Transaction Delays and Quality Affecting Customer Service and Cost

Transcription

1 Transaction Delays and Quality Affecting Customer Service and Cost

2 Customer Service Can Be Frustrating Dealing with upset and angry customers is stressful, until it is not

3 The Quality of Lane Transactions has a Direct Impact on Account Processing Efficiency Transaction Quality includes factors such as: Transaction Errors (mis-class, failure to capture tag, plate image, etc. Delays in posting transactions due to communication errors or processing delays Duplicate or missing transactions

4 Approach and Analysis The data being presented is from the BancPass System. The analysis is very granular and is not intended to be 100% accurate I focus on transaction delays as the primary transactionquality affecting issue because it is common and quantifiable. That said, transaction delays have a lower Customer Service impact than other transaction quality issues

5 So then this happened In the midst of rolling out a product our Customer Service contacts jumped. Contacts Contacts Per 1000 Users Week

6 Our Customer Service Contacts Jumped A LOT! In only a couple of weeks, our CS contacts jumped about 5x. These numbers were normalized to contacts per thousand users, so this was not because our customer base was growing But it was clear to us very early what was happening

7 Our Average Transaction Delay Had Jumped Our average transaction delay had jumped from 1 week to about a month In one week in Oct, our average delay was over 2 months. Days Transaction Delay /1/14 5/21/14 7/10/14 8/29/14 10/18/14 Week and our users were obviously concerned and upset.

8 Analyzing Transaction Problems For BancPass, transaction quality issues are largely academic and frustrating as there is little we can do. It is possible to monitor for crazy errors, but those errors are not the norm. Mis-classes and duplicate transactions can generally be flagged as suspicious, but are not easily corrected at the backend. Delays that result in large dumps of transactions can be mitigated somewhat. More on this later

9 Big Picture Here we are comparing calls per week with average transaction delay each week. Some correlation is visible, but it is not strong Correlation of Trans Delay and Calls From this view, we don t have enough granularity to quantify impact /11/17 9/11/17 10/11/17 11/11/17 12/11/17 1/11/18 2/11/18 3/11/18 4/11/18 Avg Trans Delay Call / user in 100s

10 Drilling in on Calls This graph looks at all callers, and shows if callers will call more frequently if there are larger delays The answer seems to be No, transaction delays don t affect how frequently callers will call, in fact the number of calls seems to go down Average Number of Calls Avg Calls

11 Drilling in on Calls If we look at the duration of calls though, duration rises as the transaction increases. This is consistent with our antidotal observation that calls regarding transaction delays tend to last longer Duration of Calls Avg Duration

12 From the Call Logs About 14% of our calls are logged as Transaction Delay issues. Calls about transaction delays are 53% more likely to be escalated.

13 Quantifying the time/cost of Transaction Delay Inquiries We know that 14% of our calls are related to Transaction Delays, so if we cut the number of transactions with delays in half, does it cut those calls in half? In short, no it is not that simple, as not all delays are created equal. Some delays are longer or shorter, and they come in different types.

14 Types of Delays For us, transaction delays generally come in three forms: 1. Lane telecommunication delays. These are generally localized to a few lanes. 2. Image review delays. These tend to be consistent, for example image review for a system may consistently average 2 weeks. 3. System processing/outage delays. The third form is the worst, as it affects all transactions for a user.

15 Quantifying the time/cost of Transaction Delay Inquiries, cont d During a system outage in June of 2017, our call volume went up by 49% for the duration of the outage. System outages are expensive! But for run-of-the-mill delays, lets look at some more charts

16 Drilling in on Users, cont d. Unlike the previous charts, this chart looks at all users. This shows clearly that users with delays are more likely to call In fact, users with an average delay of 20 days are 58% more likely to than users with and average delay <= 1 day. 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% % User with Delays will Call Percentage

17 Quantifying the time/cost of Transaction Delay Inquiries, cont So all other things being equal (which they are not): Delays of 20 days are 58% worse than delays of one day. A transaction with a delay of 20 days has about an 18% chance of generating a call Assuming this data is linear (which it is also not): A transaction with a delay of 10 days has about an 8% chance of generating a call

18 Mitigating Transaction Problems Although BancPass can t control transaction delays, we have a couple of tools that have helped us mitigate transaction delays: Detect the delay early, and communicate with the user that a delay is occurring. BancPass communicates with our users via SMS (text) and through our phone app. When we get a large dump of transactions for a user, we slow-roll the posting to allow the user time to pay. Users are notified that the tolls are pending

19 It Gets Worse Though We have been using Transaction Delays as a proxy for all Transaction Quality Issues and that is generally true However Transaction Delays have another terrible side effect all their own that is not a problem with other Transaction Issues

20 First a Bit about BancPass Business BancPass allows users to reload with cash. For most users, we don t automatically reload their accounts For these reasons, and others, many of our users are living on strict, cash-only, budgets. Changes to their spending patterns of only a few $ can make a difference whether they have lunch $ for the kids. This is especially confusing for users of AET in areas where some systems are delayed and others are not.

21 Transaction delays and payment. Transaction delays have significant impact on whether a transaction posts successfully A transaction that is a week old is 20% less likely to post in the first attempt than one that is a day old A transaction that is 2 weeks old is 40% less likely to post in the first attempt.

22 Consequences? These users are forced to make very difficult decisions when hit with a large number of transactions. Some are forced to not use the toll road. Others may get violations, fines and fees. When system issues affect 100 s of thousands of people, there is generally an attempt to mitigate the impact. Why do we not do the same when only one user is affected?

23 Thank you! Glenn Deitiker