Success Story: Banking & Financial Services

[Pages:4]Success Story: Banking & Financial Services

Bank Hapoalim

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At a Glance

Bank Hapoalim

Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . Financial Services Number of agents. . . . 900 agents working in multi-site environment Number of customer interactions. . . . . . . . . 120,000 inbound calls per day; 5,000 -- 6,000 outbound calls per day Revenues . . . . . . . . . . . Assets worth over $54 billion

Placing the Contact Centre at the Forefront of a Customer-first Business Strategy

Established in 1921, Bank Hapoalim is now Israel's biggest bank. The Bank Hapoalim Group has 252 branches, subsidiaries, and offices in Europe, North America, and Latin America that serve households, professionals, and small businesses; nine regional business centres dealing with mid-market companies; a special service for major corporate customers;plus corresponding agreements with over 2,500 banks around the world.

Bank Hapoalim credits its success to an emphasis on customer service. Therefore, as the bank developed its business strategies from 2000 to 2008, it made sure to assess the likely impact of these strategies upon its customers. As Oren Hertz, Contact Centre Systems and Products Manager at Bank Hapoalim, explains: "We recognised that we could improve the customer experience and deliver cost savings by routing calls to a centralised contact centre, rather than to individual branches. We wanted customers to have the opportunity to do nearly all of their banking via the contact centre."

Experience Counts

With the strategy to make the contact centre environment the focus of the bank's marketing and customer service activities, the limitations of the existing contact centre -- set up in 1999 with the help of IBM Israel, its established systems integrator -- became more apparent. Says Michael Shamis, Contact Centre IT & Telecom Development Manager at Bank Hapoalim,"Our challenge was how to close down a system that couldn't

expand to accommodate the expected increase in call volumes, and to then seamlessly migrate to an advanced solution that not only offered investment protection, but also new capabilities, the required multi-site potential, and the capacity for growth." Bank Hapoalim worked with IBM to evaluate a number of solution providers, but one impressed them the most -- Genesys. Says Shamis: "It became clear that the combination of Genesys and IBM was the ideal way to turn our business strategies into reality."

There were several factors that gave Genesys the edge. For example, in 2001 Genesys had acquired CallPath -- previously an IBM offering -- and incorporated its functionality into its solutions. What's more, the IBM Israel consultants were already familiar with Genesys technology through attending courses at Genesys University and implementing other projects. These synergies made Genesys a very attractive and cost-effective solution for Bank Hapoalim. "We chose Genesys simply because it's the best system," says Shamis. "The open architecture means there are no limitations. We had no reason to change the existing PBX, IVR, and so on, so we chose a solution that would fit into this environment."

Zvika Biezuner,Contact Centre Solutions Group Leader of IBM says: "As part of the bank's project team, IBM and Genesys worked on the design and implementation; Michael's team and our consultants brought shared experience of the previous system; and Genesys Business Consulting brought their extensive knowledge plus the ability to deliver the solution on time. In fact, it took only five months from the first project meeting to powering on the new system. What's more, the system change caused no down time -- due to a gradual move to the Genesys solution."

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A Variety of Operational Advantages

Thanks to the system's built-in management functions, the bank has greatly improved its operational efficiency. For example, the bank now uses Genesys Workforce Management for optimised forecasting, scheduling, and tracking of its 900 agent population, and has a virtual contact centre split over two physical sites. Says Hertz, "The multi-site routing aspect is important because we have the potential to grow, and yet also to remain manageable.We also have high availability for all systems, the flexibility to perform real-time queries, and the ability to run reports through Genesys CCPulse+."

Confirms Shamis: "Genesys CCPulse+ is a powerful tool that enables our supervisors to quickly implement business decisions, make changes without IT support and, now that they're fully trained, make adjustments in the contact centre in real time -- depending on traffic volume, customer behaviour, or changes in routing rules or business strategy."

In addition, the new system incorporates Genesys Enterprise Routing, which introduced skills-based routing into the contact centre environment. Explains Shamis: "We've defined several customer types, have about 20 phone numbers relating to different services, and identified 12 different business skills for the agents.To give the best service, we mix these elements together within our skillsbased routing strategy. The IVR is the first link and then the call is routed to the appropriate agent according to customer value." And the bank continues to expand the services available to customers via the IVR, based upon staff and customer suggestions.

Results

>> Number of inbound calls handled has grown from 70,000 to 120,000 a day

>>75% of all calls handled by IVR

>> Average speed-of-answer reduced by 5% (to 5 seconds)

>> Abandonment rate reduced to 5-8% (matching SLA target)

>> Only five months from first project meeting to powering on the new system

"IBM and Genesys worked well as an integral part of our team to deliver a project that opened new horizons and improved service for bank customers. The contact centre is now at the forefront of our business and customer service strategies, and is the focus for all customer interaction activities and that's exactly what we wanted." Michael Shamis Contact Centre IT & Telecom Development Manager Bank Hapoalim

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Realising Customer Service Targets

"The increased quality of service means that customers have more options to conduct business with the bank in a number of ways, and there's been widespread acceptance of this approach," says Hertz."Moreover, the average speed-of-answer has been reduced by about 5%, agents are now matching the Service Level Agreement (SLA) abandonment target of 5-8%, and we have also automated our outbound process, so customer service has improved in all these areas, too. Another advantage is that we're able to accurately segment the customer base, and can deliver more appropriate services to more people. The IVR's functionality is now so rich that it handles around 75% of all calls.

"The contact centre agents handling the remaining 25% must be skilled in all banking services -- even more so than specialist staff located in branches -- because they're handling more calls now," adds Shamis. "Our service expansion meant the number of inbound calls taken by the contact centre increased from 70,000 a day to about 120,000. We couldn't have managed this without Genesys."

Opening New Horizons

"It was a major strategic move to give customers access to bank services via the contact centre rather than the branch network, but the solution works," concludes Shamis. "IBM and Genesys worked well as an integral part of our team to deliver a project that opened new horizons and improved service for bank customers. The contact centre is now at the forefront of our business and customer service strategies, and is the focus for all customer interaction activities -- and that's exactly what we wanted."

Solutions

>> Genesys Enterprise Routing >> Genesys Workforce Management >> Genesys Outbound >> Genesys Inbound >> Genesys CCPulse+ and CC Analyzer >> Genesys Call Concentrator >> Virtual Hold for Genesys

Genesys Worldwide

Genesys is the leading provider of software to manage customer interactions over the phone, Web, and mobile devices. The Genesys software suite manages customer conversations across multiple channels and resources -- self-service, assisted-service, and proactive outreach -- to fulfill customer requests, optimize customer care goals, and efficiently use resources. Genesys software directs more than 100 million customer interactions every day for 4,000 companies and government agencies in 80 countries. These companies and agencies can leverage their entire organization, from the contact center to the back office, to dynamically engage with their customers. As a result, Genesys stops customer frustration, drives efficiency, and accelerates business innovation. For more information visit us on the Web: .

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Tel: +61 2 9463 8500

Genesys and the Genesys logo are registered trademarks of Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc. All other company names and logos may be registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies and are hereby recognized. ? 2010 Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc.

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