About Wells Fargo Community Banking

Wells Fargo's Community Banking segment encompasses its regional branch banking operations.

 

Situation

I have yet to meet the end users who will be interacting with the product that our scrum team is currently developing.

Task

Take two half days from a big room planning session in Chandler Arizona and meet with the Home Mortgage Consultants.

Action/design process

I dedicated two half-days to observing consultants on-site and taking notes as they interacted with customers.

Result

The main issue raised was the use of multiple, disjointed applications across two monitors, coupled with the absence of an auto-dialer, to conduct a single call.

Client

Wells Fargo, San Francisco CA

My role

UX Designer

Team agile

Product owner, developer, content strategist, engineering and UX designer

Tools

Note pad

Timeline
Two half days

Date

2017

Discover

Background • Research • Features for MVP

Background

I serve as the UX designer for the HMC (Home Mortgage Consultants) scrum team. We are one of nine scrum teams tasked with transitioning legacy applications to the Salesforce CRM platform.

Our Scrum team met in Chandler, Arizona (April 2019) for three days of big room planning. Chandler is also the call center hub for Home Mortgage Consultants – HMC.

I took two half days to visit the call center and conduct some field studies.

My goal is to understand our customer

By closely observing the tasks of Home Mortgage Consultants (HMC) as they correspond with a customer, I intend to gather insights regarding their goals, challenges, and activities. This will guide me in designing a superior home lending experience in Salesforce.

Fast and observational

I met with six home mortgage consultants spending an average of 45 minutes with each. I was patched into their customer calls (on mute) with a view to understanding the process they use to service their clients. I was careful not to disturb the consultants and only asked questions during call breaks.

Call center, Chandler, AZ

Background and key information

What is a Home Mortgage Consultant (HMC) and what do they do?

What is an Inbound Call Specialist and what do they do?

Their primary function is to authenticate the caller and transfer them to a HMC.

What Is a field study?

Field studies are research activities that take place in the user’s context rather than in your office or lab and should emphasize the observation of real user behavior. – Nielsen Norman Group

Observations

Notes • Conclusions

Hardware and Software used by the Home Mortgage Consultants

Hardware

PC computers with dual monitors

Software — HMC

  • Horizon: Customer record lookup
  • Core: Customer call notation
  • Lead manager: Customer leads and call dispositions
  • Phone dialer

Software — Inbound Call Specialist

  • Uses primarily Horizon and IC Docker applications
    IC Docker is for logging customer talking points and call scripts

 

HMC 1

How do you start your day?

  • Dashboard, My Tasks – easiest first
  • Next, I check my pipeline (sales pipeline is the progress of the loan from inception to underwriting)
  • They currently have 74 loans in the pipeline
  • End of day, “I review my tasks for tomorrow”

What issues do you run into?

  • Phone dialer is manual
  • Too many apps open, I need 2 screens to do my job
  • Customer information and contact details are not in the same app

HMC 2

How do you start your day?

  • I check my pipeline – pre-approvals are the most important
  • Inbound, outbound calls, check my pipeline, lunch and manager reporting

 

Call specialist

How do you start your day?

  • I check my calendar
  • Inbound and outbound calls

What issues do you run into?

  • Phone dialer is manual

Call #2 – outbound

  • Picks next outbound call from Lead Manager and reviews the customer information
  • Dials the number but it’s invalid
  • Sets the call disposition to “Wrong number”
  • Adds a note to the customer record, “No longer Jennifer’s number”
  • HMC says that this lead is now contactable via email only
  • HMC sends the customer an email to prompt a response for a new number

Call #3 – outbound

  • Picks next outbound call from Lead Manager and reviews the customer information
  • Gets a busy signal
  • HMC says this phone number has been busy for 12 days
  • Dispositions the call to “Busy”, removes the number from the customer record
  • HMC sends the customer an email to prompt a response for a new number

Call #4 – inbound

  • Sets system status to inbound calls
  • Waits about 15 seconds… first call comes in
  • Customer inquires about a mortgage payoff verification letter
  • HMC puts customer on hold and looks up the contact details for the Payoff Services team – Horizon (app)/online payoff team
  • HMC calls and authenticates the Payoff Services representative and puts them on hold
  • Connects back to the customer, reads them a script, inputs a SOTA code in their system and transfers the call to the Payoff Services representative
  • Dispositions the call

Field studies

HMC 1


Call #1 – outbound

  • Sets status to outbound calls
  • Opens Lead Manager(App)and reviews call queue
  • Pulls up a lead and reviews the customer information
  • The customer has incomplete online mortgage application
  • Dials the number, no answer, leaves a VM
  • Sets the call disposition to “Left message”
  • Adds a note to the customer record, “Day 15 and haven’t heard back from the customer”
  • HMC says that after 30 days the lead becomes unworkable

Call #2 – outbound

  • Picks next outbound call from Lead Manager and reviews the customer information
  • Dials the number but it’s invalid
  • Sets the call disposition to “Wrong number”
  • Adds a note to the customer record, “No longer Jennifer’s number”
  • HMC says that this lead is now contactable via email only
  • HMC sends the customer an email to prompt a response for a new number

Call #3 – outbound

  • Picks next outbound call from Lead Manager and reviews the customer information
  • Gets a busy signal
  • HMC says this phone number has been busy for 12 days
  • Dispositions the call to “Busy”, removes the number from the customer record
  • HMC sends the customer an email to prompt a response for a new number

Call #4 – inbound

  • Sets system status to inbound calls
  • Waits about 15 seconds… first call comes in
  • Customer inquires about a mortgage payoff verification letter
  • HMC puts customer on hold and looks up the contact details for the Payoff Services team – Horizon (app)/online payoff team
  • HMC calls and authenticates the Payoff Services representative and puts them on hold
  • Connects back to the customer, reads them a script, inputs a SOTA code in their system and transfers the call to the Payoff Services representative
  • Dispositions the call

HMC 2


Call #1 – inbound

  • Customer is inquiring about a mailer advertising a rate reduction
  • Customer wants to refinance but doesn’t want to go through the loan process again
  • HMC verifies the caller and asks if it’s a VA loan?
  • HMC does some calculations of monthly payments and explains to the customer they must reapply
  • Customer thanks the HMC for their time and wants to think about it

Call #2 – inbound

  • Customer is inquiring about a new mortgage for her daughter and it’s important the monthly payment is less than $1k
  • HMC verifies the caller and asks if her daughter is with her on the call?
  • Property is located in the state of Georgia
  • HMC asks about loan amount, property address, down payment and daughters income
  • Over the space of about 20 minutes the customer and the HMC walk through various scenarios of down payment via interest rate so the monthly payment is under $1k
  • The customer decides apply on her daughters behalf

Inbound Call Specialist


Before the call…

  • Sets system status to Ready
  • Leads populate (in the millions)
  • Does a City search, which narrows the geographical reach
  • Customer lookup…

Call #1

  • Customer is checking that last three payments have been applied to their principal, because the local branch teller couldn't assist them
  • Call Specialist verifies the customer: What is your loan number, first and last name, social security number and property address?
  • Says, “Thank you for being a Wells Fargo customer, may I put you on a brief hold”?
  • Enters the loan number and sees the customer is in Bankruptcy and is behind on payments
  • Gets an HMC on the phone, “I’m with the National Call Center…” and puts them on hold
  • Connects back to the customer but they are disconnected
  • Call Specialist notates the customer record

Call #2

  • Customer asks if the Call Specialist can speak Spanish?
  • “I can get you to the right person, may I put you on a brief hold”?
  • Looks for an HMC that speaks Spanish and transfers the customer

Call #3

  • Customer asks about a HELOC on behalf of his buddy
  • Call Specialist attempts to verify the customer information but customer couldn't add his buddy to the call and hung up

Call #4

  • Customer asks if a local Wells Fargo branch can help him with a mortgage refinance
  • Customer doesn’t want to refinance over the phone and inquires about a lower interest rate
  • Call Specialist looks up the caller’s Zip and the address of the closest Wells Fargo home mortgage branch for the caller

Call #5

  • Customer wants to refinance a HELOC
  • Call Specialist verifies the customer, looks up the customer record but determines they are not a Wells Fargo customer
  • Call Specialist creates a new customer record and asks about the loan amount
  • They put the customer on hold, gets an HMC on the line and transfers the call

Conclusion