Since 1995, e-service has been an important component of online banking
satisfaction. However, many financial institutions chose to defer major
investment in service capabilities on the theory that users were not
demanding it.
While that may have been true three or four years ago, it’s not the
current reality. Today, mediocre service puts you at risk of losing
sales, cost saving opportunities, and ultimately customers. Luckily,
expectations are still relatively low, so you have an excellent
opportunity to impress your customers
Table 2
Online Self-Service Evolution
|
Phase |
Period |
Typical Capabilities |
Primary Market |
| Beta | 1995 to 1998 | Brochure and short FAQ | Outliers |
| Version 1.0 Novelty | 1999 to 2001 | Longer FAQ, email address, rudimentary Web-based inquiry, site search with poor results |
Early adopters |
| Version 2.0 Utilitarian | 2002 to 2004 | Extensive FAQs, good Web-based inquiry, live chat in certain areas, site search with marginal results |
Early mainstream |
| Version 3.0 Early mainstream | 2004+ | Deep and detailed online knowledge base with graphical tutorials, interactive Web-based, live chat in most high-value areas, site search with instant answers |
All online households (70% in U.S) |
Source: Online Banking Report,
3/04
Table 3
E-Service Benefits
Improved customer support
- Faster and more convenient for experienced online users
- Able to interact with the bank in quick bursts when
questions arise; before the issue festers - Creates a written record of questions and answers to make followup more efficient
- Potential for higher quality answers with links to more
detailed information, attached documents, and so on - Potential for customer to interact with the same rep for
follow-up questions - Customer can save or print answers for future reference
- No more looking up account and phone numbers, then
navigating tedious phone menus - Efficient and detailed incident tracking to ensure
satisfactory problem resolution - User satisfaction of finding their own answers
- Serendipity: finding useful related information you might
never have inquired about (e.g., discovering Roth IRAs when looking for
year-end tax info)
Better market data
- Easier to categorize and track customer concerns
- Provides a steady flow of user feedback that can be
captured and tracked over time - Easier to route individual questions/comments so others
(e.g., marketing dept.) can “hear” what customers are saying, unfiltered
and in real time
Potential* cost savings
- Deflect branch, call center, and email queries
- Ability to handle some questions during off-peak times
- Ability to route questions to lower-cost centers where
language fluency is less of an issue (compared to telephone support) - Ability to outsource certain question types, such as tech
support - Ability to automate answers to routine questions
Source: Online Banking Report, 3/04
*Since most financial institutions are early in the learning curve,
cost savings are mostly unproven. However, long term the impact is
expected to be dramatic.
Service Quality
No matter how much time you spend analyzing service quality, in the end it
all boils down to this: Satisfied customers receive products and services that
meet or exceed their expectations. Table 4 below outlines nine components of
online service quality.
Table 5
Customer Service Expectations Retail Banking
*relative ease of exceeding customer expectations using online service
| Attribute |
Expec- |
Import-ance |
Ability to Exceed* |
| Preemptive support |
low |
high |
high |
| account alerts |
low |
high |
very high |
| personal attention |
very low |
medium |
very high |
| identifying potential probs |
low |
high |
high |
| Self-service |
medium |
medium |
low |
| saving time |
medium |
medium |
low |
| convenient |
medium |
medium |
low |
| quality of results |
low |
high |
high |
| search results |
medium |
medium |
low |
| maintaining privacy |
high |
medium |
very low |
| “do it yourself” satisfaction |
medium |
medium |
low |
| providing input to bank |
low |
medium |
medium |
| venting |
low |
medium |
medium |
| solving the problem |
very low |
very high |
very high |
| Responsive support |
low |
very high |
very high |
| email/web inquiry |
medium |
high |
high |
| immediate autoresponse |
low |
medium |
medium |
| response time |
medium |
medium |
medium |
| thoroughness of response |
high |
high |
low |
| personal attention |
very low |
medium |
high |
| ability to escalate |
low |
medium |
medium |
| efficiency (not restating) |
low |
medium |
medium |
| providing input to bank |
medium |
medium |
low |
| venting |
medium |
medium |
low |
| solving the problem |
low |
very high |
very high |
Source: Online Banking Report estimates, 3/04
Because customer expectations are relatively low, there are numerous
opportunities to impress even your most jaded customers and even pick up share
from less-enlightened
competitors.
