ARMONK, N.Y. and TAMPA, Fla., May 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced its collaboration with ING Direct Australia to attract, engage and build brand loyalty with today's younger digital savvy consumers.

ING Direct is now accelerating growth by delivering personalized banking services to online and mobile customers precisely when they need them most using IBM.

Australian consumers are leading the world in their use of mobile banking, which has created greater needs for businesses to deliver a feature rich and personalized set of services and campaigns that can meet their needs. ING DIRECT looked to IBM to better engage with these digital savvy consumers, including millennials who have shifted away from brick and mortar branches to both online and on their mobile devices.

Now, ING Direct can glean insights on how a customer is interacting with the business, whether it's across the web, mobile device, or call center and present them with product recommendations, personalized offers or service information focused on their everyday and future banking needs. With IBM, ING is now generating personalized messages to more than one million customers and prospects each month, which has allowed it to double its customer acquisition rates year-over-year.

"The combination of digital disruption, tougher competition, and increasing consumer expectations is creating an opportunity for ING Direct to acquire new customers and better engage existing customers," said Lisa Claes, Executive Director of Customer Delivery, ING Direct Australia. "With this IBM collaboration, we can better generate insights of a consumer's interactions and preferences and immediately connect them with the information they need when they need it most. It's this level of service that attracts customers and nurtures their loyalty."

With IBM, ING has also reduced the time required to create and deliver larger personalized customer campaigns--a medium-sized campaign that previously took approximately six days to build can now be done in three. In addition, ING has seen significant improvements in its call center. Today, when customers hit the 'call me' button in the ING mobile app the customer service team tailors the conversation to the person's precise situation to ensure they quickly meet their needs—this relevancy has allowed ING to increase conversion rates by 120 percent.

"Today we do everything on-the-go and it's no different with banking and financial services. But with mobility we cannot sacrifice the personalization and guidance that helps consumers make the right decisions," said Harriet Green, General Manager, Watson IoT, Commerce and Education, IBM. "Right now, ING Direct is helping tap into personalized banking experiences to drive loyalty with a younger generation of customers who will be essential to their future once their loyalty is earned."

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SOURCE IBM