A major national bank needed to differentiate itself from competitors
The insight that changed the work
The bank needed a redesigned customer journey and operating process, not another layer of software on top of a fragmented post-acquisition workflow.
85% of HELOC requests received decisions in under five seconds / 30,000 hours of branch capacity returnedThe situation
How does a financial institution rise above its competition? For a Fortune 50 U.S. bank, it was an important question, given the fact that core banking products and services look alike. As with most banks, this organization had grown through a series of mergers and acquisitions, leaving its back-end systems complex, antiquated and not properly integrated...resulting in less-than-satisfactory customer interactions. When the Alacer team was asked to find a way to help the bank differentiate itself from others, the answer was easy: improve customer service. The solution was harder: reinvent the bank’s processes to focus on the customer experience.
The challenges
The Alacer team identified improvements in the bank’s lucrative mortgage business as the best way to achieve its goal of elevating the bank’s visibility with potential customers. Alacer’s team of experienced process engineers worked with senior bank leaders to re-engineer the entire mortgage pipeline, focusing on the user experience. They documented existing processes, identified pain points and opportunities for improvement before embarking on a complete overhaul of the mortgage process, from request to funding. It was the largest project the organization had ever attempted, and was the first to launch with no major problems or change requests.
What Alacer did
Alacer recommended creating a new mortgage process to dramatically improve the customer experience
Documented results
Where it had once taken weeks, the new Alacer-designed mortgage process helped the bank respond to 85% of its Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) requests in less than five seconds; the remaining requests were completed in less than three days. The time from request to decision for a real estate secured loan was reduced by over 50%. The new process also restored over 30,000 hours of capacity back to the bank branches, enabling them to significantly increase their customer support and sell products.
Historical Alacer engagement. Wording and results are based on the supplied original PDF. Numbers reflect the scope and time of this engagement; results vary. EPIF is the firm's current methodology and is not presented as the named framework used in these historical projects.