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The Problem: Upgrading Legacy Systems
Today, most leading banking systems are older than 30 years old, and despite the development of more advanced, cost-effective solutions, about 80% of IT systems are still functioning on these “legacy systems.” These systems, run by manual, pre-defined process flows, were originally designed so that companies could easily keep track of all their data across the entire platform, but as companies evolved and grew, so did the requirement for additional data systems. The deployment of point-to-point integration was able to create only a minimal solution to the question of how to communicate between all these disparate systems. However, with each system using its specific communication protocol, the lack of synchronization within legacy systems persisted as organizations are struggling to adapt to innovation trends and produce great customer experiences. These outdated systems simply can’t provide seamless engagement across all channels and touchpoints to support the level of service customers now expect.
The Solution: Customer Facing RPA
As banks scramble to update their legacy systems to improve the customer experience, many are only now realizing that merely trying to modernize legacy systems, while also maintaining their full functionality, is quite a risky and expensive project. One common strategy to overcome this challenge has been to add digital point solutions. However, this still entails major IT issues, not to mention fragmented customer journeys. Thus, a simpler, more cost-effective solution is gaining traction today to improve the customer banking experience on the front end, robotic process automation (RPA).
Operational Efficiency
Especially at financial institutions where there is a high volume of customer service requests, robotic automation software can revolutionize operational efficiency as it automates all the small, repetitive, everyday tasks that fuel daily operations within the call center, such as opening cases, record updates, checking order status and much more. At the same time, since robotic software automation syncs data across all systems, RPA enables data to be automatically transferred so that it can be immediately retrieved from only one place. This not only boosts operational speed but prevents irritating customers by agents not having to repeat questions to obtain the same information. At the same time, RPA has a near-zero percent error rate, which means fewer customer complaints and customer callbacks, empowering call centers to deliver a seamless customer experience
Improved Communication
Furthermore, front-end RPA thoroughly transforms the way a bank interacts and relates to its customers. For example, it can help contact center service to expand their channels of communication on their current system, such as enabling responses to specific requests, like balance inquiries, via a channel such as text. It can remind agents to follow up with customers, as well as an alert for complaints as soon as they happen. Most importantly, by automating many of the repetitive tasks that agents normally must deal with on a daily basis, robotic process automation tools foster the opportunity for call center agents to focus on developing a relationship with customers. This leads to a deeper understanding of customer expectations and how to best meet these expectations through the bank’s services and products.
Through the development of RPA, banks finally have the solution they have been searching for to overcome the friction that is formed by the legacy systems, fueling the drive towards better service and seamless customer experience, for banks and customers alike.
[About the author]
Dylon Mills is the Director of Marketing Content Strategy & Development at Uniphore. As such, Dylon’s main responsibilities are to strategize, create and deliver content for Uniphore’s product portfolio that align with the global Go-To-Market strategy, corporate positioning, and marketing campaigns. Dylon’s prior work experience includes Product Management at one of the top Fortune 500 Technology companies, Symantec Corporation. Outside of work, Dylon enjoys problem-solving and any project that includes building/tinkering with tools. Dylon holds a BS Consumer Economics from the University of Georgia.