PERSONALIZING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE WITH CLOUD TELEPHONY For Banks & Financial Institutions

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Table of Contents010204 0708131516

Executive summary The importance of personalization How financial institutions can maintain customer engagement Smart IVR to automate and route calls efficiently Customer life-cycle: Engage Customer life-cycle: Convert Customer life-cycle: Retain How Exotel can help financial institutions Working with Exotel 19

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.

Executive summary

Banks and financial institutions have been built an image of being distant from the customer over decades. But with changing times, creating a positive customer experience has become a big part of creating loyal customers. Timely and accurate customer communication are non-negotiable factors. But personalization of customer experience builds an even more relatable experience. Expectations of better conversations, real-time help, and feedback, the 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 moving to cloud telephony can help them solve it.

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The importance of personalizationAccording to a Edelman Brandshare report, 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.

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87%Want to have meaningful relationship with brands

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When asked which method of communication is the most effective for building a relationship with their bank,

75% selected an offline method, with the phone call emerging a close second.

In Branch PhoneCall

Email SocialMedia

Chatbot OtherOnline chatwith a person

Consumers build relationships offline

31%

10% 8% 4% 1% 1%

44%

Source: https://blog.invoca.com/study-finds-conversations-play-critical-role-consumers-financial-decisions/

How financial institutions can maintain customer engagement

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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 the ease of use and loyalty. While chatbots and a digital banking experience provide great ease of use, customers still look at offline channels to build a relationship with banks.

How cloud telephony can help (even if you have a already invested in a legacy system)

Cloud telephony as 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.

A lot of financial institutions have invested in legacy systems. These are systems that work as advertised but do not learn or grow with the changing times. But since a sizeable investment has gone into the set up of the boxes and wires, we see companies resist moving to the cloud. However, these systems affect business operations underhandedly with their rigidity.

However, cloud telephony can also work seamlessly with your legacy system and create a perfect customer experience without compromising on your investments.

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What was happening: Thousands of customers call company support number everyday and most of these calls are either to cancel their bus tickets or know their refund status and since agents were limited a queue system is place to cancel tickets manually.

Before: On premise solution without cloud in place

INCOMING SUPPORT CALL FLOW

Case StudyUpto 60% cost saving by building a hybrid system that puts the customer experience firstHere’s what an online ticketing company’s call center set up looked like before and after adding a layer of automation using Exotel

• Long hold times

• Long wait times

• Unsatisfactory experience

• Lack of call records

• Intense manual efforts

Disadvantages

Cancellation / Refund status notification sent to users via SMS.

CUSTOMER 1 AGENT

+91 XXX-XXX-XXXXTicket No. XXXXXXXXCUSTOMER 1 AGENT

AGENT

“Phone no. and Ticket no. please”CUSTOMER 2

CUSTOMER 3

Customers in queue “Hello, I would like to cancel my ticket”

Cancelsticket

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Adding a layer of automation using cloud telephony can bring down the error rate to 0%, while the same cannot be said about agents. This creates a superlative experience for the customer.

Results• No queue system

• Enhanced customer.experience

• Reduced manual efforts by30 agents

• Reduced cost by 60%

After - Cloud + Legacy SystemIVR Solution for Call Centre Automation

Cancellation/ Refund status notification sent to users via SMS.

“Last 4 digits of Ticket No.”

Smart IVR

Smart IVRXXXX

Phone numbers and last 4 digits of the ticket number picked

up from IVR entry

1.Cancel ticket2.Refund status3.Other status

Banks have the intent to be available for the customer at all the times, but it always comes at the extra cost of increased operational resources.

Banks that want to make themselves accessible to the customer ought to give the customer a chance to reach them when they want to. The ability to get in touch with a bank representative easily is one of the important factors to maintain a strong brand image.

Currently, most customers hesitate to call finance institutions because of the long call wait times. The agents are already overburdened with work, so the only way for the institution is to add more agents. This spikes the operational cost.

Smart IVR to automate and route calls efficiently

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Instead of adding more agents, institutions should think about automating the existing communication system by adding a layer of automation over the existing infrastructure. All the static questions that the customers usually call about can be noted down. These can then be put in IVR to dynamically

answer the customer questions. The IVR will be able to solve the query 8 out of 10 times, thereby eliminating the need for a human at the other end to answer the queries.

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ENGAGE CONVERT RETAIN

CustomerLifecycle

ENGAGEAccording 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.

It is important for banks to understand where their customers are and plot the user journey. Once this is done, it becomes easier for them to determine what to offer— is it awareness or engagement, etc.

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When phone calls are an integral part of the decision-making process, two things that need to be taken care of:

1. Making it easy for agents to reachprospective customers

2. Making it simple for customers/prospective customers contact theestablishment

57% of people are more likely to take out a loan from a financial institution that has provided a positive phone experience.

Calls are a critical part of the decision- making process.

Banks and financial institutions can use AUTOMATED CALLS for this purpose.

Automated calls are used to broadcast information about a new product/scheme launch. Some of these schemes might be specific to a particular region. Therefore, it makes sense to shoot a campaign specific to the people living in this region in a language they understand rather than choose other forms of advertising. This is not only effective and economical to gather attention but also bolsters customer experience.

Using local language is vital to tap all the groups of population, especially in a country like India where not everyone understands English or Hindi. It is fitting for a person in Tamil Nadu to listen to a product offering in Tamil rather than Hindi.

Financial establishments can also leverage automated calls for educating customers against scam and fraud calls.

Source

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 similarnumbers and therefore do not pick up

2. They do not recognise the number they receive the call from because it doesn’t belongto the same state or city as the one they reside in and do not pick up

Both of these issues can be solved by using a dynamic caller ID.

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Dynamic caller ID to improve call pickup rates

We all ignore calls from unknown numbers. 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.

This feature can be added on top of your existing telephony infrastructure to optimize and boost call pick up rates from 10% to almost 40%.

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Advantages 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.

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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.

Advantages of Dynamic Caller ID

• Calls will be routed from a set of pre-decided numbers. Based on the pick up rates, we can keep optimisingthe number pool and arrive at a number that works for a particular customer or a set of customers.

• Using a dynamic caller ID improves call pick up rate by up to 40%. 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 arole in building trust for the brand as well.

• Making it easy for customers to reach the institutions

• A simple way to achieve this is by running a distributed call centre.

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.

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• Call routing by geography or language - for organisations that have a presence across the country, it isimportant to connect customers or prospective customers to the right agents based on the location of theirpresence 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 create groups and divert calls that areonly apt for them. This diverting can happen based on the customers’ input in the IVR menu.

• Granular reporting to monitor agent performance - Daily reportswill 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 arerecorded and stored in the cloud for easy retrieval.These can later be used for training as well asfor quality checks.

ENGAGE CONVERT RETAINOnce customers have made their decision, the next steps are really quick and banks must really get themselves up to speed. Customers on the website almost always look for an option to connect with the bank instantly.

Click to call functionality on your website is very important,• To ensure your availability during every

phase of the purchase journey, and also• To not lose the leads on your website.

Click to call will connect your potential customers and your agents at the right time.

You can ask a few automated questions before passing on the call to the agent, and that’s your first step of lead qualification right there!

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70% of mobile users look for click to call to connect with a business.

Source: Google

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THE NEED FOR A CALL RELATED TO A FINANCE SEARCH IS MOST IMPORTANT AT THE PURCHASE STAGE OVERALL, WHILE THE RESEARCH PHASE FOR BANK ACCOUNTS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT

% who find it extremely/ very important to be able to call the business during each phase of Decision Making

INSPIRATION

Bank Investment Insurance

RESEARCHPURCHASE

POST

INSPIRATIONRESEARCHPURCHASE

POST

INSPIRATIONRESEARCHPURCHASE

POST

58%

38%

66%

68%

53%

34%

57%

46%

45%

27%

60%

50%

INSPIRATION RESEARCH PURCHASE POSTThe time when you realized you wanted or needed to make a finance-related transactiona or purchase (perhaps prompted or triggered by a specific event). This is the moment you began dreamind or thinking about your desire to transact or purchase but had not yet started shopping/ researching.

The time when you actively looked and researched your account or financial transaction/ purchase (looking into price, interest rates, services, etc.)

The time when you opened your account or made a financial transaction/ purchase. This includes using the device while at a bank or financial institution.

Any behaviour you may have participated in after you opened your account or made a financial transaction/ purchase (sharing your experience, recommending to friends or family, writing a review, etc.)

Source: Google

ENGAGE CONVERT RETAIN

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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 2020. 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 roostWhile 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 a study, most unhappy customers don’t complain before leaving. They just leave. So, lack of interaction or feedback is not a good sign.

According to the 2017 Oracle J.D. Power India 'Retail Banking Study,' 48% of the customers are yet to download a banking app.

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 all2. 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.

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.

How Exotel Can Help

Here are a few avenues that help you do that:

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:

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• Create a non-intrusive schedule forcustomer reminders

• Ensure that the SMS has all the relevantinformation required for the customer to acton 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 speakto 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.

Once customers are onboarded and their priorities evolve, principles such as privacy and security take center stage. Banks and financial institutions work with third party logistics for the delivery of credit/debit cards, policy statement etc. The onus of protecting the customer’s phone number is on the bank. The phone number has ceased from being just an element of contact. It has become a form of identity. Therefore, customers are keen and particular about their phone number remaining private property.

Masking customer numbers from third party vendors not only boosts customer confidence in the business but is also a great way to contain data breaches. As the numbers are masked, banks can be sure that the conversation happens within the bank’s purview and the numbers are not compromised to the competition.

Here’s what you can do to avoid privacy mishaps:

• Exotel will mask the customer mobile number and replace it with a pinbefore you can share it with the logistics company

• When the delivery personnel wants to get in touch with the customerto solicit directions or check their availability, all they have to do is callon the assigned virtual number and enter the PIN given to them. Theywill then be connected to the customer.

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Working With Exotel

We offer:

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.

The best uptimes in the industry - 99.99% for outgoing calls and 99.5% for incoming calls

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.

Well documented APIs - we also offer technical support to your teams in case they face any problems integrating with our system

24x7 monitoring and 18x7 support

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