Cost Savings and an Enhanced Customer Experience
Retail banking, insurance, brokerage and wealth management share the common objective of providing specialized and personalized customer service and support. In these increasingly competitive markets, providing excellent service can add significant differentiation and increase customer loyalty.
The challenge is balancing the cost to provide such service with the relative value of the customer. Routing strategies can help match the customer to the appropriate level of services. However, increasing the effectiveness of the services once the customer reaches an agent or self-service option is what sets the lasting impression for the customer. The major impact is achieved with fast and accurate responses.
In self-service, providing an easy and effective service resolution experience empowers customers to return to self-service channels, even with increasingly complex queries. For live calls, customer satisfaction levels increase with fast and effective first-call resolution. With simple confirmations, balance inquiries and so on, calls can be handled quickly by transactional systems on advisor or broker desktops and in contact centers. But the balance of these issues is more complex, driving the bulk of customer service costs.
What makes these complex issues difficult to resolve?
Products are complex and dynamic: Customers have questions about an ever-increasing array of complicated financial offerings. New promotions are introduced and modified. The regulatory landscape is ever-changing while mergers fundamentally change product portfolios.
Content is in multiple silos: Financial advisors, relationship managers and service professionals need quick access to market data, customer records, regulatory information, product and promotions details, policies and more. But information is managed in different systems with different interfaces; users simply don't have timely, integrated access to all the information they need.
Multiple contact points hinder consistency: Customers may request service by phone, email, Web form or in-person; they may contact a dedicated advisor, a member of their extended team, the contact center or the Web site. Given the range of touch points, it's difficult to offer seamless, consistent service. In retail banking, high employee turnover rates exacerbate this problem.
Knowledge transfer is unsupported: Each agent and advisor should be able to bring the full knowledge of the institution to bear on a customer problem. But disparate and limited point technologies make it hard to find the right experts to collaborate in a secure and managed environment and to capture expertise for later reuse.
Despite the challenges, customer expectations are high, and increasing. High net-worth customers in particular demand more responsive and better informed service because their experiences with other service providers lead them to expect it. If they're delighted with the service they receive, they're more likely to stay loyal and increase share of wallet. If not, they're ready to defect to a competitor.
Designing a KM Platform
Investments in CRM, updated technology and back-office systems have reduced the cost of routing, tracking and answering simple transactional questions, but have done little to ease the burden of resolving more complex issues. That's why a knowledge solution is so key to the process. Here are some things to look for in a knowledge management platform for financial services:
A Universal Knowledge Hub Providing Rapid, Integrated Access to Content
Delivering great customer service requires that all relevant information be immediately accessible, even when it's stored across many systems, formats and applications. Look for a system that automatically classifies and organizes content from across the enterprise. This means that policies, regulatory information, promotions, product information and more are all at the agent's or customer's fingertips.
Managed Collaboration and Easy- to-Use Knowledge Capture
Experts that capture and share knowledge need an authoring system that includes flexible workflows to facilitate reviews and compliance. When an employee needs to work with other experts in the organization, expert location should be coupled with secure, managed collaboration so customers get the best information available.
An Integrated System for Consistent Service Across Channels
No matter how customers request service, the resolution process needs to be consistent and personalized. This requires seamless integration with CRM and other transactional systems.
Adaptive Resolution and Self-Service that Optimizes Each Experience
Great NLP search is key to providing a satisfying self-service experience, but service resolution isn't just about getting to a document; it's about guiding the user through a process that leads to a resolution. This process might include interviews, Web-based tools, troubleshooting documentation, advice from expert forums or escalation into the support center. A solution that integrates information from CRM systems with business-process scripting ensures consistent handling of specific requests and automates repetitive tasks. In addition, an adaptive solution allows precisely targeted offers and promotions to be delivered during the service process, driving a deeper customer relationship.
Point technologies such as search engines, scripting tools and knowledgebases each focus on a piece of the service-resolution process, but the highly competitive and complex financial services environment requires a comprehensive solution that integrates knowledge and search with transactional systems, self-service and collaboration.
Organizations that focus on this big picture will be rewarded with greater customer loyalty and a substantial return on investment.
KNOVA Software is a leading provider of service resolution management applications that reduce service costs, increase revenues and improve customer satisfaction. Built on a next-generation search and knowledge management platform, KNOVA's suite of knowledge-empowered customer service applications automate the resolution process across multiple channels including contact centers, help desks, email, forums and self-service sites. For more information, visit
www.knova.com.