From compliance to competitive advantage

By Helen Murray

Don’t underestimate the potential of those compliance solutions you’ve invested in, argues Helen Murray of Verint Systems. Deployed effectively, they can prove invaluable sources of customer insight, support performance management and drive productivity.

For what seems like years now, IT departments across the finance sector have had to grit their teeth as a substantial share of their budget has been ring-fenced for compliance projects. From introducing new levels of data protection to putting in place solutions to tackle fraud and money laundering – as well as all sorts of local market initiatives like the UK Financial Services Authority's Treating Customers Fairly agenda – companies have had to respond to an ongoing stream of regulation. While the underlying goals are clear, from the IT perspective it sometimes feels frustrating and expensive.

Though the regulatory landscape is continuing to evolve, the majority of organisations now have the essentials in place. Add in the fact that the industry focus is back on driving up revenues and increasing wallet share, and it might feel like it's finally time to forget about compliance solutions. In my view, however, that would be a serious missed opportunity.

The fact is that many of those solutions offer potential benefits far beyond simply meeting regulatory requirements. Though originally purchased as specific responses to an immediate need, they typically include a range of features and functions that IT teams haven't yet had the opportunity to explore or exploit. Now's the time to put that right.

Making more of the audio audit trail

One of the solutions with the greatest potential – and a relatively straightforward place to start – is call recording. Most financial services institutions introduced or upgraded recording systems to help them keep transaction records. But this also positions them to make use of this immense audio audit trail: thousands of conversations that are stored, indexed and ready in case of a complaint.

What smarter organisations have recognised is that these recordings are far too valuable to be left untouched in a data centre. They contain insights into customer interactions that are invaluable across the business. For example, they can help the business review problem calls: when do customers seem confused or frustrated and decide not to proceed with a purchase? Why do they go on to make a complaint? Can trends and root cause of customer behaviour be identified and actioned? Equally, the call recordings can help monitor agent performance, such as surfacing how effective an agent is at spotting and converting "service to sales" opportunities, or how well they deal with frustrated customers.

Taking an analytic approach

While basic call monitoring by supervisors provides some insight, the most powerful way to tap into these rich seams of information is speech analytics. Unlike random sampling, it searches rapidly through recorded calls to identify recurring themes and highlight issues. Verint's solution – a simple add-on to call recording systems – can either seek pre-identified terms or phrases (such as checking whether agents are on-script or pinpointing every call which includes the word "complaint"), highlight behaviours you are not aware of, and actively generate trending information.

The uses of this are multiple. Analyse calls received over the previous few hours, and see whether there are signs of service problems emerging (become a true proactive organisation); then dig deeper, listening to the relevant parts of the conversation to find out the exact nature of the problem. Pick out all calls referring to a recent marketing campaign as part of assessing its effectiveness. Or simply track what customers say they like and dislike about your organisation, driving cultural change and focusing improvements.

Complying with PCI standards

One reason that some remain reluctant to use recorded calls to gain business insight is Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance. Organisations are concerned that analysing call data will mean that customer card details become visible; so simply lock down access. It's worth knowing, therefore, that Verint's solution literally 'beeps out' card details on the recording: the information isn't stored, so doesn't become a problem.

DMG Consulting has produced a white paper, sponsored by Verint, which provides a comprehensive insight into how to comply with the PCI standards in your contact centre. Download Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS) Guide for Contact Center Management.

Enabling social media analytics

Looking ahead, very similar technology can be used to support compliance across social media. As financial services organisations begin to make use of social networking, the possibility arises that a bank employee could (unwittingly or unwisely) misrepresent the value of an investment on a blog or tweet. A hasty response to an angry customer could present all kinds of problems.

In the US, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has issued a Regulatory Notice covering exactly these issues. The ability to analyse social media interactions involving the company name suddenly becomes invaluable, which is exactly why Verint has recently added Text Analytics to its portfolio.

Impact 360 Text Analytics mines customer interactions and feedback across multichannel customer communications, including email messages, web chat sessions, blogs, review sites, social media and other text-based channels. This gives organisations the immediate insights they need to take action, turning negative feedback into positive opportunities and ensuring compliance on as yet largely unmonitored social networking sites.

From compliance to competitive advantage

Solutions like these show how those initial – often grudging – investments in compliance can be harnessed to deliver business value in a range of spheres. With budgets set to remain tight over the next few years, this ability to get more value from existing tools will prove vital. Taking a fresh look at your compliance solutions could be the ideal place to start.

Signed by voice

At Royal & Sun Alliance, recording is used to streamline the policy application process.

Traditionally, customers could get an insurance quotation over the telephone, but couldn't complete the transaction until they'd received, signed and returned the paperwork. It meant unnecessary delays for the customer and even in some cases that cover wasn't taken out.

Now the company allows cover to be accepted over the phone with a "voice signature", which is stored using Verint technology as part of the customer record.

It's faster, it increases agent productivity and has a massive impact on client satisfaction.