Omnichannel Delivery

While financial services firms have relied in the past on brick-and-mortar distribution points, new and emerging channels have “knocked the brick off the mortar,” so more and more consumers are turning to digital channels as their main channel for everyday banking. Banks and credit unions are building digital experiences to keep up with demand, but few have focused their efforts on building experiences that reflect how consumers actually interact with them—though multiple channels.

The idea of omnichannel experiences—the ability for a member to seamlessly move from one channel to another within a service or sales interaction—has been all the rage over the last few years; however, “omnichannel” is a buzzword that has enjoyed little momentum in translating hype into action.

According to a 2014 McKinsey & Company study, more than 65 percent of consumers interact with their financial institutions through multiple channels (see Figure 1). Relatively small percentages of consumers interact through only branches (15 percent), the Web (10 percent), phone (5 percent) or ATM (5 percent). (Mobile was not considered in this study.)

Recognizing that its members use multiple channels to research, open, and manage their accounts, the leadership at Patelco Credit Union, Pleasanton, Calif., with more than $4 billion in assets and 280,000 members, launched a transformation initiative to re-invent its member experience using Terafina’s omnichannel solution.

According to CUES member Erin Mendez, CCE, president/CEO, “Terafina’s omnichannel solutions enable us to have a 360-degree view of our members so we can continue to offer them a seamless experience regardless of product, channel, or digital device. It also gives our members the flexibility to manage their financial lives how, when, and where they choose.”

In addition to offering members a seamless experience regardless of channel, the solution gives credit union users and their staff information about how members are using various service channels and when—plus data that’s useful to CU reporting and compliance. The software can be integrated with a credit union’s core and underwriting systems; it sits alongside and enhances existing customer relationship management platforms, and replaces some channel- or product-specific solutions currently in the industry, such as online account opening .

The member-facing functionality in particular supports Patelco CU’s strategy, which Mendez describes as, “An unwavering commitment to help our members achieve financial freedom by delivering innovative services, unquestionable value, and a hassle-free experience.”

To see the member experience holistically, credit unions need to move from optimizing or building solutions one channel at a time and shift the mindset to build an experience that:

• creates a high-touch, fully integrated consumer experience to support physical and digital sales and service. Enabling consumers to use whatever physical channel or digital devices they prefer to transact business whenever and wherever they choose is the key to a successful omnichannel experience.
• empowers members with digital tools and content to make personalized products, services, and sales fulfillment possible. Provide the tools for members to take control of their financial decisions and seamlessly transition them to a physical channel, such as a branch or call center, to get guidance and advice. Make the experience easy and user-friendly with features like save and resume capability, lead capture, online chat, and appointment booking.
• arms employees with cross-channel, real-time customer insight and intelligence to support both sales and service needs. Offer employees the ability to see where consumers started interactions, abandoned or stopped an interaction, or the status of an interaction in all channels, regardless of the originating channel. This 360-degree view not only dramatically increases employee productivity, but it also boosts consumer satisfaction.
• garners commitment and support from upper management and boards of directors, both financially and emotionally, and extends it throughout the entire organization. Another credit union client created a governance process to support its omnichannel initiative. In addition, key champions at that CU were assigned to various workstreams. These champions were responsible for advocating a set of guiding principles to make sure the credit union was truly delivering an omnichannel experience for members.

Transforming the member experience from the traditional single-channel approach to an integrated omnichannel sales model requires significant organizational, operational, and financial investment. Yet the return on investment can be significant. The following data was by collected by Terafina from credit unions with combined assets of $7 billion. These institutions switched to an integrated omnichannel model over roughly a one-year period and yielded the following results:

• a 200 percent or more increase in multichannel digital sales;
• a 17 percent rise in the number of customers who added a second product to their shopping carts;
• an 18 percent or more increase in sales through real-time smart lead management; and
• a 20 percent reduction in call volume to contact centers.

Keys to Successful Omnichannel Experience

Building an omnichannel experience is a transformation initiative and requires a shift in how financial services firms operate today. CUs can get started by:

• gaining organizational commitment. As Patelco CU’s success demonstrates, the commitment to transforming a member experience has to start at the top; everyone has to be on board to successfully change the status quo of how the organization operates and serves members.
• performing a current-state assessment. Start by identifying the gaps in the delivery experience, recording existing performance as a baseline measurement, and determining what the organization is ready for and how quickly it can deliver. At Terafina, part of our client-centric methodology is to use our industry experience to perform gap and competitive analyses to determine where the client is performing against competitors or peers and to develop a customized implementation roadmap based on organizational readiness.
• selecting a technology partner that understands the business. Select a technology partner that not only has experience implementing a financial services solution, but one that has experience configuring the solution based on unique product needs and the in-depth industry experience to be able to evolve the solution as consumer expectations and the industry morph and shift.

Tiffani Montez is VP/operations at Terafina. She has over 20 years of experience in global financial services—in strategic planning, strategic execution, and business process redesign, including executive positions at Wells Fargo Bank and serving as a principal analyst at Forrester Research. Montez also has been guest speaker at various industry conferences and a source for both Forbes and American Banker on the future of mobile banking.