By Annette M. Jacobs, CEO SafeHarbor
Online banking is no longer a competitive advantage. Today, the value is to offer an experience that is simple, user-friendly and provides the highest completion rates. Customer satisfaction with the quality is critical. Online banking customers have high expectations regarding system reliability and content quality. The level of sophistication among this customer segment is also driving the need for site integration and personalized service options.
It can be difficult for online banking programs to duplicate the high touch of personalized service that customers have grown to expect from a branch-bank experience. Offering customers effective online support can substitute for most of the personal attention offered by the neighborhood teller. Whether customers are finding answers for themselves through a FAQ page or by using assisted alternatives like on-line chat or telephone support, financial institutions need a comprehensive program maintain high customer satisfaction while decreasing support costs. A recent survey of 30 banks and credit union executives by Forrester Research found that 96% felt assisted support is a major priority for the online banking market over the next two years.
Implementation Options
Financial institutions can implement and enhance online banking support several ways: purchase a prepackaged program, build a network internally from the ground up, or partner with a business process service company that can integrate and manage the program. In making that decision, consideration must be given to delivery times, costs, ongoing support, assisted support and the ability to gather or consolidate customer data.
1. Purchase support tools: At first glance, out-of-the-box support software appears to be a logical starting point. While many offer a broad range of functionality, the features may not align with your institution’s specific online banking needs. It is important to examine carefully the tool’s range of features and determine the existing infrastructure capability. Institutions should also ensure the software can accurately identify, assess and grow, not only with internal needs but also customers’ needs. Additional functionality will also be tied to internal IT release dates or those of the vendor.
- Build an internal support service network: As an alternative to purchased software, building a service network internally may seem the most effective way to provide an integrated, customized solution. Proprietary systems can be continually upgraded and enhanced to meet expanding customer needs and support new product launches.
- Outsource the process: The third option, outsourcing, can be cost-effective and relatively easy-to-implement. It allows a bank to focus on its business needs by partnering with a business process service company. When you eliminate the organizational burden of building, installing, maintaining and staffing, banks can direct resources to their core competencies of product development, customer relationships and revenue growth.
Partnering also offers the ability for risk sharing. That can be critical as you define the long-term strategy. The vendor generally assumes responsibility for maintaining the software and hardware, which is invaluable to keep pace with technology changes. Many business process service companies can also provide assisted-support staffing, which offers flexibility and leverages the skill development necessary to optimize return on investment.
Business process service companies can bring support systems to market more quickly. Partnering can eliminate time-consuming steps and internal project management. For example, SafeHarbor Technology Corporation delivers a complete customer-interaction support system that can be operational in as little as eight weeks.
Components of a Successful Customer Support System
In designing a customer support system, flexible multi-channel service is the key to increasing satisfaction, loyalty and retention. According to Gartner Research Director Esteban Kolsky, customers would prefer to use self-service if it is comprehensive and easy to use. Below is an example of SafeHarbor’s graphical help function as deployed by Washington Mutual. It walks users through a relatively technical process, upgrading security at AOL, which would be difficult and time-consuming for most bank service reps to handle.
Customers must also have the ability to escalate to other service channels, and the transition must be seamless. Support agents need the ability to track every service-inquiry step. The online banking customer should not be subjected to retracing each step and subsequently reliving the frustration.
Collecting and analyzing this data is also a tremendous opportunity. Identifying customer-user patterns, and the service channels through which they seek support, can be critical to a bank’s ability to accurately assess user needs and provide relevant services.
Financial institutions must take support services to the next level to maximize profitability and ensure customer satisfaction. Support systems can also serve another role by collecting valuable customer data. This should not only guide the strategy, but also identify new opportunities to grow product revenues.
Annette M. Jacobs is the President and CEO for SafeHarbor Technology Corporation, a provider of customer support and delivery services including Web, call center, and analytics to Global 2000 and emerging SMB organizations; founded in 1998, clients include Washington Mutual Bank, SunTrust Banks, T-Mobile, American Airlines, and the State of Washington.
Washington Mutual’s Site Helper powered by SafeHarbor.
SafeHarbor Projections for your Business Case
· Toll-free numbers displayed throughout your website can increase support costs by more than 25%.
· A large portion of online banking support goes
toward educating new users; better “getting started” (aka onboarding) content and messaging can
reduce account cancellations and increase
customer satisfaction by more than 50%.
· Preemptive live-agent support can increase call deflections by 30% or more.
· Providing access to the online banking support environment for call center agents can reduce call handle times and increase agent productivity by
more than 40%.