With the evolution of digital touchpoints, banks have mastered right channeling to drive customers to lower cost digital channels for self-service.  As customer adoption of digital channels is in full force and customers are calling and visiting branches less, banks are looking for innovative ways to inject a human touch into their digital channels.  Specifically, banks need to focus on identifying high value interactions and directing customers to the right channel, for the right interaction, at the right time.  In order to be successful, the strategy must be more than slapping an 800 number online and saying “here’s my number…call me, maybe”.  Bank Hapoalim, one of Israel’s largest banks, recognized the strategic implications of limited customer interaction and implemented a strategy to inject a human touch into digital banking to meet the needs of high-value digital banking customers.  The strategy focused on:  

• Integrating Human And Digital Channels. Each customer has unique needs and communication preferences. Allow self-served customers to select preferences by providing channel options and use right-channeling to drive low-complexity tasks to digital channels and high-complexity tasks to a bank representative.
• Adapting To Evolving Touchpoints With Agile Commerce. Agile commerce is an approach to commerce that enables businesses to optimize their people, processes, and technology to serve customers across all touchpoints. As touchpointsevolve, eBusiness and channel professionals must remain focused on making decisions that support a customer’s ability to interact across human and digital touchpoints.

 Bank Hapoalim’s has taken a multichannel approach in delivering a personal banking experience to their digital banking customers.  It focused on creating a single platform for their personal bankers and call center agents to support channel switching, and uses information gleaned in other channels, such as budget and savings goals, to help provide advice and guidance to their customers. For more information on Bank Hapoalim’s strategy, read Case Study: Hapoalim Injects A Human Touch Into Digital Banking.