As a novice entrepreneur, I decided to pursue my dream of starting my own catering company. The decision to start my small business seemed bold, but the desire to realize my ideas and apply my experience from working as an employee in my own business filled me with determination. There were many questions: how to manage finances, organize accounting, and establish interaction with counterparties?
One of the first and most important steps was to open a current account for doing business. As a VTB client as an individual, when choosing a bank to open a current account, I paid attention to the range of banking products and services of this bank.
To begin with, I decided to familiarize myself with the interface of the VTB Business Platform to determine how well it meets my needs. The initial acquaintance with the demo version allowed me to understand that working with my personal account is not difficult, and I can figure everything out on my own.
I had no experience opening a current account for doing business, so I decided to clarify the details through the chat, which is available on the login page of the VTB Business Platform.
In the chat, I received the necessary advice on the account opening process. It turned out that everything can be done remotely – through the bank's on-site service. This experience turned out to be much simpler than I expected. Through the bank's website, I uploaded the necessary documents online, avoiding inconvenience and long waits in the bank branch. Soon after, a representative of the on-site service contacted me, and I successfully opened a current account, gaining access to my personal account.
First experience using a digital platform for business
Mastering the basic functions of online banking, such as paying invoices to counterparties, analyzing financial transactions, and electronic document management with the bank, was an important step. Doing the accounting myself, I wanted to ensure that mastering the new functionality did not take much time and did not interfere with focusing on business development.
I was pleasantly surprised that the traditional voluminous text instructions were replaced by an electronic version of the user guide with training demo videos, which are available directly from the login page.
Before the first login, I was given a temporary password, and I immediately decided to find out how to set a permanent password, and the chatbot at the login was already ready with an answer.
My experience confirmed that working with modern banking systems for business is no more difficult than when I performed operations in an online bank as an individual.
In my personal account, I decided to find out the service conditions and my tariff. The bot in the chat immediately processed my request, providing the necessary information in detail.
Deciding to start cooperation with the bank and becoming its client, I decided to carefully study the possibilities of connecting additional services necessary for solving everyday business tasks, such as accounting, sales, legal support, attracting financing, and much more.
The ability to issue the "Non-Reducing Balance" product in three clicks attracted my attention, because with its help I was able to receive additional income in the form of interest on the balance in the current account by placing temporarily free funds.
Then I continued to study the products available to me that are relevant to my business.
In the process of searching for the optimal solution, I had questions, but getting additional information was as simple as possible – when opening the "Help" tab in the chat, the system, understanding my needs, immediately selected the necessary reference information for me:
The chatbot immediately gave a detailed answer on the process of connecting the service I was interested in, understanding my request even taking into account the presence of typos in it:
I only had to perform a few simple steps described in the chat in a few clicks to solve my problem. In general, in the process of working in the online bank, I periodically had various questions about the service, while the bot always accurately recognized their meaning and instantly gave a relevant detailed answer.
For example, when I needed to issue a certificate, I received all the necessary information in the chat without having to contact support, saving my time.
If earlier I preferred to solve all issues by contacting support by phone, then gradually I changed this approach, preferring to solve the issue in the format of correspondence in the chat. For example, in the process of receiving advice by phone, it was easier for me to show the screen to the operator instead of describing in words the question I had about the system interface. I simply told the operator the code displayed in the chat and we continued our consultation in the chat, including a demonstration of the screen to the support staff, which greatly simplified and accelerated the solution of my question:
Conclusion
My experience in the VTB Business Platform turned out to be useful and simple for a novice entrepreneur. Opening an account, carrying out transactions and receiving advice through a chatbot changed my perception of the quality of modern development of digital financial platforms for business. The ecosystem of modern online banking and user support services greatly simplify the start of a business, becoming a reliable assistant for a novice entrepreneur in mastering the first steps of launching their business.