AN EFFORT ASSESSMENT CASE STUDY
Delivering the Right Customer Experience
Client
One of the top 3 banks in India, with more than $6.6 billion revenue, 44,000 employees, $69 billion in total assets and more than $1.1 billion net income, was not strange to these challenges: the need to differentiate and deliver the right customer experience, another area of interest for the bank was to identify the elements that acted as detractors of the customer experience and also to pinpoint what exactly set them apart from the competition.
Context
The stakes are high for banks to differentiate and deliver the right customer experience, as their products are highly commoditized. Studies show that globally, more than 37% of clients switched bank providers during the past 6-12 months. Such results are the consequence of budgets being spent on inefficient engagement strategies that are not creating a seamless, fast and uniquely great experience for all clients. Moreover, in the past 3 years, 58% of clients have done business with more than 2 banks for the same reason: no single provider could offer them a completely satisfying customer journey. So, clients kept on searching.
Methodology
We measured Customer Effort across all channels at the process level, to diagnose critical areas that needed immediate improvement. The customer effort was evaluated on 4 components: time & physical effort, cognitive load and the emotional impact, for the following bank processes: Discovery, Application, Approval, Disbursement, Part Payment, Prepayment, Customer Support, Loan Closure. This data was collected for both the client and for its primary competitor, so that we could also do a comparative analysis to determine key differentiating processes.
Results
The analysis showed that, while the Time and Physical Effort levels were in the neutral range, meaning that customers found it rather easy to interact with the bank reps or the call center, the cognitive load was in the red zone, as customers had difficulties to understand the bank’s offers or contract. The recommendation was to reduce the cognitive effort for the first 3 processes related to customer acquisition, which would eventually lead to a 4X increase in the company’s conversion rate.
