Remote Video Banking: Future Proof Branch Strategies
Photo Credit: https://writix.co.uk/ Deploying a digital-first banking platform is not only now possible, but mandatory for financial institutions of all sizes — but this doesn’t mean getting rid of physical locations altogether. 77% of customers still prefer visiting the branch when they want to discuss complex financial topics, and even for digital banking customers, speaking with a live representative still evokes the greatest amount of positive sentiment. Finding that perfect balance between digital and human services is the key to establishing a future proof branch. As a follow up to Part 3 in our series, today we will be examining the 4th of 5 different strategies that banks and credit unions can implement in order to set their branches up for success in this rapidly changing landscape. Introduce Remote Video Banking Video banking has been popular for years now, with many banks having installed ITMs — interactive teller machines — for their drive-up and in-branch kiosks. A number of financial institutions have been successful with this technology, but technology has evolved, and consumer habits with it. Today, millions of people are making video calls through FaceTime and Skype every day, video conferencing in the office is commonplace, and telecommuting is on the rise. With remote video calling becoming so mainstream, customers are beginning to question the need for a branch visit in order to engage with a banking assistant. The expectation that their financial institution extend the same capabilities that they enjoy everyday in communicating with their friends and colleagues to things like mortgage applications and investment consultations is on the rise. “We recognize that [SMB customers] work unconventional hours, are traveling or might not be able to visit a branch for a number of other reasons. Being able to access RBC Small Business specialists via video wherever and whenever they want helps them maintain that personal connection they expect with our bank.” Cathy HonorSVP Contact Centers, Royal Bank of Canada Currently, most remote video offerings like those of RBC are created for specific use cases — with RBC it’s SMB clients, while others like Barclay’s provide limited retail banking services. In these early stages, these constraints to service levels work to streamline implementation as specialized representatives are able to serve customers from central video contact centers. However, if remote video banking is to be extended to more services in the future, it should also be extended to include the branch itself. Along with allowing branches to leverage the talented and experienced staff they already employ, it would allow customers the option to engage in a video engagement with a local representative that they know and trust. This not only plays to the strengths of the branch in providing expert face-to-face financial advice, but also fits with what customers are expecting from digital services. According to research from Kony Inc, although 57% of customers want all products, services and support to be available digitally, they want those digital offerings to be supported by a named company representative. Customers want digital, but they also want the trust, security and relationship that comes from physical services. This means combining physical and digital services rather than separating them into two divergent channels — the branch and the video contact center should be working to support each other. Are Customers Ready? According to a recent study, the future of video banking looks bright, with the vast majority of consumers who try it rating the experience highly. Somewhat surprisingly, consumers who have used in-branch video banking rate their satisfaction with the service slightly higher than those using video services remotely. A difference that could be the result of remote video banking customers having to navigate the system on their own. The study also found that it is inaccurate to assume that younger, more upscale customers are the most likely to accept video banking. In their research, it was found that all consumers, regardless of age, gender or socioeconomic status, are generally open to trying video banking if/when their bank or credit union asks them. The fact is that as branches continue to shrink, customers are still going to want to get face time with skilled advisors. The numbers show that 50% of US financial customers are willing to try online banking if their bank offers it, and as illustrated previously, they are generally quite accepting of the technology once they’ve experienced it for themselves. With this in mind, a branch looking toward the future would do well to begin bringing video banking capabilities into their locations today. Doing so will not only enable them to differentiate themselves from the competition today, but to provide both themselves and their customers with a head start on the larger remote video banking transition that is almost sure to happen in the future. Check out the other articles in the Future Proof Branch Strategies Series: PART ONE – Self Service Kiosks Examining the benefits and capabilities that self service kiosks can bring to your branch by eliminating many of the pain points that customers associate with their visit. PART TWO – Café Style Branches We discuss design changes in the lobby that can help to encourage relationship building and conversations between advisors and their customers. PART THREE – Smart ATMs Exploring the changes that are being introduced through new Smart ATMs and where that may take us — and the frontline staff that many fear they replace — in the years ahead. What Next? Looking for more strategies to meet your customers’ changing expectations around the in-branch experience? Download the full report Becoming Future Proof: Five Proven Strategies for the Branches of the Future to learn more methods in technology, design, and service that branches can take advantage of to adapt in the rapidly changing financial landscape. Interested to hear what top experts in financial customer experience have to say about the coming challenges branches are looking forward to? Watch our panel discussion Embracing a Customer-First Mindset: Eliminate Friction Points in Your Customer Multi-Channel Journey. Ready to start taking
How to Attract and Retain Millennial Customers in 2020
As the first generation to be raised with the absolute ease of technology – the norm of face-to-face interactions for banks and credit unions has shifted. Because of this, banks and credit unions face a difficult challenge; how do you attract and retain millennial customers who want to minimize interaction, and crave an enhanced digital experience. For those up to meeting this challenge – it could signify their greatest opportunity for growth. Over the next 10 years, 75% of customers seeking wealth management and personal financial services will be millennials. This is a concerning statistic for many finserv organizations since the millennial customer shows a number of differences in the way they prefer to interact with organizations compared to older generations. We will discuss the differences in how to communicate with a millennial customer and how an appointment management solution can help attract the up and coming generation and reduce churn. How can Coconut Software upgrade your institution’s digital presence and capabilities? Download the Ultimate Guide to Digitally Transforming the Appointment Experience today. Attract and Retain Millennial Customers – The Challenges 1. Millennials Have Higher Customer Service Expectations Millennials have grown up in the midst of the digital transformation and are used to the benefits that come with it. The digital experience has enabled many industries to increase the quality of the services they provide in terms of customer experience, and millennials have become accustomed to premium treatment. Financial Services is one of the oldest industries in the world, and also one of the last to begin the digital transformation. This is causing the millennial customer to seek out businesses that provide them with convenient digital service that they desire. 2. Millennials Prefer to Interact With Brands Digitally Millennials are a digital-centric generation, meaning they rely strongly on technology in their daily life, specifically their smartphones. Millennials expect immediate, online access to their finserv provider, whereas older generations were very comfortable picking up the phone or waiting for their service provider to get back to them. Millennial customers, more than other generation, are asking themselves, “if I can schedule a massage, order groceries and buy flights online, why can’t I book an appointment with my bank?” 3. Millennials Won’t Stay Loyal Just Because You Have a History Millennials are 2 to 3 times more likely to change service providers than any other generation. They are used to a digital experience with enhanced customer service, and they are not worried about leaving a current provider for an organization that meets all of their needs. And soon, those customers will make up the majority of the workforce. In fact, 30% of millennials report they have left their current bank or credit union because they found another finserv organization that provided a better experience. Attract and Retain Millennial Customers – How Appointment Management Solutions Help The increasing demands of the millennial customer are concerning to the legacy structure of the finserv industry, however, there are ways to keep the value of your business interactions while implementing solutions to attract the growing population of millennial customers and reduce churn. An appointment management tool offers multiple solutions to your millennial customer problem. 1. Improve Customer Experience With New Insight Into Customer Behavior When your organization leverages an appointment management solution, you will gain additional insight into the customer’s behavior and history with your organization. When you have an integrated scheduling platform, your customer-facing staff can access all the information collected during the appointment-booking. This will allow them to prepare for their upcoming appointment with the customer, enabling them to provide the enhanced customer experience the millennial customer craves. 2. Give Your Customers What They Want With Real-Time Online Appointment Scheduling With an integrated appointment management solution, you can offer real-time, 24/7 online appointment scheduling. This will allow your customers to schedule in-person interactions with your organization whenever and wherever they want, minimizing human interactions with your organization, which the millennial customer loves to avoid. Additionally, when your customers book appointments online, they will also receive reminders on their smartphones, which the average millennial checks about 43 times a day, reducing the chances of no-show appointments. 3. Keep Customers Loyal With Direct Feedback With an appointment management solution, your organization can send out automated follow-up emails to customers to gain feedback on the experience they had. People love to be asked their opinion, and asking your customers about their experience with your organization will make them feel valued and earn you major brownie points. We know millennials are less loyal than previous generations, but we also know customers who feel their financial services provider listens to their needs are more likely to remain loyal to that brand. Following-up with millennial customers and asking about the experience they had with your organization makes them feel like their opinion matters. Streamlining the digital experience up to the in-person interaction, while leveraging technology to provide a premium experience, will set your organization apart. Millennials are a completely new type of customer for the FinServ industry, and by leveraging a digital experience, your organization will be able to provide the services the millennial customer desires in order to attract new business and reduce churn. Discover A Modern Way to Engage Get In Touch What Next? Ready to learn more about upgrading your institution’s digital presence and capabilities? Download our Ultimate Guide to Digitally Transforming the Appointment Experience today. Looking to boost revenue and deliver a premium experience to your clients? Schedule a consultation with Coconut Software to learn more about how our appointment scheduling solutions can get you there.
4 Fintech Innovations for Creating Deeper Connections
The top 4 tech innovations in fintech emerging are turning casual bankers into devoted customers. How can banks and credit unions benefit from this trend?
Strategies for the Impending Baby Boomer Crisis
Explore the boomer issues presented in a recent Financial Brand article, & how Coconut’s customer experience software fits into the marketing strategy.
5 Things Financial Institutions Forget During a Digital Transformation
Make your digital initiatives work for you, not against you. Check our top 5 digital transformation errors and how Coconut Software can help you avoid them.
Balancing Millennials and Boomers in a Self-Service Era
Looking for a self-service digital solution to improve customer experience for Millennials and Boomers? There’s more common ground than most banks realize.
6 Simple Ways to Optimize Your Website Calls-To-Action to Increase Appointment Volume and Revenue
In our last blog, we discussed how to increase the probability of customers successfully booking an appointment with your organization, by reducing the number of steps it takes to complete a call-to-action. To drive even more revenue-generating appointments through calls-to-action on your website, your organization can use appointment booking software to eliminate friction, track and measure CTA conversion rate, and optimize CTA performance with A/B testing. In this blog, we’ll cover the ways in which you can further optimize your CTAs to increase appointment volume and revenue. Why CTAs Are Critical in Generating More Appointments and Revenue. Financial services organizations are typically appointment-driven, meaning that new business is generated through in-person interactions between an advisor and the customer. When in-person interactions carry such high value, it is crucial that your CTAs are engaging enough to convert digital customer engagement into an in-person interaction, in order to generate new business and increase revenue. 6 Variables to A/B Testing to Improve Your CTA’s There are many variables that go into creating an optimized CTA: where it is, what it looks like and what it says. All of these variables contribute to whether or not a customer engages with your CTA. Here are some of the different components of the CTA that you can optimize with A/B testing: Headlines and value propositions, to receive the most engagement Colors of CTA buttons Placement of the CTA – to the right, above the fold? Landing page layout #1 Focus on a primary CTA for the landing page. One way to optimize CTA performance is to have one goal for each page on your website, and tailor the accompanying CTA to one desired customer action. Providing more than one CTA on a given page can overwhelm the customer and reduce the probability that they will complete the desired action. Each page on your website should correspond to a specific CTA in order to streamline the experience for the customer and increase your conversion rate. #2 Review your page headline and value proposition to ensure that it resonates. Through A/B testing the headlines and value propositions on your landing pages, you will learn more about the individuals visiting your website, as well as what does and does not engage them. By better understanding your audiences’ preferences, you will be able to produce headlines that are relevant to your customers and increase the chances of landing page action completions. Here are some headlines and value propositions that may help increase customer engagement: Save for retirement Start saving for your child’s future interests and activities Stay on top of your spending #3 Use language that’s direct, persuasive and prompts your visitors to take action. According to the Nielsen Norman Group, the average attention span of a digital customer is 10 seconds per web page that they visit. If you want your customers to engage with you, you need to “talk” to them with clear and direct CTA messaging. You should use tangible and action-oriented language to provide your customers with clear direction about what they will get by clicking on the specific CTA. These are some common calls-to-action for banking and credit unions: Book an Appointment Open a Chequing Account Find a Branch or Location Pre-Qualify for a Mortgage #4 Test different visual formats. Another way to keep the journey simple for your customers is by using buttons for your CTAs instead of links. When your pages are full of text it can be easy to miss the CTA when it is embedded as a link in the text. By creating button CTAs, you are increasing visibility and the probability of customer engagement. #5 Optimize your landing page layout. One way to increase the engagement of your CTAs is through providing a very direct path to your customers. Your landing pages should include an organized visual hierarchy that will take your customers through a set of cohesive steps so that they are equipped with the information they need when they reach the CTA. One of the ways to foster engagement is through a page layout known as the Z-pattern, which follows the natural habits of a customer when they read your web-page. The design traces the route that the human eye travels when reading — left to right, top to bottom. If you follow this pattern when leading to your CTAs then you may have a higher chance of achieving your desired customer engagement. #6 Provide secondary calls-to-action throughout the customer journey, for those who aren’t ready to take that next step. Although you do not want the CTAs on your landing pages to be competing for the attention of the customer, it is beneficial to provide subtle secondary CTAs for individuals early on in the buying process, who require more information before they engage in your primary CTA. This could be incorporated deeper into your landing page and say something like “Want more information?” Streamline the customer appointment booking journey across all channels and increase appointment volume with Coconut Software. Coconut Software enables you to streamline the customer appointment booking journey–from clicking a ‘Book an Appointment” CTA, to improving the conversion rate in your appointment booking funnel. Implementing a self-serve booking channel helps you accept after-hours appointment demand that you may not be capturing today, which can increase appointment volume by 41%. A self-serve appointment channel also helps you decrease no-shows, with automated appointment confirmations and pre-appointment reminders. And, over time, improving the customer appointment booking experience can lead to higher appointment value. When customers start their journey with your financial institution with clear, accessible CTA language, an intuitive appointment booking flow and convenient reminders about when to arrive and what to bring for their appointment, the advisor is better set up to deliver a successful appointment. What’s Next? Ready to discover what areas of your customer journey are damaging your customer effort score? Schedule a customer effort assessment. Interested in learning how appointment scheduling can help your entire organization engage more efficiently and effectively with customers?
Measure Your Marketing Campaign Success
Learn how tracking your marketing campaign success is vital to improving conversions and ROI, and how Coconut Software can help.
Partnering With Vendors Providing Custom Branding
Have you ever visited a company website, clicked on a link from a call to action, and been redirected over to a web page that no longer looked or felt like the brand? If so, did you continue along the customer journey? Or did you bounce? Inconsistent branding can lead to brand confusion as well as a poor customer experience. Your organization’s branding is its public representation. Ensuring that your third-party partner can offer custom branding that matches your guidelines is crucial when you’re aiming to create a cohesive journey for your customers. Here are the benefits of partnering with a vendor that fully supports custom branding and the risks of choosing a solution that fails to do so. Create a Cohesive Customer Journey Customers expect to have pleasant, streamlined interactions with their service providers, and with the increased demand for efficient customer experience, it is imperative that your organization provides the high level of service customers are beginning to demand. Creating a cohesive journey for your customers includes keeping your company messaging and visual appearance consistent, no matter what steps they take through your customer-facing channels. The Importance of Custom Branding with Third-Party Tools When your organization builds the customer journey with touchpoints powered by third-party vendors it is crucial that those platforms can support your organization’s custom branding to keep the customer journey as consistent as possible. For example, let’s say you have implemented a scheduling solution into your organization’s online platform. When a customer clicks on ‘Schedule an Appointment’, it will take them off your website and into the third-party tool. If the branding on the page is not consistent with your company’s branding guidelines, the customer could abandon the process, thinking the site is not affiliated with your organization due to lack of branding consistency. This can lead to lost revenue due to your customer abandoning their appointment scheduling journey, and leaves you open to the risk of churn. Losing customers to something as simple as inconsistent branding is a scary thought, but it’s something that is easy to avoid. When the vendors you choose to partner with offer full support for custom branding, your customers will not be able to distinguish between your home platform and the third-party solution, providing them with an enhanced yet consistent experience. According to Capgemini, 91% of banks already want to collaborate with FinTechs to provide their customers with an enhanced experience. Why Brand Messaging and Tone is Important with Third-Party Tools Consistency in brand messaging is just as important as a consistent appearance for third-party solutions. For example, if your brand’s voice is friendly and whimsical, yet the tone used in the third-party solution is cold and stark, it can quickly change your customer’s attitude towards your organization, potentially causing them to abandon their journey and costing you business. Whether you are using a third-party vendor within your online platform or using it to communicate with customers through email or social media, it is crucial that you have the ability to provide consistent brand messaging to create a cohesive experience for your customers. Custom Branding ROI When you invest in a solution that fully supports custom branding your organization will experience a return on investment. The main benefits that come with custom branding are that it reduces churn by creating a cohesive experience for your customers, as well as helps acquire new business due to brand recognition. In fact, 77% of B2B marketing leaders state branding is critical to the growth of an organization. Recognition for Current Customers Marketing efforts are not just for acquiring new customers. They also help promote new services and products to your current customers. If you are using a third-party solution to communicate with customers via email or social media, consistent branding is crucial so customers recognize and acknowledge the information you are trying to communicate. If the branding of your customer messaging is off, it could cause customers to disregard your message entirely since they do not recognize who the content is coming from. Another scenario is that the customer does see the content, but is wary of the source due to the inconsistent branding and proceeds to ignore it. Brand Recognition and Customer Acquisition When an organization is recognizable due to their consistent branding, they are perceived as more dependable and reliable. According to BrandExtract, “A consistent brand helps increase the overall value of your company by reinforcing your position in the marketplace, attracting better-quality customers with higher retention rates and raising the perceived value of your products or services.” When partnering with a vendor that does not support full branding, you are placing your organization at risk of customers ignoring or not recognizing your communication efforts. This is problematic because if customers do not recognize your communication efforts they might feel as though your organization is dropping the ball in terms of providing a premium customer service. Additionally, this could result in a loss of potential revenue because your customers are missing out on communications regarding promotions or new service offerings. Experience Full Support for Custom Branding with Coconut Coconut Software’s enterprise appointment scheduling solution fully supports your organization’s branding, from the messaging style for email and SMS notifications, to the shape and color of the buttons in your scheduling solution. With our solution, customers can schedule appointments directly through your organization’s website. They’ll also receive confirmation messages after the appointment is scheduled and reminder notifications leading up to the appointment. With full support for custom branding, the look of the scheduling interface will match the rest of your company’s website, and the custom emails will follow your brand guidelines so that your customers recognize the consistent look and feel they are used to and know which organization is contacting them. Looking to boost revenue and deliver a premium experience to your clients? Schedule a consultation with Coconut Software to learn more about how our appointment scheduling solutions can get you there.
Benchmarking Your New Technology Implementation
Going through a new technology implementation is no small feat. You want to ensure that, once complete, your new solution delivers measurable results against your organization’s KPIs by benchmarking your new technology implementation. One way to ensure you are getting the best ROI from your new appointment scheduling solution is by benchmarking your new technology implementation. This blog discusses the importance of setting benchmarks, and how you can use them to ensure you are getting the most out of your new appointment scheduling solution. The Risks of Not Tracking Your Benchmarks By not benchmarking your new technology implementation, you risk paying for an underperforming solution. With new technology, there is a high chance of a low adoption rate. However, if you do not know the analytics for the adoption rate of your new solution, there is no way for you to find and manage ways to increase its use within your organization. If this is the case, you will end up paying for a solution no one is using, and, ultimately, does not contribute to improving your operational efficiencies. Additionally, if your new solution is customer-facing and you are not collecting feedback on the experience it provides, you risk providing customers with a solution causing them undue frustration, instead of the positive impact you anticipated. Failing to collect feedback on your new solution will prevent you from gaining a better understanding of how your implementation fits into the customer journey. By failing to track benchmarks related to your new solution, you’re essentially stumbling around in the dark, having no idea how it’s performing. Different organizations have different use cases. Just because the technology was successfully implemented a certain way in one organization, does not mean it will work for you and your customers. Receiving feedback allows you to manage your new implementation to ensure it is functioning in the most beneficial way for your organization and its unique use case. The Importance Benchmarking Your New Technology Implementation Setting clearly defined goals for what your new solution should accomplish will provide you with a picture of what success looks like. This will also enable you to measure the success of your new implementation. By tracking the benchmarks for your new solution, you will be able to manage the adoption of the tool, see how it is increasing revenue, and what improvements it has made to the customer experience. Drive Customer Adoption Implementing a new solution with the potential to significantly improve operational efficiencies is great, but low customer adoption is one of the biggest barriers to success. With enterprise appointment scheduling, you will be able to track how many of your appointments are directed through which channels, and exactly where your customers are dropping off the line in the appointment booking journey. Understanding where friction points exist in the customer journey will help you figure out what needs tweaking to capture more appointments and increase adoption. Capturing analytics will allow your organization to see how well your customers have adopted your new solution. On average, Coconut Software customers have noticed an increase of 41% of appointments scheduled through their new, online portal. Increase Growth with Cross-Enterprise Visibility If you are an appointment-driven business, you rely on customers to schedule appointments with your organization to drive revenue. With enterprise appointment scheduling, you can accurately track the number of appointments scheduled, and see their status, whether completed, canceled or no-show. This will allow your organization to maintain cross-enterprise oversight of key appointment metrics that will impact revenue projections, workforce decisions, and other important strategic considerations. Coconut customers have experienced a 12.5% increase in the number of appointments being booked with their organization. By tracking the number of appointments booked, you will be able to see the increase in revenue that your new scheduling solution has contributed to your organization. Improve the Customer Experience If you are an appointment driven business, your operational processes will affect the quality of service you provide to your customers. With an appointment scheduling solution, you will be able to track the satisfaction of each customer regarding their experience with your organization. Since enterprise appointment scheduling is a customer-facing solution, you can receive direct feedback about the experience your new solution provides, and get feedback on what can be improved. Providing a personalized service is one way your organization can show your customers you value them, such as sending personalized reminders for upcoming appointments. Coconut customers have experienced a 23% decrease in no-show appointments through tracking their appointment analytics. This allows your organization to see how these personalized reminders perform, which directly affects the customer experience. How Coconut Helps You Manage Your Benchmarks At Coconut, our onboarding team is dedicated to providing our customers with a personalized implementation process to ensure you receive the most out of your scheduling solution. During the implementation process, our onboarding staff will discuss current challenges and overall goals with the stakeholders involved in the roll-out of your new solution to understand and help create your unique workflow. With the information about your unique use case and challenges you are hoping to address, we will help you set realistic benchmarks for your new solution. And, moving forward, our customer success team is available to help you track and manage your goals and metrics after you go live, through tutorials on how to use our platform reporting tool, and conducting bi-weekly meetings. By tracking the benchmarks of your new solution, you will give yourself peace of mind knowing you chose the best solution for your organization and that it is delivering business results against your KPIs. What Next? Looking to boost revenue and deliver a premium experience to your clients? Schedule a consultation with Coconut Software to learn more about how our appointment scheduling solutions can get you there.
Why Integrate CRM With Your Appointment Management Solution
Appointment management software plays a critical role in any organizations digital transformation. To get the most out of your solution, integrating your CRM software is a necessity. Doing so avoids a disjointed operations and a silo’d workforce, not to mention setting your organization up for future success. If you choose to implement and integrate a appointment management solution with your business CRM, you’ll want to ensure both applications provide an open API. This will allow your business to integrate both systems and experience the ultimate benefits of enhancing your operational processes. The Risks of Not Integrating Your CRM If your organization chooses a appointment management solution that does not provide integration options, you are placing yourself at an increased risk of slowing down operational processes, increasing informational gaps, and creating a disjointed customer experience. Impact on Operational Processes The information necessary for appointment management appointments, that also has to be stored in your CRM application, will require duplicate data entry if your appointment management solution is not integrated with your business CRM. This is going to be a nightmare for staff responsible for recording customer information, as they’ll have to re-input data that already exists in another application. And it will cost your organization money due to wasted staff time. Duplicate data entry is also problematic since it leaves room for error when an individual is asked to manually transfer information from one application to another. Disjointed Customer Experience Not integrating your appointment management solution with your CRM application may mean you are inadvertently delivering a disjointed customer experience. At the time of the appointment scheduling, your customer can give additional insight into their needs, and what they hope to accomplish in their upcoming appointment. But, if up-to-date information is not available when your customer-facing staff check the scheduling system to gain insight into a customer’s needs, they’ll end up working with outdated or no information at all. If you were the customer who scheduled an appointment with your financial services provider, imagine how frustrating it would be to answer several questions during the appointment scheduling, only to find out their advisor doesn’t have access to that information. Now, they have to answer the same questions again, since their advisor prepared for the appointment based on outdated information. Process without a CRM, appointment scheduling integration in your contact center Individual contacts your organization to book an appointment Contact center representative asks the individual for their basic information Contact center representative has no idea if the individual is a current or new customer Contact center representative has to input all the customer’s information to schedule the appointment Once the appointment is scheduled, the representative has to log into your business CRM to manually input this information for the second time, taking up time and leaving room for error Process with a CRM, appointment scheduling integration Individual contacts your organization to book an appointment Contact center representative asks the individual for their basic information Contact center representative can see if the individual is a current or new customer If the individual is a new customer, the information put into the scheduling system will also be saved to your organization’s CRM If they are a returning customer, the CRM will be able to populate the fields in the scheduling system, saving time for both the call center representative and the customer The result is a more streamlined reporting and back-end process The 3 Benefits of Integrating CRM When you are an appointment driven business, you want to ensure you are providing a premium experience to your customers, so they want to continue working with you. Integrating your appointment management solution with your CRM will enable your institution to communicate more effectively with your clients, streamline operational processes and improve communication. 1. Streamline Operational Processes Having a single, integrated platform, it will eliminate the task of duplicate data entry. Once both of your applications storing customer information are integrated, your staff will no longer have to input the same customer data into multiple applications. Not only does this streamline operational processes by removing a time-consuming task, but it increases the accuracy of customer information. Coconut Software’s appointment management platform allows your appointment analytics to directly sync to your CRM application so you can track metrics such as attempted and completed customer interactions with your business, and the customer information collected when the appointment was scheduled. The customer and company data is updated in real time, ensuring your advisors have the most recent customer data, allowing your organization to provide a premium customer experience and enhance operational efficiencies. 2. Enhance the Customer Experience Having your appointment management solution paired with your CRM application allows for all customer information to be stored in one place, enabling you to use multiple channels and streamline operational processes. Coconut Software’s appointment management platform allows you to capture and track information about the products your specific customers are using, and their previous behavior with your organization. With this information, you can tailor future interactions to meet their needs. For example, one of your customer-facing advisors checks the history of a customer with an upcoming appointment to discuss insurance plan options. While looking into their history, the advisor can see the customer has invested in a TFSA with your organization in the past. With this insight, the advisor prepares a pitch for another type of investment account to share with the customer during their appointment. This allows your organization to potentially up-sell customers and shows you are in tune with their needs and past behaviors. 3. Enhance Company Communication Another benefit of integrating your appointment management solution with your CRM application is that you can improve communication within your organization by having all of your employees working from the same platform. When a customer schedules an appointment through either your business’s online channel or contact center, the information collected at that time will also be visible in your CRM. This allows your customer-facing staff to have the necessary insight into
Investing in New Technology Training
Successfully implementing your digital transformation doesn’t end after launching new software/technology. Investing in new technology training is a key step in the implementation process to produce optimal results. Implementing new technology is great, but if you don’t know how to use it properly, you may be paying for features or functionality that aren’t delivering much value. Many organizations offer add-on training sessions to teach customers how to navigate all the features of their new implementation, which allow you to optimize the return on your investment. According to Middlesex University, 56% of HR Managers consider training and development to be an essential business enabler. Time is money, and one might think that training is a drain on time, that could be better spent working. However, the real cost that will negatively affect your organization comes into play if you’re not planning or executing your training programs correctly. Why Invest in New Technology Training? Choosing to invest in additional training sessions will allow your organization to get the most out of your new implementation. Ideally, you’ve chosen a solution that provides the most benefits to your organization. Getting trained on your new solution allows your staff to learn from the experts on how to utilize the new features and functionality, which means that you can expect the best return on your investment. No matter what solution you have chosen, it is going to have some impact on either your customer-facing channels and/or your back-end processes. Getting trained on your new implementation will enable your staff to use the new solution in the best way, in order to maximize operational processes. Although your vendor might have an amazing support team, it uses a lot of your organization’s time if your staff rely solely on customer support to manage your new implementation. The risk of relying on customer support from your technology vendor is that it can lead to inefficient operational process, waiting for the vendor’s support team to address basic questions about the solution that could be managed in-house if your staff receive the proper training. Additionally, investing in a training program for your new solution will greatly increase its adoption amongst your employees. When your staff are properly trained on how to manage your new technology solution, they will be much more likely to adopt it and benefit from the features it provides. allowing your organization to function at an optimal level. Avoid Poor Adoption and Frustrated Employees Your new implementation can become more of a detriment than a benefit if you choose to forgo a training program, ultimately blocking-up your operational processes. By opting to not go through a training program of your new implementation, you open yourself up to the risk of poor adoption by employees in your organization. If employees are not properly trained on how to effectively use the new software, there is little chance that your new implementation is going to have a high adoption rate. This is problematic as you will have different individuals within your organization using different applications and workflows, leading to disorganized back-end processes, which will inevitably lead to a poor customer experience. Not providing training for your employees can also increase turnover, especially if it is integrated into the regular tasks of their job. Not providing your employees with training on your new implementation that you are requiring them to use can cause frustration. This is due to the pressure being put on employees to use technology that they are not familiar with, resulting in blocked-up operational processes. Technology solutions are not cheap and typically involve a lot of effort from your organization to choose and subsequently implement. Spending the extra money on a training program for your new implementation is a worthwhile investment for your organization as it properly teaches employees how to successfully use the new solution and enhance operations processes. Why Invest in Coconut Software Training? At Coconut, our onboarding team is dedicated to providing our customers with a personalized implementation process, to ensure that you receive the most out of your scheduling solution. During the implementation process, our onboarding staff will conduct consultations with the stakeholders involved in the roll-out of your new solution, to understand and help create your unique workflow. Should you choose to take advantage of the training program for your new solution, our staff will use your use case as a base for putting together a customized training package. We have several learning materials available in terms of how your organization can go through the training process, all customizable to your organization’s use case and branding: Recorded, interactive webinars Modular tutorial videos Written user guides Recorded webinars This is a recorded, interactive training tool that includes a live tutorial on how to maneuver your new scheduling solution. Additionally, serving as a guide that you can refer to down the road. Modular Videos This training tool includes recorded videos on how to use the solution, tailored to your organization’s unique use case, and can be shared within your company, as well as uploaded to your organization’s LMS, or Learning Management System. User Guide User guides are written documentation that explains how to use your solution. We tailor the information in the user guide to fit your unique use case, as well as brand the document according to your organization’s guidelines. It is important that your employees get the training they require when first implementing new technology within your organization to streamline operational processes and foster high adoption. However, it is also crucial that you have the necessary resources available to onboard new employees an train them on your solution down the road. The amount of time and effort that goes into choosing and implementing new technology, it is in your best interest to empower yourself, as well as your employees, with the necessary training in order to get the most out of your new solution as well as improve operational efficiencies. What Next? Looking to boost revenue and deliver a premium experience to your
Why Partner with a Vendor that Offers Open API
When choosing a new third-party solution, you want to ensure it can provide optimal functionality with features such as open API.
Assembling Your Software Implementation Team
In order to streamline the implementation process of your new technology solution, it is important that, (along with support from the decision makers in your organization) you gain inter-departmental support, essentially building an implementation team to speed up the process. Failing to establish your software implementation team can be very problematic when the times comes to roll-out your new solution. Not gathering input from various departments within your organization could lead you to choose a solution that is not viable for many other teams within your organization and that is missing elements necessary to meet the needs of other problem areas. Ultimately, this can cause roadblocks later on in your roll-out process. Here are some of the was in which your software implementation team can make the roll-out of your new solution that much easier. Is the Software Solution Viable? Gathering representatives from various departments early on in the process will help you choose the best solution for the issues your organization is experiencing. Assembling a software implementation team made up of individuals from various departments will ensure it is a viable solution for the departments that will use and benefit from it. And, with their early support, they will help clear the path for a smooth roll-out of your solution. Meet Everyones Needs By establishing the software implementation team early on, you will ensure the solution meets everyone’s needs. You will want to get the most out of your new software solution, and by learning what the needs are from the departments that will benefit from this solution, you will be able to get the best return on investment. Additionally, the department representatives on your software implementation team will become advocates for the new implementation. Members of different departments will be able to sell the solution to their team, encouraging employees to adapt to the new technology at a quicker rate. Prevent Roadblocks Your software implementation team will help smooth out the roll-out of your solution. You will also gain feedback from each department about how to best roll-out the solution to meet their needs, providing support for the logistics of the implementation. Establishing a software implementation team made up of members from various departments in your organization will help avoid roadblocks later in the process, as each department benefiting from the solution had an advocate of theirs involved from the beginning. This ensures your solution is realistic and beneficial. Who Should be on Your Software Implementation Team? Most organizations, when rolling-out new tech solutions, develop teams that include members of the Marketing and IT teams, representation from other business units, and a project manager to lead the process. Each representative plays an important role in the implementation process and will help ensure your new solution will meet the needs of every benefiting department. Project Manager A project manager is a key member of the software implementation team. Their main responsibility is ensuring the roll-out of your new solution is seamless and efficient. The main role of the project manager is to conduct day-to-day correspondence with your software solution provider and manage the other members of the software implementation team. This job is critical, as it ensures the roll-out process accommodates all the benefiting departments in your organization, and that other members of the software implementation team complete the necessary tasks to ensure a seamless roll-out. IT As this is a technology implementation, it is crucial that you involve your IT team early on. They will be able to give insight into what is possible in terms of a technology integration within your organization. Additionally, they can give insight into any adjustments needed to make this a high functioning, compatible solution within your organization. Your IT team also knows your back-end processes better than we do, making them a crucial component in ensuring you have a seamless installation and configuration of your new solution. These team members will be most interested in understanding more about our open API, and how the solution can be customized to meet the needs of the organization. Marketing Implementing a new customer-facing solution needs to involve the marketing team. They will be crucial for raising awareness about your new solution, and ensuring the implementation is customer-ready with familiar branding and accessibility requirements. The marketing team is the most familiar with your organization’s customer-experience expectations. They’ll be most interested in determining how the appointment scheduling software can be custom-branded to fall in line with their branding guidelines and provide their customers with a seamless and consistent journey. Business Units Aside from Marketing and IT, there are many other departments within an organization that could benefit from your new solution. Be thorough, and add representatives from each department to your software implementation team. These members will be able to advocate for the needs of their departments and give insight into what the solution should offer to improve operational efficiencies within the organization. This also benefits the project manager, as they will be able to delegate tasks to each department representative, making the roll-out process that much quicker. By establishing your software implementation team, and composing it of members from various departments within your organization, you will be able to see the bigger picture of what your solution will have to accomplish. This will allow you to make sure the solution benefits as many aspects of your business as possible, giving you the highest possible return on investment. With Coconut, one customer success coach along with a project manager is dedicated to your implementation process to ensure you have a positive experience with us, as well as a seamless roll-out of your new scheduling solution. For more information about who you should include on your software implementation team to experience a seamless roll-out of your appointment scheduling solution, book a consultation today! What Next? Looking to boost revenue and deliver a premium experience to your clients? Schedule a consultation with Coconut Software to learn more about how our appointment scheduling solutions can get you there.
The Importance of Securing Early Buy-In from Decision Makers
Securing Early Buy-In: Mirroring the customer service trends evident in retail and other industries, bank and credit union customers are seeking to interact with their financial service providers in new ways. In response, many FinServ organizations are beginning a front-end (and back-end) digital transformation. Choosing the right technology solution for your organization is the first big hurdle, but planning and executing a successful implementation can be a challenge unto itself. One way to ensure that the implementation runs smoothly is by securing early buy-in from the decision-makers in your organization. The Importance of Early Buy-In Not acquiring early buy-in from your key decision-makers could leave you open to the risk of going through lengthy sales-cycles with various FinTech solutions, to ultimately find out that they do not meet the needs of the stakeholders in your organization. This ends up costing you time and slows down your digital transformation process. Early buy-in from decision-makers will ensure you have support throughout the process, allowing for an efficient roll-out of your technology solution. It is in your best interests to start by assessing the needs of each stakeholder before you start the sales cycle for a new technology implementation. This way, the implementation process becomes much easier, increasing the pace at which your new implementation can be up and running with the support from ‘higher-ups’ within your organization. Of course, bringing the solution to the attention of decision-makers early on in the process is one thing, but securing buy-in is another. Here are some ways your organization can gain support for your next technology investment. Highlight the Operational Inefficiencies to Solve The first step in securing buy-in from stakeholders is to bring operational inefficiencies to their attention. A significant part of any technology implementation is to correctly identify the issues affecting the operational process within your organization. By doing so, you will be able to choose an implementation that will effectively tackle what’s going wrong, and will also improve key processes. Bringing these issues to the attention of decision-makers within your organization will help garner support for a new technology implementation. Issues that affect the customer experience and reduce efficiency mean the loss of revenue for your organization, and as soon as you highlight and emphasize issues that are currently affecting company revenue, decision-makers will be more likely to invest their support in a new solution. Pitch a Solution, Not the Product After highlighting the areas within your organization that are in need of an upgrade, it is wise to pitch the benefits of the new solution rather than the product itself. As an example, let’s say that your organization is experiencing long contact handle times in its contact center, causing customers who are trying to book an appointment to drop off the line. And once appointments are booked, your customer-facing staff are seeing high no-show rates, in part because you have no way to send automated reminders or calendar invites for appointments. To solve these issues, you have decided to implement integrated appointment scheduling in your organization. Pitching the implementation as a product look like this – “Integrated appointment scheduling will be beneficial to our organization, as it has many features that will enhance our operational processes, such as: The ability to track appointment analytics within our organization. Integration with our CRM and give customer-facing staff insight into customer history with our organization. Sending custom branded follow-up emails after appointment completion. Integration into our online platforms, giving customers 24/7, self-serve appointment scheduling.” Yes, these are the benefits that come with integrated appointment scheduling, but they are not what you need to highlight to secure buy-in from stakeholders. Rather, we recommend cutting to the chase and instead, highlight how the solution will help you solving problems that you’re currently experiencing. Pitching the implementation as a solution to the organization’s operational issues looks like this – “Integrated appointment scheduling is the right solution for our organization, as it has many features that will address the inefficiencies we are experiencing in our scheduling process. It will allow us to enhance the customer experience and improve operational processes, such as: Integrating all appointment scheduling applications into one platform. Streamlining the appointment scheduling process for our contact center representatives and significantly reducing contact handle time by having all applications on one platform. Automatically sending confirmation emails to customers after they have booked their appointment through the contact center. Using notifications to remind customers of their appointment to reduce the number of no-shows.” Know the Solution & Paint the Picture Highlighting the benefits of your ideal solution is beneficial, but drawing out how it will fit into your organization makes the idea more tangible, and increases your chances of buy-in. This is different from listing the features that will help solve the issues affecting your organization and is more of a “picture this” approach. Let’s say you have listed the benefits of an integrated appointment scheduling solution, but you still don’t have complete buy-in from your stakeholders. Now is the paint a picture of what the solution would look like in your organization. Describe Your Current State “Here is a breakdown of what currently happens in our contact center when a client tries to book an appointment: First Hold: Customer calls into the branch and is placed on hold for the next available representative. Basic details: Once the customer gets through to the representative, they are asked for their basic personal information, and what service they need. Second Hold: Customer is placed on hold for the second time while the contacts center representative searches through multiple platforms to find the necessary information to book the appointment. Checking branch locations: The representative searches for the nearest branch to the customer, typically using a geolocator. Searching available, qualified staff: Then the representative has to search through an extensive list of employees who work at that branch location to try and find an advisor who is qualified to conduct the service the customer requires. Checking staff availability: The contact
