The contact center is no longer the first channel of choice for customers seeking support.

BASED ON RESEARCH

FROM

Helping financial services contact centersADAPT TO THE NEW MULTICHANNEL WORLD

Giving financial institutions the tools to REDEFINE CONTACT CENTER SERVICE

Giving financial institutions the tools to REDEFINE CONTACT CENTER SERVICE

The contact center or customer interaction center is evolving to support multiple customer interaction channels. To avoid customer frustration, contact center agents are under great pressure to understand every step of a customer’s multichannel journey—and use that information to deliver effective issue resolution the first time.

Technologies such as unified communications, improved speech recognition software, digital marketing, and voice over IP provide a unified customer view and greater insight into a client’s interactions and history. This helps agents to more easily service all channels and improve sales outcomes—making the contact center a more proactive force for the institution.

CEB, a leading member-based advisory company, equips more than 10,000 organizations around the globe with insights, tools, and actionable solutions to transform enterprise performance. In this paper, CEB discusses how customers today view the contact center—and how financial services institutions are using technology to help transform the contact center from an internal cost center into a hub for channel alignment and revenue generation. The following white paper, sponsored by Verizon, is CEB’s unaltered study in its entirety, “Redefining Service in the Contact Center.”

CEB TOWERGROUP

© 2014 The Corporate Executive Board Company. www.executiveboard.com

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UNDERSTANDING THE MULTICHANNEL CHALLENGE The contact center is no longer the first channel of choice for customers seeking support. CEB finds that only 42% of customers choose the phone as their first channel of contact compared to 58% choosing the website. Customers then call the contact center after they’ve failed to resolve their issue online, now contacting an agent with two unresolved failures rather than one.

Similarly, 36% of customers try to resolve issues concurrently online and through the contact center. The combined experience necessitates that an agent have a real-time view of the customers’ online interaction to provide strong issue resolution. As channel volumes expand, the complexity of customer service interactions will also increase.

Financial services institutions (FSIs) are turning to technology to solve these challenges for contact center agents. In addition to replacing legacy systems, other solutions, like unified communications or customer relationship management systems, are finding new application within the contact center to provide a unified customer view and agent desktop. More than 80% of institutions will also invest in digital marketing support capabilities before 2015.

Agent training is also shifting to encompass these new requirements. After providing agents a unified desktop view of channels, many FSIs are choosing to cross train agents to service multiple channels and products. With internal chat, secure messaging, and secure document vaults, agents are able to provide additional services, documentation, and connection to experts for customers.

REDEFINING SERVICE IN THE CONTACT CENTER

n = 699 Source: CEB 2013 Technology Adoption & Investment Survey

Customer Preference for Contact Center Channel by Interaction Percentage of Global Retail Banking Respondents, 2013

26%

8% 9% 8%

Receivecustomer

support with aproblem/issue

Learn aboutproducts and

services

Use or accessproducts and

services

Makepurchases ofnew products

or services

The availability of multiple channels for customer interaction has resulted in a corresponding shift in customer preference. Customers now choose to use the contact center almost exclusively for customer support with an existing problem rather than for education on or purchase of a new product.

While the contact center has traditionally played a key role in providing support to customers, the increase in channel volume requires a new level of cohesion between channels. To effectively serve customers, contact center agents must fully understand the interaction experience in other channels as well as the historic experience of an individual customer. Institutions are leveraging new technology to empower the contact center agent.

n = 16-22 Source: CEB 2013 Technology Adoption & Investment Survey

Executives Planning to Implement Contact Center Technology by 2015 Percentage of Global Retail Banking Respondents, 2013

82% 77%

71% 69%

Digital Marketing Customer RelationshipManagement (CRM)

Unified Communications Interactive Voice Response(IVR)

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CEB TOWERGROUP

© 2014 The Corporate Executive Board Company. www.executiveboard.com

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KEY TECHNOLOGY ENHANCEMENTS FOR CONTACT CENTERS FSIs are shifting their view of the contact center from an internal cost center to an organizational hub for channel alignment and revenue generation. Technologies that provide a holistic view of the customer allow agents to easily service all channels, while capabilities like digital marketing and proactive chat can improve sales outcomes giving customers better offers and providing in the moment assistance to customers during the application process.

UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS One in two FSIs identify process improvement in the contact center as the major driver for their investment in unified communications (UC). UC connects communications from all channels serviced by the contact center into a single desktop for the agent.

Agents see an immediate process benefit from having a single view of the customer’s interactions during the service conversation. FSIs also benefit from a reduction in staff onboarding time from the simplified user interface, compared to learning multiple systems. FSIs may also see a decrease in the number of systems, IT staff, and infrastructure supporting the contact center providing long term cost reduction. .

PROACTIVE COMMUNICATIONS Outbound communications continue to grow within the contact center. Newer technology enables proactive chat, email, and social media messaging in addition to outbound dialing. Contact center agents can initiate chat in the moment the customer experiences the challenge in the online channel, speeding resolution and allowing the customer to stay in their channel of preference.

NEXT GENERATION IVR & SPEECH RECOGNITION SOFTWARE FSIs are beginning to replace outdated legacy systems in the contact center, commonly starting with the IVR since it is the first technology touch point for inbound calls. New IVR technology incorporates improved speech recognition technology providing more detailed and flexible call routing reducing the number of internal transfers for customers. Speech recognition software can also provide an additional layer of voice authentication for client accounts, and can serve as a component of an out of band authentication strategy for an institution.

Value Driver for Unified Communications Investment Percentage of Global Executives, 2013

Source: CEB 2013 Technology Adoption & Investment Survey n = 38

50% Process Improvement

3% Financial Return

8% Maintainability

18% Competitive Advantage

21% Functionality

NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE Advanced network infrastructure, including high speed internet and advanced telephony capability, can fundamentally change workflow and improve efficiency within the contact center. Investment in new systems increases the type and amount of data available within the contact center. As FSIs turn to Voice over IP to reduce costs, high speed internet becomes a critical infrastructure component. Improvements to network infrastructure can speed information sharing and data management between systems, while also supporting multiple telephony options. DIGITAL MARKETING FSIs are rapidly investing in digital marketing capability to increase sales. Contact center agents must be able to quickly understand current digital offers in order to provide support customers with questions or interest in those messages.

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As the customer service experience becomes multichannel and grows more complex, the benefits of technology become evident to your customers and your financial institution. To achieve those benefits, you need the best technology in a variety of areas.

Our solutions can help you improve your contact center technology and succeed in a world of increasing cyber threats and intensifying competitive pressure. Don’t settle for solutions that just meet challenges; get solutions that provide you with competitive advantages. With Verizon, you can learn to manage risk, understand your customers, and transform operations in ways that drive growth and increase performance.

Find out more about our innovative solutions and how we can help you transform your contact center. Visit verizonenterprise.com/industry/finance/ or speak with an account representative today.

CEB, a leading member-based advisory company, equips more than 10,000 organizations around the globe with insights, tools, and actionable solutions to transform enterprise performance. By combining advanced research and analytics with best practices from member companies, CEB helps leaders realize outsized returns by more effectively managing talent, information, customers, and risk. Member companies include approximately 85 percent of the Fortune 500, half the Dow Jones Asian Titans, and nearly 85 percent of the FTSE 100. More information is available at cebglobal.com

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