“...an extra $19 million in sales and services costs that could have been avoided
if the website had enabled users to complete their goals online.”
Megan Burns, Forrester Research*
SNS Bank
The Client
SNS Bank is a retail bank ranked among the top five retail banks in The Netherlands. SNS Bank customers choose which products suit them and how they want to communicate with the bank. SNS Bank plays an important advisory role in the financial decisions that its customers make. This contact is in most cases personal at face-to-face meetings at one of the banks offices or on the phone with the SNS Bank customer contact center. The internet, however, is becoming more and more important as a communication channel for SNS Bank, since the bank wants to be available to everyone, anywhere, at any time, no matter what the subject is- whether it is regarding withdrawing cash at an ATM or a request for advice on a mortgage.
The Challenge: Product Flood and Communication
The number of products and services offered to customers by retail banks, has grown dramatically over the last decade. The competition is tougher than ever and the customer loyalty is not the same as it was 10 years ago. Customers demand excellent service, through their preferred channel, at the time that they want and in their own language.
SNS Bank started a new initiative to meet these demands and improve the quality of their customer service. The quality of answering customer questions was of vital importance in this initiative. Real-time insight into customer questions was another challenge, which was the key to adjusting the content of the website to the needs of the customers.
The Solution: Contextual Integration
The introduction of a 'question and answer' facility on SNS Bank's website in 2004 marked an important step towards better customer interaction. Q-go implemented a solution to make sure that bank customers always received relevant answers to their questions, while also providing links to related information that might be of interest of the customer.
Additionally, SNS Bank and Q-go categorized all questions by product and embedded those to a “Top Frequently Asked Questions” on the main product pages of the website. These context sensitive FAQ's update every night based on the real-time number of customers asking real-time questions. Through use of the Q-go application, SNS Bank has gained valuable information on the questions that its customers are asking, right down to the product level.
The Results: Insight and Conversion
The Q-go 'question and answer' module has been a big success for SNS Bank with a large number of questions now being handled completely online. Also, the number of website visitors that access the FAQ's, has increased enormously. Customers immediately get access to the most common questions whenever they open up a product page and are clicking and reading the FAQ's more than before. With the Q-go application, SNS Bank has freshened its insight into customer questions and achieved a higher online conversion rate.