Today the retail banking industry has about an 80 percent abandonment rate for fulfillment functions. Besides being enormously costly, this generates consumer dissatisfaction, resulting in diminished reputation and loss of revenue.

The good news for financial institutions is that digital technology can detect issues and proactively provide assistance through both automated and human-based interventions. An automated omni channel fulfillment solution can detect issues in the following categories:

Navigational - Because banks and credit unions already know a great deal about the user’s expected journey and their behavior through the website and the fulfillment process, ‘sense’ irregularities can be used. For example, when a user visits a page, chooses back navigation, visits another page, chooses back navigation, and so forth, this may indicate that the consumer cannot find what they are looking for. A more direct form of navigation detection is when a user clicks the ‘Help’ option or selects the chat function.

Time-based - One of the best indicators of user behavior is time-on-page. The purpose and design elements of the webpage, such as informational, educational, or data collection, inherently tells us how long the user should be ‘on the page’ before another navigational element is performed. Higher time on page may indicate very engaging content, especially if followed by the user engaging with a “Call to Action;” however, if the time on a page or an individual element exceeds a predetermined threshold, this suggests the user may need assistance, navigation is not intuitive to this user, or they may have abandoned the process.

Issue detection - System‑type errors or failures preventing process execution can be detected. Errors also include erratic behavior (outside the norm) or unsuccessful navigation attempts indicating that the user is confused. Repeated data validation UX patterns triggered by user activity may be indicative of a user’s inability to complete an application workflow.

Detecting issues with fulfillment is only the first part of the equation, however. Proactively intervening using automated and human‑powered methods based on the type of issue detected and the consumer’s contact preference is crucial. Intervention is often a quick, automated method providing contextual information to the user. The goal is to offer the user immediate solutions to keep the application process moving forward.

Intervention methods can include:

Automated - Online context-sensitive information in the form of help text, FAQs, and automated Chat-bot functionality provide rapid digital response. Chat‑bot uses AI techniques to query help information using English phases such as ‘Can you explain the difference between money-market and regular checking accounts?’ The user can also choose to contact the institution through email.

Human-Powered - Based on the issue detected or the user’s preference, human assistance may be required. This can be immediate through live, interactive chat or ‘call me now,’ or deferred through messaging such as email, requesting the contact center call me at a later time, or scheduling an appointment with a banker. Through any of these methods, the user’s pre-entered information is retained, and any Omni fulfillment channel can be engaged to complete the fulfillment request.

Banks and credit unions can benefit from these fulfillment functions with the use of ARGO Connects, a customer journey‑centric solution for acquiring customers, nurturing and converting leads, ongoing customer engagement, fulfilling accounts, retaining, growing, and servicing for consumer and business customers in an Omni-delivery ecosystem.

For more information, view ARGO Connects, Omni Channel Fulfillment interview brief.