to make sense. And at some point, you know, it was really funny because we were just children, you know, like typing different kind of answers and questions and see like what is the chatbot responding and and what you were describing those action points or let's say, call to action buttons, which can be now used, for example, for sending payments or approving some kind of new products. We actually did. But this is really the newest technologies which have been deployed by the biggest companies in Europe. This is a really, really the newest, let's say, trend, which is actually becoming a trend. It's not visible that much in many companies.

Martin Obetko: It's not visible that much. I agree with you. And maybe where it is visible if you go to Slovenska Sporitelna where they have their virtual assistant and also they have their holographic assistants. So you can come to talk to a holographic virtual assistants, which is kind of interesting at the moment.

Tomas Dang: And is it a certain branch where you could see it?

Martin Obetko: You could see it in Nivy for instance.

Tomas Dang: And is it a holograph based on, you know, LEDs and the fan or you have no idea? Okay, good. Let's move back to that stuff. So management and the trends we were discussing about the customer centrism, hyper personalization, conversational banking, what else is there?

Martin Obetko: Definitely when we look at trends and not just in lead management but also anywhere else is self service, people are still more and more independent. Of course we are independent and thanks for that, that we have this luxury. But by independent, I mean like we don't have to go anywhere. We can create a product by ourselves, we can apply, we can, you know, like eco style, which is cool. You buy, you build, you have, you enjoy the same in banking, the same in I don't know other services. So self-service, of course.

Tomas Dang: You know what I enjoyed the best that I can set my limits of the credit cards and debit cards within the app. I mean before that you had to pay €5 within the brick mortar store. You know, you had to go there. You had to wait in line, you had to pay a fee for every change. And this was so cumbersome. And then finally, I managed to change it with a few clicks in my application.

Martin Obetko: And now we were coming, like a measurement, you know, like the time to action, let's say, it's shortened a lot. So yeah, the customer experience means that you have more time for things that you like, not for the necessities. And maybe another trend that I would like to mention is the you know, like with all of the data that we discussed, you know, we create a lot of data, everybody every second, to navigate through them, to understand them, you need to have a really strong analytics platform and a really strong decision engine. So the real time decisions and with the technologies that now allow it, this is the trend that we can be really on the spot with the customer for when and where you really need us.

Tomas Dang: Sounds like a feature. All right, good. So how can we get there? You know, you mentioned the data and the data analytics. So what is for example, in your current accounts? What are they using? How can they connect everything together? How is it possible?

Martin Obetko: Yeah, the beauty and the answer, like how to get there, how to really increase the customer experience is with the data, with proper measurement and proper understanding of the data. Because if the data is just there in some data warehouse and you don't use them, then, you know, like they don't have the value. So it's creating the value out of it. And we help our customers with a lot of things. And as I mentioned at the beginning, like Adastra we don't do all the things, but the one thing that we do really good is data and we build the solutions around data. So storing of the data warehouses and now building new data solutions, cloud based data solutions, etc. The cloudification is another very important topic about the trends.

Tomas Dang: Another sexy word.

Martin Obetko: Another sexy word, but really becoming a reality right now. Yeah. And also we can see it in KBC where we deliver to all international market countries new data and analytic platforms based on the cloud solution. And then here, what it allows is like really futureproof data processing. All the real time fancy stuff that everybody talks about now becomes a reality. So one thing is having the platform that will allow you to digest the value out of the data and then to create the solutions. So all the advanced data analytics, data science, propensity modeling, all these things help you to better understand the customer and act upon the important events that are happening in the life of the customer.

Tomas Dang: And also, it was good that nowadays it's possible because a couple of years ago the banks were really afraid to move their data to the cloud, mostly because of the security. I remember that, I don't know how many years ago, but it's more than five, we were implementing UNIQA in Postova Banka, which I'm not sure if I don't want to get too technical to not be wrong, but part of it, part of the whole solution was kind of in the cloud. And when the National Bank, you know, realized this, like they immediately received notification that they haven't consulted with them. This implementation of this kind of solution, that the customer data can be breached, you know, there can be, you know, security breach. And from that point where the National Bank was afraid of the customer's data and the solution which was implemented, we got to a point where we're basically you can almost have sensitive data on the cloud and really utilize it to the extent you describe for, you know, real time processing and different channels.

Martin Obetko: Of course, I mean, like in the cloud and I would say that KBC is kind of a pioneer in terms of like traditional banking because usually, you know, like the other big names like Arista, Raiffeisen, etc., they're just playing around right now and like creating the strategies to throw KBC already in the implementation and however very important topic is the GDPR, cybersecurity, etc. So these topics cannot be avoided. And of course there are many measurements, many countermeasures that you have to apply to really be compliant. Well, with all the regulations and with the security.

Tomas Dang: So what kind of cloud tools are you using in KBC since it's pioneering in this field?

Martin Obetko: As I mentioned, you know, like Edison Data Analytics platform, but this is not the only one, even it's not the first. The first cloud implementation in KBC was about omnichannel and omnichannel orchestration we implemented there in all the international market countries. So again, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, even Ireland, the exponent that is based on GCP Cloud, Google Cloud Services. And yeah, well they're using the tool to orchestrate the communication. And now we are coming back very rightly to the topic of customer experience. So data analytics platforms give you the insights, help you to understand the customer. However, the only orchestration tool, like Expona will help you to, you know, like execute, execute the communication, even understand what is happening on the web. Tracking the behavior online, etc.. So the omnichannel orchestration is now doing the umbrella under all the omnichannel communications that you have with the customer. And this is the example of KBC, but also others. So another very important topic when we talk about the trends in lead management, omnichannel communication is a strong decision engine. Being able to address the needs at the right moment in the correct channel with the correct proposition. So really to be able to decide based on all the things, all the data, all the offers that we have prepared for the customer to decide for the real top one.

Tomas Dang: Is there any solution that others can provide either in-house or out of the box as a third party?

Tomas Dang: Actually, we at Adastra we saw a gap in here. We are very strong in omnichannel orchestration, let's say, and we see there are a lot of very good tools like Adobe, like Expona, there are many tools that really address the omnichannel orchestration. However, what we saw as a gap is a strong decision engine that will connect the dots and will decide based on really the needs of the customer, all the events or the important things happening in the life of the customer. What is the correct or the best action, the best service to offer, etc. So we created NBA

Tomas Dang:Which stands for?

Martin Obetko: I thought that the question will come. NBA doesn't stand for basketball. You will not see Michael Jordan there. It stands for next best action. So really it is about understanding the customer needs. It was developed in a way that at the center is customer. So all the trends that we talked about are there, at the center is the customer. And the idea is to understand in real time what is happening in the life of the customer, to be able to provide the best service, best action, the best product, or to address the current situation, is it a struggle, etc. So really to understand and to decide in real time what to communicate with the customer.

Tomas Dang: Which of the big three platforms is it based on and is it easier to integrate it? For example, customers are using a different platform. I mean cloud-based, you know, the big three.

Martin Obetko: Yeah. If you talk about the implementation possibilities, NBA's like cloud or platform agnostic, I would say it is possible to be deployed on premise to the customer. It is also possible to be implemented in any of the three clouds.

Tomas Dang: Sounds robust

Martin Obetko: It's quite robust and the beauty of it is that it is considering all the data that you can imagine, all the information in real time and deciding on the spot what is the right service, the right communication to you.

Tomas Dang: So we are talking about historical data, transactional data of behavioral, and different kinds of events.

Martin Obetko: Exactly. I mean, nowadays it is, well, people are talking about, you know, like Big Brother watching you. Yeah. Yeah. And we discussed that, you know, like the customers they expect that, you know, they are not afraid that, you know, they expect…

Tomas Dang: Like to be watched.

Martin Obetko: They like to be watched. I wouldn't say it's like this, but they expect that, you know, like you're interested in them

Tomas Dang:  To a certain degree.

Martin Obetko: To a certain degree, of course. And that is why it is extremely important to take into consideration all the topics that are happening in the life of the customers. So we can see in the data that you might be willing to take some loan for renovating your house, you know, like making a home, you know. But at the same time, we saw you at the airport buying, paying in the cafe, going for a business trip. So at that point of time, we should listen really to what is happening in your life in the current moment and maybe discuss with you not the loan, but maybe travel insurance. Yeah. So that is why it is important to, you know, like. Take all the things that are happening in the life of the customer and decide in real time in that moment what to communicate.

Tomas Dang: One of my projects I realized was how transactional data are strong. How can you categorize them, you know, build different kinds of segments based on it. I mean, you can read so much from transactional data. It's amazing. And of course, based on that, you can provide different kinds of services to the customers, not only offerings, but also services which customers can enjoy, for example, categorizing their transactions in various kinds of spending areas, such as your spending in supermarkets, in bars, etc. And based on these kinds of insights, they can manage their finances better.

Martin Obetko: And now we are coming to the trends again to the advisory. So the customer experience is also about shortening the time frame. They need to like to get to what you really want. But it is also about, you know, like customer care and advising.

Tomas Dang: And with that being said, Martin, thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you that you joined us. It was really a pleasure to talk to you after quite some time, as you said at the beginning, that we didn't see each other. And I hope we will see each other soon and talk with a beer in our hands.

Martin Obetko: Yeah. Thank you very much for the opportunity to discuss this very, very broad and very interesting topic. I'm very glad that I was here discussing with you.

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