An example of a b2b white paper for lead generation and nurturing.

1. Customer Experience
Management and the
Financial Services Provider
A Blueprint for Online &
Multi-Channel Engagement
In today’s highly commoditized financial services
industry, there is no margin for error when it
comes to attracting and retaining high-value
customers. Firms must now offer more channels
of communication, more customer options, and
faster responses than ever before.
IR Knowledge Series August 2009

2. This knowledge paper examines and explores
the key elements that will allow financial
services providers of all types to continue
to evolve their approach to addressing the
questions and concerns of their unique
customer base. Perhaps now more than ever, one
of the best ways to differentiate your institution in
the financial services industry is through exceptional
customer service, beginning with your contact center
and web properties, and extending out to include
assisted channels, mobile and new media as part
of a next generation, multi-channel approach to
managing the customer experience.
Whether the journey begins on a smartphone,
via a new social media channel, directly on your
corporate web site, or via a direct call to your
contact center, best practices demand speed,
consistency and a truly uniformed approach to
managing customer interaction.
The Web as the Lynchpin of a Multi-Channel
Customer Experience
To say that the web has become an important tool
for customer interaction would be more than just
a “minor” understatement. The financial services
industry is facing a veritable explosion in the
number of online customer service interactions
over the coming years. Due to the increased
convenience, independence, speed and value of
the Internet, consumers of all ages are continuing
to use the web as their primary conduit to banking,
credit card, insurance, brokerage and virtually every
other type of financial service.
In fact, Forrester Research predicts that 92 million, or
76% of all U.S. households are expected to engaged
in financial service interactions online by 2011.i
And
this move online is no longer unique to the younger
generation. According to recent research from
HSBC, while 62% of people ages 21 to 34 conduct
the majority of their banking online, approximately
40% of Americans ages 45 to 69 are now doing most
or all of their banking online as well.ii
The power of the web has also extended its reach
to include mobile technology that allows financial
services customers to engage with their providers
wherever and whenever they choose. According
to ForSee Results and Forbes.com, 27% of online
investors with mobile phones use them to access
investment web sites.iii
For most if not all financial services institutions,
increasing customer satisfaction online is just good
business. Not only do such solutions and strategies
promote a seamless, multi-channel experience for
the customer, they also provide the institution with
the ability to improve both overall loyalty and
bottom line savings by moving customers to the
most cost effective service channel.
The web sites of financial service firms of all types
have a fairly large impact on the overall success
of the entire firm. Investment firms for example,
typically find that their customers use the web more
than perhaps any other channel, so it’s critical
that the experience be productive and in line with
expectations. Even credit card providers, who are
typically seen as a commodity solution, can and
should strive to differentiate themselves on service
that, more often than not, involves the web at some
point during any sales or service engagement.
Satisfied online customers are more profitable,
more loyal, and more likely to engage in positive
word of mouth, and if they increase their use of
the web site for informational and transactional
service, cost savings increase through the value of
right-channeling.
1Customer Experience Management
and the Financial Services Provider
A Blueprint for Online & Multi-Channel Engagement
Consumers of all ages are
continuing to use the web as
their primary conduit to banking,
credit card, insurance, brokerage
and virtually every other type of
financial service.

3. 2
With Opportunity comes Challenge:
the Multi-Channel Reality
The picture is not all rosy however. As more and
more transactions, sales and service interactions in
the financial services industry continue to involve
on the Web, your firm’s opportunity to influence
customer perceptions about brand, net promoter
score, loyalty and advocacy increasingly begins online.
The new reality now demands that organizations
of all types provide rapid, concise information to
customers across a variety of self-service and assisted
channels, and this can be a daunting mandate.
The financial services industry has been widely
recognized as a leader in customer experience
management for good reason, with retail banks
in particular being lauded as pioneers in creating
new and innovative ways to manage the customer
experience in the emerging multi-channel
environment. Much of this progress has been built
on gaining insight into customer value and then
leveraging this information by tapping in to the
unique insights that are sometimes only available
via online interactions.
That said, many financial services web sites are not
designed using a customer centric process and as
a consequence users cannot find relevant content
and information quickly. In addition, many financial
services providers are not able to provide a truly
consistent experience across multiple channels
during any given inquiry process. For example,
providing customers with the ability to seamlessly
transition between online and offline (self-service
and assisted channels) is often non-existent for
many financial services firms. The resulting
frustration causes consumers to either leave and go
to a competitor’s web site or re-connect in a more
expensive channel – such as email, phone or to a
branch for example.
Online, the Status Quo
does not Suffice
Damaging Effects of POOR SITE DESIGN
Although the online growth trends for financial
services firms continue to trend upward, and multi-
channel customer experience has taken on a new
meaning in recent years, many web sites are not
designed with a clear customer focused approach
and as a result struggle with navigational elements,
layout, content that reads as collateral, site depth
and complexity, static FAQ’s, and the ubiquitous
site search that returns numerous links. In addition,
many firms offer a ‘disjointed’ customer experience
across assisted and self-serve channels, with
information flow in the contact center often lacking
continuity to web interaction.
A recent Jupiter Consulting survey revealed that 54%
of consumers visiting a web site came looking for
product and/or service information, 45% came to
do an online bank transaction and 23% needed
contact information.iv
Once on the site, a third of customers had a difficult
time finding the information they were looking
for, and the top three reasons that customers leave
sites early are directly linked to poor site design and
service flaws (see Figure 1 next page).
Site Search and FAQ’s Prove Inadequate
Most corporate search platforms often do little to
help the situation. Approximately 63% of consumers
continue to be frustrated with web site search
because it cannot understand the real question and
57% believe search results are not related to their
specific topic of interest.v
As most of us know from
experience, web site users who utilize search often
have to hunt and peck through large numbers of
possible links to find answers buried somewhere in
the detailed content of search results.
Static FAQ systems, the other pervasive alternative,
only deal with a subset of questions and require
visitors to “find a question”. Many self-service
solutions today lack relevance, speed and accuracy.
Research indicates that approximately 47% of
customers are looking for a faster navigation path
and 33% want a tool to provide a single accurate
response or advanced FAQ (see Figure 2 next page).
Many financial service providers
are not able to provide a truly
consistent experience across
multiple channels during any
given inquiry process.
Customer Experience Management
and the Financial Services Provider
A Blueprint for Online & Multi-Channel Engagement

4. 47%
36%
33%
33%
30%
13%
13%
12%
8%
5%
2%
3
Figure 2
Effective Navigation Tools Resonate with Site Visitors
Percentage of Site Visitors
Ability to easily navigate from home page and find what I seek
The ability to send an e-mail to customer service
Frequently Aked Questions (FAQ) web page
Question box that enables you to enter a question
and get a single, accurate answer
Search tool that offers a list of search results
Text-based online chat
Call back option, where I enter my information
and phone number and customer service calls me back
A link to information About US that is easily found
None of these would be helpful
The ability to make a phone call to the company via my PC, cllicking a
button and talking through my computer’s microphone (VoIP)
Other
100%0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
47% of customers are
looking for a faster
navigation path
and 33% want a tool
to provide a single
accurate response or
advanced FAQ.
Figure 1
Site Visitor Frustration Can Lead to Devastating Results:
Lost Sales and/or Tarnished Brands
Percentage of Site Visitors
Leave the website and go to a competitive website
Be less likely to visit the site again
Be less likely to buy from them online
Leave the website and give up
Contact customer service via e-mail
Have a more negative overall perception of the company
Contact customer service via phone phone regarding my experience
Be less likely to buy from them offline
Tell others about my negative experience
I have never been dissatisfied
Question: If you find yourself dissatisfied with your ability to find the
necessary information you sought when first arriving on a website or a
specific product/service page, which of the following are you likely to do?
(Select all that apply) Select responses shown.
45%
45%
40%
24%
24%
21%
18%
18%
16%
4%
100%0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
Site visitors are
more likely to opt for
an alternative site
than both to contact
customer service.
Customer Experience Management
and the Financial Services Provider
A Blueprint for Online & Multi-Channel Engagement

5. Financial Services Customers are Goal Oriented
Customers come to interact with financial services
web sites and service agents armed with a goal
in mind, and usually they have a specific context
associated to their visit or inquiry. We can group these
key objectives into three major categories: DO, BUY
or ASK. The definition and an example of each of
these three categories are as follows:
1. DO: Involves the desire to perform a task that leads
to the customer engaging in an assisted or self-service
transaction online or started online and concluded in
another channel.
Example: DO (Goal Oriented) – when a customer
wants to transfer funds from a savings account
to a 401K. During this process a customer may
have a simple question which can be phrased in
numerous different ways:
• What is the maximum amount of money
I can transfer to my 401K?
• How much money can I move to a 401K?
• What are the 401K limitations?
• How do I transfer funds to my retirement
account and what is the ceiling?
2. BUY: Involves any task related to the intended
and/or final purchase of a product or service – this
may start and conclude online or in another
channel, and often requires multiple channels to
complete the process.
Example: BUY (Goal Oriented) – when a customer
wants to acquire a new Visa travel rewards
card. During this process the customer may
have a question which can be stated in many
ways, for example:
• How do I apply?
• Can I apply online for a Visa card?
• What do I need to apply for a reward card?
• Where can I apply for a Visa travel card?
3. ASK: Relates to customers seeking assistance to
correct or rectify a customer service problem – often
caused by a failure to meet customer needs and
expectations in the DO and BUY categories.
Example: ASK (Goal Oriented) - a customer has
a dispute with the timing of a bill payment
made online. A customer may have the
following ways of asking the same question:
• Can I report a bill payment problem online?
• How do I report a bill payment issue?
• How do I correct a billing error?
• What action should I take to correct a
payment problem online?
The DO, BUY and ASK goal categories help us
understand that there is a solid link between
customer intention and customer action,
often in the form of a question or search
for information. More importantly we learn
that while there is often only one common
destination or piece of information that will
allow customers to achieve their goal, they
often travel down a number of disparate
paths to get there.
4Customer Experience Management
and the Financial Services Provider
A Blueprint for Online & Multi-Channel Engagement

6. The Expanding
Interaction Ecosystem
Assisted and Self-Service
There is a lot of confusion surrounding the key
channels and interaction points that can most
effectively influence the customer experience.
For many financial services firms, both the web
and the contact center must now deploy a variety
of strategies and technologies in order to service
their multi-channel customer base. Defining the
key elements of an effective customer interaction
ecosystem will help bring some clarity to the situation.
Most customer interaction platforms (see Figure 3)
require the capability to manage customer queries
across two primary sub-categories:
1. Assisted Service – Assisted-service provides or
enables human interaction with customers via phone
or face-to-face interaction as well as the Internet (email,
chat or click-to-call). This type of service is generally
best suited to the sort of complex, multi-faceted
interaction that can best be executed by trained
customer interaction personnel.
2. Self-Service – Self-service solutions offer
support via electronic means and allow customers
to access information quickly, or perform simple
transactions, often over the Internet. Self-service
solutions can include status quo offerings such as site
search or FAQ’s, or next generation solutions such
as virtual assistants or instant answer agents.
Part of the role of self-service is to transition qualified
sales and service leads to the most appropriate
assisted-service channels. It is worth noting that
employees and call center agents also have self-service
needs that functions within the contact center,
branch platforms or Intranet.
5
Figure 3
Customer Interaction Ecosystem
Self-Service Assisted Service
Support
Cross
Channel
Internet
• Search
• Contact Us / Ask Us
• FAQ
• Virtual Assistant
• Instant Answers
• Help
• Web Content
• Databases
• Secure site
• Applications, Tools
and Calculators
Contact Center
• Agents
• Email
• Click-to-chat
• Click-to-talk
• Collaborative browsing
• Lead Generation
• Call Center Platform
• Enterprise Platform
• CRM Platform
• Virtual Assistant
• Instant Answers
Intranet
• Search
• Ask Us
• FAQ
• Virtual Assistant
• Instant Answers
• Help
• Content
• Databases
Customer Experience Management
and the Financial Services Provider
A Blueprint for Online & Multi-Channel Engagement

7. The Right Channel –
The Right Time
Customers want the option to be able to transition
easily from self-service to human assistance (via
email, click-to-chat and click-to-call, etc.) to get help
and advice for more complex products, services
and transactions. Ideally, this should and can be
accomplished in a single session with no loss of
context or information. For a financial services
firm, the goal is seamless cross-channel information
delivery. For the firm’s customers, this translates into
a positive customer experience.
A positive cross-channel experience increases
the ability to achieve first contact resolution.
Understanding early stage web activity, customer
queries or online information requests can allow
firms to segment customers and move those
identified as key prospective customers quickly to a
seamless cross-channel experience to complete the
sales or service interaction that much quicker.
Most financial services firms are nothing if not multi-
channel businesses, and as such they must address
their customers’ needs as they progress through their
journey towards achieving their goals. Best practices
demand that organizations be equipped to manage
the customer experience via the preferred channel
of the customer – whether it’s online via self-service,
online via assisted service, or offline through a phone
or in person.
For some financial services firms, this process can
be hindered by silos of informational hierarchies –
with marketing owning the web site, contact center
owning many of the customer interactions and with
neither communicating effectively with the other. Or,
silos may exist with technology systems – each group
has all the information but getting the information
out to the customer is the roadblock.
The Road toward Next Generation Customer
Experience Capabilities
Today’s leading financial services firms should deploy
both the technology and the customer engagement
processes to allow them to:
• Identify the customer goal
Actively and intelligently determine the
customer goal by engaging them online
(increasingly regarded as the seminal first point
of customer interaction)
• Equip the customer with access to quick,
consistent information
Provide customers with an effective solution so
that they may self-serve
• Connect the customer to service channels
Provide a natural and consistent cross-channel
escalation at the correct point in time relative to
the product or service complexity
• Provide consistent answers
Offer consistent information and overall
experience throughout the interaction, across
multiple touch-points and interaction platforms,
including emerging channels such as mobile
text messaging and new social media channels
such as Twitter and Facebook
6
A positive cross-channel
experience can substantially
increase First Contact
Resolution rates
Customer Experience Management
and the Financial Services Provider
A Blueprint for Online & Multi-Channel Engagement

8. 6 Things You Can Do NOW
1. Add Intelligent Self-Service Options
If you haven’t already, look towards adding
intelligent self-service options such as a virtual
assistant to your web site or mobile platform
These technologies are quickly becoming a key
component of the multi-channel customer
experience, and provide a number of strong
benefits, including:
• Making it easy and convenient for customers to
get the right answer to many of their questions
the first time, thereby increasing first contact
resolution
• Allowing customers to type their question and
get an immediate, accurate answer, with a high
degree of accuracy.
• Improving key metrics such as net promoter
(CEI/CSI) score, brand and customer loyalty –
while reducing re-connect costs and increasing
sales/transactions
2. Overcome Silos of Information Bottlenecks
Strive to overcome silos of information “bottlenecks”
so that information about the customer and status
of their inquiry is shared across different channels
( For example, a call center operator should not
need to ask the same questions that have already
beenanswered online)
3. Include Customer Feedback
Incorporate customer feedback opportunities
at each touch point, including online and via
assisted channels
4. Test and Test Again!
“Test” your new technologies and processes with
customers directly to confirm that they are “valued”
by the customers that use them
5. Right-Channeling
Make sure you are channeling customers into the
right information funnel through intelligent
escalation. For example, it may make more sense
to push certain inquiries to self-service, while
“triaging” high value or high issue customers to
assisted channels
6. Make Your Phone # Accessible
The phone is not obsolete. Some customers will
come to your web site with the sole purpose of
finding a phone number they can use to contact
you with – make sure that number is available
to them
For More Information
For more information on cost effective ways to enhance
the customer experience at your organization contact:
Mike Hennessy
IntelliResponse
mike.hennessy@intelliresponse.com
About IntelliResponse
IntelliResponse enhances the multi-channel customer experience for
businesses and educational institutions via its Instant Answer Agent, a
question-and-answer software platform that allows web site visitors and
service agents to ask questions in natural language, and get the “One Right
Answer”, regardless of the hundreds of ways the question may be asked.
This industry leading On Demand software platform is used by both
consumers and contact center agents. With more than 200 live, customer-
facing implementations answering 50 million+ questions with one right
answer, IntelliResponse is the gold standard in first line
customer experience management.
Some of the world’s most recognized corporate brands and higher
education institutions trust their customer experience management needs
to IntelliResponse - including ING Direct, TD Canada Trust, Scotiabank,
Penn State University, The Ohio State University, University of British
Columbia and Harvard University Extension School.
i
US Online Banking, Five Year Forecast, 2007, Forrester Research
ii
HSBC Direct, 2008
iii
ForSee Results, Forbes.com, April, 2009
iv
Jupiter Research, 2008
v
Jupiter Research, 2008
Copyright © 2009, IntelliResponse Systems Inc. All rights reserved.
The trademarks identified herein are the trademarks or registered
trademarks of IntelliResponse Systems Inc. or other third party.
7Customer Experience Management
and the Financial Services Provider
A Blueprint for Online & Multi-Channel Engagement