RightNow – On Demand CRM Software

Sovereign Bank Improves Customer Experience, Expands Sales Pipeline Visibility And Increases Sales With RightNow

Goals

• Enhance the customer experience through the sales process
• Strategically manage the sales process, not just deals
• Develop a clear, guided selling process for each business unit
• Increase cross-selling and up-selling opportunities

Achievements

• Improved overall customer experience, customer retention and acquisition
• Repeatable, successful selling process
• Increased cross- and up-sell opportunities
• Sovereign’s average product per customer increased by nearly 3x

In the highly competitive financial services industry, customers have seemingly limitless options for their banking needs. Sovereign Bank learned that enhancing sales force automation processes to help provide a positive customer experience early on in the relationship helps to increase customer acquisition and lay the foundation for better, long term relationships and more cross-sell/up-sell opportunities.

A few years back, with no guided sales force automation process in place, Sovereign Bank’s sales professionals were focused only on executing the next deal rather than on strategic management of overall markets and prospect relationships. Because there was no sales force automation software system in place for finding, assigning, and managing the large prospect lists generated from the marketing department, the bank's Relationship Managers (RMs) were often calling on prospects that had already been contacted by other RMs—significantly hindering business effectiveness and negatively impacting the customer experience.

Because first impressions are critical and can contribute to a prospect’s ‘feel-good factor,’ the bank needed to define a strategy with a strong focus on effective customer acquisition and relationship management. In developing a fresh approach to managing these relationships, the bank recognized that it was time for sales force automation. It was also time to develop processes that included Customer Value Propositions at the prospect stage—treating a prospect like a customer/partner prior to the formalization of the relationship could better support a seamless transition.

After an intensive three-month study with an external consultant, Sovereign Bank recognized that it needed to create consistent, cohesive standards for its sales force automation processes and implement a sales force automation software system that provided sales effectiveness tools to help it become a more customer-centric organization. It also required a sales force automation solution system that would enhance its capacity to become a personal, trusted financial business adviser to its customers. To achieve these two key objectives, Sovereign Bank looked to RightNow for its ability to deliver an on demand solution, RightNow Salesnet™, that would be quick to deploy and straightforward to implement and use.

“At Sovereign, we have many different business units, all of which have significantly different ways of selling and approaching customers; we were pleased to discover that RightNow Salesnet was customizable and able to support all of our various selling processes,” said Patten. “It has helped our sales teams maximize their selling potential by allowing them to follow the best practices developed within their specific department. We weren’t forced to use a cookie-cutter approach across the board.”

RightNow's sales force automation software system now helps Sovereign capture and distribute leads and deliver fast, efficient and high-quality customer responses and service, enhancing the customer experience from the very first interaction. It also provides a unified foundation for sales processes and cash management that increases cross and up-sell opportunities.

Award-Winning Success

Within the first year, Sovereign experienced a significant return on their investment from RightNow's sales force automation software including increased cross-sell/up-sell opportunities—they found that the average product per customer went from two-and-a-half products to more than six. Through the creation of a simplified and consistent sales force automation software system for the sales and forecasting process, along with the sales force automation application of structure and visibility into the bank's sales and customer activities, relationship managers were able to better focus on selling.

“The difference was immediately apparent; RMs were clearly able to manage their customer relationships more easily when they had a defined process to follow. Our customers responded positively as well, which resulted in more investment in our organization,” said Patten.

Because of these improvements, Sovereign received many accolades for their deployment and use of RightNow Salesnet including Aberdeen's CRM Implementation Award and being named an Intelligent Enterprise Magazine RealWare Awards finalist.

Sovereign Bank has continued to increase their use of RightNow's sales force automation software system, not just in the amount of users, but in the way they use the application. When the deployment first occurred, the bank was using RightNow's sales force automation software system for its Relationship Managers only; however, after seeing the successes in that business unit, the bank expanded their use into almost all of their business units, including the capital markets group, government banking, the private banking group, the commercial lending group and more.

Patten states, “We saw the success in one unit, and knew that we had to roll the solution out to others. We were concerned about the unique sales processes in each unit, but found that implementation was simple and RightNow was easily adapted into each new environment. In fact, it is so easy that now when we begin deployment to a new unit, we do it as a matter of course, without a concern for our ability to customize the solution.”

Sovereign’s user base has increased ten fold since they began the pilot program—over 600 sales professionals and managers currently use the sales force automation software system. Patten indicates that RightNow's sales force automation software system has become a “part of the backbone of the sales culture,” and because of this, they have achieved nearly 100 percent utilization of the solution by their end users and management team.

Patten states, “We have some incentives available to ensure the solution is used, however, it’s not needed; our high usage rate is due more to the belief that RightNow is really helping our employees to better manage the selling process and be more successful.” Patten also indicates that RightNow's sales force automation software system is so ingrained in every part of Sovereign’s selling culture, new users are quickly enticed to get up and running on the sales force automation software system.

Moving Forward

Sovereign has only one business unit that has not yet rolled out the RightNow sales force automation software system—their retail branches. In the past, the Bank saw the use of RightNow Salesnet as more relevant only to their commercial environment, as the retail selling process was vastly different. Patten states however, that the other business units have been so successful with their use of the application, that Sovereign now wants this tool in the hands of their retail branches as well. The Bank is currently piloting RightNow with 40 retail branches and has been able to easily customize the sales force automation software system to fit the new selling process.

According to Patten, “the goal of this pilot program is to gain better visibility into our retail pipeline, make reporting more accurate and get a better handle on our prospecting capabilities. We have scheduled a six month pilot for the retail deployment and after its anticipated success we plan to roll the solution out to all of our retail branches.”

Sovereign Bank Support Site | Sovereign Bank Homepage

About Sovereign Bank

Sovereign Bancorp, Inc., ("Sovereign") (NYSE: SOV), is the parent company of Sovereign Bank, a pro forma $83 billion financial institution with nearly 800 community banking offices, over 2,000 ATMs and approximately 12,000 team members with principal markets in the Northeast United States. Sovereign offers a broad array of financial services and products including retail banking, business and corporate banking, cash management, capital markets, wealth management and insurance. Sovereign is the 18th largest banking institution in the United States.