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Simplifying the Customer Experience: An interview with CEB TowerGroup’s Nicole Sturgill

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Nicole Sturgill is a research director at CEB TowerGroup and one of the foremost experts in retail banking. She’ll be presenting at an upcoming NCR customer roadshow on Transformational Change: Simplifying our Approach to Customer Experience. I caught up with Nicole recently to find out more about her presentation and get some of her thoughts on the challenges and priorities of the customer experience in retail banking. If you’re interested in hearing more from Nicole, you can follow her on Twitter at @nsturgill and you can hear her speak at our roadshow. For more details and to register today, click here.

You’ll be presenting at NCR’s upcoming customer roadshow. Can you tell me a little about your talk?

We’re dealing with two competing issues in retail banking. Customers are struggling to manage their finances in the context of new equipment, such as smartphones, tablets, and new ways online to manage their finances. At the same time, banks are struggling with shifting their service model. At one time, the branch was the center of the relationship. It is no longer. And so banks are shifting to digital engagement.

They’ve been shifting to digital channels, by that I mean adding functionality, but not truly engaging with a consumer in a way that Amazon, Zappos or PayPal would. In this session, we’ll talk about where those two ideas come together: in customer experience – how do you try to improve the transactional capabilities to make it easier for customers when they want to get something done? In the process, we need to make sure the customer experience investment ties back to bottom line.

You talk about the importance of customer experience. In terms of investment priorities, why is customer experience a more difficult “sell” internally than other metrics?

It’s pretty simple. The difficulty is in tying it to cost savings or revenue generation. What is a more convenient process for the customer: make it easier for them to get stuff done, or make the process and fees more transparent? You ask yourself: what do I get out of that? When we put together a business case, does it save me money or make me money, is it faster or cheaper? That’s the big challenge in selling customer experience. Everyone talks about it, but when you look at project spend, it goes down to revenue or cost savings. We have to shift customer experience to be central to the business case.

What is the challenge in doing that?

You have to define what the customer cares about and realize that isn’t the same as what we care about. “I want todeposit a check when I want.” “I want to get a loan for a house when I want.” “What is the easiest way for me to do that. The most understandable. The cheapest way.” “I need to feel like I am getting the best deal.” Implementing a new, simpler process for the customer doesn’t always equate to cost savings for the bank. But we still need to make this experience better or the process better. The challenge is defining what makes the customer experience better and then tying it to reducing attrition and increasing the customer’s willingness to buy more.

Is technology an ally or an anathema to an improved customer experience?

Absolutely an ally. Customers are getting more digital. Not just online, but in branches there are tremendous opportunities to use technology, such as tablet-based onboarding. Authentication at the teller is a big one. Where we struggle is where technology priorities align with business priorities. There is a better working relationship here than in the past. But it is still the biggest area of struggle.

In the latest issue of Credit Union Magazine, you wrote about the importance of technology that is multi-channel and streamlines the customer service process. Why are financial institutions finding it difficult to achieve cross-channel integration?

They find it difficult because they are trying to do too much. When I think of channel integration, I think of functional consistency – the need to have everything in every channel. That isn’t necessary. You don’t need to do an alert at the ATM or alert at the branch around a low balance. No one wants the teller to tell them that their balance is low. I want a text. So it’s not about what more we can do <deleted text>. We should concentrate on what transactions and interactions make sense in each channel. If I have a problem, how do I want to resolve it? Let’s concentrate on the channels that make sense. So the first issue is trying to do too much. The second is consistency in the channels where customers are most likely to CROSS channels. For example, opening a new account or seeking advice on a product or service or trying to resolve a problem – that’s where a customer may start in one channel and finish in another. We need to focus on where customers will cross channels and how we handle the transition from those channels, instead of focusing on doing it all in every channel.

As banks adopt more technology such as mobile banking and branch automation tools, they will likely need to change the way they hire and train employees, manage real estate and communicate with their customers. How would you prioritize those three areas into “in most need of change” to “in least need of change”?

Thankfully, for most banks, those activities are done in different areas of the bank, so they don’t need to prioritize them. But I think, with all of them, technology can help them in the process. We think of training as soft skills – but new branch tools and applications can help a teller through the sales process and requires less training than in the past because it’s the same experience as what they’re used to in our tablets and online. But it can also mean making more information available. For real estate, you can look at branch distribution application – where are your branches underutilized? When it comes to communicating with customers, they want to be communicated with in digital channels and technology can help automate that. So I really couldn’t choose, but technology can help with all of that.

So the types of employees banks hire for their branches is changing?

As we look at how branches are changing, employees are becoming less transactional in nature and more of an advice giver. And you need people to have the skills to handle complex tasks. Automation lets them focus on other skills. In the past, someone who is good at sales may not have been good at reconciling their drawer. Now, you don’t have to worry about it as much. Customers walk in so infrequently now that you need to make sure the experience is a good one when they do. So the skills have to focus on problem resolution and complex issues rather than taking a deposit. The reason you and they are there are to help with complex issues.


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