Despite the numbers, the rapidly growing amount of online banks have been slow to join the customer service camp. For both banks and consumers, the question of security has indeed been a factor. But, over the past year, a number of technology and standards evolutions have occurred that have helped to assuage apprehensions. Among them, the secure sockets layer (SSL), a secure way to connect browsers to servers, and S-MIME and POP, standards for secure email, have been universally adapted by businesses.
As banks continue to become more comfortable with offering Internet services, customers will come to consider the completeness and level of service and support offered on their sites when deciding where to bank. Drawing from their offline banking relationships, Internet banking customers will expect their banking needs to translate seamlessly online. In addition to the ability to connect to an online agent when questions or problems arise, customers will expect to be able to work through personal needs and get recommendations about which range of financial services are right for them.
As a result, banks are faced with a number of tough decisions that they will need to address moving forward.
The Case for Internet Customer Service
The Internet is fast becoming the so-called "fourth channel" in customer service and support, joining face-to-face, telephone, and traditional mail. But, Internet customer service provides numerous advantages over its predecessors. A few of the main advantages are outlined below:
Saving Pennies, Not Pinching Them
The financial benefits of Internet customer service over traditional channels are significant. A recent Forrester Research report found that 46 percent of the Web site managers they surveyed felt that Internet customer service improved overall costs. And, by the year 2000, Forrester projects that 43 percent of all per-customer costs will be reduced. Among the reasons for this cost reduction is the Internet's ability to automate routine tasks that have performed poorly offline. For example, almost all banks currently use Interactive Voice Response (IVR) as a way of automating customer calls. But, customer impatience and frustration with navigating multiple menus and being put on hold is at its limit. Companies such as Kana, Silknet, and Brightware provide email automation technologies that enable banks to handle many of the routine tasks formerly being handled by a combination of IVR and automatic faxes. This is done by using a bank's business rules to service customers. Examples include changes in credit ratings, credit limit increases or reductions, or providing customer account information.
Marketing (and Sales) Magic
In addition to cutting costs, online customer service will also generate revenue by providing a great new way for banks to gather information about visitors to their sites. Today, companies can find information out about a customer (such as what sites visitors are coming from, what related sites they find of interest, what time of day they are most likely to visit, etc.) using techniques such as data mining or log file analysis. But, a customer service relationship can produce extremely useful information about a current or potential customer's financial purchasing behaviors and associated interests that can be later used by agents to up-sell services. An example is Seattle-based Safeco that is using SiteBridge's CustomerNow technology to resell mutual fund products and services to brokers.
A challenge for financial companies will be the effective management of data aggregated from online customer service sessions. Because of the sheer volume of collectable data that banks experience daily, information architects for bank sites will need to provide a systematic way of aggregating and reusing that information to help promote additional services. Personalization companies can serve as the necessary ingredient here. Traditionally used to improve sales performances by tracking online user behavior and then making purchase recommendations, personalization companies are well-positioned to serve as the architectural component that drives the data aggregated from customer services. Players such as the Art Technology Group, Open Sesame, Net Perceptions, and Broadvision are working towards providing ways for call center agents to know about a customer's buying history for future product and service recommendations.
Putting the Customer First - Once Again
The banking world's ubiquitous offline credo, we put the customer first, has so far translated poorly online. And, this omission has not gone unnoticed. According to Forrester Research, 85 percent of the sites they surveyed built online service channels in response to customer demand. The reason is that the Internet provides customers with the kind of customizability and control that are not available offline. People can interact with financial institutions on their own terms - whenever they want, however they want, and for whatever reason. For banks, a significant cost benefit to putting customers in the drivers seat is that they may find answers to common questions (via automated email or F AQs) and free up online agents to address more complex situations. The combination of new-found customer control in addition to a significantly reduced waiting period (bypassing IVR) will likely compel current and prospective clients to visit a bank's site that may have previously been deterred.
Treading Lightly
It is understandable that banks have been treading lightly into the customer service space. Stakes are higher for banks than most online offerings. Of course, so is the potential gain. In the interim, a number of issues should be entertained as banks consider an Internet customer service solution:
• Standards issues will need to be resolved. Of course, it seems difficult to watch the birth and growth of any new Internet technology without encountering standards issues. As field players such as eShare, SiteBridge, Remedy, and Acuity battle to dominate the customer service landscape, a common ground will need to be reached.
• Call centers will need to embrace the Internet. Call centers have been painstakingly slow to transition into Internet-enabled customer service centers. Both dedicated call centers and bank-owned centers currently use the telephone for the vast majority of customer service interactions. In fact, according to Forrester Research, 99 percent of all live customer interactions are currently handled by phone.
• Banks will need to develop a data plan. Prior to integrating a customer service solution on their Web sites, banks will need to work with an information architect to determine how to best aggregate and reuse customer service information.
On the Horizon
Similar to its offline counter-part, online customer service as a promotional tool and business determinant is paramount. To be competitive, banks and financial institutions will increasingly embrace customer service technologies as a way to cut call center costs, promote sales, and identify, retain, and increase customers. Along the way, a number of changes and decisions will need to take place. But, given the overwhelming need to both receive and provide online customer service and the resulting activity in this space, the horizon promises resolution.
