Tier 1 U.S. Bank Optimizes Merchant Services with OvationCXM

Summary

The merchant services line of business for a major U.S. Bank works with more than 200,000 merchants. It was operated through a referral model which limited the bank's visibility and understanding of the customer status and opportunities to deepen the relationship. When it chose to adjust its model to take more control over the merchant services customer journey, it leveraged OvationCXM's customer experience management platform.

Challenge

The bank had a number of challenges related to the customer journey. Without solving them, they would not be able to optimize their CX and outcomes.

• Lack of visibility and control over merchant activation and servicing processes.
• Disconnected communication with Fiserv, leading to fragmented CX and frustrated customers.
• Delayed sales commission due to a 15-30 day merchant activation window, plus potential churn.
• Lack of data on merchant churn reasons, hindering improvement efforts.
• Lower profitability due to a smaller share of merchant service revenue.

Solution

To brand and fully control the merchant customer experience, the bank is establishing a Center of Excellence (CoE) and the Head of Payment Products is spearheading its development. 

In the first phase of transformation, the organization will use CXMEngine to orchestrate activation and servicing journeys across its multi-provider merchant services ecosystem. Specifically, the bank will use CXMEngine to:

• Get a consolidated view of each merchant's journey
• Build automated and customizable merchant activation journeys and workflows
• Activate real-time visibility into the merchant activation progress
• Improve service governance and outcomes
• Communicate and collaborate more effectively with chat, mobile access, and trained virtual assistants for improved merchant customer support
• Build an ADA-compliant knowledge base within the customer portal
• Identify and address merchant churn causes through the data in powerful reports and dashboards

Expected Results

The bank anticipates achieving positive business results quickly by having a clearer view of their customers' needs including the following outcomes:

• Improved merchant onboarding and activation rates due to a centralized and transparent activation and servicing process.
• Faster sales rep commission through real-time visibility into merchant activation status.
• Reduced merchant churn by identifying and addressing pain points.
• Increased profitability through higher revenue share from directly owned merchant accounts.