Improving the customer experience is one of the top drivers of investment in financial CRM today, and it’s no wonder why. Today’s consumers expect a banking experience that is omnichannel, hyper-personal, and effortless, and they aren’t shy about going elsewhere if their bank or credit union fails to live up to expectations.
To respond, banks and credit unions need to invest in the capabilities that their customers or members value most, like convenience, relevance, and 24/7 access to information. Here’s how you can use CRM to provide a customer experience that exceeds their expectations:
In-branch interactions are still valued by bank and credit union customers. In fact, 65% of those surveyed by PWC said that having a local branch is very important to them. But to provide the best customer experience in a branch, bank and credit union employees need to leverage technology efficiently and consistently.
That’s why credit union leaders, recognizing that CRM is only beneficial if it gets used, indicated to our researchers that ease of use for staff was a top CRM selection criterion at their CUs.
Nobody wants to tell their story twice. The credit union executives who told us that tracking and reporting are key CRM capabilities know this. With enterprise-wide tracking, referrals, task assignment, and reporting in place, a bank or credit union is positioned to manage customer contacts across all channels, and prevent the lost connections that can occur as a ripple effect of an increasing number of channels.
Today’s financial customers are willing to consider a broader array of service providers for their needs. Banks and credit unions that want to maintain their customer base would be well advised to put some focus on service and proactive retention strategies.
Our recent interviews with credit unions leaders suggested that they were satisfied with their CRM’s member engagement history and 360-degree member views. This is good news, as it indicates that the technical backbone for a comprehensive retention strategy is already in place at many credit unions.
From your customer’s point of view, the ideal banking relationship is simple. It could be encapsulated this way: “ Know who I am, show me you understand me and my goals and make my experiences seamless and effortless”.
Of course, like a bank or credit union leader you know that behind the scenes, complex back-office architecture means delivering this experience can be anything but simple.
That’s why many tech-savvy banks and credit unions are considering CRM to bridge back office gaps and unify data. This will allow them to enhance the customer experience, track interactions and add value throughout the customer journey, at all cross-channel interaction points.
For more information on the business needs that are driving these conversations in the credit union industry, we invite you to read our recent report: Credit Union CRM: A survey of the CRM industry, according to credit union professionals
Source: https://www.doxim.com/blog/fixing-customer-experience-pain-points-with-crm-a-leaders-guide/
Publish Date: November 14, 2018 |
Has your financial institution avoided adopting CRM? Or do you have an older CRM solution that has quietly slipped out of use? If you are considering raising the topic of modern CRM with your leadership team, here are a few ways to pitch the topic effectively:
Combat complacency by pointing out the downsides of the “status quo”. Chances are good your FI has a series of tried and trusted methods for handling customer interactions, and your leadership team may be very comfortable with this ‘business as usual’ mode, even if you see it as inefficient. You can shake loose their complacency and start the discussion by focusing on your organization’s most critical sales or service problem.
By Olga Zakharenkava
Start by addressing how the problem is symptomatic of larger business process issues and underline the importance of having a seamless customer experience across channels at your organization. Use the issue to talk about the need to find a long-term solution to a problem the whole organization wants resolved.
Tailor your message for maximum impact. Be sure you are connecting with each leader by identifying the specific benefits CRM can offer their staff. A sales executive, for example, will care about pipeline management, while your VP of marketing may be much more interested in improving marketing ROI.
Carefully acknowledge how CRM could help meet each stakeholder’s goals for their department, then extend the discussion to the organization as a whole. Demonstrate that you understand how without CRM, missed sales and service opportunities can have a cumulative effect on KPIs across the whole organization.
Sell the idea of establishing a CRM task force. The idea of CRM implementation can be daunting, so give your leadership team time to consider how to approach it. Don’t try to sell CRM as the one-and-only solution to the recent issue at your financial institution, and don’t try to get people to sign on without time to consider.
Instead, sell the idea of setting up a small working group to explore CRM, that’s it. All you are pitching is getting a few people together to talk about it. Once you’ve got the right people in the room, you can gently point out how CRM will streamline operations and improve day-to-day life for customers and staff alike.
Understand objections and be ready to counter them. Like any good salesperson, you will need to overcome common objections. Financial leaders aren’t often fully informed of the benefits that CRM offers. They may express concerns about the value of CRM overall (“We already have a process in place for handling all this”), or be concerned about the scope and timeline for implementation (“I hear these projects never get finished, or they get finished but then nobody uses the software”).
The best way to respond here is to do your homework and prepare to provide reassurance as needed. Yes, CRM can be complex and difficult to implement, but not if you find a tailored, proven solution for community financial institutions. Yes, CRM adoption can be a challenge, but not if you have a plan in place to train employees and incentivize their use of the software.
Close by asking to confirm follow-up. Remember, in this first meeting all you are doing is selling the idea to explore CRM as a solution. After you’ve laid out the benefits, overcome objections and reiterated the need for long-term planning to support the overall customer experience, ask if you can send your leadership team a follow-up email proposing next steps for exploring a CRM project.
Then thank them for their time, and don’t forget to send that follow-up message. CRM implementation is a cultural shift, so you’ll have to be patient as your team wrap their heads around it, but the payoff is worth the wait. Want some hard evidence? Check out our eBook on CRM ROI, or just get in touch with us, and we’ll share some of your peers’ success stories with you.
About the Author
“As the VP of Demand Marketing at Doxim, Olga helps financial institutions grow through improved customer experience and increased engagement. She is passionate about helping businesses choose the right technology to solve their challenges.”
Source: https://www.doxim.com/blog/how-to-get-buy-in-for-your-crm-project/
Publish Date: January 18, 2018 |
First West Credit Union had a challenge that will be familiar to many community financial institutions. Like many larger credit unions, First West was formed through the merger of 4 smaller regional CUs. The mergers were welcomed by members, who gained access to more branches and a wider array of financial services.
By Olga Zakharenkava
But the mergers also created a complex back office with 4 core systems and nearly a dozen secondary systems performing CRM functions. It was difficult for First West staff to get a unified picture of members and their interactions with the organization.
First West selected Doxim® CRM as its enterprise CRM solution, to provide a single view of members across all divisions. To ensure success, a cross-departmental team first meticulously documented First West’s CRM strategy including goals for system rationalization and process harmonization, then ran a pilot program to ensure the system met everyone’s needs.
Now, following this successful pilot program, the CRM solution has been rolled out to 1100+ users, providing them with a central location to record member interactions and track referrals. Doxim CRM empowers First West users at all branches and locations, across all lines of business, to provide a consistent, high-quality advisory experience.
Does First West’s back office situation sound painfully familiar to you? To learn more about how the First West team achieved their successful CRM implementation, start by reading our press release, or watch the First West team explain in their own words how Doxim CRM has increased operational efficiency and improved the member experience.
Peta Wales, VP of Operations at First West describes how a full 360-degree member view facilitates advisory-based communications and creates success for staff and members alike.
David Arrowsmith, Vice President of Business Solutions, talks about how the CU selected Doxim CRM, and which features set the solution apart.
Then, if your legacy back-office systems are compromising your member experience but a total core modernization project is out of reach, why not explore how Doxim CRM can be used for system unification? Book a personal demo with a Doxim expert today, and we’ll talk you through how it works.
About the Author
As the VP of Demand Marketing at Doxim, Olga helps financial institutions grow through improved customer experience and increased engagement. She is passionate about helping businesses choose the right technology to solve their challenges.
Publish Date: November 15, 2017 |
2018 promises to be a year of both new opportunities and new competitive threats for community banks. In response to the ongoing emergence of FinTechs and digital banks, and the increasing expectations of tech-savvy customers, community bank leaders are seeking practical ways to improve their go-to-market strategies and their customer experience across all channels (including in-branch, phone, website, and mobile banking).
By Paul Abdool
Why are they doing this? Well, for the last five years, 54% of bank marketers have reported that cross selling and growing share of wallet is their number one priority, according to the 2017 Digital Banking Report. But despite this focus:
So, while the intent to grow is there, community bank marketers are being held back by a lack of actionable customer data and insights. And similar roadblocks are being experienced across the board by employees in customer services, sales – even finance.
This situation has sparked a resurgence of interest in customer relationship management (CRM). Today’s CRM solutions offer substantial benefits for everyone from executives down to front-line staff, and most importantly, for valued customers.
Here are four of the ways CRM can help any community bank become a more nimble, data-driven organization.
1. Streamlining sales and service processes
Cultivating strong relationships with your customer base is job #1 at every community bank. But if CSRs don’t have immediate access to the customer’s past information and history, it becomes very difficult for them provide a consistent, efficient customer experience and personalized financial advice.
Implement CRM though, and your CSRs will be equipped with the tools and information they need to interact with customers in valuable ways. They’ll resolve complaints faster, serve customers and fulfill their needs faster, and enjoy their day-to-day jobs more when they aren’t rooting for customer information across multiple disconnected systems.
2. Insight into activities and what it takes to engage with customers
Community bank Customer Experience teams are trying to keep up with the changing needs of customers, and it’s a complicated job. Just ten years ago, most customers weren’t even using smartphones, and now they do more online than anyone could have imagined. As futurist Brett King indicates, “…banking is no longer somewhere you go, but something you do.”
A CRM system can be used to track responses to customer engagement initiatives, serving as a springboard to test new ideas and determine what resonates with customers across both traditional and emerging channels. It’s a vital source of information to help Customer Experience professionals monitor behavioral and demographic shifts in the customer base, and adjust accordingly.
3. Granular reporting on targeted marketing campaigns
Modern marketers love data, which means a CRM solution that gives the CMO insights into in-flight campaigns is imperative. With access to CRM, marketing can pick exactly the right audience for each campaign, boosting response rates. And they’ll be able to track efficacy by instantly accessing rich data about opportunities and their lifecycle stages.
CRM takes the guesswork out of marketing. Once it is in place, marketers will know who buys what, how many interactions it takes to sell a given product, what types of interactions (phone calls, in person, in branch) are most effective for selling, and what percentage of marketing opportunities are actually in progress and which haven’t been touched yet.
4. Understanding potential pipeline for financial forecasting
For a community bank CFO, instant access to company data is essential. However, disparate legacy back office systems isolate information. Since the information can’t be easily accessed, it frustrates business units and slows their time to market, which in turn leads to the ineffective use of resources. A CRM solution acts as a central data source for activities like accurate financial forecasting, which rely on a complete understanding of the sales pipeline.
CRM puts data at the CFO’s fingertips, so they can understand changes in the market to allow them to respond quickly. And many CRM solutions today even make this critical data available in real time through executive dashboards, so the CFO, and other customers of the leadership team can make informed decisions that steer the community bank in the right direction.
The Future is Customer-Centric
By 2020, PWC analysts project that ““Customer intelligence” will be the most important predictor of revenue growth and profitability” at financial institutions. Community banks that build the technological capabilities to understand and meet customer needs will be ahead of the game, offering seamless and personal omnichannel experiences that help grow customer relationships. By implementing the right technology now, community bank leaders can ensure a bright future for their organizations, by meeting the trend towards increased customer-centricity head on.
CRM = substantial operational benefits + ROI.
To learn more about how CRM pays its own way for community banks, check our free eBook “CRM in Community Financial Institutions: the Undiscovered Revenue Source”
About the Author
Paul brings 20 years of industry experience to his role as Vice President of Sales, Credit Unions (Canada). He has built a career helping clients develop and optimize their customer communication systems.
Source: https://www.doxim.com/blog/why-crm-needs-to-be-in-your-2018-tech-budget/
Publish Date: October 31, 2017 |
Our 2017 release of Doxim CRM included an assortment of enhancements to the product. They were designed and implemented to meet the changing needs of today’s banks and credit unions and in close collaboration with our valued customers. The enhancements include new and optimized engagements and workflows, an improved, web-based user interface, a mobile app and integrated email marketing capabilities.
By Steve Castrucci
As part of the rollout, I recently presented at a webinar for current clients, explaining these new features. As is usually the case, we had many questions during the Q&A period, and I wanted to highlight some of them here on the Doxim Blog. Perhaps you’ve been wondering about some of these topics?
Overview Statistics on Customer Engagement
Q: As a Director, I am not involved in operational aspects of our engagement strategy but wonder if management can provide the board with overview statistics for our review and assessment?
A: Within Doxim CRM, you can get Engagement Pipeline and Completed reports that show the number and status of the Engagements, where they are in the Pipeline, and the <em based on actual sales and the probability of success. Depending on your needs, some of these reports are predefined within the CRM, and others can be custom created from existing data.
Email Opt-In/Opt Out
Q: Is there any specific integration with a software tool to ensure compliance with email preferences when communicating with customers?
A: The Doxim CRM is setup to support email opt-in and opt-out, email preferences, and to handle CASL (Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation) compliance. For example, here is a description of how the CRM works with CASL requirements:
The Solicitation Preferences settings can be used by our US clients to ensure that their customers are receiving communications through their preferred channels and that they remain in compliance with the CAN-SPAM act.
Integration with the Data Warehouse
Q: How will we integrate the information from the Doxim CRM cloud into our data warehouse?
A: The data stored within the Doxim CRM database can be made available through data extracts, and sent to you on a regular basis. You can then use this data to load into your data warehouse. This will ensure you always have access to the latest and most current information on your customers.
CRM Authentication
Q: How are staff authenticated to Doxim’s SaaS CRM?
A: To access our Doxim SaaS CRM, staff will have a user ID and a password, and log in to the system through the given URL. This user ID will allow them access to Doxim CRM and LOS (if applicable). Our strategic plan is to have one user ID that provides access to the entire Doxim Customer Engagement Platform.
CRM 2017 Reporting
Q: Do you have Reports in the CRM 2017 software?
A: Yes. Reports are available through the Reports icon. All the reports that were in earlier versions of Doxim CRM (formerly ACE) are still available.
Here are the reports, divided by area:
Security
Q: How do I know that my data is secure in your data centre?
A: Doxim has been hosting the Doxim software for banks and credit unions for over 10 years. In Canada, we will be running the Doxim CRM in the same facilities as our ECM, we have state-of-the-art data centres in Ontario and British Columbia. In the United States, data centres are located in North Carolina, Arkansas, and Michigan.
Our data centres are SOC1 and SOC2 compliant, and they follow CSAE 3416 Compliance, which means they have been certified for security and privacy. We use HTTPS website security standards, and all new releases of our software undergo White Hat Vulnerability and Penetration Testing. For more details on Doxim’s data security processes and procedures, I invite you to download our Doxim Data Security Brief.
Do you have further questions about Doxim CRM 2017, and how an upgrade could work for your bank or CU? We’re always happy to chat, so feel free to reach out to Doxim and we’ll book time for a quick conversation and personalized demo.
Not a Doxim client? We have a sneak peek webinar coming up, during which we’ll showcase all the key functionality of Doxim CRM. Come see how you’d benefit from a CRM purpose-built just for banks and credit unions. The webinar will occur on November 2, at 2pm EST, and you can sign up here.
About the Author
“Steve Castrucci is a Senior Product Manager at Doxim. He has over 20 years of experience building and delivering software and services products for businesses and consumers within the financial services market place.”
Source: https://www.doxim.com/blog/new-doxim-crm-release-qa/
Publish Date: October 27, 2017 |
As customer interactions become fragmented across more channels than ever before, a CRM system may be your best tool to help provide seamless, insightful customer experience.
To get that all-important single view of the customers, you’ll need a CRM system that serves as a hub for data coming in from all channels, so you can capture all the bits and pieces of information that make up a modern banking relationship, and use them to engage customers, convert more leads, and create life-long loyalty.
Is your current CRM solution up to the task? If not, it may be time to plan for the successful future and build for the growth you seek.
Here are some of the steps you need to take to make sure the process goes smoothly. Remember, enterprise-wide CRM adoption is a cultural shift, so steps involving people are just as important as steps involving tech implementation.
1. Choose the right solution. The CRM marketplace is full of vendors offering “vanilla CRM” solutions, which claim to work for any industry and for any need of the staff. But these often don’t meet the complex needs of credit unions, who contend with complex legacy back office systems, geographically dispersed locations, and the need to keep business processes in compliance with rigorous legislation across all channels.
If you pick a purpose-built solution for financial services from a partner with industry experience, you’ll have access to features and functions designed to meet these unique needs. Plus, you can rely on your vendor to share best practices and real-world experience to make the implementation a success.
2. Select the right champions to lead change. Executive champions bring leadership and vision to your CRM project. But because CRM touches many departments and groups across your credit union, you’ll also need CRM supporters in every branch and location, at every level. And you’ll need to make sure that all champions have a singular vision of how the CRM implementation will benefit your organization.
3. Build and maintain a roadmap. Bring your stakeholders together to create a roadmap for your CRM project. Start by evaluating the gaps between the credit
union’s current state and its desired future state. Then consider how CRM capabilities can help you bridge the gaps. Identify key building blocks, from data migration to process documentation, and assign responsibilities for each.
4. Create a comprehensive messaging plan. You’ll need to communicate how the new CRM solution can help everybody do their jobs better without reorganizing their workflow, and listen to what everybody wants out of it. Be prepared for resistance – old habit die hard, and change makes people nervous, so you’ll need to be proactive about reassuring staff members that the CRM solution will help them meet their KPIs and make their daily lives easier. Make sure you have a mechanism in place for employees to share feedback with your CRM team throughout the planning, implementation, and rollout of the solution.
5. Plan to make training an evergreen activity. Peer-to-peer, role based training is essential if you want your staff to adopt CRM and use it correctly. You also need to recognize that ingraining new habits takes time, allocate resources to offer intensive training up front, then reinforce it later, and make inspection and coaching a perennial task as well. And don’t be afraid to incentivize CRM adoption, or use gamification and scoreboards to encourage CRM uptake at individual branches or locations.
6. Run through your CRM readiness checklist. At this stage in the game, your credit union is ready to go, with a roster of CRM champions in place, training, and communications plans ready to go, and key building blocks and KPIs mapped out. A final systems check can help you identify any last issues before you begin implementation. Your readiness checklist should include questions like these:
Plan for Success
As the saying goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail”. When a CRM project fails, it is often because the organization hasn’t’ done the groundwork to ensure adoption of the system. If you don’t create and monitor CRM KPIs, you may not even notice when adoption rate and usage drop and the project stagnates.
Conversely, if you take the time to select the right vendor, make a comprehensive implementation plan, build buy-in and rally the organization, you are well on the way to experiencing the enterprise-wide benefits of CRM.
Why is this process so worthwhile? Well, because significant organization-wide benefits of CRM include (but aren’t limited to), a better understanding of members, stronger member relationships, increased loyalty, and the opportunity to leverage member data to market more effectively.
Want more strategies to ensure CRM implementation success? We’ve drawn on over a decade of experience helping credit unions plan CRM projects to offer you some straightforward advice on important steps to follow. Read our eBook to learn more.
Source: https://www.doxim.com/blog/successful-crm-implementation-starts-strong-leadership/
Publish Date: September 27, 2017 |
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