How UC Eliminates Friction in the Customer Experience
Due to the global pandemic, digital transformation has exploded in the banking industry over the last year. Financial institutions are racing to keep up with consumer expectations that only continue to increase as the pandemic continues to encourage digital interactions. But the reality is that the customer experience in banking today often feels disjointed due to multiple solutions that banks are deploying to keep up with the digital demand – signaling the need for integrated unified communications to provide a frictionless cx.
In the last year alone, many banks have sought to expand their digital capabilities through the adoption of third-party solutions. The widespread adoption of these disparate technologies has now presented banks with unanticipated challenges – challenges that have a direct impact on the customer experience, which has become invaluable in today’s digital landscape. This lack of integration of multiple solutions leads to a fragmented and frustrating customer journey. Selecting a unified communications solution can help banks transform their customer experience while simultaneously improving agent efficiency.
The Impact of Outdated Technology on CX
Banks using legacy communications technology are limited in terms of the quality of customer experience they can provide. With outdated technology, the customer journey can often be quite choppy or fragmented. Customers find that they are unable to seamlessly transition between communication channels with legacy tech, making it a hassle to engage in an interaction with their financial institution. Customers calling into a branch usually experience long wait times and are shuffled around to different departments only to waste time before being routed to speak to the appropriate resource. These inefficiencies create friction and frustration in the customer experience.
Outdated phone systems not only have a negative impact on customer experience; branch representatives operating with this type of technology lack access to customer data, limiting the quality of customer service they are able to provide. And it’s not just the customer experience that suffers. In the back-office operations of a bank, a lack of third-party integration prevents the streamlining of business processes and stifles productivity.
Improved Processes Make for an Easy Experience
As all contact center management know, inefficient workflows can stifle productivity and inhibit digital collaboration among employees. With more contact center agents working remotely than ever before and customers demanding superior communication experiences, banks must develop and implement strategies to foster digital collaboration and improve cross-channel experiences while also protecting sensitive data. Many financial institutions are turning to unified communications (UC) solutions to meet these needs.
UC solutions benefit customers by providing seamless and consistent user experiences. Customers can easily complete banking transactions and effortlessly communicate with bank representatives through their preferred channels – preferences that can be fluid based on different situations. For example, consider the scenario of a customer that would like to schedule an appointment to meet with a loan officer at their bank to discuss applying for a mortgage. Rather than picking up the phone to call into the branch to set up a time for the appointment, the customer would prefer to schedule the appointment on the bank’s website. The customer chooses a time and date and selects the option to meet with a loan officer over video. On the day of the appointment, the customer decides to take the video call from their mobile device instead of their laptop while on their lunch break.
This seemingly simple customer journey involves multiple channels of communication – channels that today’s customers have come to expect will be readily available and easy to use when working with their financial institution. Banking organizations utilizing UC technology to power their contact centers can meet the expectations for a fluid, frictionless customer experience – one that enables customers to switch between modes of communication at any point in the journey.
In addition to providing a positive customer experience, UC solutions vastly simplify the processes and workflows that agents work with behind the scenes. Integrated UC equips bank employees with the tools that they need to provide superior service. Unified communications solutions make it easy for agents to work from anywhere without posing any security concerns. For banks, UC solutions protect sensitive data and provide a cost-effective way to comply with strict banking regulations that require financial institutions to record and store all customer communications as well as easily retrieve them when required.
