Organizing the Chaos of Customer Data w/ OneUnited Bank | Simply Put

My name is Karen Alvarado and I'm the vice president, retail banking for One United Bank. I would describe my responsibilities here at One United bank ranging from overseeing BI Coastal call centers and BI Coastal branches. Simply put, my job is to be a mentor and a trusted advisor.

What's up, everybody? I'm Emmanuel Acho, your host for Simply Put, where we've been talking to the team at One United bank about customer service. Of course, since this is Simply Put, we've been translating complex service problems and to easy on the brain solutions. In this episode, you'll hear from one of the key people at any bank, the VP of retail banking at One United. That would be Karen Alvarado, who you just met and who will talk about employee engagement. Simply Put, how to keep the people in customer service happy. Because happy people are productive people. Right, Karen? Also, be on the lookout for Nicole Granucci. She's the service cloud maven over at Salesforce who will take us on a deep dive into this particular story. How's that sound? All good. Over to you, Karen.

I don't even have to really describe the mission of the bank to other people because they see the mission in me. There was a time in my life, years ago, I was a payday loan person. I understand what a payday loan will do to you. It will not help you. And I share those experiences. I speak from my heart because I've experienced it. I was one who didn't have good credit and so when I would go out and do credit presentations, I was honest with my audience and I told them how I fixed it. I've been in banking for over 36 years and what is rewarding to me is really seeing staff that I manage succeed. I have customers that I've had since I've been with the organization who have followed me and I've been able to walk with them and just see them grow. The pandemic sent our customers into a panic mode. We really worked with our team in remaining calm so that our customers can remain calm. So it was really about engaging with customers, having conversations, keeping the customers relatable to the staff. I would say that I am the go to person using Salesforce in the retail side of the banking. Salesforce has given me a global view of my customers, my service staff. I train them and they're cross trained on using Salesforce so that anyone in the organization that has an opportunity to assist a customer, they can pull up Salesforce and see what we have done with that customer service Cloud has helped me scale quickly and keep everything in one place. It frees up time for me to do my job. If I didn't have Service Cloud, I would have to log into approximately three other systems, sometimes four, just to get the information that I can get at a glance. Service Cloud has given us a single source of truth. I can train my team using Service Cloud. I can efficiently and effectively service our customers. The faster I can find the information, the faster I can take care of their problems.

Seeing what a company does with customers is crucial, Karen. These days, the customer service experience can make or break a brand. Karen's incredible story inspired our top three tips for this episode. Tip number one Compassion is service. Sometimes the service center can be a customer's only look at how a company is dealing with a major event. Especially for an Internet bank with no walk ins. Train your agents with skills to stay calm and speak about events with compassion. Encourage them or help them pursue self care. When your team is supported in tough times, customers will feel the love too. And that brings us to our second tip. Learn from history. What do we mean by that? A single source of truth that everyone in your organization can tap into. Let's see how some companies invest in their service agents, giving them the right tools and technology to deliver fast and personalized support. Every time, Jason is automatically routed a call from Beth who wants to inquire about her loan. Beth explains that she would like to reduce her monthly loan payment. The conversation is being transcribed in real time with Service Cloud voice so Jason can focus on helping Beth with her issue instead of writing notes based on the conversation. Einstein next best action automatically surfaces a recommendation, making it easy and seamless for Jason to walk Beth through several options. Beth likes what she hears and signs up for all three offers. And because Service Cloud is connected to backend banking systems, Jason can guide Beth through the entire process without ever putting her on hold or passing her to another representative. And just like that, Beth walks away a happy customer.

The faster I can find the information, the faster I can take care of their problem.

Speed is indeed the key in customer service, Karen. That's why our third tip is speed up the teamwork. Look into a solution like Slack that streamlines collaboration across your organization. If agents can search for relevant messages, group threads, files and people in just a few clicks, everyone gets what they need faster. There's more time to help more people.

I remember I had a teller at one point. She was a single mother taking care of her mother in a nursing home. I saw something in her. I developed her and I coached her and through that, she was able to get promoted and ended up leaving One United Bank. But one day she came back looking for me, and she said to me that she had to write a thesis on someone who impacted her and her life. Needless to say, of course I bawled and was crying because I've never experienced that in my life. But knowing that I can really develop and prepare someone for a successful career, that's what's passionate to me. My name is Karen Alvarado, and you're watching. Simply put.

Thanks, Karen. I really appreciate you sharing that story with us. It gave us a crucial peak inside employee engagement at One United Bank. Specifically, those unsung heroes in customer service. If you're ready for episode four, click that button and let's get to it. I'll see you soon.