In the following Digitalization Series, I will highlight some topics concerning practical implementations on the ‘Digitalization’ topic. In this article I will highlight some customer service use cases for financial services as an effective way to successfully implement digitalization.
The need for seamless customer experiences
When it comes to creating loyal, happy customers, every interaction matters. When a customer indicates they want to open an account it is your first chance to make a good impression.
Problems or requests for service or support represent opportunities to build goodwill and deliver on expectations. Customers want to know their financial institution is there for them, responding to their needs and addressing any of their issues fast, so they can go about their business. To achieve this, financial institutions need a single system of record that provides a complete lens into the customer experience and facilitates the quick completion of requests and resolution of issues, no matter how complex. This takes connecting customer service to different departments and teams and establishing effective service operations that can break down silos and ensure efficient, fast service delivery across channels–branch, phone, mobile, web, chat, and email.
Digitally scale and unify operations to keep everything running smoothly
ServiceNow Financial Services Operations provides you a unified platform to simplify the way you work and help you scale your operations to accommodate new customer requests or demands as soon as they arise. With ServiceNow you can digitize and automate workflows, connecting the front, middle, and back-office operations to quickly and efficiently complete requests and address issues, end-to-end, to meet customer expectations, regulatory requirements, and service level agreements (SLAs).
Some practical use case is there, let’s look at what this could look like when you need to:
- Resolve a lost credit card
- Handle complaints
- Resolve payment errors
- Onboard a commercial client
- Onboard a commercial credit card program
USE CASE: Seamlessly resolve lost card issues to get customers back on track
A lost or stolen debit or credit card can create a lot of anxiety for customers. They want reassurance that everything is going to be all right. They want to know you will take care of it, so they can get back to their life. And you can’t forget about the regulators, who want to know the issue is being handled in a timely and satisfactory manner. As soon as a customer reports their card is lost or stolen, or the moment the fraud department flags a transaction as suspicious, Financial Services Operations can trigger a workflow that automatically pulls relevant information together, routes the case to the appropriate department(s), and coordinates its resolution to get the customer back on track, fast.
With ServiceNow, you can:
- Break down silos, between the front-, middle-, and back-office teams and automate processes to respond more efficiently to customer issues.
- Provide a seamless customer experience, with omnichannel support, to increase convenience, satisfaction, and loyalty.
- Track everything to provide a complete audit trail and ensure transparency and accountability.
USE CASE: Handle complaints to meet customer expectations and compliance requirements
Complaints generate a lot of scrutiny for your financial services institution. When regulators look for potentially unfair, deceptive acts or abusive practices (UDAAP) they examine complaint trends, as well as the handling of the complaints themselves, to try to identify violations. For a more in-depth I refer to expert insight concerning the UDAAP topic itself “UDAAP in the digital age” of Wolters Kluwer (for ABA Bank Compliance magazine, Sept/Oct 2019 issue).
If complaints against retail banks are found to be mismanaged or inadequately handled, it can lead to fines or class action lawsuits. Worse yet, it can damage the bank’s reputation and erode customer confidence. To reduce risks and improve the customer experience, Financial Services Operations unifies your operations to help you manage and resolve complex issues end-to-end. As soon as a complaint is received, it can be automatically routed through the right people to ensure appropriate actions are taken and communicated for optimal outcomes.
With ServiceNow, you can:
- Resolve complaints quickly and efficiently with streamlined and automated workflows that include the right experts and departments.
- Deliver a seamless customer experience with insights into complaint status end-to-end to increase transparency, satisfaction, and loyalty.
- Improve visibility and compliance with comprehensive reporting and audit trails.
USE CASE: Resolve payment errors fast to improve recovery rates
It can be stressful when customers see an error in a statement or receive a notice that a payment was not received. Understandably, fixing payment issues fast is the goal to alleviate customer anxiety and increase the likelihood of recovery. Payment Operations, a purpose-built application in Financial Services Operations, can help you reduce the time and effort it takes you to resolve payment errors and missing payments. It connects your people, systems, and workflows to streamline and automate payment inquiries, research, and claims resolution. It also tracks all communications and workflows in place with other financial institutions around external payments to improve recovery rates on payment errors.
With ServiceNow, you can:
- Consolidate data and processes across multiple payment types and networks with a single system of engagement that reduces the costs associated with servicing payment error requests.
- Digitize and streamline workflows to automatically connect the right people, departments, and institutions for faster resolution.
- Provide a seamless customer experience, with omnichannel support, to increase convenience, satisfaction, and loyalty.
USE CASE: Deliver a simple, guided onboarding experience to get commercial customers up and running
A lot goes into onboarding new commercial banking customers. For example, regulations require the identity of customers to be verified and an adequate assessment of suitability be completed before banks can engage in any financial relationship. To speed the process, onboarding needs to be digitized and streamlined, from start to finish, so commercial customers can quickly get up and running and start using the financial services and products they need to move their business forward. As soon as a commercial customer indicates interest in a particular service or product, Financial Services Operations can trigger a case to ensure the right people are involved, the right questions are asked, the right documents are collected, and the right products are offered.
With ServiceNow, you can:
- Digitize information collection to improve accuracy.
- Automate and streamline the process, to reduce costs and delays and accelerate time to revenue.
- Deliver a seamless customer experience that increases satisfaction and the life of the relationship.
- Improve visibility and reduce compliance risks with comprehensive reporting and audit trails.
USE CASE: Streamline corporate credit card program onboarding to capture incremental revenue
Time is money. This is certainly true for credit cards—the sooner a card is in a consumer’s hands, the sooner it can be used and start generating revenue for the institution that issued it. Unfortunately, issuing a new credit card can be slow and complicated, particularly when it comes to onboarding a new corporate card program.
Card Operations, a purpose-built application in Financial Services Operations, helps you reduce the time and effort it takes to complete common credit card-related tasks, including onboarding or closing cards, blocking or unblocking cards, and increasing or decreasing credit limits. It connects people, systems, and workflows to reduce processing times and errors while accelerating issuing time to generate incremental revenue.
With ServiceNow, financial institutions can:
Collaborate more effectively with a single system of record that provides easy access and real-time visibility into the status of common credit card-related tasks.
Digitize and streamline credit card processing workflows to automatically connect the right people, departments, and institutions for faster processing.
Provide a seamless customer experience, with omnichannel support, to increase convenience, satisfaction, and loyalty.
USE CASE: Improve customer satisfaction in financial services
With one front-to-back platform, ServiceNow Financial Services Operations (FSO) empowers employees across the institution, removing barriers and enhancing the customer experience. As a native cloud platform, FSO enables rapid deployment and speeds up a time to value. Institutions can securely digitize core operational processes while equipping teams with the tools and insights they need.
Ultimately, financial institutions can build efficient, resilient operations so employees can be productive, wherever they are, and customers can get what they need when they need it.
Good luck!
Source used in this article:
ServiceNow SN-EB-FINANCIALSERVICES_USE_CASES-102020 Customer service use cases for financial services - How to complete requests and resolve issues quickly and proactively.
