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Customer Service Archives - POPi/o

Feb 02
1
Happy older woman relaxing on the sofa with tablet

How Financial Institutions are Thriving with Personalized Digital Services

By | Blog, Digital Communications

In the last few years, our way of life and doing business has gone through tremendous changes. Businesses across the globe are undergoing “digital transformations”, altering their practices or business models to cater to the rising demand for digital services.

In 2021, the global digital transformation market size was valued at $521 billion, and is anticipating a compound annual growth rate of 19% between now and 2026. But what does this all mean? In short, the increasing use of mobile devices, smartphones, tablets and other forms of technology has brought a growing demand for advanced digital features. 

Consumers are more comfortable navigating apps and web portals while dealing with businesses, and with this rise in digital fluency, consumer expectations have risen as well. 

But businesses aren’t undergoing digital transformations purely to meet the demands of customers. Some have also invested in digital services because of the monetary value they provide.

Digital implementations help businesses expand their service footprint and extend their hours of operation. A transformation allows a business to leverage services through efficient online tools, negating the inconvenience of in-person meetings.

With these new practices, businesses are opening new streams of revenue while also driving brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. Studies have shown that 80% of businesses that undergo digital transformation report an increase in profits, while 85% report an increased market share. Enhanced data collection and more efficient resource management are also common benefits of digital transformation.

Why Personalization is Key

For businesses that sell generic, out-of-the-box products, personalization may not have to play a key role in their digital strategy. But financial institutions (FIs) have a more nuanced relationship with their customers. Because everyone’s financial situation is unique, a one-size-fits-all approach isn’t always effective in the financial services industry. As Colleen Dabbs put it on The Financial Brand, “Much more than just good targeting for offers, organizations need to engage contextually, in real time, helping customers reach their financial goals.”

But what does that kind of all-encompassing, hands-on approach look like? Translating all the services of a fully-operational branch into a functional and easy-to-use app is not an easy task. 

The answer, says Jim Marous, CEO of the Digital Banking Report, is that FIs need to blend the speed and convenience of their digital tools with the friendly and personalized services of their customer-facing staff. 

“Banks and credit unions must focus on building a distribution network that combines the qualities of human interaction with the power of new technologies,” Marous writes.

When it comes to targeted ads and other specified offers, data collection can be highly beneficial practices for FIs. In a survey, Mckinsey showed that triggered communications—typically featuring personalized product recommendations—contributed to 5-15% increases in revenue and 10-30% increases in marketing spending efficiency.

While those numbers alone are an incentive for FIs to be thinking about personalization in their digital marketing practices, there’s a lot more to the story. Enhanced selling isn’t the only benefit that personalization can have. As BCG stated in their publication on the topic, “Personalization in banking is not about selling, yet many banks tend to focus on the sales arena.”

Instead of being limited to the sales and marketing arena, personalization can comprise a large part of an FI’s strategy in coming years. “The combination of data, analytics, applied insights and new engagement models will open the door for an exponential increase in ideas and innovations for new products, services, engagement options and communication strategies,” writes Jim Marous.

With what he calls the “hybrid distribution model”, Marous says that banks and credit unions can meld technology and data collection with the assets provided by their customer-facing staff and their in-branch product experts. 

People are Just as Big a Part of the Equation as Technology Is

Balancing digital self-service technology with the engagement of FI representatives has been shown to lower the abandonment rate of services like loan applications and new account openings. Instead of exiting the page when they hit a snag, these customers are given the opportunity to work with the specialist that best fits their needs.

When they can’t access a branch, yet still need to complete a banking transaction that can’t be accomplished on their own, customers need to know that their FI will still be able to serve them. In the digital world, even collaborative, in-depth banking services need to be accessible outside the branch.

By showing your customers that your FI can deliver friendly, personalized service—whether it be through web, mobile, or in-branch channels—you do more than just enhance your customer satisfaction rating. You open the door to new opportunities, securing new streams of revenue and investing in your ongoing digital relevance.

To learn more about Digital Communications and the ways it could benefit your financial institution, schedule a free demo today!

Jul 27
1
Xplore Federal Credit Union building

Serving Members Around the World with Xplore Federal Credit Union

By | Blog, Case Study, Client Experiences

In the late 1940’s the Shell Oil Company began providing financial services to a few of its employees. The services were limited, but employees of the oil company welcomed the idea. Because so much of their time was spent offshore or traveling, banking was—to many of them—a chore that they were glad to see simplified by their employer. 

Decades later, Shell Credit Union would become Xplore Federal Credit Union, but their aim to simplify the banking experience for workers in the oil and gas industry never went away. 

Xplore recently overhauled their digital offerings with the help of POPi/o. They now offer a suite of digital services, with video banking playing a key role in the implementation. In anticipation of the rollout, Xplore held an in-house contest to choose a name for their new services. The contest helped garner company interest, getting the employees acquainted with the new video banking platform. One employee suggested “Xplore Away”, which ended up taking the cake. 

The credit union began offering the service to all its members free of charge. They did some marketing to build awareness, and soon, their new video banking service was garnering real interest. Today, Xplore Away boasts an impressive adoption rate. Over 67% of their memberbase has used the solution. Additionally, the majority of their new account openings are driven purely through Xplore Away.

Xplore has a modest staff of only 45 employees, which means they have to work hard to service their 8,000 members. And because a large portion of their memberbase still work in the oil and gas industry, they don’t always have the option to come visit a branch. Whether they’re out of the country, working on an oil rig, or would just rather not make a trip, Xplore Away has given them the ability to easily perform transactions or work with a financial service professional. 

By connecting members directly to in-branch professionals, Xplore is able to service Member relationships in the most efficient way possible. Their loan officers, which may have been underutilized in a traditional branch setting, can quickly and effectively field calls that apply to their area of expertise. And the financial service professionals that comprise the department report that there are rarely, if ever, wait times for Xplore Away.

When you hear the Xplore Away team talking about their experiences helping members, there’s no denying that they’re glad to be a part of the department. Having the ability to serve people with the convenience of a digital platform and the personal touch of an in-branch experience creates new standards for efficiency and face-to-face service.

One of Xplore Away’s Member Advisors, Rocio Cueves, has worked at other financial institutions in the past, but she says she likes working at Xplore more. “At Xplore, it’s a little more one-on-one,” she says, smiling. 

And now, with POPi/o’s unique digital banking solution, Xplore can deliver that one-on-one service to their members any time. Whether they’re calling from their living room, an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, or their office in the Netherlands, they still have access to the in-branch experience that makes Xplore special.

The Xplore Away team now provides a one-touch digital experience for their members, allowing them to handle everything from simple customer service inquiries to complex banking transactions.

To see the POPi/o solution in action, request a demo now.

Aug 13
7
Attractive man leaning against short wall with body of water behind

Four New Service Standards to Keep Your Eye On in 2020

By | Blog, Video Banking | No Comments

We all know what the Amazon effect is, right? That’s when your consumers expect you to offer digital service and delivery on par with the $178B retail and tech giant.

That’s why it’s crucial you make the most of every single penny allotted to your 2020 tech budget. It’s not enough to compare your service to the other community FI across town. You need to measure up to the general service standard consumers expect across all industries.

According to consumer service experts, here are four service standards American consumers will expect from all retail firms in 2020.

African American parents with children on their backs taking a walk

Consumer-centric attitude

We’ve all heard the statistics about how it costs five times more to acquire a new consumer than it does to keep an existing one. So if consumers expect Amazonian digital service and experts call for a possible recession in 2020, you’d better believe successful firms will put more emphasis on retaining consumers next year than acquiring new ones.

Those digital channels that make product and service delivery so efficient can be your best friend and worst enemy when it comes to word-of-mouth referrals. How often do you see posts on social media from friends who are delighted with a product or company? Probably just as often as you see posts from those who are furious with poor service and exacting revenge.

Word of mouth has expanded exponentially from yesterday’s one-on-one friendly chats. Your consumers can share their service experience with hundreds or thousands of people (or millions, if it goes viral) just by pressing enter. It only takes one bad experience to wipe out the gains from an entire marketing campaign, which is a sobering thought during budget season.

You absolutely must prioritize providing your existing consumers with the very best service you can provide, whether it’s face-to-face or through digital channels.

Personalized service

If you’re in marketing, you’ve probably already heard of “a market of one.” Your consumers expect you to know which products and services they’re interested in and which ones they aren’t. How in the world can they expect such a thing? Because these days, most people – especially young adults – have a general understanding of big data and how it can be used to personalize the consumer experience. They know that as their financial institution, you have a lot of data at your disposal.

The days of “do you want fries with that” sales pitches are over. Studies have shown that young adults aren’t weirded out seeing auto loan ads pop up in their social media newsfeeds after researching new cars online. In fact, they expect it. They aren’t going to waste their time searching for financial services when your competitors make it so easy they don’t have to.

And even if your credit union or community bank provides a better deal, your consumers will never know about it.

Life moves quickly these days, and consumers don’t have much tolerance for organizations that waste their time. A 2020 budget priority should be providing personalized service that leverages consumer data across multiple touch points that include your website, call center, branches and mobile app.

Secure concierge

Speaking of not wasting consumers’ time, another service expectation in 2020 will be the ability to perform tasks on behalf of consumers. Don’t tell a consumer to go do something when your call center rep or even your systems could do it for them. For example, don’t ask a borrower for a copy of their paystub to verify income if you have been receiving their direct deposit for two years.

Consumers don’t care that your core system lacks functionality or your service reps aren’t authorized to perform the task they need. They just want you to help them be more efficient with their time, and they’ll go somewhere else if you can’t deliver.

Here’s an important part of concierge service that could give your community financial institution an edge over fintechs and big banks: yes, consumers want you to perform tasks for them, but not at the expense of data security. Make sure your systems and workflows are secure so you’re not the subject of the next data breach story in the news.

One and done

Centralizing your operations is a big trend these days, but if you make your consumers wander through the maze of your organization chart to find the right person to solve their problem, you’ll lose them. In fact, consumers today expect firms to resolve questions and issues with just one point of contact and in real time.

That’s one reason why chatbots have been more popular than expected. Spending a few seconds answering some questions that route the caller to the right place is much better than sitting on hold, waiting for help … only to find out they need to be transferred to another department.

While chatbots work well for simple questions and call routing, they don’t replace consumer service with a live person who can provide reassurance and problem solving skills. The key to a successful centralized operations team is both technology and face-to-face consumer service representatives who resolve issues efficiently and effectively.

Service standards are a very important part of your 2020 budget planning, but they aren’t everything. To learn more about the economy, a new operational trend, and how the continued challenge to remain relevant will impact your financial institution, your consumers and your 2020 budget, click here to download our new white paper, “3 trends that will drive your 2020 budget.”

Aug 13
7
African American parents with older children on backs taking a walk in the woods

Is your Financial Institution loved?

By | Blog, Video Banking | No Comments

When community financial institutions compare themselves to big banks, they usually talk about great service.

“Our consumers love us,” they say.

But do they? Do they really?

Data has helped FIs more accurately measure performance boosting factors like market sensitivity to rates and fees, look-to-book ratios and digital marketing rate of return. Data has also helped improve the accuracy of net promoter scores and consumer satisfaction. This data might show that your financial institution is performing better than your competition; and yet, you’re still not meeting your organizational goals.

It seems like something is missing. That something is love.

Illustration of woman sitting on couch looking at smartphone with hearts floating upwards

Back before technology quantified everything, financial institutions relied upon old fashioned human indicators to measure how much their consumers loved them. Things like word-of-mouth referrals and branch traffic may sound quaint today, but they represent one thing that’s missing in our digital, data-driven world: human interaction.

Research says today’s consumer wants 24/7 digital access, automatic loan decisioning, the latest P2P payments service, and of course, the best products and most competitive rates.

But do they? Do they really?

A recent J.D. Power Retail Banking study revealed something very interesting: the thing consumers said they want most from their financial institution is advice. Of those surveyed, an overwhelming 78% said they wanted financial advice, but only 28% said they received it. You might think you’re providing advice on your website when you explain your products and services, or in blog posts that teach financial literacy skills. But that’s not advice. Advice requires a two-way conversation that values listening as much as selling.

How survey participants said they received advice supports this fact. Of those who told J.D. Power they received advice, only 33% who received it via email said it met their needs. Compare that to the 58% who loved the advice they received face-to-face. Now here’s where it gets tricky: nearly 60% said they want to receive that face-to-face advice through their financial institution’s mobile app.

“The key takeaway from this study is that there is a huge opportunity to leverage a combination of in-person and digital interactions to provide advice and guidance that assist customers in their financial journey,” said Paul McAdam, J.D. Power senior director of banking practice.

We believe when a financial institution uses technology to make its consumers feel loved, it’s the best of both worlds. And we think your bottom line will show it.