Varolii 360 - The Best of both Worlds

by Mary Cook on February 21, 2012 in Varolii News with No comments

As we know, many of our inbound call centers still have cumbersome automated IVR processes that lead many customers to hang up in frustration. In an inbound environment, 20% of customers scream “agent” or press zero within an IVR menu, while 30% choose the wrong direction within the IVR, either intentionally or unintentionally. Adding on top of this 50% IVR fall out, the typical automated speech recognition (ASR) engines don’t have the intelligence to personalize inbound calls to a particular customer, or auto-correct a customer’s verbal input if it is misunderstood. So the chance of your customer experiencing a “successful” customer effort or engagement score is already at odds.

So, Varolii came up with some ideas on how to fix this problem.

What started out as a drawing on a whiteboard nine months ago has turned into a customer interaction management system that makes you pause and take notice. In seventeen years in the call center and customer experience realm, this is one of the few pieces of call center technology that I see as a “game changer” for customer interaction management.

Our newest product, Varolli 360, offers customer interaction capabilities that can be leveraged to create a complete customer experience across both guided inbound and proactive outbound interactions.  This little gem revolutionizes the way that you do business by solving customer problems faster (i.e., reduced AHT), and in return upping the ante where overall satisfaction is concerned.

So – what is guided inbound?

Guided inbound allows speech recognition to become a truly valuable contact center technology. It allows you to enrich your customer interactions.

Varolii’s new inbound solutions leverage guided speech recognition and advanced personalization to assist the customer through their interactions with you, while delivering a more robust inbound experience. Rather than rely on old systems that are subject to failure, we’ve adopted a new approach.  With guided inbound capabilities, silent ‘Guides’ monitor up to 10 calls simultaneously and are able to jump in when speech recognition fails, or correct the customer’s utterance in order to help the customer to self-serve. These ‘Guides’ can direct the automation in real-time, correcting the misheard response or redirecting the speech recognition engine as needed.

With this conversational hybrid approach, your customer is offered more efficient and personalized self-service options, which subsequently reduces frustration and opt-outs. It also eliminates the customer repetition of answering a question twice and guarantees a smoother transfer to a call center agent when required.

For ten years, Varolii has proactively communicated with customers to meet their needs with our outbound communications applications through voice, text messages, emails, and smartphone applications.  We make ourselves available to assist your customers via the mode of communication that feels the most comfortable for them, which leads to a more personal and satisfactory solution to handling their interactions. Varolli knows that “interaction” and “customer experience” are not events, and therefore they shouldn’t be treated impersonally. So we have taken our magic and applied it now to inbound interactions, as well.

"Better engagement, better outcome" is Varolli’s mantra for Customer Interaction Management. Joining and coordinating technology and applying expertise to get results are what make us a success. Learn more about Varolli 360. To read more about product specifications, click here.  Feel free to email me directly at mary.cook@varolii.com for more information.  I’d love to hear from you!

Mortgage Delinquencies Down Slightly, But Remain Near Historic Highs

by Brian Moore on February 16, 2012 in Banks/Finance, Brian Moore, Mortgage, Varolii News with No comments

The Mortgage Bankers Association has released its National Delinquency Survey for the fourth quarter of 2011. It shows total delinquency has dipped below 12% for the first time since 2008, but that is still more than double the average rates before the meltdown in the mortgage market precipitated the recession.

Whether you view this as a cup half-full or half-empty depends on whether you like drinking from an apparently never ending stream of past due mortgages.

MBANDSQ42011 Mortgage Delinquencies Down Slightly, But Remain Near Historic Highs

Considered in the context of the additional borrower outreach required of the five largest mortgage banks in their widely publicized $25 billion settlement with 49 state attorneys general, the continued high volume of delinquent accounts means their servicing operations are going to be doing double duty for the foreseeable future.

When the industry gets together next week in Orlando for the MBA's National Mortgage Servicing Conference, we expect this increased workload to be a popular if not happy topic of conversation.

That's why Varolii will be at the conference (booth 1020) where we will be offering our viewpoint in a panel discussion entitled "Borrower Communication in a Post-SPOC World" (Thursday 2/23 at 1:45 p.m.) and demonstrating why 5 of the top 13 servicers are using Varolii to help them keep their cup from overflowing.

Do Collectors Need a Groupon?

by Brian Moore on January 31, 2012 in Brian Moore, Varolii News with 1 Comment
coupons

Who doesn't love a bargain?

Looking at the explosive growth of Groupon, Living Social and an expanding list of competitors, the answer is clearly "nobody!"

The popularity of their "buy one, get one" deals or BOGO got me thinking. Could a creditor, faced with a customer struggling to meet all of their obligations and at risk of falling hopelessly behind, make a similar offer and get the customer off the path to bad debt.

Most creditors have some sort of hardship or forbearance program designed to give customers a way to get their past due accounts current without paying the total amount they owe. The problem with these programs is not the intent, which is good, but they might as well be pictured as a rabid porcupine based on the decidedly negative way they are described:

"You can do it one time only for the lifetime of your account."

"I can take an interest-only payment, but the principal will be added to the back of the loan and your total cost will go up"

"I guess if you really need it, ok, but do you?"

If the objective is to cure the delinquency, get the customer out of collections, and reduce the risk of the account aging to write off , why not market these programs as something good for the customer? After all, the cost of the concession granted is typically less than the cost of continuing to treat the account or worse, writing it off.

If so, then you should promote the program like a Groupon. Instead of a BOGO, call it a POGO, as in "pay one, get one"...and help your customer bounce back.

In doing so, you'll be exercising one of the most powerful principles of persuasion, reciprocity. The theory, well explained by Dr. Robert Cialdini in his book Influence - Science and Practice, is that when you offer another person something of benefit without first being asked for the favor, they are strongly inclined to honor any reasonable request you make of them. Such as "now that your account is up to date, will you make your next payment in full and on time so we don't need to speak about this again?"

I've always thought collections was just customer service applied to a delinquent account. Perhaps I've been too narrow in that characterization. Collections is also sales and marketing, and POGO is just a great new feature available to customers if they "act now!"

Scrum-ptious: Agile Development = Happy Customers

by Mary Cook on January 18, 2012 in CRM, Industry News, Mary Cook, Varolii News with 2 Comments

Anyone who knows me knows I am a fan of Forrester research. So a recent Forrester Blog, entitled The Top Thirteen Customer Management Trends for 2012, warmed my Customer Experience heart. It spoke of many of the trends I am personally following, including Agile development processes. Varolii is a cloud services provider that practices agile methodologies. So, this means our customers get faster product updates which allow them to be nimble in their customer interaction strategies, as well. Agile methodologies can help facilitate and support new, state-of-the-art, and leading-edge processes and best practices (many more benefits of the cloud can be found in my blog, The Cloud - What Is It? Should My Call Center Be There?).

In Forrester's blog, William Band spoke eloquently to Agile:

“Agile implementation approaches will take root. Companies want to become more flexible, and they are increasingly adopting Agile project management and software development methodologies based on the principles of iterative development, where requirements evolve through collaboration between a self-organizing cross-functional team. Pure waterfall and big-bang approaches to CRM technology deployment approaches are declining and being replaced with ‘Water-Scrum’ and ‘Scrum-Fall.’”

After reading Bill’s predictions, I realized that many readers may think ‘Water-Scrum’ is a nasty bug that requires a prescription of Ciproflaxin. So, I decided to define Bill’s thoughts a bit further so we can all follow this Hot 2012 Trend.

Agile Project Management:

Defined: Agile Project Management is a method used by engineers and IT personnel. It allows development projects to be highly flexible and interactive. It uses supplier, customer, and employee input. Agile techniques are best used in small-scale projects. Elements of wider programs of work, or ongoing projects that are difficult for the customer to understand also utilize this methodology of management.

Benefits: Mistakes can be easily corrected. Projects are easier to maintain and improvise. Progress can be verified by internal teams and outside consultants. Agile projects can be delivered in an efficient manner depending on the situation and what it requires.

Example: Scrum is an agile process that has three roles: There is the Product Owner, the ScrumMaster, and the team. The Product Owner oversees the product. He or she makes sure that it’s the right product and it is being built in the right order. The ScrumMaster oversees the people in the project. He or she makes sure that they are on target, overcoming obstacles, and tracking progress. The team assumes responsibility for achieving project goals. They determine which people work on each task.

Agile Software Development Methods:

Defined: Agile Software Development Methods have requirements and solutions that evolve through collaboration between cross-functional teams. In addition to being self-organizing, these groups of individuals must be skilled in adaptive planning, rapid responsiveness to change as well as evolutionary development and delivery. This type of methodology promotes foreseen interactions that take place throughout the development cycle.

Benefits: Documentation saves time because it is streamlined and crisp. High quality software ensures the least possible time duration and the most satisfied customers. Agile's business benefits can be realized as faster time-to-market, increased business value, and improved flexibility and responsiveness.

 What Is Scrum – And Does It Live In Waterfalls?

Scrum Blog3 Scrum ptious: Agile Development = Happy Customers

Iterative Development, Where Requirements Evolve Through Collaboration between a Self-Organizing Cross-Functional Team

And remember – a cross-functional team can help customers redefine standards by identifying what needs to be done in the first place. This helps avoid a situation like that in Figure 1 below, courtesy of  The Project Cartoon:

Figure 1

Why I am in Business Scrum ptious: Agile Development = Happy Customers

Outsourcing vs. Insourcing: What’s a bank to do?

by Brian Moore on January 17, 2012 in Banks/Finance, Brian Moore, Varolii News with No comments

You know the old adage “if a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is”? The TowerGroup is advising financial services institutions (FSIs) to keep this in mind when outsourcing key business processes.

While bullish on the growth prospects for business process outsourcing (BPO) service providers, TowerGroup’s senior research director, Rodney Nelsestuen, also sees some risks for FSIs as they increasingly turn to outsourcing as a way to cut costs.

In a TowerGroup Viewpoint entitled “Productivity in Business Process Outsourcing: More Service at Lower Cost Gives Rise to New Risks,” Nelsestuen praises the BPOs for increasing the value of their services through ongoing process innovation that helps keep their costs low. But as the FSIs demand increasing levels of cross-channel integration, real-time business intelligence and flawless execution to stay competitive in the market, he warns BPOs will find it harder to meet these expectations without raising their costs.

As illustrated in the figure below, this makes increasing reliance on BPOs risky for FSIs, particularly when the processes in question involve high value customers (e.g. wealth management) or high levels of regulatory scrutiny (e.g. mortgage servicing).ViewPoint Issue 349 E1 d Outsourcing vs. Insourcing: What’s a bank to do?

While Nelsestuen offers several prudent suggestions for mitigating these BPO risks, FSIs may be better off keeping the business process design and execution in-house while seeking to lower costs by sourcing technology that automates the process in a cloud computing environment.

Let’s consider mortgage servicing. With billions of dollars in loan losses already booked and billions more in regulatory penalties in the near future, mortgage banks and non-bank servicers are desperate to control costs. But along with the monetary settlements being negotiated with the regulators, the servicers are also being required to increase their outreach to delinquent borrowers. While the admirable objective of these requirements is to establish a dialog between borrower and servicer focused on preventing foreclosures, the reality is that unless they deploy significantly more efficient technology, the servicer will be forced to employ many more resources than they can afford, with or without outsourcing.

Cloud service providers like Varolii understand these pressures; after all, five of the top fifteen servicers are already our clients. That’s why we have leveraged our domain expertise gained through these relationships, along with the more than 60 years of combined experience from our team of consultants focused on mortgage servicing, to design a borrower interaction management solution that automates compliance with the outreach and single point of contact (SPOC) requirements of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s Servicing Alignment Initiative and the Treasury’s consent orders.

Varolii’s Mortgage Servicing solution reduces headcount requirements by 60 to70 percent compared to traditional outreach solutions like predictive dialers, while supporting integrated cross-channel communication strategies using email and SMS text that increase the likelihood of contact with the distressed borrower. Every communication attempt is tracked and its outcome logged to prove due diligence and, just as important, provide insights into opportunities for performance improvement.

No doubt, BPO is on the rise and has its rightful place among the various strategies FSIs are using to contain costs. But, as TowerGroup points out, it’s not without risks. If you are looking for a deal that is actually as good as it appears, I invite you to visit with Varolii at the MBA National Mortgage Servicing Conference in Orlando February 21 to 24. Hope to see you there!

Varolii’s Best Customer Interaction blog posts from 2011

by Varolii on January 4, 2012 in Varolii News with No comments

As we look forward to 2012, we wanted to take a moment to reflect back on the past year and share with you a few of our favorite blog posts from 2011. Below is a collection of our Top 10 Must Reads from Varolii thought leaders.

CALL DEFLECTION…AND CALL ATTRACTION
One of our inaugural blog posts; still relevant and a great primer to Varolii’s core value prop.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMER'S CONTACT PREFERENCES
Call Center guru Mary Cook gets personal by sharing a funny  story about contact preferences  featuring her own father.

SHOULD WE REQUIRE A LICENSE TO BORROW?
Brian Moore ponders the idea that better borrower education through lifecycle engagement may be the best way to reduce delinquency and default.

HOW TO AVOID BECOMING AN OVERWHELMED CALL CENTER PROFESSIONAL
Tips on how to manage it all and still come out ahead.

IN SEARCH OF SPOC - "SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT"
A solution-oriented commentary on the new Single Point of Contact (SPOC) initiative.

MEDICAL THERAPY SHOULD INCLUDE TREATMENT ADHERENCE
An excellent look at how to best engage healthcare consumers to get real results.

CARE CONTINUUM ALLIANCE FORUM RECAP: THE NEED FOR MEMBER FOLLOW-THROUGH
Varolii CEO Dave McCann speaks out on treatment adherence.

INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATIONS AND THE CRM PUZZLE: THE LAST MILE OF CRM
Making the case that crafting communications with customers in mind pays off.

CATCH 22 - WHY CONGRESS MUST MODERNIZE THE TCPA
Examining this age-old conundrum as it relates to customer interactions and expressed consent.

ALL DISASTERS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL
Jeff Delaney weighs in on the importance of having a strong event notification plan in place.

We hope you enjoy reading these posts as much as we enjoyed writing them and that you find them informative and inspiring as we head into the next year. We look forward to presenting you with even more thought leadership and fresh perspectives in the coming year. If there is something I particular you’d like to see Varolii blog about, please let us know by leaving a comment.

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