Whether post- or pre-crisis, customer centricity and cost cutting remain key success factors for Banks

But how can you combine those two initiatives without sacrificing one of them? What looks like mission impossible at first glance may turn out to be a realistic opportunity to re-establish banks’ profitability and consumer trust. It simply requires the understanding of a banks point of view and a customers’ point of view when it comes to customer service, new offerings and programs.

First, examine the customer perspective. Consumers want to work with a bank or financial organization they trust, particularly institutions willing to win this trust by demonstrating compliance with government regulations. An outstanding customer service experience is key. Customers want to hand in their information once and expect that the information will be stored safely and used in an efficient way. They want to share and access information through different channels and have their inquiries answered promptly. When they come to a branch they expect a competent advisor who can explain a process or a new offering. But what they expect foremost is the ability to purchase a desired service quickly, in an organized manner and without a lot of paperwork. Be it a new account, a new credit card or a loan, ideally every business transaction they do with the bank should work in a consistent, efficient way.

Now let us look at a bank's perspective. Banks no doubt seek more business and greater profitable revenue. They welcome the opportunity to sell more, at less effort and shorter sales cycles. To do so, they need information about customers and products available at fingertips. Processes that are fast, consistent and simple are easier to explain and execute.

Mapping customers' and banks' goals shows an interesting result: They do not differ at all, and they require the following key components:

-        Consistent, compliant, transparent  business processes

-        High quality data input and output

-        Fast access to and exchange of information 

-        End-to-end automation, from data capture to product delivery

-        High quality and speed  of delivery

-        Intelligent cost cutting

Banks need to make information capture an integral part of their business process management and their information management strategy

Business processes are more efficient in an electronic data environment, i.e. when paper is removed the moment it enters an organization. Accounts can be opened faster, loans approved more quickly, and new products can be sold faster and more profitably. Data accuracy can be increased and information can be shared across departments instantly. Repetitive tasks of document handling (data entry and validation, manual labor, shipping and storage) and allocated costs can be reduced significantly.  Electronic information flow can be monitored and traced in a fully auditable way.

Front office capture triggers back end processing, as well as better customer service, more business, and faster decisions.

When a customer walks up to a loan officer or credit specialist and inquires about a loan or to a customer advisor and inquires about a new account, he or she expects immediate action. Instead of collecting paper and sending it to the back office for later processing, the customer adviser can simply scan and capture the documents on an MFP or scanner and trigger transfer of electronic information to relevant people, processes and systems.  Verification documents such as proof of income or W-2 forms and valid identification are turned into electronic information and can immediately become a part of an approval workflow.   

A mortgage workflow based upon the immediate capture of transactional documents significantly shortens the time needed to make a decision. For credit applications, documents can be sent to central offices where a single loan officer might govern over a number of branches. Any missing documents can be immediately forwarded to complete a transaction. Customers enjoy faster access to a new account, business customers enjoy faster approval of line-of-credit requests and mortgage applicants receive faster access to funds. From the bank's perspective business is done faster in a fully automated, efficient and cost-effective way.

Whether the documents arrive electronically or in a paper-based format, the information that these documents contain is what is driving critical business processes. This information allows financial institutions to enroll new customers, take deposits, and generate revenue in an auditable way.

Each document captured needs to be sorted and classified, and index and meta data need to be extracted. In order to make processing efficient, information needs to be validated. Based on the Kofax enterprise capture platform, manual document-sorting, identification, and data extraction can be reduced or eliminated altogether. For each step that removes a manual process, the transaction is conducted faster, at higher accuracy, and with substantial cost savings. The loan folder is updated in a fully automated way, accelerating approval and delivery processes.

Gain competitive edge with communication across channels

Customers expect comprehensive and immediate communication and information no matter which channel they use. The Kofax enterprise capture platform not only routes relevant information across internal processes and seamlessly integrates it with applications and data repositories, it also offers outstanding communication capabilities. During the process of closing business with a customer, notification of next steps, request for further documents or information, confirmation of approval or delivery, all can be sent to him or her in a fully automated, traceable way, via email, fax, or SMS. Even more, additional offerings can be included to trigger more business. The result of this highly cost effective combination of capture and communication is better customer service, higher sales efficiency, and improved processing quality.

One enterprise capture platform that spans capture to transformation to communication, automates multiple processes and bridges information gaps, enabling organizations to improve customer service, increase operational efficiency and reduces cost and risk.

For more information, visit www.kofax.com.