Service Challenges Financial Institutions Face in an Omni-Channel Environment

Increasing pressure on financial institutions to deliver enhanced customer experience in an Omni-delivery ecosystem requires increasing drivers of satisfaction and eliminating dissatisfaction factors. Fulfillment friction, cumbersome processes, lack of access to human assistance, and failure to meet service expectations degrade customer confidence and satisfaction, increasing attrition and reputational risk for the institution. Inefficient paper-based service increases response times and negatively impacts customer experience.

With the consumers’ accelerated digital usage and self-service preference, service encounters provide a customer satisfaction fulcrum. According to a recent study by Gladly (“What Customers Expect from a Modern Online Shopping Experience”), 63 percent of customers “fall in love with brands because of great service”, and 62 percent “will recommend a brand to a friend because of great service.”

Executed well, service events provide loyalty and growth building opportunities for the institution. Done poorly, service encounters increase attrition risk. Omni-delivery requires customer service to meet Service Level Agreements (SLAs) through fully integrated digital and human-assisted channels.

To help solve these challenges and better meet customer service needs, successful FIs:

• Make the right set of functions available to the consumer in self-service mode, but include bank controls over sensitive functionality;
• Empower the customer by giving them control;
• Make human support available as needed through self-service and staff-assisted options;
• Complete service requests in a timely fashion;
• Deliver effective user experience;
• Follow up with customers to validate error resolution and high satisfaction.