National Bank of Canada

With $251 billion in assets as of January, 2018, National Bank of Canada, together with its subsidiaries, forms one of Canada’s leading integrated financial groups. It has more than 21,000 employees in knowledge-intensive positions and has been recognized numerous times as a top employer and for its commitment to diversity. Its securities are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: NA).

The Challenge

National Bank of Canada built its reputation as a customer centric institution by focusing on customer services. As part of its commitment to putting the customer first, the Bank identified an area where improvement was possible: appointment scheduling. Bank customers communicating with the Bank call center would often get referred to one of the bank’s Advisors, who provide expert advice on a range of financial matters. Such referrals, however, invariably encountered a disconnect between the call center and the Advisors’ respective appointment calendars due to the lack of a direct scheduling option.

Imagine calling up your bank’s call center and being told that you need to schedule an appointment with a bank Advisor—but you can’t get patched through or schedule directly with bank Advisors—you must hang up and contact the Advisor on a separate call. This was the situation faced by National Bank of Canada, whose call center staff was unable to integrate directly with its Advisors. Instead of seamless service delivery, call centers were limited to providing customers with the coordinates of the branch, or simply giving the customer the branch contact information. Providing Bank customers an effortless way to connect with the right specialist through any channel every time they want to make an appointment would ensure direct connection to Advisors and would eliminate the negative customer experience that was occurring all too frequently.

“We chose Engageware because the solution easily integrated into our systems and quickly positioned us to give our customers the most efficient means possible of meeting with our Advisors. That has allowed us to address customer needs much more effectively, and to completely turn around what had been a regular source of bad customer experiences. Our Advisors now have the right support to increase the number of client meetings they have, and to prepare for each of those meetings with exactly the right tools and data to ensure a positive experience for the customer.”
– Patrick Gaboury, Manager of CRM, National Bank of Canada

Why Engageware

National Bank considered several options to solve its scheduling-based customer service problem. As a Quebec based company with a broad French-speaking customer pool, the bank placed high value on internationalization, and thus sought a solution partner that could provide seamless support in either English or French. The Bank also wanted a partner that had proven experience working with a large financial institution. After looking at several vendors, the Bank ultimately selected Engageware because of Engageware’s scalable enterprise platform and proven commitment to financial institution security requirements, which was important for the Bank because of the concern customers have over protecting their confidential information. The Bank also appreciated that Engageware offered a quick implementation cycle—particularly for cloud services—enabling a rapid time to market. Finally, Engageware distinguished itself through its process-driven design, which provides flexibility and the possibility of supporting the Bank across various use cases.

Results

Since working with Engageware, National Bank reliably provides its customers with an efficient means of meeting with Advisors to address their needs. In addition to giving Bank clients a simple, unified experience across the channel of their choice, using Engageware has allowed the Bank to support its Advisors with the tools and data to optimize every in-person client meeting. Since implementing Engageware, the Bank is booking more than 3,000 appointments daily, and feedback from the field is overwhelmingly positive about the real-time effectiveness of the platform and its ease of use.

Looking Ahead

National Bank has expressed satisfaction with its initial Engageware rollout, particularly with the expanded capability its Advisors now have to schedule and prepare for client meetings. Bank leadership has already addressed its next focus area for improvement: enhancing the in-branch experience through improved on-premises appointments. Having already delivered a solution for the Bank’s customer service problem, Engageware hopes to continue its collaboration with by introducing the Bank to Concierge solutions that address such in-person needs.