How Banks Can Transform Operations and Improve Customer Experience Using FSO

A “satisfied” customer is almost 2.5 times likely to stay put with the current bank. Analysis reveals that such satisfaction could be garnered by a “systematic redesign” of the banking operations.

Considering the growing competition amidst the fintech domain, changing preferences of digitally-savvy customers, and an equally burgeoning number of mobile/online transactions, the need to revamp the back-end operations of banks is an irrefutable imperative. 

This is where the ServiceNow FSO proves to be a veritable boon for the banking sector. FSO, a state-of-the-art cloud-based platform, comes equipped with a host of features and modules to help banks get on the customer satisfaction bandwagon. 

From facilitating a unified view of the customer support process to integrating the back and front office, FSO helps foster a delightful customer experience (CX). 

Let us now look into the specifics.

1. Single Platform — Single Source of Truth

Banks are often plagued with the problem of duplication of tasks, co-mingling of data, and other data-siloed systems. Compounding this are multiple systems vendors, each with its own technology stack. The result is the “impossible trinity” – i.e., it’s all but impossible to have an integrated view of the customer, let alone serve them better.

FSO lets banks unify their data and bring in much-needed insights and intelligence to help create a seamless experience for the customers. This is made possible by allowing for an end-to-end view of critical customer information using a single platform. 

Subsequently, here’s what the banks become capable of achieving:

1. Through a single customer profile, banks can single out a customer’s attributes and allocate the right set of resources accordingly. For instance, a bank can match a particular customer profile with a high-value product – say, a credit card – to provide the best possible service.
2. They can make generalized yet powerful customer-centric decisions thanks to a concretely defined operational line-of-sight. As such, they are equipped to drill down to the granular level to identify and eliminate customer pain points and enhance customer experience based on such insights.
3. The bank’s ability to share and integrate critical information across departments, channels, and devices is greatly augmented. This ensures a seamless customer journey while seeking to expand product offerings and deal with the rigors of the financial sector.
4. Maintaining much-needed control over the quality of information becomes possible for banks after leveraging FSO. This, coupled with the resulting knowledge about the customer, allows them to eliminate errors, reduce manual effort, and speed up processes.

McKinsey & Company’s analysis outlines that the top end-to-end processes significantly bring to light a bank’s potential in addressing the most pertinent customer-facing issues. 

2. Proactive Problem Resolution

Customer-service-related satisfaction ranks #4th in the global list of most important banking facets. Since “digital-centric” is being highly fueled in the new normal with more millennials and young adults featuring in the key demographics, customer support expectations are bound to rise substantially. 

Banks can meet these expectations by using FSO as it allows them to proactively resolve complaints through effective routing, knowledge base management, trend deciphering, and notifying. For instance, whenever a potential service outage is on the cards, the users can be notified about the same. This also applies to cases where a security issue pertaining to a certain transaction window has been identified. 

One of the key facets of proactive problem resolution is employing the right person for the right job. FSO expedites the analysis of performance metrics that outline how the agents have been performing — thus allowing for intelligent service allocation. 

Here’s what precisely contributes to customer experience enhancement:

1. Process automation via AI, which reduces operational costs by 30-40% by automating tasks, can help streamline the “process” of a customer’s complaint inquiry, thereby saving time and resources.
2. Instant access to information allows banks to proactively resolve complaints or block (spam) future calls by tailoring the service accordingly.
3. The AI-enabled “knowledge partner” can be used to obtain knowledge on trends in pricing, products, and services across the customer base. 
4. This helps in cutting down on time for research that would have otherwise been required in cases where the system is not equipped with predictive analytics.
5. The AI-enabled bot can be used to provide personalized inputs based on real-time context. This is made possible by correlating transactional data, customer profiles, and the like.

3. A New Face for Financial Management

Disconnected payment systems, manual processing, and a slew of other aspects, including the frictions and fallacies prevalent in the front-end operations of banks, collectively hinder business agility. 

Azad et al. from McKinsey & Company point out that “a third of clients report being unsatisfied with the quality of financial advice from their main bank.” On the same note, “at least one in five clients moved their assets to another bank, due to their banks’ performance during the COVID-19 crisis.”

Favorably, FSO lets banks bridge this gap via a host of features to enhance collaboration, accelerate visibility, and ingest automated interactions.

Here’s how FSO can help banks achieve this: 

1. With an integrated suite of financial management tools, banks are equipped to smoothen the payment systems and undertake streamlined reconciliation tasks.
2. The front-office automation tools help the bank function more efficiently. This is made possible by creating a new “intelligent” service management system.
3. The risk assessment capabilities let banks secure their payment systems while helping them identify and eliminate anomalies or fraudulent activities using the insights available with FSO. 
4. The customer feedback and satisfaction assessment tools aid in identifying the needs and pain points of their customers. This, in turn, results in better customer service through enhanced insight and intelligence. 

FSO – The New Era of Information Management in the Banking Sector

Customer experience is the key enabler of growth for banks. As such, banks are actively looking to make their business more agile, resident-centric, and customer-centric. To achieve this, they need cutting-edge technology platforms to leverage their analytics capabilities. And in this day and age, there’s none better than FSO.