Web-driven Customer Support Shows 100 percent RoI in One Year
Offering a choice of phone, e-mail, live chat, and Web forms is a great differentiator in a highly competitive market for one of the largest banks in India.

l The Customer: Citibank NA counts close to 2.5 million customers in their retail banking division alone. This number
of customers fosters an enormous volume of inquiries covering the gamut of offered products. Until recently, Citibank handled all customer inquiries through traditional mail and telephone.

The Challenge: Immediate need for online service channels. Citibank India processed millions of pieces of paper mail every month for years, responding via telephone or traditional paper mail. In October 2000, the bank management decided to offer electronic customer support to handle rising volumes and meet customer demand for online services.

l The Solution: Talisma was deployed in just five days, including staff training, to provide a convenient channel of communication for the large number of customers with access to the Internet. Citibank also diverted more and more customers, who typically contacted the bank via telephone and letter, to using e-mail: a support media far less expensive and more efficient than telephones.

Citibank also has 20 customer care reps (CCRs) using chat to offer customers realtime collaboration to resolve issues and conduct banking business. CCRs quickly learnt the WebDesk interface to navigate screens and resolve inquiries and despite a 4000 percent (e-mail volume shot from 700 to 30,000 pieces in one month) increase in inquiry volume, no additional CCRs were added. The CCRs used categorization of all incoming e-mail, a powerful feature helping to speed response and analyze customer needs.

The Results

• Full deployment and training in five days

• Twenty chat users handle inquiries from 2.5 million customers

• Web forms expedite 50% of incoming mail

• Hundred percent return on investment, within one year