Last month, I reported that my "aha moment" at BAI's Retail Delivery was the realization of just how challenging it had become to manage customer messaging across multiple channels and products.

Consider this 9x12 matrix of 108 product/message options a bank could conceivably use to reach a couple about their banking and loans. The whiteboard in the marketing conference room just won't cut it any more as the master scheduling tool. 

If that wasn't complicated enough, unique regulations can govern each channel and/or product.  Some examples: new mortgage rules for a single source of contact; time-of-day preferences (don't text me while I'm asleep); and privacy issues (don't alert my spouse to card charges).

And this table gets bigger if you add mail, in-branch, ATM messages or more products such as small business accounts, savings/CDs, and accounts held jointly with other family members. You could also add inbound vs. outbound calls/messages.

But one person's mess is another's opportunity. Fintech companies are hard at work on  solutions that turn multi-channel snarls into opportunities to increase satisfaction and/or cut costs.

One key player is Seattle-based Varolii, which delivered my aha moment last month. In a followup last week, I had a chance to sit down with CEO David McCann and have a wide-ranging conversation about customer messaging in the age of the voice/email/text/notifications. I was impressed, both with the enormity of the challenge of coordinating customer messaging, and with the solutions it offers (note 1).

Then yesterday, I met with Amit Ashman, Marketing Director at Nice, who happened to be here on a whirlwind visit from their headquarters in Israel. His company, which booked $200 million in revenues last quarter, provides call-center technology for large U.S. financial institutions. They have developed a very cool call-center/mobile-app solution about to be unleashed on the world. It blends self-service with agent support in a relatively seamless fashion that I suspect will be the industry standard five years from now.

It's convinced me to write a report on Multi-Channel Customer Support for our Online Banking Report (note 2). We are also looking to recruit more companies in this area to 2012 Finovate events. So, please email suggestions for solutions providers and/or financial institutions who are tackling the problem.  

-------------------------------------

Notes:
1. Great tagline, "Better return on interactions"
2. The multi-channel report won't be published until early next year. However, we've tackled remote customer service and messaging a number of times in previous issues of our Online Banking Report. The last one was Live Help earlier this year.

This is a somewhat perplexing message to receive after logging in to online banking. It seems almost phish-like (especially with that old-school corded phone in the picture):

A recent review of your account indicated that we are missing your date of birth. We use this information to help verify your identity. Please call us at the 1.800 Customer Service number on the back of your credit card so we can update your file.

I guess I can understand the bank wanting my birth date, but it brings to mind several questions:

1. Why are they asking me now? I've three accounts there, with one dating back to the 1980s. Is something wrong? Has my account been accessed by someone else? Then my more cynical side thinks, did this request come from the marketing dept. or the security folk?  Bottom line: the bank should provide a more detailed explanation via a "more info" link.
2. I have to CALL, really? Why can't I do this online? Will I have to endure a cross-selling session when I make the call? Will I have to go through the entire phone tree to get to an operator? The least the bank could do is provide a direct line for the task.

The whole thing seems like a ridiculous waste of time. A five or ten-minute journey through call center menus in order to provide six numbers to a live operator. Plus, won't this extra call-in requirement drastically reduce user response? 

Bank of America interstitial after logging in to online banking (14 Oct 2009, 5 PM Pacific)

It’s difficult for outsiders to judge a bank’s service levels unless you interview a number of customers as Vividence and others are doing or use the bank’s products yourself. However, the bank’s website does provide clues to the relative value placed on e-service. Here are the things we would look for as a prospective customer, all of which are affordable even to the smallest organization:

Table 35

Ten Clues You Are Dealing with a Top E-Service Organization

1.       Help function accessible from every page

2.       Easy-to-find prices (not buried on the eighth page of the account agreement)

3.       Contact Us or About Us section prominently displays telephone numbers, email,
and mail addresses

4.       Service standards and guarantees prominently posted

5.       Detailed and up-to-date FAQs

6.       Customer feedback encouraged; for example, suggestion box or satisfaction survey

7.       Third-party endorsements/affiliations displayed, such as Member Better Business Bureau, Chamber of Commerce, TrustE, etc.

8.       Hours of operation displayed in appropriate areas

9.       Customer service staff and/or line management (especially branch managers) identified by name with online bios/pictures

10.    Customer testimonials and/or Q&A forums with actual customer questions

Source: Online Banking Report, 3/04

Table 36

Customer Experience at Major U.S. Card Issuers*

Source: Vividence, 4/04; Evaluations took place in July and August 2003; Banks evaluated but not making the top 5 were: Fleet, US Bank, Wachovia

A number of third parties evaluate financial website usability and service. One of the most thorough is Vividence,* which evaluates customer experience at the 10 largest banks and ten largest card issuers. In its latest analysis completed this month, Vividence ranked Bank of America tops in customer experience for existing customers, National City was second, and US Bank third.

The longest-running service evaluation is by Gomez Advisors (now owned by WatchFire), which ranks online banks across five categories, including customer confidence. Gomez determines the customer confidence score by evaluating the bank’s website and mystery shopping customer service. The most recent Gomez scorecard ranked Citibank first, Wachovia second, and Wells Fargo third.              

Table 37

Ranking Customer Experience at Major U.S. Banks

Sources: Vividence and Gomez, see below for details

Vividence, 4/04 & 9/03; Evaluations took place in July and August 2003; Banks evaluated but not making the top 5 were: Fleet, US Bank, Wachovia; Vividence Customer Experience Rankings are benchmarking studies using proprietary software tracking behavior and opinions across a 2000-user panel.

Watchfire Gomez Pro 10/03 & 10/99; Banks evaluated in Fall 2003 but not making the top 5: American Bank/pcbanker.com, American Express-Banking, Associated Bank (WI), Bank One, Chase, Charter One Bank, Citizens Bank, Commerce Bank (NJ), E*TRADE Bank, First Internet Bank of Indiana, First National Bank of Omaha, First Tennessee Bank, Fleet, Hibernia National Bank, Huntington, NetBank, National City Bank, Key Bank, HSBC, PNC Bank, SouthTrust Bank, U.S. Bank, Union Bank of California, Washington Mutual, Webster Bank

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.

·      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

Techniques: Email, Web inquiry, chat, instant messaging, call back, co-browsing

Web self-service may be the key to cutting servicing costs online, but email support is the key to retaining customers. Responsive support (chat, email, and telephone) is preferred by about 70% of online banking users according to Vividence . Concerned, distraught, or impatient customers aren’t about to wade through FAQs looking for answers. They want immediate assurances that their concerns are valid and will be addressed. Typically that’s required a telephone call, but more and more users are turning to chat and email options. What’s holding back email today is poor service. In a recent Forrester survey, only 25% of respondents expressed satisfaction with email service, a satisfaction rate barely one-third that for traditional branch and phone channel.

Once financial institutions provide a user experience on par with telephone and branch, email will dominate as the primary medium for service. Fifteen years from now, telephone and branch service support will be distant memories. The vast majority of users will fire off an email, instant message, or Web inquiry without even considering any other option. There is absolutely no question that electronic channels will eventually dominate, providing many advantages for both consumers and financial institutions.

Web-inquiry Form

The design of the form used for customer inquiries can impact the timeliness, effectiveness, and cost of your online support. Make sure you’re not missing an opportunity to make future solicitations to online customers with an opt-in question. You should also consider tagging customers with cookies so you can better track future Web activity. Table 21, below, provides more details on form design.

Email Deflection

Not only can you deflect phone calls from your call center and branches by the way of a Web-based inquiry form. You can use the same form to actually deflect email messages as well. The key is having the ability to parse likely search terms out of free-form text inquiries. In the example below, Cloudmark, a provider of consumer spam filters, applies search algorithms to the free-form question, “Is there a way to make Cloudmark catch more spam?” (screen 1, below). Rather than sending the query directly to customer service, the company first provides possible answers to the question (screen 2, below). Users who still want to ask the company the question can complete the longer Request for Help form  According iPhrase, which supplied the search solution, Cloudmark has been able to reduce email volume dramatically.  

Responding to emails or Web inquiries should follow a three-step process as outlined in Table 22 below:

Table 22

Making Email Responses More User-Friendly

Phase 1: Immediate Autoresponse

•          Include bank name in subject field and from field
•          Thank customer for using e-service and explain the process and typical response time
•          Provide response-time estimates based on averages for that time of day and/or day of the week/month;
  extra credit: provide custom response-time estimates based on current email queue
•          Include links to appropriate FAQ sections
•          Reference telephone numbers for immediate support

Phase 2: Actual Answer

•          Use good formatting:
  – indent
  – physically separate ideas
  – white space
  – bullet points, lists, tables
•          Keep paragraphs and sentences short
•          Include “time received” and “time answered” date stamps
•          Include service rep name/email address for more personal feeling and to encourage customer to engage in a conversation until their question has been answered to their satisfaction
•          Include bank name in subject field and from field
•          Provide tracking number for the customer inquiries
•          If responses go to a secure mailbox within the online banking program, send an additional email to the user’s Internet mailbox(es) telling them that an answer is waiting (with a link to it)
•          Archive customer questions and your answers so users can refer to them later
•          Include intuitive URL and/or email address for customer comments and feedback, such as <comments.yourbank.com>, or comments@yourbank.com
•          Don’t forget to say, “Thanks for using our e-service.”
•          Add a telephone number for additional discussion

Phase 3: Follow-up

•          Follow-up with the customer at least once to ascertain their satisfaction with the answer and whether they have additional questions
•          Include a two- or three-question customer-satisfaction survey to quantify the work done by your e-service department as a whole, and each e-service rep as individuals
•          The simplest approach is to have the followup message originate from the service rep who handled the original message; an alternative approach is to have the followup come from a supervisor or “quality assurance rep;” you may want to test both approaches to see which works best
•          Encourage comments and feedback, either by responding to this message or entering comments anonymously at <comments.yourbank.com>
•          Telephone number for additional discussion or to make comments

Source: Online Banking Report, 3/04

The Importance of Response Times

Even though most online transaction times are measured in seconds, users will still become frustrated if your system is slower than what they are accustomed to. Search engines, the most widely used Web application, set the expectations early on. Even as early as 1995 and 1996, search engines were able to cull through millions of pages of data and deliver results in less than 20 seconds. With the faster connections used today, search times have shrunk even more. Banking information, secured behind various log-in schemes, can take three to four times longer to access, but unless you forget your password, retrieval times are still under a minute, an acceptable information-retrieval wait period for most Web users.

Table 23

Acceptable Wait Times for eService

acceptable wait time in hours for an online retailer’s customer service department to respond to an email or website inquiry; survey conducted during holiday shopping season, n = 1019

Sources: Harris Interactive, 11/03 (as cited by eMarketer); research commission by RightNow Technologies; telephone survey fielded Oct. 2003, respondents included 1019 U.S. adults age 18+ (511 men and 508 women)

Top-10 Banks: Online Banking Report tests 4/04

In our April 2004 test of the top-10 banks, only two returned an answer within three hours. Washington Mutual, head and shoulders above the rest, answered the question within four minutes, Fleet was second at 41 minutes. We received some response from all ten banks, although only seven answered the question. The three non-answers: Wells Fargo referred us to their call center; Citibank, apparently playing Jeopardy provided an answer and made us guess what the question was, because it clearly wasn’t the one we asked; and Wachovia sent an autoresponse confirming receipt of the question, but we never got an answer. Most surprisingly, not a single bank has followed up to see if we needed additional assistance or perhaps wanted to apply for the account we inquired about.

Overall, the banks have made great strides in the 4.5 years since our last test. In 1999, the fastest response time was US Bank at 11 hours (3.4 hours in 2004); this year the fastest response was Washington Mutual at 4 minutes, quite an improvement over its 19 days in 1999, where its response was a snail-mailed packet.

In our most recent test, five (50%) returned an answer within 8 hours, none did in 1999. This year, six (60%) beat the 24-hour threshold, only two (20%) did so in 1999. Also, the quality of response was much better on average. In 1999, only two banks emailed us an answer (three if you count BankBoston), the rest either referred us to other departments or sent a brochure in the mail. This year, six responded with answers, and only one (Wells Fargo) tried to pawn us off on the phone center.

One area that needs improvement, identifying the bank name in the message from and subject lines. Only five of the ten banks identified themselves in the message header, the remainder used generic subject and from lines making the messages look suspiciously spam-like.                                                                                          8

Table 24

Large Bank Email Response Times

Source: Online Banking Report, 3/04 (questions submitted April 9, Good Friday and Easter weekend)
and 10/99 (questions submitted Oct. 8-11, Columbus Day holiday weekend)

The question asked of each bank varied in the two tests:
In 2004: “Do you have a checking account that includes unlimited no-fee transfers from an overdraft line of credit?“
In 1999: “I am relocating to [your city] soon and would like checking information including pricing.”
*Time shown is elapsed time until an actual response was received, not including autoresponses;
in both years, 3 of the 10 banks sent an autoresponse

**after 10 days

Table 25

Top-10 Banks: 2004 vs. 1999 Performance

Source: Online Banking Report, 3/04 and 11/99

Notes: (1) BankBoston answered the question in 22.5 hours; (2) Did not answer question, referred to other sources of info

(3) No response from First Union

Source: Online Banking Report test conducted between 11 am and 1 pm Pacific Daylight Time, on Friday April 9 (Good Friday);

Question: “Do you have a checking account that includes unlimited no-fee transfers from an overdraft line of credit?

Columns: Home Location = location of Contact Us link; Clicks Away = number of clicks to the inquiry form, starting from the homepage; Complete Time = time to find and complete the inquiry form, starting from the homepage; Popup = is the inquiry form displayed in a popup window; Verify Email = is the user required to enter their email address twice; Confirm = is user given a final look at their info and question before submitting; Opt-in = is the user given the option to opt in or out of future email marketing/service messages; Required Fields = the fields that must be completed in order to submit a question; Auto time = how long after we pressed submit did it take to receive an autoresponse from the financial institution (blank means no autoresponse received); Time to Answer = how long after pressing submit before receiving an answer to the question; Quality of Answer = our subjective evaluation of the answer including tone, content, layout, and next steps

Legend: E = Email, N = Name, A = mailing address, T = Type of question, Su = Subject of question, St = state of residence,
Z = zip code, A = complete mailing address; Customer = Customer or non-customer, How = How did you find us?

Notes: (1) Wells Fargo’s contact page was very slow to download, increasing the time by 30 seconds

(2) An extra click on one of the screens required to scroll down to the desired area (only 3 screens to go through)

(3) Washington Mutual does not have a Contact Us link on its home page; however if you click Search, you’ll see a Contact Us button in the upper right hand corner

(4) Fleet does not have a Contact Us link on its home page; however if you click Personal Financial Services, there is a Customer Service tab on the far right, but still no Contact Us link

(5) Did not specify which fields were required

(6) Subjective evaluation of answer: A = accurate response and what to do next; B = reasonably accurate response;
C = vague or incomplete answer; D = misleading answer; F = no answer or wrong answer

(7) Wells Fargo made no attempt to answer the question, just referred user to someone in the call center

(8) Citibank’s response 7 days later made almost no sense, having nothing to do with my question; at first I thought it was a bad
phishing attempt; either it was automation gone awry, a service rep having a very bad day, or I got an answer meant for someone else

Table 27

Example Service Standards

Source: Online Banking Report, 3/04

Example #1: Generic Normal Autoresponse

To:          Customer

From:     Yourbank Ebanking <service@yourbank.com>

Re:          Your question to Yourbank

Thanks for using our online service department.

This is an automatic message to tell you that we received your message at 10:12 AM Sept. 29 and have forwarded it to the proper department for a priority response.

Most questions are answered within a few hours, but it could take up to 24 hours in certain instances.

Regards,

Ebanking Customer Support

(800) 123-4567

http:/www.yourbank.com/support

Example #2: Personalized VIP Autoresponse

To:          Customer

From:     Pat P. Smythe <pat_smythe@vipservice.yourbank.com>

Re:          Your question to Yourbank

Thanks for using online VIP service.

This is an automatic message to tell you that I received your message at 10:12 AM and we are currently working on a response. Within an hour you will receive a either a complete answer or a preliminary response (depending on the complexity of the request).

Please email or call if you have further questions. Regards,

Pat Smythe, VP - VIP Service

Phone Direct: (415) 555-1234          Toll-free (888) 555-9876

http:/www.yourbank.com/vip_service/pat_smythe

P.S. If for any reason you are not satisfied with my response, please feel free to contact
Kim Bradford, VP & Manager VIP Service, (415) 555-6789, or kim.bradford@yourbank.com.

Example #3: Referral to Web-based form

To: Yourcustomer <yourcustomer@isp.com>

From: E-Service <eservice@yourbank.com>

Re: Your Question to Yourbank

Dear Customer:

Thanks for your email question received a few minutes ago. This is an automatic response to let you know that we appreciate your interest in yourbank.com. However, due to the volume of junk mail and spam coming to our public mailboxes, we can only respond in a timely manner to questions submitted via our Web-based form. Click here to go directly to that form (if you can’t click on it, then type this address into your browser):

http://www.yourbank.com/askus/

Or if you prefer, customer service specialists are currently awaiting your call at 1-800-yourbank. Generally, wait times are less than two minutes except during the peak hours of 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM.

Thanks again for your interest in yourbank.com. Based on current volume, we should be able to respond to your question within 24 hours. Thanks for your patience.

Yourbank.com E-Service

(800) 123-4567

Putting a Face on E-Service

We are not enamored with the idea of video conferencing for customer service. Even with ubiquitous broadband, we’re not sure users really want to look at the customer service rep as he or she works through a problem (and we are certain users don’t want anyone looking at them). There may be some big-ticket sales situations, such as mortgage applications or other large-dollar investments, where user confidence is increased by seeing the salesperson.

However, we do think there is a place for static personal information such as name*, direct email address, and individual Web area where e-reps can put a human touch on e-service and build rapport with his or her client base.

________________________________________________________

*For privacy reasons, reps may want to use pseudonyms, an acceptable practice online.

Techniques: search, FAQs, help centers, tutorials, wizards, forums, product selectors

The importance of Web self-service is growing rapidly as financial institutions deploy ever more user-friendly and helpful tools. In the last six months alone, online users interviewed by Vividence have shown an almost 50% increase in their preference for self-service options. Self-service now is the most popular choice among financial website users, edging out telephone, live chat, and email/online forms (see Table 13, below). Web self-service at financial institutions still trails that deployed by online retailers and tech companies, but those companies have fewer support options. However, we are beginning to see impressive programs at banking sites, for example, SunTrust, an early innovator in search tapping Ask Jeeves for natural-language search years ago. The bank also implemented SafeHarbor’s graphical-FAQ approach in early.

Table 15

Site Search Usage for Banking Product Research

% of using site search feature

Source: Forrester, 3/04,
Percent of each age group using site search the last time they researched a banking product
*average across all ages not listed, OBR est.

Although search has been the recognized killer app of the Web since the early days, financial institutions have generally done a poor job supporting search on their websites, although it’s improved dramatically during the last year or two. Although there are still two top-20 banks not offering search, that’s down from 5 last fall. Now that Google has achieved verb status, you must pay attention to site-search. Recent Forrester research shows that in the key 29- to 57–year-old segment, half used site-search the last time they researched a banking product (Table 15). See Table 17 opposite for ideas on how to improve your site search.

Searching is still hit and miss even at the most sophisticated banks. We recently searched the top-20 U.S. banks for “SEP-IRA,” a common savings plan for small business and self-employed individuals. We found correct results at just eight, or 40% of the total (see summary Table 16, below). Searches at Citibank, Chase, Wells, Bank One, and Washington Mutual all failed. The best results were from SunTrust (screenshot below), the only top-20 bank using Ask Jeeves natural language search.

Depending on the question, iPhrase powered search at TD Waterhouse delivers a link to a product area or an answer in a FAQ.

Table 18

Detail: Financial Institution Search Results

search for “sep-ira””

Source: Online Banking Report test, 4/7/03, 1 to 3 PM Pacific time on broadband connection

(1) Location of the box for entering the search text, e.g., upper right means the box was positioned in the upper-right portion of the home page, ‘click Search” means you have to click on a search link before you get to the search box

(2) Did the search results return a link to product information on SEP-IRAs, a retirement savings product geared to U.S. small business owners, a topic of great interest in anticipation of the April 15 U.S. federal income tax deadline

(3) Excluding those with zero and Wachovia’s 1109

(4) Only six of 20 banks came back with an immediate good result, the other 2 required a research within a different area; in total just 8 of 20 banks were able to help me find SEP-IRA info

Table 19

Site Reference Material Used for Banking Product Research

% of using site feature

Source: Forrester, 3/04,
Percent of each age group using product description or educational material pages the last time they researched a banking product
*average across all ages not listed, OBR est.

Although many online retailers and Web-services companies force users through the FAQ before displaying customer service phone numbers, that’s not a recommended practice for most banks. At least not until you are absolutely sure your FAQs deliver exceptionally reliable answers. Most customers still expect good telephone support as part of a banking relationship.

FAQ sections have evolved from a bare-bones text-based area to interactive knowledge bases stocked with graphical solutions and step-by-step tutorials. Too see how FAQs should be built, look closely at SunTrust’s HelpCenter, powered by SafeHarbor (see screenshot below). Even complex technical answers are easy to understand due to the layout, screenshot visual aids, and good copy writing.                       

HelpCenter excels at tech support, providing graphical instructions in place of tedious text-based answers. Here are great instructions for how to enable cookies in IE 6. Notice how few words are used in the instructions. Screenshots handle most of the work.

Note: Related articles are posted to the right of the main tutorial.

Note: Feedback is solicited on each page to help SafeHarbor evaluate the usefulness of its answers to each question.                                                                             

Source: Online Banking Report 4/04; partially adapted from a Mar. 31, 2004 presentation by Forrester’s, Catherine Graeber

Most people think of email when discussing electronic service. But email is just one part, albeit an important one, when designing a comprehensive e-service program. Electronic service consists of three distinct classes of support:

•   Preemptive or proactive support: Services that provide warnings before problems arise. In the branch environment, it used to be the courtesy call when an overdraft situation was first detected. Online it’s the triggered account alert telling users their balance has fallen below a preset limit or an email confirmation when a deposit is made. These services are fantastic for customer satisfaction, although they could have a short-term negative impact on fee income.
•   Self-service or self-guided support: Self-service options are growing in acceptance as users begin to understand that high-quality Web-based support can deliver accurate answers in a fraction of the time it takes to walk through the problem on the telephone with one or more customer service reps. While financial institutions can deploy self-service options relatively inexpensively, resist the temptation to cut development costs to the bone. Bad self-service support can do more harm than good; driving users to the phone already in an agitated state after wasting time trying to find the answer online.
•   Responsive or reactive support: This category is most like traditional phone support. In theory, questions received electronically (email, Web form, or text-based chat) can be handled more economically with tools that provide preformatted answer templates for common queries. In practice, there is a substantial learning curve before cost savings materialize. However, many banks are beginning to see measurable call deflection among their online user base. A major credit card issuer told us that their online cardholders were making 30% fewer telephone calls, a dramatic cost savings. However, users may not be satisfied with e-service efforts which will slow adoption. For example, only 25% of users are satisfied using email for problem resolution compared to 69% satisfaction for the phone and 76% for face-to-face branch interactions

For 2004, we project growth of 5 million new U.S. financial e-service households, about 15% fewer newcomers compared to the 6 million added in 2003. Also, the rate of growth will slow to 18% from 2003’s 27%. Because 10 million households use electronic customer service but don’t bank online, it’s important to capture the email addresses of these users so you can communicate with them electronically. Only one top-10 U.S. bank currently allows users to opt-in for email communications even when the user is already providing their email address in the course of making a web-based inquiry 

Looking at the research, one is tempted to conclude that e-service is less important than traditional phone and branch service. Customers are relatively satisfied with their phone and face-to-face experiences at financial institutions. According to Forrester, the traditional channels enjoy an average satisfaction rate of 80%, nearly four times the rate of e-service options which were in the low-20% range. Only the much-maligned IVR (automated phone) service was lower at 12% (see Table 6, below). More recent research shows that the Web is gaining ground in all areas except problem resolution, where only 25% of respondents are satisfied with the service received (see Table 7, below).

However, even though satisfaction trails other methods, online users overwhelmingly prefer electronic channels when dealing with their bank. In research released just this month, Vividence, a customer-satisfaction research company, found that three times as many users prefer electronic channels for service compared to the telephone. Jupiter Research also found similar results in actual behavior at online retailers. It found that during 2002 year-end holiday period that three-quarters of respondents used email and Web-based options in their initial attempt to contact an online retailer for service (see column 1, Table 8, opposite).

Financial institutions should be enthusiastic about these consumer preferences, given the potential cost savings. According to Gartner, email service can save $2 per interaction compared to the telephone. Furthermore, Web-based self service can drive costs down more than 80%, to less than $1 per interaction (see last column, Table 8, opposite). As always, take these research results with a grain of salt. It’s early in the learning curve for both providers and users. Weaning users off high-cost delivery channels will be a long-term process using both carrots and sticks.

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

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.

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

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.                                                 
 

Making the case for improved online customer service is easy. Online banking customers now prefer it almost 3-to-1 over telephone support (see Table 1, below). Done right, e-service
can increase customer satisfaction, decrease support costs, and lead to increased sales. What’s not to like?

The problem is that costs are front-loaded and benefits are difficult to measure. Bottom line: You’ll spend hundreds of thousands or more in anticipation of future, largely hidden, returns. That’s a tough sell in any environment, but especially in the low-margin financial services arena.

What’s a banker to do? Start by demonstrating the reach of your website to both online banking users and other bank customers. This requires an effort to persuade non-online banking users to register so you can track them over time to measure the entire impact of self-service.

Next, continually add self-service tools and content to improve the online experience. You can do this in baby steps if need be. For example, add one capability each quarter, such as an online tutorial
on how to pay bills. If resources are tight, look for college interns or
tap in-house volunteers to do the work.

Table 1

Service Channel Preference

percent of respondents preferring each channel, n = 2000

Source: Vividence survey of online banking customers, Mar. ‘04 and Sept. ’03;
Question: “Which would you prefer to use most often?”, n = 2,000 both years

Another option is to outsource the entire process, including live tech support if desired. Experts such as SafeHarbor, the company powering much of Washington Mutual and SunTrust’s self-service capabilities, can provide speedier implementation and state-of-the-art knowledge. In any event, the day of the annually updated two-page FAQ are over. Customers expect and deserve more dynamic help as they attempt to do business with you in cyberspace.

-- Jim Bruene, Editor & Founder

Before looking at product and marketing strategies, do a reality check on what users expect from online banking. 




Source: Online Banking Report, 10/03  Notes: ¹We call it the illusion of real-time processing, because users don’t so much care whether a transaction is processed in real-time, what they care about is that they can SEE that you have accepted their transaction and have adjusted balances accordingly; the actual debits and credits can be handled behind the scenes in batch mode. ²It’s extremely difficult to describe what’s “right” in words, but we know it when we see it.                  

We strongly believe in taking ownership of customer service. However, to improve peak-time and off-hours performance, judicial use of outside services could help you compete with the 24 x 7 hour staffing at your mega-bank competitors. This month we profile, the two largest suppliers to financial institutions, DecisionOne and 800 Support.

By James Van Dyke

Source: Online Banking Report, 8/99 (minor updates, 12/99)

800 Support touts its 10 years in business.

DececionOne.com’s product matrix.

How it Works: Financial institutions publish a phone number that connects users directly to the third-party call center at 800 Support or DecisionOne. Call center team members answer the phone in the name of the appropriate bank or credit union. Vendor support teams are trained in the features and functionality of each client’s products. “Most or all of the service planning and implementation processes can be conducted through conference calls,” according to Jerry Berger of DecisionOne.

Both companies have found that each new employee requires approximately three weeks to reach proficiency, including technical training, product-specific knowledge, and customer relationship skills. According to DecisionOne, the majority of their clients choose a support plan covering the hours of 7 AM to 11 PM seven days per week. However, 24 x 7 service is available.

Service levels are negotiated with each client. For example, DecisionOne says that most clients have agreements stating that 80 to 85% of all calls will be answered within 90 seconds. In addition, agreements typically stipulate that less than 5% of calls over 90 seconds will be abandoned by the end-user.

Financial Institution Benefits: The benefits of outsourcing according to The Outsourcing Institute www.outsourcing.com are as follows:

1. Improves company focus

2. Provides access to world class capabilities

3. Accelerates reengineering benefits

4. Shares risks

5. Frees resources for other purposes

6. Makes capital funds available

7. Reduces and controls operating costs

8. Provides resources not available internally

9. Helps manage a difficult function

One of the problems with the business case for outsourced service, is that many of the benefits are intangible and hard to quantify on a spreadsheet. Take the very real issue of limited resources during a new product launch. Managers with too much on their plate have a tendency to put too few resources into customer care and pay the price with disenchanted new users. This sabotages the all-important, word-of-mouth buzz that can be created by satisfied early adopters.

Let’s face it, there aren’t a lot of heroes created by having the best customer support for online products, but there is a whole herd of goats out to pasture that have neglected the end user. So even though your business case may sound better on paper if you do tech support in-house, you may have far more success in a real-world launch, if you let an expert help you take care of problems during the crucial start-up period. After things have stabilized and you’ve learned more about the support requirements of the product, you can make rational decisions about what you should support internally.

According to Dan Mendes, President of 800 Support, it’s more common for a bank to start out by creating their own support infrastructure and then later decide to outsource the function, rather than the reverse. Call it “confidence” or “burying your head in the sand,” the reality is that technical support is a challenge for existing customer support units.

The following course of action allows financial institutions to carefully assess customer support needs prior to a large-scale launch:

1. Alpha release: Distribute the new product or features to a strictly limited audience (usually internal employees) with support provided by bank employees. The alpha support staff can then provide feedback directly to the product team to correct any problem areas.

2. Beta release: Distribute the new product or features to a broader (but still limited) set of users, including at least some outside customers. Move all or part of the tech support to an outside provider. Maintain a tight feedback loop to make sure the third party is up to speed prior to general release.

3. Soft launch (general release): After completing the beta test, make the service available to all users, but don’t promote it until the final bugs have been identified and corrected.

4. Official launch (general release): Begin full promotion of the new service.

5. Post-launch evaluation: Once launch difficulties have been overcome and the first customers have moved up the learning curve, schedule a customer support evaluation. Run the numbers using actual experience to see if you can make a case for bringing all or part of tech support back in-house.

Theoretically, there are economies in having a larger third-party specialist provide tech support. This is particularly true when the vendor is already experienced supporting your specific Net banking platform with other financial institutions. For example, 800 Support recently announced a partnership with Q-UP and Digital Insight

Financial Institution Cons: Outsourcing customer service has a number of significant risks, including:

•  Lack of control: The distance, organizationally and physically, of the vendor to the client can cause miscommunications and problems.
•  Reduced customer focus: Not having direct responsibility of taking care of customers can cause reduced empathy.
•  Quality control: You are at the mercy of someone else’s human resources talents and procedures.
•  Security: Every additional point of contact is a potential source for leaks of sensitive customer data or system fraud.
•  Fewer learning opportunities: Less direct customer feedback equals fewer opportunities to learn from the customer.
•  Lack of “seamless” customer experience: Even with the tech support center answering the phone with your name, the user can often sense they are dealing with a third party (which is OK if they get fast, thorough help, but can backfire if there are problems).
•  Multi-channel integration: It is difficult and expensive patching together branch, call center, and Internet customer support teams, adding a third party to the mix can complicate it further. For example, can you provide equal service levels to customer questions coming from a branch, your regular call center, an outsourced tech support center, Webmail, unformatted email, postal mail, office of the CEO, and so on? And what if a customer puts the question into multiple channels at the same time? Especially a typical situation where the customer emails, then calls before getting an answer?

The integration of tech support with regular account service is one of the toughest issues. Many tech support calls require knowledge of the user’s financial transactions to troubleshoot the problem. For example, a customer calls saying, “Your Web service doesn’t work, it shows check number 1234 as outstanding but I just got the canceled check in my statement last month?” The first thing the support rep must do is query bank records to see if in fact check 1234 has cleared. This requires authorized, secure access to customer records. Something you may not want to provide to a third party. If these questions are routed back and forth to a third party, it can turn a routing tech support call into a lengthy game of telephone tag.

Finally, cost effectiveness must be addressed. Because of monthly minimums ranging from $3,000 to $5,000, it may not be cost effective to outsource low-volume support categories. According to DecisionOne’s Berger, “For certain proprietary or homegrown products, it may be more advantageous to keep the support in-house, because the call volume may be too small to justify the ramp-up costs, such as training.”

Financial Institution Opportunities: If your competitors have limited support hours, then third-party 24 x 7 support is a way to differentiate yourself. The companies estimated that 24 x 7 support in-house requires 75% more staff than 5 (days) x 8 (hours) support. Remote banking users often do, or at least would like to think they do, a significant amount of financial “heavy lifting” (bill payments, transfers, etc.) after hours, so this is an important program benefit.

For community banks and credit unions operating in market areas where “in your pajamas” banking has been heavily promoted by regional powerhouses such as Wells Fargo, extended support

hours may be a competitive necessity.
(Ed. Note: We think you can get away with 24 x 7 email/Webmail support and limit telephone service to daytime hours.)

As your online audience becomes more mainstream and less technology-enthusiastic, your support team will have to practice patience more frequently. It’s a safe assumption that the audience that is slower to grasp your product will struggle equally with other applications that you did not deploy.

For example, at DecisionOne, an end-user called 68 times in as many days with topics from “I want to add a new desktop icon,” to “How do I install my new modem?” After learning the user was confined to a wheelchair due to a recent auto accident and had limited access to outside resources, DecisionOne sent a technician to the individual’s home to resolve his problems.

Partners: As we mentioned, an alliance with your specific platform vendor may be the primary reason to choose a particular vendor. These alliances provide pre-training in the platform vendor’s product making outsourced support more efficient.

Partners

The Latest Developments: We’re intrigued with the increasing number of artificial intelligence support solutions that are fueled by the growth in e-commerce. While consumers currently prefer human contact for many support issues, e-commerce pioneers are providing automated self-help to curtail costs. We expect self-service support will eventually be preferable to a human response in many situations.

An example of advanced self-service is Dell’s use of the Ask Jeeves www.ask.com natural language search capability. Startups like Neuromedia.com are hoping that the more sophisticated “bot” solutions that have existed in the laboratories since the 1960s will finally catch on. Service bots would mine company databases to develop better self service responses.

Neither 800 Support nor DecisionOne has deployed such solutions at this time, preferring to stick to their area of human-based expertise. 800 Support is using what President Dan Mendes calls “Web-based collaborative contact” to allow the agent and customer to chat online and view a demonstration of problem resolution on the end-user’s screen. Both companies believe the more advanced self-help technologies are not ready for market at this time.

Analysis: For larger financial institutions with strong call center expertise, it probably makes sense to handle most aspects of tech support in-house. However, there may be situations where third-party assistance may be desired, such as peak-period overflow, new product releases, system outages, promotional campaigns, merger periods.

Smaller financial institutions may be tempted to let existing branch staff, backed up by the internal IT “help desk” handle the tech support load. Depending on the people involved this could work, but we know from experience that this isn’t usually a good long-term solution. The customer doesn’t get a “seamless” experience and branch staff may avoid online banking altogether knowing they are the first line of tech support should something go wrong.

No matter whether you choose in-house, outsourced, or a combination, you’ll need to keep close tabs on customer satisfaction and support costs. In an ultra-tight labor market with relatively low pay rates in the support arena, there is a likelihood that your end-users will hear “Hmmm, that’s a good question!” more often than you’d like. Only by making customer support a company priority, will you be able to grow and maintain a profitable online presence.

James Van Dyke is Principal of Javelin Marketing, specializing in e-banking, billing, and payment, (925) 462-6599, jvd@javelinmarketing.com

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