Measure the Customer Experience in an Integrated Cross Channel Environment
Success in retail banking requires meeting customers with the correct channel for the customer’s waypoint in that journey.
A waypoint is a point of reference when navigating a journey.
Not all waypoints are equal. Customers prefer different channels based on the waypoint in their customer journey. As a result, different channels have assumed different roles in the customer journey. The challenge for customer experience managers is to provide an integrated customer experience across all waypoints.
Kinesis’ research has identified specific roles for each integrated channel in the customer journey:
| Channel | Preferred Role |
| Mobile | – Transaction Tool |
| Web | – Primary Role: Research Tool – Secondary Role: Sales & Transfers |
| Contact Center | – Help Center – Source of Advice |
| Branch | – Sales Center – Source of Advice |
The mobile channel is seen by customers as a transaction tool; the website’s role is broader, as a research, transaction and sales channel; contact centers are primarily a help center; and the branch is primarily a sales and advice channel.
This post offers a framework to measure individual channels in a way that will provide both channel specific direction in managing the experience, as well as benchmarking each channel against each other using consistent measurements.
Two CX Risks: Exposure and Moments of Truth
In designing a customer experience measurement program, it is instructive to think of the omni-channel experience in terms of two risks: exposure and moments of truth.
Exposure Risk
Exposure risk is the frequency of customer interactions within each channel. Poor experiences in channels with high frequencies are replicated across more customers resulting in exposing more customers to poor experiences. Mobile apps are the most frequently used channel. According to our research, customers use mobile banking apps 24 times more frequently than visiting a branch. Mobile banking has most exposure risk. Websites are used by banking customers 16 times more frequently than a branch; followed contact centers, used 2.3 times more frequently than branches.
Moments of Truth
Moments of truth are critical experiences with more individual importance. Poor experiences in a moment of truth interaction lead to negative customer emotions, with similarly negative impacts on customer profitability and word of mouth.
Routine transactions, like transfers or deposits, represent low moment of truth risk, problem resolution or account opening are significant moments of truth.
Exposure & Moment of Truth Risk by Channel
Different channels represent exposure and moment of truth risk is different ways.
The mobile channel’s role is primarily a transaction tool. According to our research the mobile channel is the preferred channel for both transfers (58%) and deposits (53%). It, therefore, has the highest exposure risk and lowest moment of truth risk.
The website is a mixed channel between research, transactions and opening accounts. A plurality of customers (40%) consider the website their preferred channel to get information, followed by transfers (33%) and opening accounts (31%). As a result, the web channel has a mix of exposure and moment of truth risk.
The contact center is primarily viewed as a channel for problem resolution (51%), followed by an advice and information source (27% and 23%, respectively). It represents low exposure risk and elevated moment of truth risk.
Finally, the branch is the primary a source for advice and account opening (53% and 51%, respectively). With infrequent use and high impact customer experiences, the branch has very low exposure risk, and significant moment of truth risk.
Understanding Exposure and Moments of Truth Risk to Inform CX Measurement
This concept of risk, along exposure and moments of truth, provides an excellent framework for informing customer experience measurement.
Digital channels with high exposure risk should be tested thoroughly with usability, focus groups, ethnography and other qualitative research to ensure features meet customer needs and are programmed correctly. Once programmed and tested, they need to be monitored with ongoing audits.
Channels with higher moment of truth risk are best monitored with post-transaction surveys, mystery shopping and the occasional focus group.
| Exposure Risk | Moments of Truth |
| Design Focus Groups Usability Tests Ongoing Audits | Post Transaction Surveys Mystery Shopping Focus Groups |
Integrated CX Measurement Design
When measuring the customer experience across multiple channels in an integrated manner, we recommend gathering both consistent measures across all channels, as well as measures specific to each channel. Each channel has their own specific needs; however, consistent measures across all channels provide context and a point of comparison.
Consistent Measures
Cross-channel consistency is key to the customer experience. Inconsistent experiences confuse and frustrate customers, and risk erosion of the brand value.
The consistent cross-channel measures Kinesis prefers to use are measures of the brand personality and efficacy of the customer experience.
| Brand Personality | Efficacy of the Experience |
| Brand Adjectives Brand Statements | Purchase Intent Likelihood of Referral Customer Advocacy |
Brand Personality: To measure brand personality, Kinesis asks clients to list five adjectives that describes their brand personality. Then we simply ask customers if each adjective described the customer experience. We also ask clients to give us five statements that describe their desired brand, and measure the experience with an agreement scale. For example, a client may desire their brand to be described by the statements: We are committed to the community. We would then ask respondents the extent to which they are in agreement with the statement: We are committed to the community. These measures of brand adjectives and brand statements provide managers of the customer experience a clear benchmark from which to evaluate how each channel reflects the desired brand personality.
Efficacy of the Experience: Ultimately, the goal of the customer experience is to produce the intended result – results like loyalty, increased wallet share, or lower transaction costs. Kinesis has had success using three measures to evaluate the efficacy of the customer experience:
- Purchase Intent: Purchase intent is an excellent measure of efficacy of the experience. To measure purchase intent we ask respondents how the experience influenced their intention to either open an account or maintain an existing relationship with the financial institution.
- Likelihood of Referral: The use of measures of likelihood of referral, like NPS, as a proxy for customer loyalty is almost universally accepted, and as a result, is often an excellent measure of efficacy of the experience.
- Customer Advocacy: Beyond likelihood of referral, agreement with the statement, My bank cares about me, not just the bottom line, is an excellent predictor of customer loyalty.
Channel Specific Attributes
In addition to consistent cross-channel measurements, it is important to focus on channel specific customer experience attributes. While consistent measures across channels provide a benchmark to brand objectives, measuring specific service attributes provides actionable information about how to improve the customer experience in each specific channel.
In designing channel specific research features, ask yourself what specific service attributes or behaviors do you expect from each channel. The answer to these questions will depend on the channel and your brand objectives. In general, they typically roll up to the following broad dimensions of the customer experience:
Specific Channel Dimensions
| Digital Channels | Personal Channels |
| Appeal Identity Navigation Content/ Presentation Value Trust | Reliability Responsiveness Empathy Competence Tangibles |
For digital channels, the best specific attributes to measure are ones associated with appeal, identity, navigation, content/ presentation, value, trust. For personal channels, such as contact centers and branches, we find the best attributes are associated with dimensions of reliability, responsiveness, empathy, competence, and tangibles.
Not all waypoints in the customer journey are equal. Customer experience researchers need to consider the role of each channel in the customer journey and design measurement tools with both channel specific observations, as well consistent measures across all channels.
Integrated Digital First CX Model: Implications for CX Managers
In previous posts to this five-part series on building an integrated digital-first service model we discussed:
- Matching different waypoints of the customer journey to the channels best suited for the specific waypoint;
- Customer preferences for a financial service provider; and
- What customers want from digital channels.
A waypoint is a point of reference when navigating a journey. Not only do the customer journeys take place across a multiple channels, but they take place across multiple transactions or waypoints.
An integrated digital channel strategy must be founded on understanding how specific channels match up to specific waypoints in the customer journey. In the first installment of these series there is a discussion of this issue. The understanding that different transactions match different channels is the whole point of an integrated strategy.
Currently, not every digital channel is a match for every customer need. Digital channels with higher a frequency of visits are increasingly the day-to-day face of the institution. The exposure risk of these channels is high, and managers of the customer experience must make sure digital channels are well programmed and tested to manage this exposure risk. Currently, however, customers prefer to match digital channels for low moment of truth interactions such as transfers, deposits, and researching information. In terms of satisfaction, these digital channels outperform the non-digital; however, they play on a very different playing field. Customers interact with branches and contact centers much less frequently, and assign lower satisfaction ratings to these channels. But when they do use these channels, it is much more important. Customers match these non-digital channels to high moment-of-truth interactions such as seeking advice, problem resolution, and opening an account.
Advances in artificial intelligence will no doubt close some of the moment of truth gaps between digital and non-digital channels, but for now, there still is a role for branches and contact centers. Closing these gaps between digital and non-digital channels will require attention to both personalization and trust. Again, people want banks to care about their needs and have the ability to meet their needs and solve their problems.
What do customers want from a bank?
Overall, customers value efficiency and personalized service from their primary financial institution. As we’ve seen, the most appealing service attributes to customers are:
• Online and mobile services
• Quick and efficient service
• Fast resolution of any issues
• Ability to manage my accounts in ways that suit me
• Polite and knowledgeable staff
It is important to note, this list includes both digital and personal channels. Customers value an integrated approach.
ROI Potential of Digital Banking Attributes
Investments in timely information, financial value, and cyber security assistance have the most potential for return on investment. The digital banking attributes with the highest potential for ROI in terms of appeal to customers and increasing their trust are:
• Alerts about upcoming direct debits
• Alerts about upcoming overdrafts
• Offers and perks from places shopped often
• Cyber security assistance
Further, investments in personalized information have the highest potential for fostering customer trust. Customers do not find the following attributes particularly appealing relative to other attributes; however, they do offer high ROI potential in terms of increasing customer trust:
• Analytics/dashboards
• Budget information
• Savings tips
• Balance updates
Ultimately, success or failure of any integrated digital first strategy will require banks to achieve something that has eluded them so far – that is to scale personalization.
Video Banking
Video banking seems an obvious solution to scale personalization. However, while the potential of their adoption of this channel, in the age of Zoom, is delayed. According to our research only 4% of bank customers have used video banking. However, of those consumers who have used video banking, all of them trust their primary financial institution, and felt it looked after their financial wellbeing. This suggests video banking could be well received, and deepen the overall relationship with the customers.
Integrated Digital First CX Model: What do Customers Want from Digital Channels?
In previous posts to this five-part series on building an integrated digital-first service model we discussed matching different waypoints of the customer journey to the channels best suited for the specific waypoint.
Beyond the overall CX at the institution level, we also researched CX attributes specific to the digital channel. In an effort to identify digital features to prioritize in digital channel design, Kinēsis investigated both the appeal and trust of various digital banking attributes.
Timely information, cyber security, and financial value are the most appealing digital banking features.
Digital Attribute Appeal
The following chart displayed the relative appeal of digital service attributes on a 5-point scale:
Timely information about overdraft and upcoming direct debits alerts received two of the top three appeal rankings (4.2 and 4.0, respectively). Assistance with cyber security threats, and offers and perks from places shopped often round out the top four.
The next tier of five attributes, with average appeal ratings of 3.3 to 3.0, contain themes of information and personalized advice:
• Personal financial reports and analytics/ Dashboards
• Savings tips based on my spending patterns
• Balance updates until my next payday
• Tips to act more sustainably based on my behavior
• Budget information based on spending
Chatbots and gamification (making the app more fun with elements of game playing, such as badges, points, etc), round out the bottom two attributes.
Digital Attributes & Trust
To add context to the digital attribute appeal ranking, we asked consumers if each of the attributes would increase their trust in the financial service provider.
Mirroring the appeal rankings, cyber security and timely information have the highest likelihood of increasing trust in the financial institution.
Cyber security assistance and alerts about overdrafts and upcoming direct debits increased trust for just about 19 out of 20 customers.
Only about 4 in 10 customers felt chatbots or gamification would increase their trust in the financial institution.
In order to provide CX managers context to make informed decisions about which digital attributes to prioritize, the trust and appeal rankings of each attribute are plotted on the quadrant chart below. Each of the quadrants below labeled (Q1 – Q4) are defined by the average appeal and trust rankings. Those in quadrant 1 (Q1) have higher than average appeal and trust, while those in Q4 have lower than average appeal and trust.
Investments in timely information, financial value and cyber security assistance have the most potential for return on investment.
With higher than average trust and appeal ratings, alerts about upcoming direct debits and overdrafts, offers and perks from places shopped often and cyber security assistance are the four digital attributes positioned to yield the highest return on investment in terms of appeal and trust.
Personal financial information such as analytics/dashboards, budget information, savings tips, and balance updates have below average appeal, however higher than average trust implications, and therefore should be prioritized next.
Tips to act sustainably, chatbots and making the app more fun with gamification have both below average appeal and they do not appear to have strong associations with trust of the institution, and therefore should be prioritized last.
Next, we will consider the implications of this research for CX managers.
Integrated Digital First CX Model: Customer Preferences for Financial Service Provider
In a previous post to this five-part series on building an integrated digital-first service model we discussed matching different waypoints of the customer journey to the channels best suited for the specific waypoint.
In an effort to help CX managers make informed decisions regarding their overall service mix, Kinēsis asked consumers to rate an assortment of financial service CX attributes with respect to their importance, as well as the relationship between the importance of these attributes and the customers’ trust that the financial institution looked after their financial wellbeing.
Efficiency and personalized service are the most important dimensions of the customer experience.
Attribute Importance
The following chart displayed the frequency customers stated each attribute was important to them when doing business with a financial service provider. To force respondents to consider only attributes which were important to them, they were only allowed to select up to five attributes.
Again, efficiency and personalized service are the most important dimensions of the customer experience. The most frequently cited service attributes surround themes of efficiency (online and mobile services, quick and efficient service, fast resolution to any issues) and personalized service (polite and knowledgeable staff, and ability to manage accounts in ways that suit me), followed by polite and knowledgeable staff, the ability to manage accounts in ways that suit the customer, and competitive rates and fees.
Attribute Value & Trust in Institution
The least frequently cited attributes surrounded products and the brand (customer loyalty programs, broad range of quality products, recommendations of appropriate products & services and appealing brand).
Beyond the appeal of each attribute, Kinēsis investigated their relationship to trust in the financial institution.
While brand appeal, recommendations of appropriate products & services and a broad range of quality products were cited with the least frequency in terms of their importance, customers who cited these attributes as important were more likely to trust their primary financial institution. While customers are not as likely to include these three attributes in their list of top-5 important attributes, brand appeal, recommendations of appropriate products & services and a broad range of quality products do appear to have a positive relationship to trust in the institution.
It’s Personal: Drivers of Member Purchase Intent as a Result of the Branch Experience
What do potential members want as a result of a visit to your branch? Or, perhaps more importantly, what drives potential members to want to open an account as a result of a visit to your branch?
To answer these questions, Kinesis conducted research into the efficacy of the branch sales process and identified several service and sales attributes that drive member purchase intent. In our observational research of 100 credit union new account presentations, mystery shoppers were asked to describe what impressed them positively as a result of the visit to the credit union. Excluding the branch atmosphere, the five most common themes contained in these open-ended comments were:
- Interest in Helping/ Personalized Service/ Attention to Needs,
- Professional/ Courteous/ Not Pushy,
- Friendly Employees, and
- Product Knowledge of/ Confidence in the Representative
To understand the relative importance of these behaviors with respect to purchase intent, shoppers were asked to rate their purchase intent as a result of the presentation. Kinesis used this rating to group these shops into two groups (those with positive and negative purchase intent) and compared the results of these two groups to each other. Of these positive impressions, three have strong relationships to purchase intent. They are present with greater frequency in shops with positive purchase intent compared to those with negative purchase intent.
|
Reason for Positive Purchase Intent |
Relative Frequency Positive to Negative Purchase Intent |
| Product Knowledge of/ Confidence in the Representative | 2.7 |
| Interest in Helping/ Personalized Service/ Attention to Needs | 2.5 |
| Friendly Employee | 2.3 |
The representative’s product knowledge was cited 2.7 times more frequently in shops with positive purchase intent compared to shops with negative purchase intent. Similarly, attention to needs and personalized service was present 2.5 times more frequently in shops with positive purchase intent compared to those with negative purchase intent. Finally, shoppers were 2.3 times more likely to cite the friendliness of branch personnel in shops with positive purchase intent relative to negative.
Member experiences which focus on personal attention, interest in helping, personalized service, professional, courteous and friendly encounters drive purchase intent as a result of a visit to a credit union.
Mystery Shop Key Driver Analysis
Best in class mystery shop programs provide managers a means of applying coaching, training, incentives, and other motivational tools directly on the sales and service behaviors that matter most in terms of driving the desired customer experience outcome. One tool to identify which sales and service behaviors are most important is Key Driver Analysis.
Key Driver Analysis determines the relationship between specific behaviors and a desired outcome. For most brands and industries, the desired outcomes are purchase intent or return intent (customer loyalty). This analytical tool helps mangers identify and reinforce sales and service behaviors which drive sales or loyalty – behaviors that matter.
As with all research, it is a best practice to anticipate the analysis when designing a mystery shop program. In anticipating the analytical needs of Key Driver Analysis identify what specific desired outcome you want from the customer as a result of the experience.
- Do you want the customer to purchase something?
- Do you want them return for another purchase?
The answer to these questions will anticipate the analysis and build in mechanisms for Key Driver Analysis to identify which behaviors are more important in driving this desired outcome – which behaviors matter most.
Next, ask shoppers if they had been an actual customer, how the experience influenced their return intent. Group shops by positive and negative return intent to identify how mystery shops with positive return intent differ from those with negative. This yields a ranking of the importance of each behavior by the strength of its relationship to return intent.
Additionally, pair the return intent rating with a follow-up question asking, why the shopper rated their return intent as they did. The responses to this question should be grouped and classified into similar themes, and grouped by the return intent rating described above. The result of this analysis produces a qualitative determination of what sales and service practices drive return intent.
Finally, Key Driver Analysis produces a means to identify which behaviors have the highest potential for return on investment in terms of driving return intent. This is achieved by comparing the importance of each behavior (as defined above) and its performance (the frequency in which it is observed). Mapping this comparison in a quadrant chart, provides a means for identifying behaviors with relatively high importance and low performance – behaviors which will yield the highest potential for return on investment in terms of driving return intent.
Behaviors with the highest potential for return on investment can then be inserted into a feedback loop into the mystery shop scoring methodology by informing decisions with respect to weighting specific mystery shop questions, assigning more weight to behaviors with the highest potential for return on investment.
Employing Key Driver Analysis gives managers a means of focusing training, coaching, incentives, and other motivational tools directly on the sales and service behaviors that will produce the largest return on investment. See the attached post for further discussion of mystery shop scoring.
Emotional Intelligence: Build Bonds Between Your Brand and the Customer
Though it does not pre-assign seats or provide onboard meals and at times has a lengthy wait and check in process, consumers year in and year out rank Southwest Airlines at the top or near the top of customer service.
Why is Southwest consistently near the top?
There are many reasons. The most significant being alignment of customer experience to both their brand and customer expectations; however, I believe a key component of Southwest success in customer service is the emotional intelligence of their employees.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is defined by four personality characteristics:
- A strong sense of self-empowerment and self regulation;
- A positive outlook;
- An awareness of feelings (both their own and customers); and
- A master of fear and anxiety and the ability to tap into selfless motives.
Each of these characteristics provide a clear benefit to the customer experience:
| Personality Characteristic | Benefit to the Customer Experience |
| Self-Empowerment and Regulation | Make Decisions in the Moment
|
| Positive Outlook
|
Constructive Responses to Challenges |
| Awareness of Feelings | Empathy and Better Communication with Customers
|
| Master of Fear/Anxiety and Selfless Motives | Express Feelings of Empathy and Caring |
Leading customer experience brands position the employee to constructively respond to challenges, make decisions in the moment, empathize with customers, and perhaps most important, not only feel but express feeling of care, concern and empathy to customers.
Much of the benefit of emotional intelligence is derived in “moments of truth” where some experiences in the customer journey have far greater importance than others. These moments of truth represent increased risk and opportunity to leave a lasting emotional impression on the customer; a lasting impression with significant long-term implications for both customer loyalty and wallet share. Perhaps the most common moment of truth is when something has gone wrong, the customer is unhappy or scared, and the relationship is at risk.
How do we build emotional intelligence?
First of all, emotional bonding cannot be scripted. Attempting to script such a connection will inevitably come off as hollow and insincere lacking authenticity and empathy, completely undermining the desired customer experience. Rather, emotional bonding must be a result of a spontaneous series of events that emerge from the emotional intelligence of employees.
The obvious starting point in building emotional intelligence is hiring frontline employees with the requisite emotional intelligence skills. Emotional intelligence can also be learned. However, it is a “soft” skill, unlike “hard” skills such as math; it can’t be taught in structured sessions. Rather, emotional intelligence is learned like almost all other human behaviors primarily though observation, experience and imitation.
Four Steps to Build Emotional Intelligence
Give people meaning in their work: Inspire frontline employees with a purpose beyond a paycheck. This clarity of purpose should include both what they are supposed to do and why they are supposed to do it.
In empowering frontline employees to serve customers, brands should arm them with statements of general principles and values rather than scripted procedures, which undermine empowerment. Reinforce these principals often so in the instant, when they are in a moment of truth with a customer in need, they have an appropriate framework from which to resolve the issue – and bond the customer to the brand.
Most frontline employees want to help customers; however, their motivations may be varied. Leading customer experience brands allow their employees to discover their own motivations for looking out for the customer’s best interests.
Create learning opportunities through experience: Humans are programmed to learn through self-discovery. Self-discovery reinforces the learning process by instilling a sense of accomplishment or pride. These positive feelings associated with self-discovery are a strong psychological reward, which reinforces the learning process. While self-discovery is not a top-down process, managers can foster self-discovery through feedback, encouraging employees to reflect on their own successes and failures, and anecdotes about other employees. Case studies are not just for MBA students.
Align customer experience systems and processes: It is imperative that systems and processes support the emotional skills desired from employees. Systems and process must constantly reinforce the overall message of emotional intelligence and emotionally connecting with customers. In empowering employees to respond to moments of truth, management must strike a balance between financial considerations and the things that matter to the customer. Good customer experiences are not good because they are good; they are good because they are profitable; however, there is no benefit to being penny wise and pound foolish. Finally, processes need to be streamlined to give employees both the time and ability to rise to the situation.
Enlist leaders and mentors: Emotions are learned through modeling. Children don’t learn to react to certain stimuli just because a parent tells them what to feel. We learn how to react to certain situations through trial and error and observing role models. First, it is imperative that all managers and leadership model appropriate emotional skills. How can you expect emotional intelligence from the frontline if it doesn’t exist in leadership? Second, identify employees with the appropriate emotional skills and position them as role models within the organization.
Key to success of any customer facing brand is alignment of the customer experience to both the brand promise and customer expectations. Most of time, this is not difficult. Appropriate systems procedures and even automated delivery channels can achieve this end. However, in moments of truth, where there is a high degree of risk associated with the outcome of the experience, leading customer experience brands rely on an emotionally intelligent frontline staff to align the experience and bond the customer to the brand.
Emotional States and Problem Resolution
Previously we discussed the concept of “moments of truth” where some experiences in the customer journey have far greater importance than others. These moments of truth represent increased risk and opportunity to leave a lasting emotional impression on the customer; a lasting impression with significant long-term implications for both customer loyalty and wallet share. Perhaps the most common moment of truth is when something has gone wrong, the customer is unhappy or scared and the relationship is at risk. These events could be the result of: service delivery failures (unavailable service, unreasonably slow service, or other core service failures); customer needs and requests (special customer needs or customer preferences); or an adverse outcome (loan denial or loss of investment principal).
Also, in an earlier post we introduced a model to define emotional states with two dimensions:
1) valence (the extent to which the emotional state is positive or negative) and
2) arousal (the extent to which the energy mobilization of the emotional state is experienced on a scale of active to passive or aroused to calm).
Together, valence and arousal can define all human emotions. States of high arousal and positive valence are excited or happy; low arousal and negative valence are bored or depressed; while states of positive valence and low arousal are calm and relaxed, and negative valence and high arousal are angry or frustrated.
Not surprisingly, people are motivated to maintain positive moods, and mitigate negative affective states. People in negative affective states desire choices that have the potential to change or, in particular, improve their moods. For example, researchers have demonstrated a preference for TV shows that held the greatest promise of providing relief from negative affective states. People in a sad mood want to be comforted; anxious people want to feel control and safety.
Beyond solving the problem, the objective in dealing with an upset customer is to help relieve their negative affective state. If they are angry, attempt to calm them; if anxious, provide comfort. Time and time again, our research across many brands reveals that beyond resolving their problem as efficiently as possible, what customers want is empathy and reliability. We want to talk to someone who both understands how we feel and is reliable. They both have a solution to the problem and what they say will get done, gets done.
Strategies in CX Design
Anticipate potential needs for recovery: In designing tools to monitor the customer experience, managers must be aware of potential moments of truth and design tools to monitor these critical points in the customer journey. Some of these tools include: monitoring customer comments from comment cards or online forms to identify instances where the customer is either extremely happy or dissatisfied; monitor social media to identify common causes of moments of truth; survey tracking specifically focusing on the responses from dissatisfied customers; and mystery shopping to test the response to specific problem scenarios.
Decentralize decision making & empower front-line employees: In empowering frontline employees to serve customers, brands should arm them with statements of general principles and values rather than scripted procedures, which undermine empowerment. Reinforce these principles often so in the moment, when they are in a moment of truth with a customer in need, they have an appropriate framework from which to resolve the issue – and bond the customer to the brand.
Train the frontline: Training the frontline to handle problem resolution requires training not just in decision making, but also emotional intelligence. Can emotional intelligence be taught? Yes, but it requires a unique approach of self-discovery. Self-discovery is not a top-down process, however. Managers can foster it through feedback, encouragement to reflect on their own successes and failures, and anecdotes about other employees.
Specifically, tactics frontline employees can employ to handle upset customers include:
• Acknowledging the problem;
• Empathize;
• Apologize;
• Own the problem;
• Fix the problem;
• Provide assurance; and
• Provide compensation.
Customers experiencing a problem want to change their negative affective state. When dealing with an upset customer it is incumbent on the frontline to help relieve this negative state. Time and time again, in research study after research study, Kinesis finds that the two service attributes that influence customers in a positive way when they encounter a problem are empathy and reliability. Customers want to interact with employees who understand their feelings and are able to resolve the problem.
The Human Element: Sales and Service, Bank’s Last Link in the Marketing Chain
What if I told you that after all your efforts with marketing (product, positioning and price), there is a one-in-ten chance the branch representatives will undermine the sale?
Now more than ever, it is critical for banks to establish themselves as the primary provider of financial services, not only for deposit accounts but across a variety of financial products and services. Increasing the average products per customer will require a strategic approach to both product design and marketing. However, at the end of this strategic marketing process, there is the human element, where prospective customers must interact with bank employees to complete the sales process.
As part of our services to our clients, Kinesis tracks purchase intent as a result of in-branch sales presentations. According to our research, 10% of in-branch sales presentations observed by mystery shoppers, result in negative purchase intent.
What do these 10% failed sales presentations look like?
Here are some quotes describing the experience:
“There was no personal attention. The banker did not seem to care if I was there or not. At the teller line, there was only one teller that seemed to care that there were several people waiting. No one moved with a sense of urgency. There was no communication materials provided.”
Here’s another example…
“It was painfully obvious that the banker was lacking basic knowledge of the accounts.”
Yet another…
“Brian did not give the impression that he wanted my business. He did not stand up and shake my hand when I went over to his desk. He very rarely made eye contact. I felt like he was just going through the motions. He did not ask for my name or address me by my name. He told me about checking account products but failed to inquire about my situation or determine what needs I have or might have in the future. He did not wrap up the recommendation by going over everything nor did he ask for my business. He did not thank me for coming in.”
In contrast, here is what the shops with positive intent look like:
“The appearance of the bank was comfortable and very busy in a good way. The customers were getting tended to and the associates had the customers’ best interests in mind. The response time was amazing and I felt as if the associate was sincere about wanting me as a customer, but he was not pushy or demanding about it.”
Now…after all the effort and expense of a strategic cross-sell strategy, which of the above experiences do you want your customers to encounter?
Would it be acceptable to you as a marketer to at the end of a strategic marketing campaign, have 10% of the sales presentations undermine its success?
These are rhetorical questions.
Time and time again, in study after study, we consistently observe that purchase intent is driven by two dimensions of the customer experience: reliability and empathy. Customers want bankers who care about them and their needs and have the ability to satisfy those needs. Specifically, our research suggests the following behaviors are strongly related to purchase intent:
- Friendly/Smile/Courteous
- Greeting/Stand to Greet/Acknowledge Wait
- Interest in Helping/Offer Assistance
- Discuss Benefits/Solutions
- Promised Services Get Done
- Accuracy
- Professionalism
- Express Appreciation/Gracious
- Personalized Comment (such as, How are you?)
- Listen Attentively/Undivided Attention
As part of any strategic marketing campaign to both bring in new customers as well as increase wallet share of existing customers, it is incumbent on the institution to install appropriate customer experience training, sales and service monitoring, linked with incentives and rewards structures to motivate sales and service behaviors which drive purchase intent.
Measure and Motivate the Right Contact Center Agent Behaviors
Increasingly banks must operate in a multi-channel environment. While the changing role of the branch, combined with automated channels such as online and mobile, are getting a lot of attention, there remains a key role for the contact center in delivering an effective customer experience. Central to this key role is designing an effective customer experience, comprised of the right sales and service behaviors – those which influence customer attitudes and behaviors in a profitable way yielding the most return on investment.
To provide direction with respect to what sales and service behaviors will yield the most return on investment, Kinesis conducted a series of mystery shops to identify which sales and service behaviors have the most influence on purchase intent. In addition to observing specific sales and service behaviors, mystery shoppers were also asked to rate how the call would have influenced their purchase intent if they had been a real customer. This purchase intent rating was then used as means of calculating the strength of the relationship between each behavior and purchase intent.
To determine the relationship between these service attributes and purchase intent, the data for these different studies was cross-tabulated by the purchase intent rating and subjected to significance testing. [i]
When the percentage of calls in which purchase intent significantly increased is tested against the percentage of calls where purchase intent significantly decreased, nearly all the sales and service attributes are statistically significant at or above a 95% confidence level.
| Significantly Increased | Significantly Decreased | Test Statistic | |
| Product knowledge | 98% | 35% | 9.6 |
| Explanations easy to understand | 99% | 45% | 9.0 |
| When thanked, respond graciously | 98% | 42% | 8.5 |
| Friendly demeanor / pleasant voice | 100% | 60% | 8.4 |
| Express appreciation for interest / thank you for business | 92% | 20% | 8.3 |
| Listen attentively | 99% | 60% | 7.3 |
| Ask probing questions | 79% | 10% | 6.4 |
| Offer further assistance | 85% | 25% | 6.2 |
| Speak clearly and avoid bank jargon | 98% | 68% | 5.8 |
| Listen attentively to your needs | 80% | 25% | 5.3 |
| Mention other bank product | 99% | 75% | 5.3 |
| Clear Greeting | 95% | 60% | 5.1 |
| Invite you to visit branch | 64% | 10% | 4.6 |
| Explain the value of banking with bank | 57% | 5% | 4.4 |
| Offer to mail material / mention website | 66% | 20% | 4.3 |
| Ask your name | 68% | 25% | 3.8 |
| Ask for your business / close the sale | 57% | 21% | 2.9 |
| Avoid interrupting | 100% | 95% | 2.9 |
| If no one available to assist you, offered options | 100% | 0% | 2.2 |
| Professional greeting | 98% | 89% | 1.9 |
The differences between the highest and lowest purchase intent for product knowledge and ease to understanding explanations are the most significant, while a professional greeting is the least significant.
Dividing these behaviors into rough quartiles and comparing them side-by-side, reveals some interesting observations:
|
Quartile I |
Product knowledge
Explanations easy to understand When thanked, respond graciously Friendly demeanor / pleasant voice Express appreciation for interest / thank you for business |
|
Quartile II |
Listen attentively
Ask probing questions Offer further assistance Speak clearly and avoid bank jargon When thanked, employee respond graciously |
|
Quartile III |
Listen attentively to your needs
Mention other bank product Clear greeting Invite you to visit branch Explain the value of banking with bank Offer to mail material / mention website |
|
Quartile IV |
Ask your name
Ask for your business / close the sale Avoid interrupting If no one available to assist you, offered options Professional greeting |
The attributes with the most significant differences between high and low purchase intent ratings appear to be those associated with reliability and empathy. It appears mystery shoppers valued such “core” attributes as product knowledge or interest/enthusiasm for the customer. They seem to be less concerned with more peripheral service attributes, such as asking for names, etc. Influencing purchase intent is not as simple as merely using the customer’s name or answering the phone within a short period of time. Rather it is a much more challenging undertaking of being competent in your job and having the customer’s best interests at heart.
[i] Significance testing determines if any differences observed are the result of actual differences in the populations measured rather than the result of normal variation. Without getting into too much detail, significance testing produces a test statistic to determine the probability that differences observed are statistically significant. A test statistic above 1.96 equates to a 95% confidence level, which means there is a 95% chance any differences observed are the result of actual differences in the populations measured rather than normal variation. For all practical purposes a test statistic over 3.1 means there is 100% chance the differences observed are statistically significant (although in reality the probability never reaches 100%). Finally, in interpreting the following analysis, it is important note that test statistics are not lineal. A test statistic of two is not twice as significant as a test statistic of one. The influence on significance decreases as the test statistic increases. However, the test statistic does give us an opportunity to rank the service attributes by their statistical significance.
Kinesis CEM 