Striking the right balance between technology and human interaction

Have you heard? Tesco has opened their first check-out free store in central London! That’s right…no scanning, no checkouts, no queues. This might be great for those occasions when you’re in a mad rush or just don’t fancy chatting to anyone. But what if you have a question about a product or can’t reach something on the shelf. Technology can deliver when it comes to efficient transactions, but it can’t really provide the same level of customer service a person can. 

How would you feel if all shops turned check-out free? Do you enjoy speaking to the check-out person? We all have our preferences. For us, working in financial services, human interaction is extremely important. We need to get to know our clients and learn about their circumstances and understand their goals before we can offer the right advice.

At The Money Partnership, we’ve tried to strike a balance between using technology to increase efficiency whilst maintaining human interaction throughout the customer journey. Building trusted client relationships require competence, compassion, and honesty. It takes chatting with clients over a cup of tea, verbally and visually demonstrating what we can help them achieve, checking in regularly and remembering those personal details; it’s the service, not just the product. I’m not sure a chatbot or computer could offer the same level of reassurance to clients when making big financial decisions.  

Another thing is, we enjoy supporting clients along their financial journey. Pressing buttons on a computer isn’t the fun part of our job, it’s helping people work on and accomplish their financial goals. Collecting the keys to their first home, becoming debt-free, retiring earlier than expected. We love being part of it all and will always make ourselves available to anyone who wants to proactively improve their financial position.

Online shopping (or check-out free shopping), online banking, social media… if technology keeps advancing, we’re not going to be left with many opportunities to experience human interaction. And it’s a little scary to think about what this might do to our relationships. If you don’t like the idea of automated financial advice and you appreciate a personalised service, feel free to pop into our office or give us a call. We would be more than happy to answer any of your financial questions…a chat costs nothing.