Pioneering Financial Self-Service Online
The concept of self-service is nothing new to the world of banking and finance. In fact, the industry was a pioneer in self-service.
You've undoubtedly heard the analogy of the ATM and online self-service—how many people today go to their bank's branch and stand in line every time they want to get cash or make a deposit? ATMs represented a critical inflection point for the banking industry. People today rarely go inside to do their banking. Instead, they go to the corner ATM—and a growing number of people open their browsers and click their way to check balances, initiate transfers or pay their bills. Why the changes? The changes occurred because these "new" channels offer more efficient ways of doing the same things.
In the same way they introduced the ATM, financial institutions were some of the first to take their business online—online banking transactions, stock trading and the ability to research investments are some of the reasons the Web became so popular so quickly.Now, the industry has again proven to be ahead of the curve. Sites not only offer the ability to conduct self-service transactions, but they are providing knowledge-enabled self-service portals to give customers answers to both common and complex questions.
Knowledge-enabled Self-service
Escalating customer expectations have resulted in increasing customer contacts. These new levels of support drive hiring increases in the support centers, and come with escalating expense. Even if these higher costs were acceptable, they are not a long-term solution. You can't buy your way out of your customer support burden by increasing support staff exponentially.
As support management knows, most customer queries are similar in nature and often inefficiently satisfied. Does someone really need a live agent—the most expensive method of support—to know your hours of operation, current interest rates, or the address for sending loan payments? Of course not, nor does a customer want to wait in a queue for five minutes to get an answer. So, the inflection point is providing this type of support online or via the channel that is most convenient for the customer.
It's not enough to put information on the Web, and ask your customer to go find it. You need to make the information timely, accurate, easy to find and in the format that customers want. To do this, you need to knowledge-enable your online support. You may or may not have already provided knowledge to your agents in the call center. In either case, your customers want access to that knowledge. The win-win here is that the customer is happier, you've reduced support expenses, and the knowledge-enabled self-service solution conveys economies of scale that even your best agents could never match. The more a self-service tool is used, the lower the transaction cost to you.
In many cases, effective knowledge-enabled self-service does change the mix of inbound calls—questions are often more complex. This is a desirable economic phenomenon. When agents are relieved of the simple, basic questions, they have time to focus on the complex. You want to serve your customer in the most efficient and economical way possible. This dictates that you use the appropriate resources for the given issue. The effect on agents can also be a positive because they will be challenged and more prepared to answer complex questions. Providing your agents with their own level of access to a world-class knowledge base with expertise location, forums, links and notices will go a long way to help them efficiently solve these problems.
The Bottom Line
The costs of implementing a robust knowledge-enabled self-service application on the Web are real, but so are the returns on investment. With the right system in place, call avoidance can certainly rise 15% to 20%...and higher. A solid self-service portal will further drive ROI by reducing training time, preserving corporate knowledge as turnover occurs and shrinking the time it takes to answer both simple and complex questions.
In addition, the economies of scale associated with a knowledge-enabled self-service tool allow you to handle growth, while minimizing the need to grow the size of your support staff.
Today's support environment is demanding, talent is hard to find and retain and customers continue to demand service. Financial institutions have driven the revolution in self-service, and as they take the step to online knowledge-enabled self-service they are finding that it is a must-have to help manage these demands.
As the director of business analysis at ServiceWare, Tom Tobin helps organizations evaluate the need for KM in their business centers. Tom has an MBA from the College of William & Mary, and a BS from the State University of New York. He is currently working on an advanced degree in KM at George Washington University.
ServiceWare is a leading provider of knowledge-powered customer service and support solutions designed to improve agent productivity and customer satisfaction, while reducing operating costs. ServiceWare's enterprise and departmental solutions enable all businesses to easily manage, share and access corporate knowledge to effectively answer inquiries through contact center, help desk and Web self-service interactions.
To learn more about ServiceWare solutions and services, visit ServiceWare