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Customer Roundup
Prior to launching the Web banking service, the IT department had little direct customer contact. But that has changed dramatically. The group regularly posts pages of security-related definitions and best practices on the bank's Web site to educate online customers and also conducts customer satisfaction surveys. CEO Hickman is on board with the program. Today he's well known for emailing customers directly and answering their questions quickly, even on a Sunday night.
"If a customer calls up with a problem, like they can't get to our page or a pop-up keeps coming up, I'll go out there and clean the machine myself," James says. The IT department handles an average of eight telephone calls a day from Web banking customers. Happy State is a regional bank with customers who are geographically close, so James and his team can travel to customers' homes when necessary. "This is unusual and doesn't sound scalable at all," notes Gartner's Litan.
But James and Wells defend the labor-intensive practice because it goes hand in hand with the bank's customer service credo. "My fear initially was that everyone would be calling, but we've been doing this for five or six years now even though online enrollments have grown," James says. "I also think on-site visits will be less down the road, as the next generation who's more educated about computers comes up. For example, we were catching 10,000 viruses a month but are now reporting 300. Why the drop-off? Because people are getting educated about virus scans and spyware removals."
Wells is a bit more straightforward. "We know it costs us money and that we may have to get some help as we grow," he says. "But we'll continue to do it; we have to for our customers."
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