Staffing challenges in 2022 are not unique to financial institutions. As of February 2022, there were 11.3 million open jobs in the United States, record levels that shows no signs of slowing down. Steve Steinour, Huntington Bancshares CEO recently said “Never in my 40 plus years of banking have I seen labor shortages at the level they’re at now. The job openings exceed the supply.”
This has created a quadruple whammy that has left banks and credit unions desperate to balance doing more with less while still hitting their goals.
Working Smarter to Do More with Less to Support Your Customers
In a tight labor market with less staff and higher expectations, we must work smarter to do more with less. The challenge, where do you start? Banks and credit unions are bombarded daily with solutions promising nirvana – more accounts, better customer experiences, and more efficiency.
Why not start with the areas that will have the highest impact?
In 2021, Gartner researched over 8,000 banking customer’s journeys when they were looking for help or support. What they found was that 70% will start digitally and 30% will call or visit. The problem? Of the 70% that started digitally, only 9% were able to get the answers and support they needed themselves. The rest – required help from one or multiple interactions with your staff.
In short: 91% of banking customers looking for help or support were forced to rely on your staff for help, even when they wanted to do it themselves. This creates inefficiencies in a normal staffing environment, but in a tight market, it puts tremendous pressure on your employees and creates negative customer experiences.
Here are two areas that financial institutions can make improvements to:
- Decrease call volumes by 25%
- Reduce the number of live chats and emails by 50%
- Increase employee efficiency by 30%
Digital Self-Service Support
Answer the common questions your customers are looking for digitally
70% of banking customers start digitally when they need help or have questions. When we look at the data from millions of customer questions, the top 20 questions are the same routine questions flooding your contact center: routing number, transfers, order checks, hours, and technology questions such as Zelle, online banking, login. Why are they calling? Because the majority of bank and credit union websites and mobile banking don’t provide basic answers or the context of why they are asking and what they are looking to do next.
The Results of an Effective Self-Service Support Strategy
- Self-service success rates raise from 9% to almost 50%
- The number of phone calls drop 25% and the number of emails and live chats drop 50%+.
What it Takes:
- Robust knowledge base of 100+ answers that make up the 80% of the questions banking customers ask
- Great content that Answers the question, provides Additional information, and is Actionable
- Access that surrounds your customers across digital channels in a variety of ways
Ready to empower your customers with digital self-service? It takes the right answers at the right place, and a partner that knows what those are.
Learn how Engageware’s Customer Self-Service has helped hundreds of financial institutions improve digital self-service success rates to reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction with its unique content services and interfaces.
Employee Engagement & Empowerment
Empower employees with answers at their fingertips when interacting with customers
91% of customers rely on your employees for help when they have a question. During a time when you’re facing staffing shortages and higher than ever volumes, speed, accuracy, and confidence matter. With thousands of constantly changing policies and procedures that your frontline staff needs to know, access to information is critical. The challenge: there is just too much – too much to know, too much to train on, and not enough staff.
The Results of an Effective Knowledge Management Strategy:
- Increase in first contact resolution by 30%
- Decrease in handle times by minutes
- Decrease in onboarding times from months to weeks
What it Takes:
- Easy to find, follow, and use answers for the thousands of questions employees need
- A consolidated knowledge base that provides consistent and accurate information
- The right insights for managing your knowledge – even the best technology can’t fix bad content
Ready to empower your employees with instant answers? It takes a partner with the right experience and approach.
Learn how Engageware’s Employee Knowledge Management has helped hundreds of financial institutions empower employees to improve first contact resolutions and reduce handle times by minutes with its unique knowledge management approach.