The Magick of Simplicity: Just Keep It Simple, Says Client Guru Kathy Griffin


Breaking out of the echo chamber, iGamingFuture has deepened its progressive engagement with out-of-industry disruptors in the ongoing journey to share the secrets of success with our wider community.

Innovation, insight, engagement, diversity and transparency, it all sounds good in the process. But does it actually work?

To which the inimitable business guru Kathy Griffin, a 30-years Banking and Finance veteran, previously Director of Compliance at online Monzo Bank, currently Chief Risk Officer at the Target Group, answers with a resounding: “Yes!”

Griffin was the keynote speaker at iGF’s much-anticipated Breakfast Club event in central London this week, which explored the key issue and challenge of “Harmonising The Customer Experience”.

The essence of her message was simplicity itself.

“We could call it the ‘Magic of Simplicity’,” Griffin told her select audience of top iGaming executives and thought-leaders, among them Adam Doyle, Head of Gaming at LexisNexis Risk Solutions Financial Services, Collections and Businesses, the event sponsors, and Ian Ince, Head of Compliance at Playtech, who anchored proceedings.

Urged Griffin:

“Simplicity is everything. People are doing this for fun. If it stops being fun they will drop out.”

There are great similarities between gaming and banking, said Griffin.

Today, both industries are tech-based, heavily regulated, face systemic legacy issues, challenges of, often negative, public opinion and, most importantly, rely on customer experience.

“Customer experience powers engagement and business growth.”

With contemporary levels of expectation being driven by just-in-time, instant-delivery, heavy-hitters, such as Amazon, new client benchmarks were now driving the all-important levers of customer experience.

Quick delivery, clarity of language, transactional automation, monitoring, conduct, financial oversight, availability were all key metrics in the overarching challenge of removing friction in the provider-client relationship.

For example–and this came as a surprise to many in the 30-plus strong audience–, “the average reading age is [that of a] 13-year-old. But one needs to have the equivalent education of a post-graduate to understand too many documents and agreements.”

“Language needs to be easy-to-understand. It is an essential part of the brand.”

She stressed:

“Get more bang for your bucks by embracing tech, data, trends, behaviours; data analytics, language analytics. And you need to build brand awareness by focussing on a target market, tailoring your service to meet the demands and needs of individual clients.”

Equally importantly, it was also key to actively engage with ‘The Regulator’, Griffin advised.

“Often the regulator is behind the curve,” she said. “You need to engage physically, and demonstrably invite [them] to come on the development journey.

“It can be very, very challenging. But just be open with them. If in doubt, talk to them about it.

“Transparency has never served me wrong. The regulator, like us, only wants the best for the public, our customers.”

Above and beyond, “focus on the customer experience,” said Griffin.

“Bring in new people, younger people, people from industries external to yours; a fresh pair of eyes.

“Diversity of thought is all about not working in an echo chamber.”

Perhaps for good reason, bankers, like many gambling operators, are not always loved.

Kathy Griffin, who has charted a unique career pathway, is a noble exception to this all-too-prevalent prejudice.

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