The Importance of Following-up After a Meeting
In a nutshell 🥥 Following up after a meeting is crucial for banks to build trust, ensure regulatory compliance, and maintain strong client relationships. Timely, clear, and personalized follow-ups help clarify next steps, reduce risks, and create competitive advantages by demonstrating genuine interest in clients’ needs. Leveraging technology like CRM systems and standardized email templates streamlines the process while preserving the personal touch essential to banking success. Avoiding common pitfalls such as delayed responses or generic communications further enhances client satisfaction and drives business growth. The Critical Role of Follow-Ups in Banking Success In today’s competitive banking landscape, the difference between closing a deal and losing a client often comes down to what happens after the meeting ends. While FIs invest heavily in acquiring new clients and developing and integrating innovative products into their workflows (think appointment management software, video banking, and bank data and analytics capture), many overlook a fundamental practice that can make or break client relationships: the strategic follow up after meetings. Research shows that teams implementing prompt, detailed follow ups complete 36% more action items on time compared to those without structured follow-up routines. For banks, where regulatory compliance, risk management, and client trust form the foundation of success, this statistic represents more than just operational efficiency—it’s about protecting the institution’s reputation and ensuring sustainable growth. The importance of following up after a meeting for banks extends far beyond simple courtesy. It’s a strategic business practice that impacts everything from regulatory compliance to revenue generation, making it essential for every banking professional to master. Why Post-Meeting Follow-Ups Are Critical for Banking Success It immediately impacts client trust and relationship building. When banking pros demonstrate genuine interest in client needs through thoughtful follow up, they create the foundation for strong client relationships. Since the financial services sector operates on trust, clients need to feel confident that their banker understands their specific needs and will deliver on promises made during meetings. Building strong client relationships requires consistent communication that keeps clients on the same page regarding their financial plans and next steps. A well-crafted follow up email serves as proof of the bank’s commitment to client service excellence, often becoming the deciding factor when clients choose between competing financial institutions. It supports regulatory compliance requirements. Banks operate in one of the most heavily regulated industries, where documenting client interactions isn’t just good business practice—it’s a legal requirement. Follow ups help with compliance by encouraging the acquisition of essential documentation for anti-money laundering (AML) compliance, know-your-customer (KYC) requirements, and consumer protection regulations. Risk is mitigated through clear communication. Miscommunication in banking can lead to significant financial losses, regulatory violations, and damaged client relationships. Structured follow up processes ensure all parties understand terms, conditions, and next steps, reducing the risk of costly misunderstandings. When banks implement standardized follow-up protocols with appointment management software, they experience up to a 50% reduction in miscommunication. This improvement directly translates to fewer compliance issues, reduced operational risk, and increased client satisfaction scores. It gives banks a competitive advantage in client retention. In markets where financial products are increasingly commoditized, exceptional client communication becomes a key differentiator. Banks that excel at follow up consistently outperform competitors in client retention and bank CSAT metrics. The process of following up demonstrates continued interest in the client’s success and creates opportunities for independent advisors to grow their business through referrals and expanded relationships. This competitive advantage becomes particularly valuable when targeting high-value clients and members who expect a personalized service. Essential Components of Effective Bank Meeting Follow-Ups Comprehensive Meeting Summary Every follow up email should begin with a clear summary of the meeting’s key discussion points. This summary serves multiple purposes: It demonstrates active listening, provides a record for compliance purposes, and ensures all parties heard the same information. The meeting summary should address specific concerns raised by the client, solutions discussed, and any advice provided by banking professionals. This documentation becomes crucial during future client interactions and regulatory examinations. Clear Documentation of Financial Products When financial products are discussed during meetings, the follow up must include accurate information about features, benefits, and costs. This documentation protects both the bank and the client by ensuring transparency and regulatory compliance. Clients often discuss multiple products during a single meeting, making it essential to clearly document which options were presented and the client’s specific preferences. This information helps banking teams provide more targeted recommendations in future interactions, and may help drive future loan growth and deposit growth. Specific Next Steps and Action Items Effective follow ups clearly outline what actions each party will take moving forward. This includes deadlines for providing additional information, scheduling future meetings, and completing application processes. Action items should specify who is responsible for each task and when it should be completed. This clarity helps ensure smooth progress through complex banking processes and demonstrates the institution’s commitment to efficient client service. Contact Information and Support Resources Every follow up should provide multiple ways for clients to ask questions or address concerns between meetings. This might include direct phone numbers, email addresses, and information about online banking resources. Providing comprehensive contact information shows clients that the bank values accessibility and is committed to supporting their financial success beyond formal meetings. Compliance and Documentation Requirements SEC and Banking Regulation Standards Financial institutions must maintain detailed records of client interactions to comply with Securities and Exchange Commission requirements and other banking regulations. Follow up communications become part of the official client file and may be reviewed during regulatory examinations. These documentation requirements extend beyond simple meeting notes to include records of advice given, products discussed, and client decisions made. Proper follow up practices help banks maintain compliance with evolving regulatory standards. Anti-Money Laundering Documentation When new clients are onboarded or existing clients discuss significant financial changes, follow up documentation must address AML requirements. This includes confirming client identity, understanding the source of funds, and documenting any unusual financial activity discussed during meetings. The process for meeting these requirements
3 Ways to Improve the Digital Experience In Retail Banking
In today’s digital COVID-19 era, connecting with your potential customers has become an overwhelming challenge. Consumers are now searching for ‘experiences’, causing a number of organizations to focus on improving customer experience. The understanding is that if the consumer’s attention is divided and exposure is brief, investing in an experience that goes beyond a basic interaction is going to be appreciated. When considering the various channels of customer experience in the banking industry, it can be difficult to decide when to invest. Are customers interested in a better in-branch experience? Should you be investigating new outreach channels to keep the retail bank at the top of your customer’s mind? While these areas are important, we’d suggest the best place for the banking industry to start is the digital customer experience. With more people choosing to manage their finances and associated services on their mobile devices, banks and credit unions have been presented a great opportunity to develop engaging and positive digital experiences optimized for the devices they use. Below are some reasons why focusing on a digital experience is a great idea for banks. Want to learn more about improving the customer experience? Download our customer experience white paper today. Beat the Competition According to research done by The Financial Brand, only 37% of retail banking organizations have a formal customer experience plan. While investments to improve customer experience are increasing, with the majority of banks committing to increase investment over the next 3 years, most organizations are still focused on developing products and branch engagements rather than investing in their digital channels. These findings expose a large gap in overall banking strategy when it comes to digital strategy for the next 3 years. For institutions looking to revamp their digital efforts, this creates an excellent opportunity to step up and start investing in digital solutions around customer experience. The potential for retail banks that adopt a digital strategy earlier than their competitors is reaching customers others may not. By creating experiences tailor-made for the devices customers prefer to use, banks with a digital strategy are opening themselves up to potential customers that want to access services online. If a customer cannot get the services they require from a retail bank in the way they want them, like online banking, scheduling advisor meetings or learning about new services, they’re going to end up looking for another option that meets their needs. For more information on how to retain your client base, check out our blog on the 5 ways appointment scheduling keeps you one step ahead of the competition. Bank Customers are Unsatisfied In a study published by Bain and Company, it was revealed that only 45% of online customers feel that their digital interactions with banks satisfy their needs completely. From a mobile perspective, only 25% of customers feel that they can adequately work and properly communicate with a bank through their mobile interface. From a usability standpoint, the numbers end up being the same, with 44% of computer users and 34% of mobile users agreeing that their online retail banking resources are easy to use. These are some alarming gaps which signal that banks need to take the time to step up their online customer experience. As customers get used to managing other areas of their life like the convenience of digital shopping and instantaneously streaming entertainment, they’re going to demand that same kind of swift and satisfying experience from their bank. A self-serve, real-time experience where they can move through the products and services they want at the pace they desire. If the services provided are functional, but there is little attention paid to user experience, customers are going to be left frustrated, wanting more and looking elsewhere to get the solutions they desire. To learn more, check out our blog on why companies should consider self-serve solutions for more information on the benefits of providing online scheduling to your customers. Investing in Digital Improves Customer Experience and Adoption From the same Bain study, it was found that positive customer interactions that start online, continue online with greater loyalty than if they were to start in-person or over the phone. The likelihood of customers choosing to interact with a bank online has a lot to do with the security and quality of experience the bank has created. If the digital experience is not up to the level that customers want, you risk losing them to another competitor. By focusing on how customers typically use and interact with services, rather than product promotion or adoption, you can start creating a user experience that really sticks. An example of this would be after a user opens an account online, helpfully routing the user to the activities they’re most likely to do online such as paying a bill. As customers get familiar with the basic functionality, they start to become more comfortable with the digital experience, and begin to search out other ways to work with the bank online. By paying attention to how people make use of their services and mirroring the process online, you can ensure that users are getting the value they are looking for and the experience they appreciate.
Looking Back at Finnovate – Top 3 Takeaways
It’s been a week since the team and I returned from the Finnovate Fall Conference in New York and I have not stopped thinking about all the exciting sessions I had the chance to attend, and how much they align with the goals we have here at Coconut. At the show, we were fortunate enough to meet with so many professionals from the financial services and fintech industries that are passionate and excited about the changes coming to the financial world. The show was broken out into two sections. First, we were treated to two days worth of demos from both emerging and established fintech organizations. It was great to see so many organizations coming up with creative solutions to help financial institutions solves their largest problems. Whether it was security, financial literacy or digital banking tools, the presenting companies shared compelling solutions that left us and the rest of the conference attendees with a lot to think about. The second section consisted of two days of panel discussions and keynote presentations. This is where the industry leaders really got to shine, taking us through detailed talks on new security concerns, fostering innovation, managing digital transformation, customer experience as a key differentiator and the emergence of AI technology. There was a lot to learn over the two days but I was happy to see a number of key themes emerge. 1. Personalization as Differentiation I noticed this theme come up frequently throughout the different sessions, particularly in those hosted by Forrester Research, as well as during panels on innovation and customer experience. The prevailing takeaway was that personalization can be a key competitive differentiator for financial institutions, and something that customers really value. In the personalization session hosted by Forrester Research’s Alyson Clarke, Principal Analyst, Digital Business Strategy, noted that in order to stay ahead of the competition, banks need to stop thinking like a retailer. Bank customers do not buy financial services as frequently as they make purchases with other retailers — there are generally 3-5 years between purchases. That makes it difficult, but far from impossible, to build and maintain brand loyalty. Clarke then focused on data. With the information that banks and credit unions collect when working with their customers, they can use that information to create much more personal, 1:1 experience that will keep the financial institution top of mind. Using real life points of contact like birthdays, anniversaries, children going to college, etc. as a means of reaching out is a great way to connect and be top of mind when they’re ready for a new financial product. Through this sort of personalization, financial institutions could see far more success in maintaining the sort of long term brand loyalty that’s required when dealing with the low frequency of customer purchases typical to financial products. 2. The Growing Importance of Customer Experience Dovetailing with personalization, a number of the sessions also discussed the importance of banks and credit unions focusing on enhancing customer experience. In an excellent keynote presentation, Jeremy Balkin, Head of Innovation at HSBC presented a case study highlighting the success they’ve seen since implementing a service robot named Pepper. The main goal of the ‘Pepper the Robot’ program was to increase branch traffic and generate more appointments with the advisors and staff that work in branch. In the 14 months since deployment, HSBC saw a 41% increase in new account openings. HSBC attributes this success to Pepper turning a regular trip to the bank into an experience for new and existing customers. With so much attention around the innovative products and solutions that are making a visit to the branch unnecessary, banks need to invest in creating experiences that will bring customers through the door. This sentiment was echoed later in the day during a panel discussion on the importance of creating an impactful digital experience. The panel noted that traditionally, banks used segmentation to determine how to reach out and market to their customers. However, times have changed. Major life events like graduating from college used to be a reliable signal that a customer was now likely to be preparing to buy a house, and buying a house would signal their readiness to start a family. But today, this is often not the case. Banks now have to look to more individual data to find out when the best time is to reach a person. And with the right data, they can deliver not only the right marketing material, but deliver it in the way most likely to appeal to that particular customer. To this end, technology can be incredibly useful to banks and credit unions. By expanding their marketing methods through push notifications, apps and SMS notifications, banks are able to leverage data for precision targeting, and then get their message in front of customers eyes in a way that’s unobtrusive, yet highly effective. 3. Partnering with Fintech With the whole theme of the conference centered around bringing banks and credit unions together with today’s leading fintech providers, the final theme was an obvious one — technology partnerships. Still, it was great to see so many panelists from both sides discuss the importance of these partnerships as a way to retain banking customers and improve the overall experience banks are providing. During Jeremy Balkin’s keynote and during a panel discussion that immediately followed, he spoke at length about the importance of financial institutions embracing emerging fintech companies. He noted how there is so much knowledge that banks have when it comes to serving customers but they can often get stuck when encountering challenges with technology and competitive alternatives. That’s where Fintech companies come in. Through strategic partnerships, they can help banks solves those problems far more quickly than they could on their own, allowing banks to focus on what is most important: providing the best services for their customers. Looking to get started on delivering a premium experience to your clients? Schedule a consultation with Coconut Software to learn more
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Manage the Walk-In Appointment Journey
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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.
Customizable Software Solutions v.s. Generic Integrations
When searching for a new technology solution, it can be difficult to decide whether your business needs a cookie-cutter integration or the additional benefits that come with customizable software solutions. The first step is to evaluate the issues your organization is experiencing to better understand what kind of solution you need. After isolating and identifying the issues affecting your organization, you will be better able to assess the technology options available. Interested in learning more about how Coconut Software can help your organizations digital transformation? Download The Ultimate Guide to Digitally Transforming the Appointment Experience. With integrated appointment scheduling, there are a variety of solutions, at many different price points, which directly reflect the capabilities of the technology. While sometimes you only require a cookie-cutter integration, there are many benefits that come with a customizable, enterprise-grade scheduling software solutions. There are three things that you should look for when assessing a potential new technology implementation which includes the ability to custom brand, an open and flexible API, as well as avoiding partnering with a solution that has acquired tech debt. These features are worth considering as they will help the functionality of both your front-end customer experience as well as your back-end processes. Full Support for Custom Branding Being able to fully brand the user interface and customer experience of your technology solution allows your organization to offer your customers a familiar style and functionality through a third-party solution. Implementing customizable software solutions, such as online appointment scheduling can drastically improve customer experience, in line with your company’s branding and messaging. With a third-party solution that provides a customizable CSS, your organization will be able to keep a consistent customer-facing view to increase brand awareness and streamline the customer journey. Going with a solution that doesn’t enable custom branding leaves you open to the risk of inconsistent brand messaging and theming. This can be problematic as customers could disregard emails that are distributed through your third-party solution that do not fall in line with your brand look and feel. The inconsistency in branding can also cause customer journey abandonment with your organization if customers are taken to an application that does not follow the same branding themes as the rest of your organization’s customer-facing portals. Coconut Software’s customizable scheduling solution enables your organization to brand both the front and back-end of the scheduling solution. This ensures that both your customers and your staff will have a consistent experience with your brand. With custom branding, you can ensure the style and message of your communication is consistent throughout your customer’s journey with your organization. Flexible API The key advantage of choosing a solution that uses a powerful and open API is that is will greatly enhance your organization’s productivity. An open API allows businesses to integrate a new solution with any system, including a CRM and calendar applications. And, an open API eliminates duplicate data entry, allowing information to be stored in one place, resulting in more streamlined reporting and back-end processes. Providing an open, customizable API requires more support and configuration by the technology provider, which is why it is not offered by every vendor. The drawback to choosing an implementation without an open API is that you will not be able to configure your new solution to your other applications. This will prevent you from streamlining operational processes in your organization, such as integrating your CRM with your appointment scheduling application to ensure that all customer-facing staff are equipped with the right information to provide your customers with a premium experience. Additionally, working with an application that has a closed API prevents you from sharing data between different applications used in your organization, leading to inefficient back-end processes. The Coconut API is used to build custom client views and allows for integration with other solutions, including proprietary systems. Our open API allows for two-way calendar sync with Outlook, Google and Office 365. Our flexible integration also enables appointment data to flow into Leads, Contacts, Activities, and Campaigns in Salesforce, and full support for mapping custom questions from forms to custom fields in the SFDC application. Here are some of the other applications we currently integrate with No Tech Debt Selecting a third-party solution that has accumulated tech debt will directly impact how the application functions once it has been integrated into your organization. What is tech debt? Technology takes on tech debt when a business writes new code on top of the outdated code, instead of eliminating it entirely. This leaves room for bugs and other errors to emerge down the road. It takes a lot of time and resources to manage the accumulation of tech debt within an organization. Choosing a premium, customizable solution puts you at less of a risk of partnering with a provider that has acquired a significant amount of tech debt, allowing your implementation to function as seamlessly as possible. If you implement a solution that comes with accumulated tech debt, you’ll end up with a buggy implementation. Your new technology could end up being more of an issue than a solution! At Coconut, we understand the pain that comes with implementing a solution, only to find out it’s not able to provide full functionality due to tech debt. We have a team dedicated to addressing tech debt, and ensure our customers enjoy all the benefits of a premium appointment scheduling solution. How Coconut’s Premium Solution Allows You to Control the Full Appointment Lifecycle Many calendaring applications allow your customers to schedule appointments, however, not many allow for full control and view over the appointment lifecycle. With Coconut Software, you can collect additional information at the start of the appointment journey. This enables your customer-facing staff to better meet the needs of your clients when they come in for their appointment thanks to additional insight into the customer’s history with your organization and their current needs. We offer the ability to add touch-points to your customer’s journey with appointment confirmation, reminders, and follow-up
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
3 Reasons to Digitally Transform Your Contact Centers
In todays digital era, consumer needs have evolved. It’s no longer a matter of “if” banks will become fully digital, but “when.” The prospect of a digital transformation in the financial services industry does not necessarily mean the end of all traditional customer experience channels, like contact centers. In fact, using technology to improve the communications channels that are already in use and familiar to your customers is a great way to ease both your client base and your staff into the future of banking technology. As the first touchpoint for many appointment-driven businesses, 75% of organizations view the customer service provided in contact centers to be a key differentiator between competitors. Is your organization’s contact center providing your customer with a positive experience? Ready to learn more about upgrading your institution’s digital presence and capabilities? Download Coconut Software’s Ultimate Guide to Digitally Transforming the Appointment Experience. According to a study done by Cornell University, the financial services market tends to leverage larger contact center operations compared to other industries and is lagging behind in implementing contact center management software. While many banks and credit unions depend on contact centers as a channel for scheduling appointments with customers, many have little to no visibility into contact handling process efficiency. Unfortunately, this sluggishness to modernize the back-end is resulting in customers waiting, and waiting on the line as contact center agents try to assist them while navigating archaic processes on the other end of the line. As you look for ways to transform your contact center, it is important to highlight areas that could be made more efficient by implementing digital tools. For example, lengthy contact handle time, poor customer experience and high operational costs are all issues that likely plague your contact center and affect your organization as a whole. Enterprise appointment scheduling is one type of contact center technology that can help improve contact efficiencies, reduce operational costs and improve the customer experience. Here’s how. Digitally Transform Your Contact Centers With Appointment Scheduling Decrease Call Handle Time The number of calls that contact center representatives can accommodate in a day is a key success metric that impacts many other areas of the business. For appointment-driven financial services organizations, more completed phone calls equal more appointments and more revenue for your branch locations. And yet, 23% of companies still do not measure call handle time in their contact center. Long call handle times lead to long hold times for customers waiting in the queue, and 80% of customers drop off the line after being placed on hold for over 1 minute. One of the ways you can make significant inroads in increasing call handling efficiency is by implementing an enterprise appointment scheduling solution. Implementing a scheduling solution creates a more streamlined appointment scheduling process that allows your contact center representatives to accommodate more calls in a day. This can also contribute to improving the customer experience by reducing the amount of time customers have to spend on the line with your organization, just to schedule an in-person appointment. Additionally, by speeding up the appointment scheduling process you can schedule more appointments, driving more revenue to your organization’s branch locations. Improve Customer Experience 57% of companies can relate improving customer experience levels to revenue growth. For appointment-driven businesses, the contact center is the first point of contact between your organization and its customers, and so it absolutely must deliver a positive first impression. If you are an appointment-driven business and your contact center schedules the majority of your appointments, it is crucial that the customer information collected at the time that the appointment is scheduled is passed on to the advisor meeting with that customer. There is nothing more frustrating for a customer, that already had to go through the tumultuous process of scheduling an appointment, to show up to an advisor that has no insight into their needs. However, 54% of customer information collected at the time the appointment was scheduled is not relayed to the customer-facing advisor. An enterprise appointment scheduling solution can be integrated across all channels in your organization and allows for information that is collected from one customer-facing channel, to be stored on one platform that can be accessed by another customer-facing channel. This means that your organization can capture additional information at the time of the appointment scheduling by adding custom questions integrated into the scheduling process. The answers to these custom questions can then be accessed by the customer-facing advisor, enabling them to better prepare for their upcoming appointment with the particular customer and tailor the appointment to their needs. An additional benefit to implementing a scheduling solution into your organization’s contact center is that it allows you to add new touch-points to the customer journey that will reduce the appointment no-show rate, as well as make your customers feel valued. Your customers will be sent a confirmation email reminding them of the service, date and time of the appointment they just scheduled as well as any additional information they need in order to be prepared for their upcoming appointment. Additionally, SMS and email reminders can be sent out to customers reminding them of their upcoming appointment, reducing the chances of a no-show. Customers will appreciate these additional touch-points as we live in a busy world and it is easy to forget the commitments that they have made, and it makes them feel looked after and that their scheduled appointment is valued. By integrating your contact center channel into other customer-facing platforms in your company you can drive more revenue into the organization and provide customers with a premium experience. Decrease Workforce Costs Forrester recently reported that call volume is expected to increase over the next 12 months and 46% of global contact center decision makers project their contact centers to grow by 5% to 10% to accommodate the increase. Many organizations are pouring more of their resources into increasing rep headcount in their contact centers to manage the call volume, but this is
5 Digital Trends Shaping the Future of Banking and Credit Unions (2019 Update)
The top digital initiatives in 2018 that are informing the future of the banking industry and how these trends are affecting organizations like yours.
4 Contact Center Customer Service Issues And How to Solve Them
Highlighting 4 Contact Center customer service issues that are costing your financial organization money, and how we recommend resolving the root of each problem.