Finovate Blog

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.

1. 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.
2. 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%.

Customer service is one of those topics that engender passionate calls to action at staff meetings, but little follow-through. Why? Because it’s tedious work, difficult to measure, and expensive. Yankee Group estimates the total cost of a $200,000 Web-based self-service application is $1.3 million over five years, including IT support, knowledge-based maintenance, user training, and so on (see Table 30, below).

However, if you expect to profit from your online services, you must pay attention to the subject. Following are several tables to help you prioritize your investments. Table x lists the high-level priorities. Table y lists 10 ways to get the biggest bang for your buck today. Finally, we list more than 50 techniques for delivering service beyond customer expectations, while deflecting calls from your call center and branches.

Online Service Rules

# 1: Anticipate questions and tripping points;
remove the ambiguity in the product-design phase

# 2: Email users frequently with confirmations and alerts, especially for new accounts in process

# 3: Imbed pop-up Help bubbles for every conceivable question, especially in product applications

# 4: Make sure customer service owns the FAQs,
including the authority/ability to change them on the fly

# 5: Provide prominent Search capabilities;
manage the results to insure relevancy

# 6: Most people still want to want to interact with a live human; put a face on your e-service, and don’t hide phone numbers

Source: Online Banking Report, 3/04

 

 

Table 30
Total Cost of Ownership
stand-alone Web self-service solution

Source: Yankee Group, 8/02, from Online Selling & eCRM

 

 

 

Table 31

Strategic E-Service Priorities

Source: Online Banking Report, 3/04

Table 32

Ten Low-Cost E-Service Improvements

1.       Autoresponse email to Web-based inquiries

2.       Help button on every page, especially at login

3.       Expanded FAQs, possibly with college intern support

4.       Links to FAQs in email responses

5.       FAQs written in user-friendly language

6.       Published email service standards

7.       Opt-in for email communications when submitting Web-based inquiries

8.       Templates for email responses

9.       E-reps rewarded for improving online FAQs

10.    On-hold message referring users to easy to remember URL for Web-based inquiry,
e.g., <www.yourbankservice.com>, or use your toll-free number as the URL <www.1-800-555-BANK>

Source: Online Banking Report, 3/04

 

 

 

 

Table 33

 

Techniques for Deflecting Service Calls/Visits

 

Source: Online Banking Report, 4/04

 

 

Table 34

 

Basic E-Service Implementation Checklist

•        Contact Us link in the upper-right corner of every Web page
•        Ensure that common search terms entered in your site-search feature result in highly relevant answers and links
•       Separate FAQs for customers and non-customers
•        FAQs edited by a professional copy writer for grammar and tone; reviewed by customers for clarity
•        Web-based inquiry form includes: name, email address, retype email address, customer/noncustomer, subject (choose from drop-down list), and opt-in for future email communications
•       Inquiry form includes graphical security assurances and link to privacy and security policie
•        Direct customer service email addresses; for example, service@yourbank.com, info@yourbank.com
•        Identifiable service area with its own intuitive URL; for example, <service.yourbank.com>, <vip.yourbank.com>, <www.yourbank.com/service>, <1800yourcallcenter.com>
•        Service department Web and email addresses in company literature and advertising
•        Autoresponses for Web-based queries, includes thank-you and estimated response time
•        Email response templates for the most common questions
•        Procedures for handling undeliverable emails
•        Secure password-reset procedure and monitoring program
•        Security/privacy guidelines for handling confidential information emailed by user
•        Fraud-detection algorithms and procedures for email requests, e.g., password resets, change of address
•        Procedures to escalate customer problems
•        Guidelines for distributing email questions to the appropriate departments
•        Tracking and follow-up mechanisms to ensure all emails are answered in a timely fashion
•        Performance metrics and methods to capture the data, e.g., response times; percent resolved within 24/48/72 hours; customer satisfaction with response
•        Service standards communicated internally and externally
•        Process for maintaining and improving internal and external knowledge base and FAQs
•        Guidelines and approval procedures for editing approved email response templates
•        Email training program for e-reps, branch staff, and other customer-contact personnel

Source: Online Banking Report, 4/04