Are you being served?
8 August 2018
When customers get in touch with us, the experience should be simple and smooth, with multiple channels to choose from. It’s why ING has built a contact centre platform for 12 Retail countries. ING programme leads Theo Frieswijk and Elles Ogink explain.
“We want to give people choice.” - Programme lead Elles Ogink with Theo Frieswijk.
1. You probably won’t notice anything
Initially, customers probably won’t even notice what ING has been diligently working on for the past 18 months. Phones are still being picked up, chat functions are still available. Advice is still given. But over time, the benefits of one omni-channel experience worldwide will surface.
As Theo explains: “Say you’re chatting to a call centre agent on your computer and have to leave for an appointment. It’s only one click for the call centre agent to switch to phone to continue the conversation there. Similarly, if you visit a branch later on you wouldn’t have to tell your story again to staff there. You can seamlessly switch channels whenever it suits.”
2. A single, borderless experience, worldwide
Because the call centre platform is hosted in the cloud, it means all ING countries will have access to the same contact centre services, worldwide.
“We want to become the Netflix of contact centres,” says Theo.
“Through our channels we want to be able to support contact between ING and customers 24-7, 365 days a year. You should always be able to reach us through your preferred channels.”
3. The choice is yours
ING’s philosophy is that every customer should be able to do everything themselves digitally. But that doesn’t discount the need for personal service.
Says Elles: “In general, customers want to do their daily banking digitally themselves. But during important moments, like getting a mortgage, they prefer interacting with a person.
“That can be face-to-face or by phone, but chat and remote advice through video are becoming more popular as well. We want to give people choice, whether it be interacting with a chatbot or a real person.”
4. We can innovate even faster
By creating one platform for contact centres, it’s much easier for ING to share and adopt innovations between the different countries. This makes ING far more flexible in adjusting to changing customer needs. The more countries on the platform, the more interaction and the more innovation there will be. Exciting times!
5. Coming to a country near you
The introduction of the new contact centre platform has already begun with the Netherlands on-board this year. The Czech Republic (September) and Belgium (October) are next cabs off the rank. By the end of 2020, 12 Retail countries will be using the platform.
There is also a pilot underway to see if we can add Wholesale Banking to the platform as well. Good news for corporate clients.