The banking sector in Africa is becoming increasingly competitive on the continent. Contact centres can provide financial service organisations with an edge. They can assist to improve customer service, drive sales, lower the cost of products, ensure compliance and better manage risk, says Danny Ross from Jasco Group.
The opportunity
The opportunity for banking services organisations in Africa is significant. Foreign direct investment in Africa continues to grow and the economic growth prospects for many African countries remain positive.
There is greater inter-Africa trade and considerable investment in infrastructure. There is also rapid urbanization and a burgeoning middle class. Regulatory and political reforms, on-going liberalization of key industry sectors and the democratising effect of technology, boosted by the landing of undersea cables up further fuel the fires of economic growth.
This has seen aggressive growth among African banks, as well as the entry of a number of South African and international banks into African markets.
As they enter new geographies and regulatory environments, compete in more crowded market segments, and serve larger customer bases with diverging profiles, these banks face myriad challenges, not least the ability to meet service promises, introduce innovative new products, grow their market share, manage growth and remain profitable.
Contact centre solutions can provide many of the tools needed to meet these challenges.
Serving multinationals and big business
Multinationals operating in Africa must meet standards set by global parent companies, and must comply with local and international regulations. The same rules need to be followed by large enterprises doing business at a local or international level. Banks serving these customers are expected to offer world-class services, operating with ease across global financial markets.
Contact centres that are appropriately resourced can assist financial service organisations to attain those high levels of service.
Innovation enabler
As more people sign up for formal financial services products in Africa for the first time, Banks in Africa will be challenged to innovate rapidly, creating affordable entry level products that meet their needs.
To ensure affordability, these products need to be serviced via inexpensive communication channels such as SMS, IM and email. Risk management will also be a key factor. Effective means of identifying customers and authorising interactions, and voice recordings of interactions will mitigate risk.
Contact centre solutions can play a key role in supporting innovation.
Strategic drivers
While the strategies, objectives and processes of financial services organisations vary, typical scenarios include the need to:
* Standardise processes and customer interactions across geographies;
* Establish and enforce service standards;
* Ensure compliance and implement risk management;
* Access backend systems and databases to improve customer service and increase sales;
* Refresh technologies to facilitate interaction with customers via multimedia communication channels;
* Increase staff productivity; improve margins on products;
* Use customer segmentation to align service focus with business strategy;
* Enable customer self service;
* Manage costs through introduction of a single technology; and
* Better leverage enterprise resources for customers service through introduction of a single interface.
Contact centre solutions are designed to help address these challenges, but the importance of business analysis – the assessment of existing business processes and their alignment to strategic goals — should not be underestimated.
Assessing needs, meeting objectives
Whether the organisation needs to find a way to better manage growth, increase customer service channels and turnaround times, improve its cross- or upselling capabilities, better manage risk or lower its costs, it is vital that it first understand where its challenges lie.
Business analysis will assist to identify pain points so that underlying process, technology and business issues can be addressed. This may, among others, see adaptation of a process, automation of a function or improvement of workflows.
Clearly defined contact centre solutions can help resolve these challenges, and can add immense value. Building a business case is imperative to drive value from the investment, as is applying the right expertise to ensure outcomes can be measured and monitored.
The selection of a contact centre solution should be based on achievement of immediate as well as medium and long term business objectives. As contact centre solutions are built on open platforms, integration with disparate technologies and systems which the organisation may already be using is relatively easy. In addition, as these systems are modular, different contact centre functionality can be activated as need and budgets dictate.
The solutions
A centralised contact centre
When every branch of a bank has its own switchboard and staff in various departments are made responsible for handling customer calls, productivity and customer service levels are likely to drop. A central contact centre with well trained staff can more effectively and efficiently assist customers, leaving specialised staff to do valuable work.
There are also solutions that will maximise the valuable time of call centre staff.
* Fast access to key transaction and customer data enables agents to assist customers quickly and accurately. Critical data should be identified and made available to agents. This is particularly important when it comes to aligning service to business strategies. High value clients can, for example, be identified and accorded the right level of service.
* Multiple communication channels — including SMS, email, voice, instant messaging (IM), ISSD codes and other means of interacting with customers — can be facilitated. Clear management of these channels, including assignment of queries, reporting and appropriate escalation, are included in the contact centre solution. As cost is a major factor, especially for customers accessing formal financial products and services for the first time, making use of inexpensive communication channels, such as SMS, IM, and ISSD is a smart strategy.
* Interactive Voice Response (IVR) provides inbound callers with a menu of options, directing them to an agent or automated service (e.g., current balance) where they are most likely to get the information they need. This lowers costs and helps resolve queries faster.
* An auto-dialler for outbound calls will screen all calls, only handing ‘live’ calls to an agent. Typically used for sales or debt collection applications, an auto-dialler can improve and agent’s live interaction times significantly, with accompanying benefits in terms of sales or collections.
* Voice recording solutions have become mandatory in many countries. They provide the organisation with a record of verbal transactions and interactions which is critical for risk management, or in the case of litigation. These solutions have advanced considerably and voice recognition, unique identifiers and other features enable fast search and retrieval of recordings.
* Social media platforms introduce new ways to interact with customers. Monitoring social media for brand mentions will assist the organisation to respond timeously, meeting customer needs and protecting brand reputation.
* Workforce optimisation software helps track the performance and status of agents. This is especially useful to ensure queries are directed to agents with the right levels of skill, and to assess the staffing needs of the contact centre based on historical loads or current activities.
Building a platform
An end-to-end solution – “the enterprise ready to serve”?
For big players in home markets, readying the enterprise to serve has become a major goal to drive customer service capabilities. An end-to-end solution provides a single enterprise interface, facilitating access to data and expertise within the enterprise to resolve customer queries. This makes specialists available to agents when needed and provides high value clients with expert assistance.
It also allows for enhanced coordination between the business and the contact centre, with business activities and strategies communicated to the contact centre timeously.
A measured approach to building a solution is highly recommended, however, as it enables on-going refinement.
The expertise
It takes some skill and a fair amount of experience to implement a contact centre solution that delivers the promised benefits. In selecting a service provider, identify companies with a solid track record and the right skill sets. For a complete solution, you want a company that can provide business analysis and implement the solution, including identifying and implementing the necessary linkage to back-office business systems. You also want a company that makes use of best business practices to ensure compliance in complex regulatory environments.
A contact centre is continually evolving to meet changing business and customer demands, particularly as new products are introduced and the macro-economic environment dynamically shifts. It is thus essential to select a service provider that can assist the organisation to create the right reports, measure and monitor performance, and continually refine the solution.
Toolset integration
When businesses rely strongly on specific tools, these can be integrated into the contact centre. A logistics company, for example, may want to give agents access to the information within a parcel tracking system.
The technology
The technology – the hardware and software — needed to put in place an effective contact centre solution is well documented. Select a solution that has the breadth and capability of features your organisation will need. Ensure that the solution also has a proven record for reliability and ease of configuration. Contact centre solutions that are built using open systems will be capable of integration with a wide range of other technologies, systems and end user devices.
Technology is merely an enabler, however. The real expertise is in defining and implementing a solution that meets business needs – now and in the future.
The Jasco team’s expertise extends to the majority of leading systems and brands. Its solutions of choice are Avaya, Presence and Collab, a powerful hosted cloud based solution.