IN-DEPTH CASE STUDY

Operationalizing the Customer Journey

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ABOUT BANCVUE:

BancVue is the leader in branded, community-powered banking products that help local banks thrive in the competitive banking industry. The company empowers clients to reclaim market share from industry giants through innovative products, world-class marketing, community engagement, and access to indispensable resources like training, compliance, data analysis and consulting. BancVue consistently ranks among American Banker’s FinTech 100.

Headquarters: Austin, Texas

Customers Include: More than 750 community banks and credit unions nationwide

Founded: 2004

Website: www.bancvue.com

WITH MORE THAN 750 CLIENTS ON ITS ROSTER, BANCVUE HAS QUICKLY EARNED A REPUTATION AS THE COMPANY THAT HELPS ITS COMMUNITY-BANK CUSTOMERS THRIVE.

This reputation is reflected in the great success the company has achieved: It has tripled in size; improved productivity, efficiency and customer service; realized a 75 percent increase in close rate; and multiplied its sales leads 3x.

Key to this business success was the deployment of Sugar customer relationship management software, which BancVue uses to empower and coordinate the actions of all its customer-facing employees across customer service, finance, legal, marketing operations, sales, technical operations and training. As part of its customer-focused business transformation, BancVue participated in a customer journey mapping exercise led by Phil Winters, a renowned customer perspective champion at CIAgenda. The exercise uncovered some interesting gaps in BancVue’s customer experience.

BancVue experienced several “Aha!” moments as their understanding of the customer journey deepened. But understanding alone didn’t change things. The company outlined several business process changes that would improve the customer experience, and used Sugar to operationalize them – translating understanding into the actions that make a difference. The result: a more consistent and positive customer experience at every touchpoint.

INTRODUCTION

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BUILDING A CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP

BancVue’s quest to achieve a customer-centric business transformation began when they created a Customer Journey Map, which outlines the experience of “Buyers” and “Clients.”

BancVue’s map is an “Infinity Loop.” The left side of the loop describes the “Buyer Point of View.” It includes all the stages that lead up to a purchase: the “Need” stage, where the buyer identifies a problem; “Discovery,” the search for solutions; “Consideration,” evaluation of a short list of solutions; and “Decision,” where the purchase takes place. Each phase lists potential questions, suggests duration, and identifies the key decision makers and influencers.

The right side of the loop describes the “Client Point of View,” picking up the customer journey after the purchase decision takes place. This is about sustaining the client through the “Launch,” “Use,” “Review,” and “Decision” phases. Again, these phases list potential questions, suggest duration, and identify the key decision makers and influencers. Following this map and gathering all the information for each phase presents an end-to-end view of the customer journey.

For BancVue, the Customer Journey Map became the foundation of a more complex diagram that guides the journey from prospect to customer. The “Infinity Loop” adds operational and marketing layers, so at the “Need” phase, for example, there are corresponding marketing and sales actions that move the prospect along. Once the prospect becomes a customer, he is retained at the “Loyalty Loop,” where BancVue continues to serve and cross-sell when appropriate.

The Infinity Loop illustrates that the customer process is never ending. More importantly, it helps BancVue employees understand where they fit into the customer journey.

CHALLENGE: Combine all customer business processes into a centralized platform to ensure consistent, streamlined communication across every touchpoint on the customer journey. Consolidate data silos to improve workflows and business processes to improve retention and overall customer satisfaction. SOLUTION: Sugar, hosted on-site; deployed to 100 percent of customer-facing BancVue employees in Customer Service, Finance, Legal, Marketing Operations, Sales, Technical Operations and Training. RESULTS: 3x growth since deploying Sugar • 3x more sales leads • 75% increase in close rate

“It’s important to realize that customers have a journey whether you’ve identified it or not, so make it the best it can be.” Lori Peterson Senior Vice President of Marketing

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“AHA!” MOMENTS

Diving deep into the customer perspective led to some interesting “Aha!” moments for BancVue.

#1 The customer journey is much more than the sales process. “An early discovery was that the conversations we had with the customer during the sales process weren’t always communicated to delivery teams,” said Lori Peterson, senior vice president of marketing at BancVue. “So, what a BancVue customer got in the end wasn’t necessarily what was promised in the sales pitch. This really impacted customer satisfaction.”

To solve the problem, BancVue used Sugar to align all of its customer facing teams, including sales and delivery, and track the entire customer journey. Sugar is now used to capture each conversation a BancVue employee has with a customer, so when a new BancVue delivery team member joins in the mix, he or she can pick up right where sales left off, making for a better customer experience overall.

#2 It’s Not Just about Decision Makers. BancVue also realized that the decision maker wasn’t necessarily where the proverbial buck stopped. “There are decision makers like the CEO that may be all for signing with us. But if the marketing manager isn’t on board, he or she could weigh in and torpedo the sale,” explained Peterson.

BancVue now uses Sugar to prompt sales teams to identify key influencers and include them in the sales process.

#3 Eliminate Surprises and Track Project Goals. BancVue discovered that during the sales process, projections of future performance were often made. But these goals were sometimes not passed from sales to delivery teams. Later on, delivery teams would be surprised to learn that their good performance was actually falling short of customer expectations.

Now during the launch phase BancVue defines and uses Sugar to record the customer’s program goals. These could be growing the number of branches or deposits or loans over the next six months. Sugar is used to track performance against these objectives and a review is held quarterly to assess the client’s progress toward these goals. It’s not just about accountability; it’s also a chance to recommend other programs that could help customers more easily realize their objectives. “It’s essentially recommending the next best action and the most appropriate offer, and learning how to broker a conversation about it, right in Sugar,” said Thomas Shields, vice president of marketing program delivery at BancVue.

“The ability to get quality leads in the door and close deals fast is huge for us. Sugar and our new understanding of the customer perspective have an incredible influence on this objective.”Lori Peterson, Senior Vice President of Marketing

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#4 Better targeting with account scores. With a much fuller picture of each client stored in Sugar, BancVue was able to combine internal information about clients with external information about prospects and create a BancVue Power Index (BVPI) rating for prospects to inform their sales and marketing efforts. Now, instead of taking a scatter-shot approach – based just on asset size, the team focuses on prospects that are most likely to benefit from BancVue services.

This also helps BancVue tailor their sales pitches and marketing messages. “Sugar has really given our sales team an understanding of the prospect before talking to them, so it’s not just a cold call,” said Shields. “Instead, it’s a quick way for them to demonstrate they’ve done their research. It makes for a much richer, in-depth conversation.”

TREMENDOUS RESULTS

By understanding their client’s journey better, BancVue has been able to align the whole organization to deliver a much more consistent and positive experience to customers. By targeting prospects who are more similar to successful clients, BancVue has increased their close rate by 75%. The company is now generating 3 times as many leads as before, and leads are converting to closed sales much more quickly. Truly a customer-focused business transformation.

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“Sugar has really given our sales team an understanding of the prospect before talking to them, so it’s not just a cold call,” said Shields. “Instead, it’s a quick way for them to demonstrate they’ve done their research. It makes for a much more graceful conversation.”Thomas Shields, Vice President of Marketing Program Delivery

CUSTOMER JOURNEY ADVICE

Peterson has simple yet sage advice for companies interested in achieving business transformation using Sugar. “Just start!” she said. “It feels like a big job, but if you sit down and map it out, it’s not as daunting as you would expect. It’s important to realize that customers have a journey whether you’ve identified it or not, so make it the best it can be.”

Incorporating the whole team is important as well. “Don’t try to champion this alone,” added Shields. “You need advocates across the entire company. Everyone must participate in this transformation.”

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