Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to HSBC Global Viewpoint, the podcast series that brings together business leaders and industry experts to explore the latest global insights, trends, and opportunities.
Speaker: Make sure you're subscribed to stay up to date with new episodes.
Speaker: Thanks for listening, and now onto today's show.
Speaker: Hello, and welcome to this podcast on the future of client servicing.
Speaker: I'm your host, Jane Cooper, the editor of TMI,
Speaker: And today we'll be discussing how client expectations are changing, what can be done, and the role of generative AI in client servicing.
Speaker: I've got two guests who are experts on this topic, so I'll let them introduce themselves.
Speaker: Carol, would you like to go first?
Speaker: Hi everyone, I'm Carol Solomon.
Speaker: I'm a director in the Business Applications UK team at Microsoft.
Speaker: It's such a pleasure to be here today and to highlight all the amazing work we're doing with Melissa and her team.
Speaker: At Microsoft, we are totally committed to supporting HSBC in building a world-class servicing ecosystem that really enhances their support for servicing colleagues and delivering a true differentiated client experience.
Speaker: So thank you so much for having me.
Speaker: And I'm also really, really excited to dive into the world of Gen AI and share some of the groundbreaking results we've seen at Microsoft.
Speaker: Okay, brilliant.
Speaker: And Melissa, would you like to introduce yourself, please?
Speaker: Yeah, thanks so much, Jane, and so excited to be with you and Carol here today.
Speaker: My name is Melissa Tuzolo, and I run our client service organization globally for our global payments solutions group within HSBC.
Speaker: I'm super excited to be here talking about a topic that's very near and dear to our heart and quite exciting.
Speaker: So again, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker: Okay, brilliant.
Speaker: So we're going to be talking about all things client servicing.
Speaker: So Melissa, can I go to you first?
Speaker: Can you set the scene and paint a picture for us?
Speaker: So how have expectations changed towards client servicing?
Speaker: It's really interesting.
Speaker: I would say over the past few years, we've seen a real sea shift in client expectations around
Speaker: the importance of servicing and ease of use of our products within the payment space.
Speaker: I've been saying this for years, but the payments landscape has been going through some pretty monumental changes, I would say, over the last
Speaker: five to 10 years, and especially over the last couple of years with, you know, the incorporation of the ISO migration, et cetera, changes in compliance, regulatory, geopolitics, you know, there's just been so much that's been happening in this space.
Speaker: And because of that, that ease of use, that expectation of banks and servicing making
Speaker: things easier, bringing that simplification, that thought leadership, that proactivity to our clients becomes even more important.
Speaker: So some of the areas that we see is really critical as we look into the future are speed and efficiency of the information that we can bring to our clients, transparency and what we can deliver to them.
Speaker: thought leadership about all of that change that's happening across the global landscape and ensuring that all of this is underscored with security and privacy.
Speaker: Because as we all know, that the fraud landscape, et cetera, is changing just as fast as our general payments landscape.
Speaker: And this additional area of personalization, which has been really interesting again over the last few years, there's been a real shift and we've seen it in the surveys that go out in the industry.
Speaker: to our clients, that personalization, that intensity of service, that I want somebody that really understands what I'm doing and can help me is really coming to the fore from a decision-making perspective when they're choosing which partners they want to bank with.
Speaker: Okay, brilliant.
Speaker: Thank you for that.
Speaker: There's so much, so much going on.
Speaker: Carol, do you have anything to add to that?
Speaker: Agree, totally.
Speaker: I mean, client expectations have definitely shifted.
Speaker: there's even more focus on enhancing the overall client experience, making everything as easy as possible.
Speaker: So I completely agree, Melissa.
Speaker: And we're also seeing these trends through client feedback and industry surveys.
Speaker: With the move towards digital platforms and better self-service options, you know the standards for client services are higher than ever right now.
Speaker: Clients want their banking partners to do more than just handle a transaction.
Speaker: You know, they really need that support in navigating the complexities of new technologies and changing regulations.
Speaker: So, and, you know, let's face it, our time is so valuable.
Speaker: We're all juggling numerous daily responsibilities, but hitting these expectations is super important because clients want partners who can handle the complexity and offer valuable insights.
Speaker: as well as being able to keep up in this fast paced world.
Speaker: And I'd say just on that, and sorry, not to cut you off, Jane, but I think just the way that we think about our service organization is really an extension of our clients' teams, right?
Speaker: So everything becomes so interconnected.
Speaker: As Carol said, it's a fast paced world.
Speaker: We rely on each other quite significantly, especially in the payment spaces.
Speaker: And as payments go faster,
Speaker: further down the chain from a strategy perspective with a lot of our clients that just becomes incredibly, incredibly important.
Speaker: So Melissa, I have another question.
Speaker: What can banks do to respond to all of this?
Speaker: From an HSBC perspective, I'll say we're investing in a few key areas to really ensure that we're geared up to meet these expectations of our clients.
Speaker: So number one, we think about it.
Speaker: So simplicity, how do we make things easier for our clients?
Speaker: Number one is the transparency and the delivery of information.
Speaker: So just ensuring that our own user interfaces and how our clients interact with us
Speaker: provide not only information, but good information, right?
Speaker: Information that people can actually make decisions off of, action off of, is intuitive, makes sense.
Speaker: And then, and also incredibly timely information, right?
Speaker: Because again, in the payment space, a few minutes can mean a huge amount to a client, right?
Speaker: So that's incredibly important.
Speaker: And we see that user interface is really the way that we can
Speaker: quick kill queries before they even come into us, right?
Speaker: Stops before it comes to queries.
Speaker: So that's incredibly important.
Speaker: And it's important because as we move into the next area, which is the more proactive servicing, actually getting our people more embedded into our client relationships, depending on how large and complex our clients are, right?
Speaker: Not every client is going to need that real, you know, hand-holding, real embedded relationship, right?
Speaker: but having that more proactive servicing.
Speaker: So anticipating client issues before they arise, looking into things about how we can optimize pre-validation, payments optimization, ideas about how we can make things better for our clients.
Speaker: But again, you have to provide that transparency on the low-hanging fruit as much as possible so you can focus more time in this space.
Speaker: A few other areas that we're looking at is enhanced data analytics.
Speaker: And that really goes into that
Speaker: optimization space.
Speaker: Again, we're in a world of data, right?
Speaker: We've got more data than in some cases, like we, you know, we're almost like drowned in the amount of data that we have.
Speaker: How can you put that to the most use for your clients to really bring those ideas forward?
Speaker: And then all of this is underpinned with the adoption of new and advanced technologies.
Speaker: And I know we're here to talk about Gen AI, but we've been using AI and machine learning and things like that for many, many years.
Speaker: So we've been on this journey for quite a while, but now we're just getting to the next level of it for some of these, you know, with some of these really new and interesting things that are coming out.
Speaker: Yeah, great.
Speaker: Carol, I have a two-part question for you then.
Speaker: So the
Speaker: The first part is, do you have anything to add to what Melissa just said?
Speaker: And then the second part of the question is, I understand that you've been working with HSBC and maybe you can talk us through how that went and how it was initially developed and what you've been doing.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: I love that, Melissa.
Speaker: And, you know, all these advancements that you just discussed really not only kind of enhance the client experience, but they also really position banks like HSBC to be more responsive and efficient.
Speaker: And for us, it's all about creating that seamless, proactive, personalized banking experience that meets the evolving demands of our clients.
Speaker: And in regard to your question about the journey that we've been on with HSBC.
Speaker: When we initially kicked off our relationship with HSBC, they were already heavily invested in our Microsoft tech stack.
Speaker: They were using Dynamics 365 for managing client relationships and had seen incredible success with Microsoft Power Platform.
Speaker: And for those of you that haven't heard of Microsoft Power Platform, it is basically a set of tools that
Speaker: It allows you to build apps.
Speaker: It allows you to analyze data, automate tasks.
Speaker: You can even create a chat bot, all with minimal coding.
Speaker: So our primary focus was on improving how HSBC handled client email queries.
Speaker: They wanted to really streamline that process, modernize the journey.
Speaker: So we explored the options and then we realized that Dynamics 365
Speaker: already had many of the features they needed like case management, case routing, SLAs right from the start.
Speaker: And because Dynamics 365 and Power Platform share the same underlying technology, they work incredibly well together and it's so smooth.
Speaker: This really meant that we could use Power Platform to enhance Dynamics 365's capabilities.
Speaker: Now to ensure the rollout was a success for HSBC, we've really focused on building strong relationship with HSBC's key stakeholders and their users.
Speaker: This involved really understanding their specific needs, their challenges,
Speaker: and aligning our technology solutions with their business goals.
Speaker: So we conducted a number of workshops, we ran training sessions to really bridge that gap between technology and business to ensure that our solutions were not only technically sound, but also really user friendly and practical for them.
Speaker: Perfect, thank you.
Speaker: And can you tell us about Microsoft Dynamics and how it's been deployed to help HSBC achieve its goals?
Speaker: I'd love to just start off by saying HSBC has made significant strides with Microsoft Dynamics and we're so thrilled to be part of this journey with them.
Speaker: By the end of 2024, HSBC will roll out Dynamics across 45 markets and the aim is to streamline and standardise all query management.
Speaker: So what does this mean for HSBC?
Speaker: Firstly, HSBC will enhance its analytics and insights, really kind of improving that data centralization.
Speaker: They can analyze all the information, make decisions more effectively.
Speaker: They're simplifying and refining their processes and streamlining workflows, making operations run smoother and more efficiently.
Speaker: A huge benefit is also the tighter controls over SLAs and quality measures.
Speaker: You know, HSBC now have the ability to track and manage service level agreements.
Speaker: and quality standards with greater precision.
Speaker: So I think actually overall, we've made great progress, but we're just getting started.
Speaker: That's great.
Speaker: So let's move the discussion now towards a generative AI.
Speaker: There's obviously been a lot of buzz about it.
Speaker: So I'd like to ask your thoughts about potential and the possibilities when it comes to client services.
Speaker: Maybe Carol, you can tell us about what areas you're most excited about.
Speaker: You know, we have made incredible progress and this is really just the beginning.
Speaker: You know, the next exciting step for us is bringing Gen AI into the mix and not just to elevate the client experience, but also to make things smoother and more effective for HSBC's employees.
Speaker: And we're very excited about this journey, HSBC's undertaking and Microsoft Dynamics 365 is absolutely core.
Speaker: to helping them deliver these exceptional customer experiences through streamlined processes and personalized services.
Speaker: I, I, you know, with, with Gen AI, I would say that, um, the opportunity and the potential is genuinely exciting.
Speaker: And we feel that it can really transform the way that we operate day to day.
Speaker: Melissa has been talking about analyzing data and large volumes of data to really uncover the insights into client preferences, uncover insights into client behaviors.
Speaker: This really allows businesses to kind of tailor all their services more precisely.
Speaker: And it really enhances that client satisfaction and loyalty.
Speaker: When we think about all the way AI offers the advantage of really allowing that 24-7 support, you know, delivering that instant intelligent assistance to clients, whether it's a query or whether you want to resolve an issue for a client or provide a recommendation, like AI ensures that really kind of timely and effective support for their customers.
Speaker: When we think about perhaps increasing efficiency and
Speaker: you know, all those kind of like manual tasks, you know, just really automating all those routine tasks.
Speaker: AI has the power to really streamline those operations and reduce costs.
Speaker: To be honest, the efficiency enables team members to focus on what really matters, you know, focus on more complex activities and kind of boost that overall productivity, right?
Speaker: But I think the possibilities are endless.
Speaker: And, you know, Gen AI can ultimately revolutionize the client experience.
Speaker: Let me ask you a similar question then, Melissa, about the potential of Gen AI.
Speaker: How do you see things changing?
Speaker: And maybe you could give some examples of what a good use of Gen AI would look like.
Speaker: We're early in our journey for sure.
Speaker: But I mean, again, I just, I agree with everything Carol was saying.
Speaker: And I think for us, it's all predicated with, we want to provide exceptional client experience, right?
Speaker: to our payments clients around the world in a consistent way.
Speaker: And we want to provide more personalized service.
Speaker: But in order to do that, what we need to do is enable our people to operate more efficiently.
Speaker: We need to find ways to bring quality and quality oversight across, again, a very large and complex organization with
Speaker: some people that might be quite new to the organization coming into a very complex operating system, very complex organization from a overall payments perspective, just payments itself as an industry being quite complex.
Speaker: So how do you demystify that?
Speaker: How do you have the right oversight on that?
Speaker: How do you have the right controls around it, even from a compliance perspective?
Speaker: So I think for us, it's a few different buckets.
Speaker: So there's how do you make
Speaker: queries themselves more efficient, right?
Speaker: And how do you bring more consistency and quality and oversight into the responses that you bring back to your clients?
Speaker: How do you ensure that your people, some of them who might be new entrants into the organization,
Speaker: new entrants into the payments world, you know, how do you bring that knowledge base to them in a more consistent, faster, more robust way?
Speaker: So these are all of the areas that we really see AI as, or Gen AI in the servicing space as having huge, huge amounts of potential.
Speaker: And then going further down into the processing chain, thinking about how we link it up with our operations partners to actually make the interaction between service operations more effective as well, which again, is really, really critical in the payments space specifically.
Speaker: And then, so that's all within the actual churn of queries, right?
Speaker: In the industrial strength side of what we do.
Speaker: And then there's this other space that we're also exploring around
Speaker: How do you bring outside of your query management, how do you bring those insights to clients, right?
Speaker: How do you do the analysis of a broad, broad set of data in a really efficient and timely way to provide insights back to clients?
Speaker: You know, things that we can do today, like all of this stuff we can do today, but it's just the level to which you can go to with all of these things, given your capacity, given the number of people that you have, given the amount of time in the day, you know, it's really removing those administrative
Speaker: burdens and allowing people to focus more on that quality value add enhancer side of things.
Speaker: It's really bringing that scalability of the personalized service to a larger client base.
Speaker: And then for that client base, then being able to go further down into how far can we go with what we can provide our clients and how effective we can be again, from a front to back perspective across the payments organization.
Speaker: And Carol, I have a question for you.
Speaker: I understand Microsoft has talked about becoming a super agent for AI.
Speaker: Can you talk us through what this actually means?
Speaker: And can you tell us about any pilots you've already done?
Speaker: Yeah, I love this question because it actually gives me the opportunity to talk about our Microsoft transformation story.
Speaker: So one of our biggest success stories to date is how we've transformed our own servicing operations with Copilot.
Speaker: Now, if you think about this, Microsoft as an organization has tens of thousands of agents across 92 contact centers in 120 countries.
Speaker: So we service over a billion customers, which is huge.
Speaker: And these agents handle over 120 million queries a year.
Speaker: So a few years ago, we were dealing with 500 separate tools.
Speaker: We were dealing with 16 different systems.
Speaker: And now we've consolidated everything into one unified servicing platform using Microsoft Dynamics 365.
Speaker: And this is all powered by AI.
Speaker: So we've applied...
Speaker: AI into all the key areas like routing, agent assistance, knowledge, and the results have been completely game changing for Microsoft.
Speaker: So just as an example, we've seen a 32% increase in self service.
Speaker: We've seen a 20% reduction in incorrect routing, a 31% boost in first call resolution.
Speaker: Customer satisfaction has gone up by 12% and the results are really game changing.
Speaker: So we're very excited that CoPilot isn't just about making things more efficient.
Speaker: It's really transforming that whole experience for both customers and agents.
Speaker: Agents are getting smarter.
Speaker: customers are getting their issues resolved a lot faster, you know, and the overall experience is just so much better.
Speaker: And if you think about it, at the end of the day, this is a great example of how AI doesn't just streamline operations, you know, it really empowers teams to deliver outstanding customer experiences, all while scaling up and driving real business results.
Speaker: So, Melissa, do you have anything to add to that?
Speaker: And maybe you can comment on maybe the challenges with this.
Speaker: What about execution?
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: So, I mean, again, I'll just say it's fantastic to have Microsoft as a partner on this journey.
Speaker: I will say we're.
Speaker: We're nowhere near as fully rolled out as Microsoft is, but we have started working with our Gen.AI tools within our servicing journeys, and we're already seeing really, really interesting and quite exciting results.
Speaker: from, you know, the, as I was talking about earlier, and as Carol was talking about access to knowledge and the quality and what we can drive into our agents and our people that are responding to clients in things like exploring enhanced routing to allow for faster resolution of responses.
Speaker: in things around quality and responses.
Speaker: And it's super interesting, again, especially as a large global international organization, you know, one of our big challenges is cultural nuances, language, English as a second language, things like that.
Speaker: And again, this just, this helps our people in a way that's so much better than, you know, the previous edit functions and things like that, allowing them to respond in a way that's, you know, really appropriate.
Speaker: And on some sides,
Speaker: You'd think, like, does this take away an element of personalization?
Speaker: But we actually don't really see that, right?
Speaker: Like, we still see these tools and these capabilities as actually allowing our people, like, giving them the baseline and allowing them to then bring more of themselves into what they're doing because they're not just churning through things, right?
Speaker: Like, it's the opportunity of people to bring...
Speaker: more of themselves and move off the bureaucracy because, again, that takes time.
Speaker: You know, on the execution side and some of the considerations and things that we've had to deal with, again, as a large regulated bank, it's new technology, right?
Speaker: And new technology means that you have to be incredibly thoughtful and
Speaker: And look at things incredibly closely from all different angles, from a regulatory perspective, a security perspective, because first and foremost for us is just making sure that our clients' payments are secure, that their information is secure.
Speaker: That, you know, we are providing that robust, you know, industrial strength capability to our clients.
Speaker: But all of that given, right, I think as we go into this journey with this new technology, I mean, it's got such a huge amount of potential.
Speaker: to allow us to do things in a better and more efficient way that I'm sure we're going to get there as we continue on and think about more and more use cases.
Speaker: I mean, the other thing that I find so exciting about this is as we put this into the hands of our people, they're coming up with ideas about how to better use it.
Speaker: Like we've got idea hubs going with our people to say, okay, here's the baseline technology.
Speaker: What are other things we could use this for?
Speaker: And it allows them to be more creative, which is, again, going back to the importance of our people, which I think is our most important resource from a global service perspective.
Speaker: It really empowers them to be thoughtful, to get excited about their stuff they're doing, to think about things in a different way.
Speaker: And that's just absolutely phenomenal and makes me so happy about, you know, again, the future potential of this.
Speaker: Of course, people are always going to be wary, again, of new technology and what it might mean for them.
Speaker: But we really see this as a people enhancer and an enhancer of what we can provide to our clients.
Speaker: Our view is having people in the loop.
Speaker: This is not replacing people in our responses.
Speaker: This is bringing enhanced technology so that our people can be more efficient.
Speaker: That's really interesting because often the relationship between AI and humans, it's a hot topic.
Speaker: Carol, do you have anything you would like to add to that?
Speaker: And maybe we can wrap up as well with a final sort of thought or closing comment on this whole topic.
Speaker: So I know I've already mentioned this, but it's really not about replacing human interaction.
Speaker: It's about enhancing it.
Speaker: Our strategy at Microsoft is focused on using Gen.AI to supercharge what our people are already so good at.
Speaker: So just to give you an example, Microsoft sellers are saving 90 minutes a week with Copilot for sales, and 67% of them say it's allowing them to spend more time with their customers.
Speaker: Now, there's a clear sign that AI is helping
Speaker: increase, not decrease, those human connections.
Speaker: We're also very intentional about keeping a human in the loop.
Speaker: And that human oversight really ensures that AI-driven actions maintain high quality and stay aligned with our true values.
Speaker: And it's not just about efficiency.
Speaker: It's about giving clients more choice.
Speaker: You know, some customers may prefer self-service options,
Speaker: while others value kind of a more personalized, direct interaction.
Speaker: So Gen AI really creates space for both.
Speaker: On top of that, by handling routine tasks, Gen AI frees our people to focus on more complex challenges and spend more time on their own growth and development.
Speaker: I've witnessed that firsthand personally.
Speaker: So, you know, in the end, it's about balance.
Speaker: Leveraging technology to be faster and more effective,
Speaker: while also empowering our teams to focus on what really matters, the creativity, problem solving, and that human connection.
Speaker: That's great.
Speaker: That's a good way to finish.
Speaker: Okay, we'll have to wrap up.
Speaker: Before we go, Melissa, a final thought or closing comment from you.
Speaker: I feel like I keep on saying the same thing, but I agree with everything Carol said.
Speaker: From an HSBC perspective, our future of service is we want that personalization.
Speaker: We want the relationships with our clients, right?
Speaker: And AI as a tool is not going to replace calling up a client, having a Zoom, having coffee, having a meal, you know, and going through the pain points that they have as humans.
Speaker: And we see that is so incredibly, incredibly important.
Speaker: And again, we see this as a tool that will allow that.
Speaker: I think the other exciting thing for our people, and I mentioned this earlier, is just
Speaker: The ability for people to really, you know, flex their muscles from a, you know, a thinking perspective.
Speaker: What is the art of the possible within this?
Speaker: What could I use this stuff for?
Speaker: And of course, bringing all of that through the appropriate governance, the appropriate oversight, all of that.
Speaker: But I think that's the really exciting thing as people start to get to understand what this technology is and what it's capable of.
Speaker: with the right guardrails and approach to it, that it allows you to think about things in a different way and, you know, has the potential to really give you that time
Speaker: to spend more time on learning, to spend more time with your clients, to spend more time thinking about what's the next big thing and how can I help?
Speaker: How can I really be an extension of my client's team?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Like, like we discussed earlier.
Speaker: So that's, that's what truly excites me.
Speaker: The other thing I'll say is from an HSBC perspective, we're investing a lot in learning and learning and development for our people in training and
Speaker: and courses and how to make people AI ambassadors and allowing in the future, allowing this to give them more time to do trainings on the future of payments.
Speaker: been thinking beyond service, right?
Speaker: The future of payments product and how can we fill, you know, feed into that and a more, you know, give ourselves more mental space to do these things.
Speaker: So that's what I find really exciting.
Speaker: And that's what I'm hoping, you know, as we go down this journey, it's going to enable myself and my team to do more of.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: And also, I feel like HSBC have done something pretty remarkable with their approach to AI.
Speaker: As you just mentioned, you know, like a well-educated workforce, you know, it definitely leads to better outcomes by focusing on AI literacy.
Speaker: And HSBC have done a fantastic job at building this culture where their employees can really fully leverage these tools in a very ethical manner.
Speaker: That will ultimately lead to higher levels of trust.
Speaker: And as you mentioned, like better customer service, smarter decision making across the board.
Speaker: So I love that.
Speaker: Thank you for sharing.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Thank you both so much.
Speaker: So we'll have to leave it there.
Speaker: So thank you to both our speakers.
Speaker: Thank you, Carol.
Speaker: And thank you, Melissa.
Speaker: And also thank you to our listeners.
Speaker: Thank you for joining us at HSBC Global Viewpoint.
Speaker: We hope you enjoyed the discussion.
Speaker: Make sure you're subscribed to stay up to date with new episodes.
