At a Glance
A regional bank with a reputation for delivering high-quality, personalized customer service had just merged with another bank—and decided to implement ServiceNow’s customer service management (CSM) platform with Crossfuze as its partner.
In short order, Crossfuze delivered Phase 1 of CSM, setting the company on a long-term path to ServiceNow CSM success.
The merged company—a top-50 bank with more than 100 branches spread across five states—was seeking a way to give its specialized associate helpdesk team an accessible, user-friendly way to manage inquiries from branch associates related to banking policies, procedures, and processes. In particular, the company envisioned CSM as providing a centralized, easily searchable repository for the associate helpdesk to retrieve these SOPs.
Crossfuze already had a history of successfully partnering with the company’s IT team to extend the value of the company’s ServiceNow IT Service Management platform. Without batting an eye, Crossfuze stepped up to the plate a second time. Crossfuze showed the company’s head of client services that it could offer compelling value and insights as the company’s trusted ServiceNow implementation partner.
CROSSFUZE SERVICES/PRODUCTS USED:
ITSM Advisory/Consulting
Vision/Roadmapping · CSM Implementation
CSM Integration with Banking Systems
Crossfuze Gets Put on the Spot— and Proves Its Value
At the time Crossfuze began working with the company’s client services division, Crossfuze was not automatically appointed as the preferred ServiceNow partner to implement CSM. The company’s head of client services knew about Crossfuze’s track record helping the company improve its ITSM platform. (Indeed, it was Crossfuze that jump-started the sort of strategic visioning and planning that led the company to pursue CSM in the first place.) But the client services SVP also believed Crossfuze would need to earn its place as the company’s CSM implementation partner.
A Phase 1 CSM Win + A Mature ITSM Platform = Back-to-Back
ServiceNow Home Runs
During the company’s initial CSM sales cycle/requirements discussions, Crossfuze was invited to sit in. As the client services SVP laid out his vision for CSM, the Crossfuze team began chiming in with insightful ideas and constructive questions. The client services SVP was impressed by the team’s depth of understanding about both the CSM platform and what the company was seeking from CSM. He peppered the team with more specific follow-up questions and feedback—in effect, testing Crossfuze’s knowledge and expertise under pressure. With every response Crossfuze gave, the SVP became more and more convinced that Crossfuze would be the right ServiceNow CSM partner.
"They got it—they asked the right questions of me, and I knew I had someone who was like-kind in thinking. What is important to understand is that Crossfuze didn’t force-fit us into the app. Rather, Crossfuze built our instance of CSM based on the way we work.”
CLIENT SERVICES SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT
A CSM Home Run that End Users Love
The Phase 1 implementation of ServiceNow CSM has marked a dramatic upgrade for the company’s associate helpdesk team, which responds to questions about banking SOPs and policies from more than 2,000 branch associates. Prior to ServiceNow CSM, the team had used an outdated ticketing system that lacked vital components:
- Three-level categorization of issues
- Reporting capabilities
- A built-in, Outlook-like response app
- Chat as an inclusive channel within the app
- Case follow-up and true case management
The associate helpdesk team also lacked a centralized SOP knowledge base. Its original documents archive was housed in SharePoint, which was neither readily searchable nor integrated with its ticketing system. Thus, Crossfuze used CSM to implement both an upgraded associate helpdesk ticketing system and a powerful, fully integrated knowledge base of banking SOPs and policies. From within a single, unified app, the associate helpdesk team can now do the following:
- Seamlessly manage phone, webform, and chat inquiries
- Access a central knowledge base
- Reduce handle times
- Walk branch associates through inquiries in real time via remote desktop connection
- Have relevant knowledge articles pop up as the associate is typing notes into the system
- Respond to policy and procedural questions at the speed of conversation
- Provide high-quality, complete responses to associate inquiries
- Conduct proper follow-ups
Pinpoint training needs for its branches Today, the associate helpdesk finds ServiceNow CSM so valuable that the team says it can no longer imagine life without it.
"If you tried to take ServiceNow away—what we built together— our associates would not be happy campers. They love it that much."
CLIENT SERVICES SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT
Importance of CSM to This Company
The company takes great pride in distinguishing itself from its competition through exceptional customer service—and CSM has fast become a core part of the bank’s service promise. Although Phase 1 of CSM only directly targeted the 10-member associate helpdesk team, CSM gave this small team a powerful new resource for improving their ability to support all other banking associates. And these better-served associates, in turn, have improved their ability to support the bank’s external customers. Since implementing ServiceNow CSM, the company has seen great improvements:
- The volume of associate helpdesk tickets has increased by 27%.
- The company hasn’t needed to expand the size of the associate helpdesk.
- The associate helpdesk has met or exceeded its strict service levels for answer and response times.
As the company gains more mastery and comfort level with CSM, the company is already thinking ahead to its next big CSM frontier: creating a central repository of interaction history while reducing the number of applications its employees need to access to resolve a banking inquiry. The company is still exploring how and when it wants to move forward with expanding CSM, but knows that when the timing is right, Crossfuze will be at its side to hit another ServiceNow CSM home run. Truly, the sky’s the limit for this banking institution’s ServiceNow CSM wins.
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