Banking on Online Customer Service
By Pete Cruz
June 27, 2004

Summary: Regular, automated testing and monitoring of a bank's Website - at all levels of any transaction - can ensure online customers get the service they expect. By Pete Cruz.

Full Text (Page 1 of 3)  

The complexity of IT systems in most financial services companies means testing and monitoring the applications that run over these systems is no small feat. In fact, even if a company is able to monitor an application, and find a fault, most can't tell where the true problem might lie ...or how long it might take to resolve it.

Consider this scenario. A long-standing customer of a major bank decides to take advantage of online banking. Believing what she has read, she is looking forward to convenient 24-hour access to all her family's financial information, as well as the ability to pay bills online and monitor monthly cash flow. She has finally been convinced that the right security measures are in place, and no longer sees that concern as a barrier.

The first time she accesses her account online the benefits are immediately clear. She pays a bill or two, moves some money into a savings account, and updates her personal profile. The second time she logs on, she is presented with 'this page is unavailable' and decides to try again immediately, knowing that the Internet can be unreliable at times. Logging on again, the page she is looking for, with her account information appears. Only this time, having completed all the information required to make an important transfer, she again gets 'this page is unavailable'.

The worry sets in - is she still technically logged on? Will others be able to access her account information? She's heard of this happening - one customer enters her own details only to be presented with the account information of another customer. Has the transfer gone through? Will it arrive in time? Faith in her trusty bank is shaken. The customer is forced to make a call to the helpline, where she must wait in a queue and speak with an agent. So much for the hassle-free world of online banking promised in the advertisements.

Banks are naturally keen to get customers to go online: customers who use online banking free up bank staff to deal with more complex issues. But get it wrong, and unhappy customers, dissatisfied with the level of service they receive online, could consider making a move. Or worse still, they tell their friends and family about their poor online banking experience, and the word is out. Your reputation is on the line.

Making the grade
It's an issue that's seemingly easy to fix. Banks need to continuously test the online user experience to ensure they are getting the high level of service they expect. Just because customers are not standing in one of the bank's local branches, doesn't mean they deserve any less attention when it comes to customer service.

So how do you do it? Regular customer surveys might be one way. But they only tell you about problems after they've occurred, rather than detecting them before they affect the customer. Regular, automated testing and monitoring of your site - at all levels of any transaction - is another way.