Robust Telephones in the Banking Industry

This article considers the use of Robust Telephones to help centralise banking services and reduce costs associated with banking in remote branch locations. It also looks at key issues to examine when selecting an effective telephone communication system.

A Challenge for the Banking Industry

Mature markets. Significant competition and limited growth opportunities. Now more than ever it is important to find ways to reduce costs, increase efficiencies and maximise customer loyalty. Within the Banking industry there is currently an increasing pressure for:

• Greater focus on customer-centric online, self service and remote banking capabilities
• Better access to centralised services
• Innovation in products and business models

The answer: Strategically manage your costs

In today’s troubled financial landscape, the inevitable focus on costs remains a top issue. Norphonic delivers a solution which can help centralise banking services and reduce costs associated with disperse banking in remote locations. With Norphonic, you can transform your enterprise into a more efficient and cost-effective operation by providing self-service telephone banking in your remote branches.

Automate your bank-selling functions

Telephone services can automate over 60% of functions held a remote banking branch. With a Norphonic VoIP telephone solution you can improve your branch efficiencies by increasing automation, and also boost your cross-selling ratios by providing targeted sales prompts to end-users. Examples of services that can be centralised include:

• Insurance
• Personal Loans
• PIN re-order
• Lost Credit Card
• Health Insurance

Develop applications faster, cheaper, and with higher quality

By using telephone banking within your branches, you can much more rapidly deploy changes to service and banking products, without the need to invest in large-scale training operations. Centralised personal and automatic telephone scripts can be used to inform about new offers related to lending, deposit, and investment.

Higher margins, improved customer satisfaction and freeing up customer agents time

In general, the more services you can outsource to a comprehensive remote telephone service, the more profit you can reap from increased margins, and better alignment to your customer needs. On average, over 60% of all banking services can be completed through self-service channels. Branches who have installed telephone banking service stations typically refer to a doubling of self service customers within the first 3 years of operations, freeing staff at the regional brances to devote more time to assisting people with more complex questions and issues. What is more, customer satisfaction usually increases with 10% and an average installation typically realises a 30% cost saving.

Heavy Duty VoIP Telephones in the Banking Industry

In summary, there are three key reasons why Heavy Duty VoIP Telephones are installed bank branches:

• The bank wishes to centralise banking functions, offering 24 hour access to personal loan, insurance and credit card services
• The bank wishes to automate bank selling functions, improve the service hours and product availability in remote ares
• Conventional telephones are not robust enough to perform in these areas.

In the remainder of this article we shall look at some of the issues that needs to be addressed when selecting a telephone system in your banking application.

Primary Considerations - VoIP Telephones in Bank Branches

The below diagram shows a typical example on a telephone banking installation.

VoIP vs. Analogue Telephones?

In banking applications, the telephone of choice will almost exclusively always be a VoIP telephone. There are many reasons for this, but one key reason is that VoIP telephones have additional features seen as partiularly useful in banking applications.

One feature, found in all Norphonic VoIP telephones, is the automatic self monitoring and fault check function, which is useful because it saves on maintenance costs. A central service control room would not want to dispatch a service engineer if not strictly neccessary due to the high cost involved with such maintenance visits.

Another key VoIP feature, is the remote management functionality, whereby a remote operator has the opportunity to load telephone software updates remotely, switch the telephone on/off, sense if the hook is in an on/off position and monitor condition of telephone components. This also contributes to lower operation costs.

What to look for in a Heavy Duty VoIP Telephone solution?

There are many issues that needs to be addressed when commissioning a VoIP system for a banking application, such as evaluating the installation environment, functionality and temperature ranges. Below are some key pointers to look at when choosing a Robust VoIP Telephone for your Banking Application:

• Can auto dial facilities be set up, either on handset lift, or via call buttons? This is neccessary to easily connect the caller to the correct department.
• Is the handset, cord and telephone casing vandal resistant? Telephones placed in public areas are often prone to vandalism attempts and therefore need to be very robust.
• Is the telephone weather resistant? Often these telephones are placed outdoors to provide 24 hour banking services, and an ingress / IP rating to IP65 is therefore recommended. See definition of Ingress Protection in the below Glossary for further information.
• Is the telephone based on open SIP standards which allows connectivity to your existing networks and systems? IF the product is based on open standards, this also means that the product can be upgraded or changed in the future without having to change the entire system.
• Does the telephone incorporate a self monitoring and fault check function? This is a feature available on all Norphonic telephones, which means that the status of the telephones can be monitored from a remote location, saving you considerable maintenance costs.
• Does the telephone incorporate VSQ - Voice Sound Quality? This is a standard feature in all Norphonic telephone systems, ensuring loud and clear sound, even in noisy ambience areas.
  Is the telephone condensation proof? –This can otherwise lead to severe problems in operation as water can easily form inside the unit, affecting performance.
• Does the VoIP telephone incorporate a QoS – Quality of Service functionality? This feature, found in all Norphonic telephones, guarantees a certain level of performance in a data flow, ensuring impeccable delivery of voice communications in an IP Network.
• Is the telephone CE approved? CE marking means that the product is certified to meet EU consumer safety, health or environmental requirements. End users should be aware that some telephones use the intentionally confusing term ”CE” for ”China Export”, and the only way consumers can check this is to closely examine the CE mark/ logo as the two logos are very similar.
• Can the telephones be customised with the corporate colours and logos? This is often a requirement to build up brand loyality and repeat visits. Norphonic offers customised to suit customer requirements on all volume orders.
• Should audio call boxes be installed to provide the customer with a relaxed and confidential environment inside the branch? private booths are sometimes seen as neccessary to provide privacy when discussing sensitive information.

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