Efma Journal No.

244
COVER STORY
O
ver the last ten
years, the number of
Banco Esprito Santo
customers coming into
a branch their local touchpoint
fell from 70% to 50% over a
three month period. Conversely,
customers using internet and mobile
channels grew from 17% to 47%
in the same period, with both
phenomena accelerating in the last
few years. Touch points are thus
progressively less local.
This decreasing frequency of
branch visits by customers raises
a concern over the continuity of a
sales model where the branch is the
major contributor to products sales,
and pushes us all to turn direct
channels strong transactional and
servicing platforms into sales.
The self-service problem
Although customers have many
interactions through direct channels,
self-service has a number of
restrictions for sales, both on
the demand and on the offer/
distribution sides. With regards to
the demand side, there are three
essential levers to help close sales
that self-service struggles to provide:
Is the customer condent that
the products being sold or
solutions being presented are
the most suited to his specic
needs and prole?
Does the customer believe
that he understands the risks
and conditions of each of the
offerings?
Is the customer reassured that he
will have someone to reach out
to if something goes awry, based
on an established interpersonal
relationship?
On the offer/distribution side, there
are also three main barriers:
Is the product being offered
bought by a large part of the
customer base (as a saving, a
card or an insurance), or must it
be actively sold by an agent (life
insurance, portfolio diversication,
investment funds, structured
products etc.)?
Regulations require progressively
more complex and varied
information, along with more
evidence of presentation and
acceptance by customers
The distribution network has
been optimised in recent times
with the goal of freeing time
to commercial activities,
replacing administrative tasks
with more automation; with
the strong labour constrains to
workforce reduction, together
with rigid real-estate market,
the sales force is a near-xed-
cost, and so should be used as
the main sales channel, taking
into consideration that the
market is nite.
The dilemma and its solution
If we cant have self-service for
complex products, and we cant use
the local channels because customers
dont go there anymore, is there a
path through to sales? How can we
overcome the barriers of self-service,
in the growing absence of customers
at the branches?
The solution comes from
understanding that self-service
and local are not opposites, just
like their counterparts assisted
and remote are also compatible.
Interactions are remote or local
when it comes to proximity; and
self-service or assisted when
it comes to the participation of a
human agent.
Banco Esprito Santo has implemented a cross-channel signature in order to
better meet the needs of its customers. Pedro Mira Vaz explains.
A local problem
23
Dematerialisation
How can we overcome the
barriers of self-service, in the
growing absence of customers
at the branches?
Actually, weve all been using the
four combinations of factors above:
Remote + self-service (internet
banking, mobile banking) is highly
used for cashless transactions,
used for servicing, with still
some potential to go, and for
the purchase of simple nancial
products at smaller scale.
Local + self-service (ATM) is
basically used for cash and
cashless transactions.
Local + assisted (branch, customer
manager) is the main channel for
sales, as it covers most of the levers
that help close sales (being assisted)
and can easily comply with all the
legal requirements such as evidence
of information given by collecting
signatures (being local).
Remote + assisted has always
been made. Managers mail the
customer with information about
new offerings, following up on
opportunities by telephone or
simply calling out as a result of a
customer relationship management
(CRM) opportunity. This has all the
elements needed for the customer
to make a decision, and thus for
a sale to be closed, except the
signing of forms for archiving as
evidence that all the information
was given to the customer and
that they actually wanted to buy
the product.
This is why we decided to facilitate
a cross-channel signature to
enhance the operation of the remote
+ assisted model.
The cross-channel signature
in practice
The way it works is straightforward.
First, the customer manager (or sales
rep) interacts with the customer
by phone, and goes through the
sales process usually its a CRM
opportunity, so theres a script that
goes though product presentation,
why we believe it is adequate for
the customer, advantages, etc.
Next, if the customer agrees with
the purchase, the customer manager
goes through the already existing
forms on the banking terminal.
At the end of the process, if the
customer is an active internet (or
mobile) banking customer, the
system asks the customer manager
if he wants to print or send to
BESnet (internet banking of Banco
Esprito Santo). If the latter, then the
customer will see a message on his
internet banking saying he has a
document to sign. The signing page
has all the details of the operation
and needed attached documents,
together with required disclaimers
to be checked, and the customers
agrees to everything by using the
usual internet banking credentials.
Theres also space for a personal
message from his manager, with
additional info if it makes sense.
The customer manager is warned
if the customer doesnt sign after a
certain period, or if the customer
rejects the sale although we have
had no rejection incidence so far.
The solution implemented intercepts
the sales process at printing time, as
a transversal feature, reducing the
development cost, if compared to a
product-by-product change. Printing
forms had to be changed, but Banco
Esprito Santo is using a exible form
management tool where this can be
done at a relatively low-cost, and
archiving follows the same rules as
the printed documents, without the
overload of scanning. The archived
form shows, at the place of the
signature, an indication that it was
signed via internet banking, and
has a reference number that allows
direct access to the digital log of the
operation, if needed.
Since there was little change
in the front end process for sales
people, the uptake has been
very good, with more than 50%
of customer managers using this
solution. 93% of customers declare
a very high satisfaction with the
process (rating 8-10 on a scale
of 1-10) and 97% say its very
simple and useful.
One year after launch, the
productivity of customer managers is
35% higher in number of sales, and
40% higher in average amount.
Pedro Mira Vaz is head of direct
channels at Banco Esprito Santo
in Portugal.