Completing the Self-Service Picture for High-Value Customers
Getting to the Next Level
Leading-edge organizations understand that successful customer self-service is about treating long-time account holders differently, with high-value presentations of their personal accounts, compared to one-time Web visitors who simply need content to help guide decisions. There is a call-to-action for these firms, beginning with mapping current customer self-service capabilities, looking at structured information sources, and examining ways to extend self-service information delivery to maximize customer adoption. Firms taking customer self-service to the next level—beyond knowledge bases, e-billing and search—are focusing on rich, customizable and interactive account reporting, and what-if capabilities for their customers. Enterprise reporting plays a key role in completing the self-service picture, both as an enabler and platform for addressing the unique requirements of structured information delivery to achieve next generation Web self-services channels.
Industry Snapshot: Financial Services—Leading the Web-Service Evolution
The financial services sector is adding reporting enhancements to online self-service channels at a more rapid and serious pace than perhaps any other industry sector. The requirements for a high-quality, high-value online customer experiences is extremely important now as the world's leading banks look inward to their customer base for growth. Here we explore why and how this industry is evolving online customer self-service.
Over the past decade, new technology, global economics and regulatory tightening have put pressure on the financial services industry to evolve how it approaches customers. Change is occurring across the spectrum of segments—from retail consumers to commercial customers, from private clients to institutions, and their brokers and agents. Customers and partners are savvier today than ever before, in terms of their level of financial knowledge, their needs and their service expectations. The next wave of online services brings new value to traditional online reporting by adding next-generation capabilities to:
- Account statements and management;
- Cash management information reporting;
- Investment performance analysis;
- Credit card statements, payment and analysis;
- Consumer and commercial loan reports; and
- Employee benefit statements and analysis... and many more services every day.
Both retail and corporate banking customers expect online services to be more personalized and powerful—and they are taking their business to banks that understand how to make their lives easier. Today's users expect a lot more, including:
- Multiple deposit accounts graphically presented in a unified view;
- Interactive graphics that they can manipulate;
- Customizable cash-flow reports for budget management;
- Real-time statements and account summaries with up-to-the-moment timeliness and accuracy;
- Searchable transaction histories that download into personal accounting applications;
- Drill-down reports that show the details and documents behind the numbers;
- Spreadsheet reports that they can analyze and modify in Excel;
- Reports that they can customize with a few clicks and save the results; and
- A choice of delivery methods including Web, email, fax, text messaging and hard copy.
Example Case Study— Leading Global Wealth Management
A large financial institution has account holders throughout the world, across several lines of business, including loans, money management, banking, insurance and securities. The more diversified the customer's relationship is, the more potentially profitable that customer is for the firm. However, this creates some complex reporting requirements. While the wealth management division may take an entirely different view of the customer than the lending division, the customer expects one integrated picture of his financials. To solve this challenge, the financial services firm looked outside of traditional self-service solutions and turned to an enterprise reporting solution. They did this because of enterprise reporting's historical strength in integrating data from multiple sources and presenting it in a unified, business- contextual view. The firm sees next-generation customer self-service as a critical component to customer retention: the more tightly integrated the customer's data, presented exactly as the customer wants to see it, the less likely that customer is to seek similar services outside of the organization.
Customers use Actuate to deliver information in context to users inside and outside the firewall as performance management, customer interaction, managed spreadsheet and Java reporting applications. Actuate has more than 3,500 customers with strong presence across a number of industries including financial services, life sciences, government, aerospace, high technology and entertainment. For additional information please visit
www.actuate.com.
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