Tag Archives: financial-industry

How to Get Millennials Excited About Banking #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay

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How to Get Millennials Excited About BankingIt’s #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay and we’re taking this opportunity to help financial leaders learn more about how to deliver service to a new generation of investors: Millennials. Millennials have a lot to think about when it comes to making sound investments. They live in a very different world than their parents did – a world of instant gratification shaped by technology – and visiting a personal banking advisor is no longer appealing, or efficient for the majority of them. As we look at the financial industry, it’s not hard to notice that it’s struggling to keep pace with the demands of this “alien” generation.

So, Fonolo decided to sit down with a few millennials and ask them about their experiences with banking – the good, the bad, and their hopes for tomorrow – It’s a must-watch for anyone in finance looking to create a future-ready organization.

 

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[Webinar] How One Contact Center Succeeded in Lowering Abandon Rates

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How One Contact Center Succeeded in Lowering Abandon RatesWhy is it that credit unions top the charts for customer satisfaction compared to other financial institutions? These member driven organizations have notably higher expectations than customers of banks do, and yet they consistently outrank them on client satisfaction scores. The explanation is simple – credit unions work overtime to woo disgruntled bank customers by delivering a personalized service experience. Simply put, the customer experience is at the top of their priority list!

The challenge is that in order to continue enjoying these positive outcomes, they’ll need to maintain and, if possible, improve their already extraordinary levels of customer satisfaction. One important metric that many credit unions are focusing on is high abandon rates in their call center (since this is a clear sign of member dissatisfaction). Luckily, there’s a secret sauce to improving this metric and creating the perfect customer experience recipe. Continue reading →

Fonolo Helps a Credit Union’s Mobile App Offer an Enhanced Call Center Experience

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Smartphone with Apps

Mobile apps have become must-have components for companies in the financial space. Most large and mid-size banks already have very full-featured mobile apps. But, sadly, many of them drop the ball when it comes to connecting with a live agent. Their “Contact Us” page does nothing more than display a phone number. This forces a customer who needs to speak to an agent to start over. What if that customer was about to apply for a loan? Chances are, he’ll put his phone back in his pocket and that revenue opportunity is gone. That risk can be remedied by having a smarter connection to the call center.

That’s exactly what 1st United Services Credit Union did with the latest update of its iPhone app. The app’s “Contact Us” section, powered by Fonolo, lets their customers reach an agent with one tap — no phone menus, no waiting on hold.

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Webinar: Connecting your Call Center to the Smartphone Revolution

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1st United Services Credit Union appWith smartphone penetration surpassing the 50% mark within the US, it’s safe to say that these addictive devices have become an integral part of our everyday lives. Universally employed for both personal and professional purposes, they have quickly become a key channel for how we communicate with one another – and the companies we do business with.

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1st United Services Credit Union Turned to Fonolo to Improve Customer Satisfaction

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1st USCU Logo

Our October 3rd news release announced some exciting news – 1st United Services Credit Union (USCU) selected Fonolo to eliminate hold times for its customers.  What could be seen as a daunting task was made simple with the help of Fonolo.  Within days; 1st USCU was offering Fonolo’s cloud-based solution to improve the customer experience and connect 1st USCU’s callers to the right agent while eliminating hold time.  This is a simpler, faster and friendlier way of providing financial services, which has truly transformed their call center experience. Continue reading →

Huge opportunity for the financial sector: streamlining caller authentication

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The financial industry has always been keenly interested in our product. As Chris mentioned here, the main reason is that they have relatively expensive agents. Therefore, Fonolo’s ability to reduce average handle time makes for a very compelling proposition.

The challenge

Recently we’ve been working on some projects that are focused on reducing the burden of authentication for callers and agents while maintaining sufficient security for the transaction at hand. What we’re learning is that, when properly implemented, a solution that pre-authenticates callers can have enormous cost savings.

Some background

caller authentication is a common aspect of call center transactions throughout the financial industry. This authentication process often has an automated component though the IVR as well as a live challenge-and-response component with an agent. Both components tend to increase the frustration of the caller. The latter can add significantly to call handle time and thus increase costs. (In some cases, the authentication process can take even longer than the “meat” of the call.)

Our solution

Fonolo’s visual interface allows callers to provide identifying information, or respond to challenge questions, before the call begins. This works both on the web and on the mobile phone. Net result: reduced costs and improved call center experience.

Banks love Fonolo. Here’s why.

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Fonolo has always received a tremendous amount of interest from banks, insurance companies and other financial industries. (I think my first phone call on my first day at Fonolo was to a bank.) There are several reasons why this is the case.

Expensive agents means reductions in handle time are golden

Companies in the financial sector place extremely high demands on their call center. The complicated and sensitive nature of the calls handled requires an agent who is highly trained and experienced.  This, in turn, leads to a high cost-per-call. At the same time, customer relationships are long-lasting, meaning that sacrificing caller satisfaction in the short term is not an option.

This creates a tough challenge:  How do you decrease the cost-per-call, while improving the customer experience?  Banking, insurance and credit card companies have discovered that Fonolo is the perfect solution to this exact challenge.

Learn more

For more on this, check out our whitepaper called “Fonolo for the Financial Industry”. You can download it here (form fill-in required).

Why is Fonolo so well-suited for the financial industry?

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From the first day that we announced our enterprise product, the financial industry has been the one most interested in our product. (I think my first phone call on my first day at Fonolo was to a bank.) Why is this so?

Unique challenges

Companies in the financial sector place extremely high demands on their call center. The complicated and sensitive nature of the calls handled requires an agent who is highly trained and experienced.  This, in turn, leads to a high cost-per-call. At the same time, customer relationships are long-lasting, meaning that sacrificing caller satisfaction in the short term is not an option.

This creates a tough challenge:  How do you decrease the cost-per-call, while improving the customer experience?  Banking, insurance and credit card companies have discovered that Fonolo is the perfect solution to this exact challenge.

The mobile opportunity

Financial companies have embraced the myriad opportunities created by the rise of the smart phone. See Shai’s post for more on this. Fonolo is the only solution that can add intelligent agent calling to a mobile application without any changes to the call center.

Learn more

For more on this, check out our whitepaper called “Fonolo for the Financial Industry”.

 

RBC releases mobile app. Now all the banks are in.

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I wrote a few months ago about a study which stated that nearly three-quarters of online retailers either already have or are developing a mobile strategy. Since then, our conversations with companies have absolutely supported this finding.

For banks, mobile is a must-have

In some verticals, such as banking, mobile apps are already a must-have. With the release this week of RBC’s iPhone App, all 5 of the major Canadian banks have embraced this platform, plus ING Direct and National Bank. (See our whitepaper “Fonolo for financial industry”.)

What does this mean for the call center?

The future of the call center is a visual interface

We see the rise of the smartphone as a force driving the next generation of call center experience, and experience based around a visual interface. To understand why, consider the context of the customer when he calls in the call center. For the last decade a growing fraction of callers have been in front of a web browser when placing a call. (In talking with a large bank’s retail group recently, we heard that a third of their callers are on the website when they place the call.)

In Canada, estimates say that 30% of all wireless users will be on smartphones by the end of the 2010 and 50% by the start of 2014

– Convergence Consulting Inc. as reported in “We’re flocking to smart phones”,
Iain Marlow, January 12, 2010, The Globe and Mail

Now combine that with the growing number of callers that are on a smartphone. The sum of those two will soon be, if not already, a majority of callers. And what’s special about those two contexts? In both cases, the caller has an interactive visual interface at his disposal. That interface, if used properly, can vastly improve the calling experience while reducing the cost for the company. Fonolo makes it possible and, more importantly, easy for any company to do just that.

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