PERSONALISING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE WITH CLOUD TELEPHONY FOR BANKS & FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

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1 PERSONALISING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE WITH CLOUD TELEPHONY FOR BANKS & FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

2 BANKS & FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Timely and accurate customer communication has been a big part of building a dependable customer relationship in the BFSI sector. In today s world, they are facing demands from their customers that they are traditionally not used to. Expectations of better conversations, real-time help and feedback, need for accessibility on the go are at the top of the list. With growing distrust and dwindling customer loyalty, financial institutions need to adopt a communication policy that is simple, open and transparent. This white paper offers an insight into some of the most pressing customer communication problems and how cloud telephony can help them solve it.

3 BANKS & FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 3 WHY PERSONALISE - THE IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT According to a study, 87 percent of respondents said they want more meaningful relationships with brands, including transparent communication, responsiveness and genuine conviction. This includes with their money managers, advisors and banks. source A fully engaged customer is also expected to be more invested in the establishment. And wavering loyalty is a big problem that these institutions are facing. source

4 BANKS & FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 4 THE IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT CUSTOMER LIFECYCLE Banks are looking to make the best of the digital wave. They can no longer escape from having to provide a fulfilling omnichannel experience. But there is still a small gap between ease of use and loyalty. While chatbots and a digital banking experience provide a great ease of use, customers still look at offline channels to build a relationship with banks. Engage Convert HOW CLOUD TELEPHONY CAN HELP Cloud telephony as a technology is tailor-made for industries that are growing and scaling. Cloud telephony platforms are also equipped to handle customer communication in real-time, gather data, collate feedback, and to track customer behaviour and learn from it. Retain We will talk more in detail about how cloud telephony can help this sector deal with some of their primary customer communication problems.

5 BANKS & FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 5 1. ENGAGE According to a study by Accenture, every bank customer is a digital customer. Before committing to a bank, insurance or a financial institution, they shop around online. According to the same study, consumers continue to rely on multiple channels (an average of three or more) when prospecting. Calls are a critical part of the decision-making process. 57% of people are more likely to take out a loan from a financial institution that has provided a positive phone experience. MAKING IT EASY FOR AGENTS TO REACH PROSPECTIVE CUSTOMERS A major issue that a lot of banks and other financial institutions face is that calls to their prospective customers are not picked up. One reason for this is the phone number from which they receive the calls. One of two things happen: 1. they often receive what they perceive to be calls of no value from the same or similar numbers and therefore do not pickup 2. they do not recognise the number they receive the call from because it doesn t belong to the same state or city as the one they reside in and do not pickup Both of these issues can be solved by using a dynamic caller id. When phone calls are an integral part of the decisionmaking process, two things that need to be taken care of: 1. Making it easy for agents to reach prospective customers 2. Making it simple for customers/prospective

6 BANKS & FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 6 DYNAMIC CALLER ID TO IMPROVE CALL PICKUP RATES Calls from unknown numbers are usually not picked up. We all ignore them. Dynamic caller id assignment is a way for us to improve the pickup rates by calling the customer from a different number each time till we understand the set of numbers that have the best pick up rates. The call intelligence from each call can be used to optimise caller id for each customer. Using a dynamic caller ID improves call pick up rate by up to 20%. This is a big boost for companies, especially when prospective customers are in the middle of their decision-making process. Further, companies are also able to show a local presence while talking to a customer. This plays a role in building trust for the brand as well. MAKING IT EASY FOR CUSTOMERS TO REACH THE INSTITUTIONS ADVANTAGES OF DYNAMIC CALLER ID A simple way to achieve this is by running a distributed call centre. Calls will be routed from a set of predecided numbers. Based on the pick up rates, we can keep optimising the number pool and arrive at a number that works for a particular customer or a set of customers. What is a distributed call center? A distributed call centre is a call centre that can be potentially be made up of multiple setups - one or more brick and mortar contact centres, remote offices and home-based agents.

7 BANKS & FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 7 ADVANTAGES OF A DISTRIBUTED CALL CENTRE A distributed call centre model can effectively boost productivity and at the same time be cost effective as it reduces the capex involved in setting up infrastructure. A distributed call centre model offer higher flexibility, scalability and reliability over a traditional call centre system. How do distributed call centres help BFSI? Intelligent call routing - Calls can be routed efficiently across the distributed workforce. This call routing intelligence and be defined by the business using a simple drag-drop interface. They can define exactly how the caller s flow should be based on parameters they define. Call routing by geography or language - for organisations that have a presence across the country, it is important to connect customers or prospective customers to the right agents based on the location of their presence or their preference of language. This can happen dynamically every time a customer calls. Call routing by proficiency - Based on the agents skill set, they can great groups and divert calls that are only apt for them. This diverting can happen based on the customers input in the IVR menu. Granular reporting to monitor agent performance - Daily reports will give the business a detailed account of the agents performance, customers calling patterns, duration of calls, etc. Call recording for monitoring & training - All the calls are recorded and stored in the cloud for easy retrieval. These can later be used for training as well as for quality checks.

8 BANKS & FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 8 2. CONVERT Starting a relationship with any financial institution requires the completion of a large number of formalities. The most important one of them is KYC or the Know Your Customer process. The 12-digit Aadhar number has become one of the most important personal identification document in the recent times. Especially in the case of financial transactions, linking of the Aadhar number is a requirement that most institutions ask for. PROBLEMS WITH THE CURRENT VERIFICATION PROCESS 1. the entire process is time-consuming 2. requires a large workforce to do all the verification in person 3. if the customer has to come to the bank to the KYC, it can result in delays 4. massive investment involved in the building the workforce required to complete this process The physical verification of Aadhar number is a timeconsuming procedure. Currently, for most institutions, it takes anywhere between 3-5 days to verify the Aadhar document physically.

9 BANKS & FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 9 E-KYC OVER IVR USING OTP This is a simple process that allows you to verify your customer s Aadhar details over IVR using an OTP without having to do a physical verification. This is how the process works: 1. Your customer calls on an Exotel virtual number. 2. An IVR prompt states the purpose of the call, who is calling them and the purpose of the verification. 3. The customer enters their Aadhar number. 4. An OTP is generated and sent to the linked mobile number. 5. They enter the OTP over IVR using their phone s keypad. 6. The verification process is complete. ADVANTAGES OF USING EXOTEL S AUTOMATED E-KYC VERIFICATION OVER IVR the cost involved comes down (compared to manual verification) can set up and get started in less than 2 weeks. No investment required for app creation Easy to implement in rural areas - only a feature phone needed Works across language barriers The entire process is customisable and can be changed to suit the institutions needs.

10 BANKS & FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS RETAIN According to a CII report, the banking sector in India is currently worth INR 81 trillion and is expected to become the fifth largest in the world by The BFSI sector contributes about 40 percent of the revenue for major IT companies. Omnichannel support, digitisation, responses in real-time and switching between multiple channels of communication are some of the factors that financial institutions all over the world are working toward. In India, however, the problem is a little more complicated. The biggest challenge is to ensure that the offerings of any institution does justice range of social and economic conditions of the customer base. TRADITIONAL AND IN-BRANCH BANKING STILL RULE THE ROOST While the government and banks are pushing customers towards mobile banking and digital platform, the legacy systems are here to stay for the foreseeable future. A simple phone is still the best tool to reach customers The wide socio-economic status of customers in banking and insurance is proof enough that a simple phone call or an SMS that works on even a feature phone is the best way to reach out to customers. According to the 2017 Oracle J.D. Power India 'Retail Banking Study,' 48% of the customers are yet to download a banking app.

11 BANKS & FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 11 TRADITIONAL AND IN-BRANCH BANKING STILL RULE THE ROOST HOW EXOTEL CAN HELP To retain customers, it is important to be touch with them. But here s what doesn t work: 1. communication which is one size fits all 2. spamming Phone calls & SMS are powerful but often misused tools. When used correctly, they can help you form meaningful and long lasting relationships with your customers. According to a study, most unhappy customers don t complain before leaving. They just leave. So, lack of interaction or feedback is not a good sign. Creating a single platform with relevant customer information Integrating your customer database (CRM) with your phone system allows you to customise communication and only reach out to customers with information that is relevant to them. Here are a few avenues that help you do that:

12 BANKS & FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 12 HOW EXOTEL CAN HELP Almost every financial institution has a reminder service - for dues, for renewals, for payments, etc. But the communication that goes through is usually not thought through or relevant to the customer. Here s what you can do: Create a non-intrusive schedule for customer reminders Ensure that the SMS has all the relevant information required for the customer to act on it If an SMS does not receive any response, an automated reminder call can do the trick. At the end of the automated reminder call, the customer can be given the option to speak to an agent to get their doubts/questions clarified. Gartner predicts that by 2020 a customer will manage 85% of the relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human, so make sure to give your customers the direction and tools they need to accomplish tasks themselves. This means creating clear IVR prompts, SMSes with correct direction and not spamming customers till they buckle. WORKING WITH EXOTEL Exotel is Asia s leading cloud telephony company. We work with some of the biggest companies in Asia including Uber, Go-Jek, Aramex, Lazada Express, Policy Bazaar, Scripbox and Bank of Baroda. We power over 4 million customer calls every day. We are the building block of communication and companies build important processes that improve their efficiency using our platform. We offer: The best uptimes in the industry % for outgoing calls and 99.5% for incoming calls 24x7 monitoring and 18x7 support Scale - grow as your business demands without worrying about the infrastructure Unlimited channel capacity and agent login - There is no cap on the number of channels that can be utilized. At Exotel, we maintain up to 130% of the peak traffic predicted by the customer. Clearly documented APIs - we also offer technical support to your teams in case they face any problems integrating with our system

13 BANKS & FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 13 CONCLUSION Customers today have more power or choice than ever before. Customer experience plays an important role in brand loyalty. One size fits all, especially in communication, will not work. 89% of businesses are soon expected to compete mainly on customer experience. So, paying attention to details about customers feel is of utmost importance.