In today’s world, all the banks are offering similar products and services. How does the customer choose one over the other? Let us look at Jane’s example. She has moved to the city to start a new job. She wants to open a checking account. She has searched for banks offering checking accounts in her area. She visits the top three banks’ websites from her search results. As she was browsing First Global Trust Banks’ website, Bob, a chat-bot greeted her in a warm and friendly manner. Bob asked her how he could help her today and presented a few options to choose from. Opening a checking account was one of them. Jane clicked on it. Bob immediately took her to a page explaining the checking account opening process. Jane was impressed but wanted to explore other options. Besides, she had to step out for grocery shopping. She was about to close the page when Bob asked her if she would appreciate it if an agent called her to explain the account opening process. Jane entered her details and closed the browser window.

Jane had visited three banks’ websites but only one bank had her details. That’s because only one bank had engaged her in a conversation. Bob was part of First Global Trust Banks’ Unified Customer Experience platform. The platform engages with customers on various channels like chat-bots, phone, social media, video calls and emails. We will see how that results in reduction of service time significantly as we follow Jane’s interactions with First Global Trust Bank.

1. Know Your Customers

We are not talking about the Know Your Customer (KYC) process which is a regulatory requirement here. We are talking about really knowing relevant personal information about them. Their life stages, preferences, personal milestones, likes, dislikes, needs and wants. The next day, Jane received a call from the bank’s contact center where Judy explained to her the benefits of opening a checking account with the bank. Jane thanked Judy for her time and said she would definitely consider it. She was still wanting to look at what other banks had to offer and then make an informed decision. However, Jane had taken a liking for the nice people at the bank. She liked how they courteously took time to interact with her.

Meanwhile, Jane got busy with her new job: She had lots to learn as she was getting inducted in the team. That’s when she got an email from Bill, a customer on-boarding specialist at the bank. Bill described cashback offers at various retail outlets when shopping with the banks’ debit card. Jane, who was an avid shopper, loved the offers. She was convinced that First Global Trust Bank was the right bank for her. That’s when she clicked on the “open a checking account” link on the email.

2. Know Your Ideal Customer Experience

Formulate a Customer experience strategy which clearly defines how the ideal customer experience for each transaction should be. In this case, it was a series of light nudges on various channels that lead to Jane’s conversion. Jane’s conversion was made possible by the Unified Customer Experience Platform working behind the scenes. Having recorded information about Jane’s personal as well as professional milestones and aspirations has helped the bank have a deeper relationship with her and pitch products suitable for her life stage to her.

3. Let Your Customers Help Themselves with Self Service

Some customers prefer helping themselves. Cater to them by providing intuitive, helpful self service interfaces. Contextual help and “how to” videos on the bank’s website ensured that all of Jane’s initial questions were addressed. Today, Jane loves performing her regular transactions herself on the bank’s portal.

4. Improve Call Center Efficiency

1. Clear Processes for Solving Common Problems: A lot of customer problems tend to cluster around common themes. Document these common problem areas and define clear processes to address them.
2. Continuous Improvement Training:In this rapidly changing world, striving for customer delight is a constant endeavour. It needs to be continuously monitored and areas for improvement need to be identified. Identifying and delivering training around these areas will go a long way towards improving efficiency.
3. Skills Based Routing:Everyone on the team has a different set of skills. We should be routing calls to the right team member with the right set of skills.
4. Live Call Monitoring and Coaching:Monitor live calls closely: Is the team member sticking to the script? Is the right message being conveyed to the customer in the right manner? No detail is too small when it comes to customer interactions Coach your agents on areas where they need improvement.
5. Inter-agent Chat:One great way to improve call center efficiency is to hold sessions where agents can share their best practices and lessons learned.
6. Favorable Agent to Supervisor Ratio: A good agent-to-supervisor ratio is crucial to handling escalations. Also, it ensures that your agents are well guided and coached on the job.
7. Listen to your Agents: Agents are your foot soldiers in the trenches. They are the ones who interact with customers day in and day out. They have their hands on the pulse of the customers. Hold frequent sessions where you ask them how is it going with the customers? How can we improve our services? What should we do more or less of? You will be pleasantly surprised by the number of insightful suggestions your agents have about your customer experience.

Jane says that she loves the way agents quickly and assertively help her with any and all the support she needs when she calls the bank.

5. Engage Your Customers on Social Media

Firstly, get to know where your customers are talking about you. Engage with customers on those platforms. Regularly run campaigns and analyze their response to them. Social media is great to showcase the human side of your business. Jane is an active participant in the bank’s social media campaigns. She feels much more connected to the bank due to this. Once your agents start interacting with the customers on social media, watch the service window reduce

6. Engage Your Customers on Social Media

Omnichannel refers to the ability to interact with customers across various channels like a bot, email, phone, video call, social media, and co-browsing. A unified Customer Engagement platform allows agents to view all interactions across channels together and switch from one channel to another as per its sequence in the journey with the customer.

Jane absolutely adores the conversational approach of the chat interface. She also loves how agents collaborate with her while explaining to her all the aspects of financial products. She feels assured by the security of the platform. She is comforted by the fact that she can interact with the bank on Video & Voice if required. However, her all-time favorite is when she can co-browse with the bank wherein the agent can handhold and demonstrate to her how to perform a certain transaction.

Jane was won over because First Global Trust Bank is using a Unified Customer Experience Platform. This helped them engage Jane on all channels. And thus began the happy relationship between her and the bank. Using a Unified Customer Experience Platform results in a reduction of the service window as well as customer delight.