CUSTOMER SUCCESS Bankwest · percent, and improved customer satisfaction rates by 10 percentage...

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2014 CUSTOMER SUCCESS Bankwest Dramatically Improving Sales and Satisfaction with Distributed Live Chat

Transcript of CUSTOMER SUCCESS Bankwest · percent, and improved customer satisfaction rates by 10 percentage...

2014

CUSTOMER SUCCESS

BankwestDramatically Improving Sales and Satisfaction with Distributed Live Chat

© 2014 LivePerson, Inc. 2

CUSTOMER SUCCESS Bankwest

Dramatically Improving Sales and Satisfaction with Distributed Live Chat Bankwest embarked on a process optimization initiative to reduce costs while improving customer service and sales.

The company closed its e-commerce call center and moved to a distributed model using employees in its

stores to respond to customers by phone as well as via live chat using LivePerson’s LiveEngage platform.

The overall project saved the company $11 million in service costs, increased sales by a staggering 300

percent, and improved customer satisfaction rates by 10 percentage points. The company projects that the

conversion rate will improve to 33 percent through the use of target ed proactive chat.

For financial services companies, content and customer service are paramount to success. Because banks

offer such a wide variety of services and offerings—such as checking and savings accounts, credit cards and

home loans—service representatives must be accessible at any time and across all channels. Bankwest, an

Australian-based bank, understood this new need and in turn, implemented LivePerson.

Because Bankwest noticed more consumers were accessing content and account information online, it was

vital that the company created a consistent service experience across all channels. Since then, Bankwest has

made live chat an integral part of the entire customer experience, according to Pete Birch, head of process

optimization at Bankwest.

A transformation in customer engagementThe e-commerce team initially adopted the LivePerson LiveEngage platform to experiment with live chat.

However, Bankwest soon would implement Project Bell, which was a company-wide initiative to reduce costs,

increase sales and improve customer service. As part of the project, Bankwest closed its call center and

began routing calls to employees at its stores, who were scheduled to work certain hours on the phones.

Company Profile

Founded in 1895 as the

Agricultural Bank of Western

Australia, Bankwest now

serves more than one million

retail customers with 147

stores, 42 Business Banking

Centers, and 79 Home Loan

Specialists across Australia.

A division of Commonwealth

Bank Group since 2008, the

firm has won numerous

awards for excellence.

The Solution

Challenges• Reduce costs while

improving customer

service and sales

• Leverage store employees

to maximum impact

• Provide a seamless sales

experience for customers

across channels

LiveEngage Solution

Engagement Model: Live chatfor e-commerce

sales, with agents distributed

in stores nationwide

Business ResultsAU $11million saved

in service costs

300% increase in

online sales

10% point improvement

in customer satisfaction

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CUSTOMER SUCCESS Bankwest

© 2014 LivePerson, Inc.

Impressive resultsWithin 18 months, Project Bell helped the company save $11 million

in service costs, triple sales and boost customer service ratings by

10 percentage points, Birch reported. Now, Bankwest is focusing on

providing more relevant and targeted customer service experiences.

The company is working with LivePerson to integrate features such as

segmentation, predictive targeting and keyword targeting.

“This will allow us to become a lot more strategic about who, when,

and how we are engaging with customers,” Birch says.

Though too early to quantify results, Birch anticipates that the number

of customers engaged will fall by 40 percent while maintaining a

steady number of conversions. “This would increase our conversion

rate to one-third or more.”

Looking to the futureBirch also sees great potential in mobile chat, as more than half of

customers access services on non-desktop devices. “Our research shows

that customers would like to deal with us at times when a phone call

or computer chat is impractical — such as on the train into work or

while watching TV in the evening,” Birch says. “When we bring secure

chat to a mobile device, it will bring tremendous benefits to

our organization.”

As consumers’ researching and shopping preferences continue to

evolve, Bankwest is striving to take a unique approach to the customer

experience. “We’re bucking the trend in banking, “ Birch asserts.

“Everyone else wants to make sure the customer does not leave the

channel they’re in, for fear that they’ll leave for good. We encourage

customers to continue the conversation wherever they might be.”

“A small group in our call center was doing chat,” Birch explains. “We found that one in five customers who chatted with us were prepared to buy,

so we knew it was a worthwhile investment. And it made perfect sense to apply the principles of Project Bell to live chat. So we launched our live

chat program across our e-commerce system using colleagues from our stores.”

We’re bucking the trend in banking. Everyone else wants to make sure the customer does not leave the channel they’re in. We encourage customers to continue the conversation

wherever they might be.– Peter Birch, Head of Process Optimization, Bankwest

About LivePersonLivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ: LPSN) offers a cloud-based platform that enables businesses to proactively connect in real-time with their customers via chat, voice, and content delivery at the right time, through the right channel, including websites, social media, and mobile devices. This “intelligent engagement” is driven by real-time behavioral analytics, producing connections based on a true understanding of business objectives and customer needs. LivePerson is headquartered in New York City with offices in San Francisco, Atlanta, Tel Aviv, London, and Melbourne.

Contact

LivePerson, Inc. T: 212.991.1794

475 Tenth Ave F: 212.609.4233

5th Floor [email protected]

New York, NY 10018 www.liveperson.com