I am proud to say I survived a dreadful home mortgage refinance experience and I learned a few valuable lessons for companies along the way.

I’ve been with my bank for a very long time – not out of loyalty, but out of convenience as there is a branch within blocks of my home. With them, I have a checking account, a savings account, several CD’s and they have held my primary mortgage for the last 10 years. When I started to think of refinancing my mortgage, the first place I looked for current rate information was my bank’s web site. But, I was surprised to find out there wasn’t much information on the site, so I called the bank for their rates. And, later that day, when I visited my branch, I was quoted a substantially lower rate, which I took, and signed up for automatic payments. This was pretty painless – after three tries.

My first payment was due on Saturday April 1, a day when the bank was closed. Online, I saw that my payment had not been made, and there was no notice of when it would be made. So, I called the bank, and after navigating the automated phone tree menu, I was connected to an agent who told me that nobody could help me on a weekend. She was kind enough to give me the loan department’s direct dial information. Monday morning, I called the number, and after 10 minutes of navigating the phone tree again, the agent told me that she could only help me with my home equity loan, a loan that I do not have, and not my mortgage. When I asked to be transferred to someone who could help me, I was told this was not possible – all she could do was route me to the correct phone tree that would eventually connect me to a human. At this point, if I could have switched banks, I would have done so.

Instead of being frustrated with the agent, I started to consider what was important to me in my interactions with my bank? Like perhaps a $5 a month fee to speak to a human every time I called, instead of getting lost in a phone tree. Or, for the bank to know the types of accounts I hold with them and my banking preferences. I wanted them to know me and to consider that my time was valuable to me – to understand that their job was to quickly and accurately answer my questions, and to enhance the experience by suggesting offers that were applicable to my particular situation.

I also wanted to be able to use my bank’s web site to find answers on my own. And, if I could not find enough detail to answer all my questions, I wanted to be able to connect to a live agent, through a chat session, email or a phone call, who would have a record of my searches so I did not have to repeat myself. And, I wanted to be able to ask a question either over the phone or over email, and get the same answer every time, irrespective of the medium that I had used to ask my question.

Call centers really do need to pay attention to this wish list. Today, industries such as banking are becoming commoditized. Customers have little brand loyalty and shop by price, typically on the web. But like me, customers are also searching for a good service experience and oftentimes will pay a premium to be assured of such service. Good service builds trust and loyalty. And only when you have a receptive customer base can you be successful at marketing and selling to them.

The technology is available to make this all happen. There are call center software solutions that fulfill all these requirements and ensure that customers experience optimal service. Traditional CRM solutions that capture the details of a service call can now integrate seamlessly with a knowledge base that stores all the information an agent would need, in the customer’s vernacular, to be able to answer their questions.

However, a browsable knowledge base is not enough. Agents also need to have access to sophisticated knowledge retrieval methods that narrow down search results. This is because search typically overwhelms the agent with too many solutions to consider. Tools such as decision trees, interview guides, and clarifying questions must be used in conjunction with search to quickly target the right answer. These tools are also instrumental in guiding novice agents and trainees through the discovery process, and render them effective at helping customers out without a long ramp-up time.

Information on an agent’s desktop should also be logically displayed in a structured manner that takes into consideration UI design and human interaction principles. For example, some agent’s desktops mimic the organization of information within Microsoft’s Outlook. These desktops have a browsable folder structure on the left, a list of solutions to consider in a middle pane, and details of a solution in the rightmost pane that help agents navigate through the wealth of information to the correct solution in the shortest amount of time.

An agent’s desktop should have much more than basic knowledge retrieval tools. It should also display similar questions linked to the solution under consideration so that an agent can easily answer follow-on questions. It should contain a list of the most frequently asked questions, service alerts such as fraud notifications or system down times, whose content can change over the course of the day. Agents should also be able to bookmark their personal favorite solutions for easy access. New and changed content in the knowledge base should also be proactively pushed to the agent’s desktop so that he has access to the most up to date, pertinent information at all times. An agent should also be empowered to add new content so that knowledge of a company can grow organically in step with customers changing needs.

And, if the agent cannot answer a question using this plethora of knowledge retrieval tools, the agent should be able to escalate the issue to second level support and preserve the session history so that the customer does not need to repeat the discovery process. In all cases, once an answer is located in the knowledgebase, it should be pasted into the case tracker system and given to the customer – either via email, chat or phone.

Using these tools, the customer would be guaranteed to have consistent, accurate answers to their questions. Yet companies need to learn to look beyond a simple one-time customer service experience, and return to the customer not just a simple answer, but an experience. A good experience can lead to trust and future sales.

I would appreciate it if my bank knew who I was when I called based on my past history. I would be grateful to be called in the case of suspicious activity on my account. And, I would be thankful if my bank proactively warned me that I had less than say $100 in my checking account which could expose me to overdraft service charges. I would be equally grateful if the bank notified me of offers tailored to my particular situation, based on my past banking history, instead of spamming me with bank offers that I delete without reading. Services like these would go a long way to making me a more loyal and trusting customer.

Now, if my bank had this customer service software, I would be really happy and perhaps even refer a friend or two.

Kate Leggett is the Director of Product Management for the Knowledge Management product line at KANA. Her 10 plus years of experience as a senior Engineering management professional in the enterprise software industry have been instrumental in allowing KANA to consistently deliver robust and competitive Knowledge Management products. Prior to joining KANA, she spent a decade working in many diverse areas of the eCommerce and CRM software industry. Kate uses her experience to help deliver world-class customer service solutions. KANA