"Facilities for the Elderly" Accelerate the Penetration of the Elderly's Life
Our reporter Guo Ziyuan
"Let the elderly better share the fruits of informatization development" has always been highly valued by the Party Central Committee and the State Council.
In November 2020, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Notice on the Implementation Plan for Practically Solving the Difficulties of the Elderly in Using Intelligent Technology". How the elderly can cross the digital divide has become one of the hot spots of social concern.
The reporter's investigation found that nearly a year after the announcement of the above notice, the improvement of "adequate aging" services in the financial sector is steadily advancing and has achieved remarkable results.
At present, the rectification of the rejection of cash continues to deepen, financial services have "elderly exclusive", and some non-financial services are gradually becoming more punctual, making the elderly "at your fingertips."
Continue to rectify the rejection of cash
Some elderly people are not accustomed to and can't use mobile payment. Therefore, it is very important to fully protect their right to pay in cash.
In fact, since the fourth quarter of last year, the regulatory authorities have continued to promote the rectification of the rejection of renminbi cash, and encourage consumers to make complaints and reports in a timely manner.
According to the announcement issued by the People’s Bank of China recently, in the second quarter of 2021, the central bank imposed economic penalties on 18 units that refused to accept cash and related persons responsible in accordance with the law. The penalties ranged from 1,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan; Public service agencies, hospitals, scenic spots, parking lots, insurance companies, etc.
How effective is the implementation of remediation work in daily life?
The reporter randomly visited a number of shopping malls, supermarkets, convenience stores, and pharmacies in the Beijing area.
When the reporter asked whether it was not possible to pay by mobile phone or whether it was possible to give cash, the above business entities all said "no problem" and prepared sufficient cash for change.
However, the reporter also discovered a new problem in some convenience stores-due to the widespread implementation of "scan code self-checkout", there are usually only 2 staff.
These two people are not only responsible for manual checkout, but also have to deal with many tasks such as guidance, ordering, stocking, etc., and they often do not know how to do so.
This has caused consumers who are anxious to leave the store to choose mobile payment, which virtually reduces the feasibility of cash payment.
Various irregularities are attracting the attention of regulatory authorities.
Recently, the relevant person in charge of the central bank reiterated that the refusal of cash not only damages the legal status of the renminbi, but also damages consumers' right to choose payment methods.
“Rejection of RMB is illegal. No unit or individual may refuse to accept cash by means of standard clauses, notices, declarations, notices, etc., and must not hype the concept of'cashless'.” The person in charge said that the central bank will continue to strictly implement the State Council. It is required to adhere to the combination of publicity and guidance and severe punishment, continue to promote the rectification and rejection of RMB cash, and unblock the channels for complaints and reports.
The central bank will punish those who are verified as rejecting the renminbi cash in accordance with the law and regularly expose them, so as to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and maintain the legal status of renminbi.
Financial services have "elderly exclusive"
In addition to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the elderly who are “unaccustomed to and not able to use” smart services, for those who are “willing to use but not proficient in smart services”, the relevant financial service system and service details must be further improved. They can fully share the fruits of informatization development.
The reporter was informed that many commercial banks have placed "elderly customers" in a more important position, and have successively launched and upgraded "elderly exclusive" financial services.
"The focus is on three aspects closely related to the life of the elderly, namely account security, channel services, financial needs, and additional non-financial services such as exclusive rights and themed activities to form a comprehensive system." Personal Finance Department of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China The relevant person in charge told reporters that the bank has officially launched the "ICBC Love Companion" brand service system for elderly customers, which includes more than 20 service measures.
The specific approach is to strengthen account security, comprehensively use big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies to strengthen financial services for elderly customers from various aspects such as intelligent security detection, telecommunication fraud account identification, manual intervention in suspicious transfers and remittances, and reminders of changes in account funds. Security.
The second is to create convenient channel services to provide elderly customers with exclusive services including telephone banking manual customer service to help the elderly special line, mobile banking happy life for the elderly special edition, service outlets "ICBC Post" service for the elderly, including exclusive services.
The third is to vigorously promote wealth preservation and inheritance. From the perspective of safety and stability, we will provide exclusive deposits, fitness insurance, themed precious metal products and exclusive offers from the perspective of safety and stability.
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has also created the "Exclusive Rights and Interests" for the elderly to provide differentiated value-added rights and benefits services to elderly customers. At the same time, it selects themes that are of high interest to the elderly and launches long-term themed activities on the Double Ninth Festival and the Spring Festival every year. , Such as financial security, pension and social insurance, health preservation, Chinese culture, travel and tourism, etc.
"In addition to financial services, we have also joined forces with governments, enterprises, organizations and other units to embed financial services in multiple daily life scenarios of the elderly and increase the frequency of access to financial services." The above-mentioned person in charge said, in order to better It meets the needs of the elderly for services in multiple scenarios, such as receiving pensions, seeking medical treatment and purchasing drugs, community pensions, transportation, daily consumption, entertainment and leisure.
Non-financial services must be "at your fingertips"
It is not only the choice of ICBC to embed financial services in the life scenes of the elderly to promote the improvement of non-financial services, it has also gradually become the consensus of the banking industry.
"In the digital age, we should integrate technological advancement with the better life of the elderly. The services provided by banks should be warm and closely meet the needs of the elderly." said Lu Tiangui, business director of CITIC Bank, according to the common use of the elderly. In life scenarios, the bank subdivides exclusive financial services for the elderly into six sectors, namely wealth, health, discounts, colleges, travel, and stage. The service system has covered Beijing, Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Chengdu, Xi’an, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, and Hefei. , Shenyang, Harbin and more than 50 major cities.
Take the "College" section as an example. More than 60 video learning courseware have been launched in this section to teach the elderly how to use smart phones, helping them gradually master the application of smart technology in multiple scenarios such as payment, travel, medical treatment, and entertainment.
It is worth noting that while doing sophisticated and detailed financial services for the elderly, the shortcomings of non-financial services are increasingly exposed, which has aroused the attention and thinking of commercial banks.
"In our service practice, we also found that some elderly people do not want to use smart services, but are afraid of complicated operations. For example, after a customer dials a customer service call, it often has to go through multiple links and click multiple buttons to finally connect to the manual service. "The relevant person in charge of China CITIC Bank said.
In order to solve the "out of reach" problem of non-financial services, China CITIC Bank has launched a "dedicated line" for the elderly with "one-click direct access" to manual customer service.
If there are common diseases such as headache and brain fever, elderly customers can call the dedicated customer service number of China CITIC Bank for free, and the manual customer service will be directly transferred to the general practitioner. General practitioners with more than 10 years of clinical experience will answer customer questions one-on-one, covering colds and fevers. Consultation on common diseases, chronic diseases, and bone and joint diseases.
In addition, many commercial banks have begun to focus on the "life circle within 3 kilometers", and according to the positioning of elderly customers on mobile banking, they will push coupons for merchants within 3 kilometers, covering supermarkets, vegetable markets, cake shops, pharmacies, etc. The high-frequency life scene of the elderly further expands the service radius of non-financial services and makes non-financial services more "at your fingertips."