Covering Customer Channels

Like many other companies, Huntington National Bank has realized the value of instant messaging (IM) as a customer-facing channel.

"We have a team of six full-time equivalents who support the Web when it comes to chatting," says Pam Archer, VP of Huntington National Bank. "We've taken a very personalized approach."

That's Huntington's strategy is general, so it's no surprise to see it extended to and replicated on IM. When service representatives chat with customers and prospects, their pictures appear in the IM box. "People connect better when they know they're not talking to an anonymous rep," Archer explains.

If you're still in the camp of those who think that the call center is paramount, remember that the contributions of IM and e-mail channels can be measured. "We track sales that come about as a direct result of chats," Archer says. "We know how it stacks up against the business case." This means that IM isn't a knee-jerk tactic but part of an assessable strategy.

Keep in mind that there are plenty of cases in which a prospect can spend time chatting, then call the (separate) Huntington call center or walk into an actual office to open an account. In this case, IM might have sealed the deal, but doesn't get credit for it. Even excepting these cases, Huntington has met and exceeded its IM business case in the past year.

Huntington's technology partner is Proficient Systems, whose rules-based product has found a way to segment prospects by their likelihood to buy. "We use their scoring methodology to figure out which visitor in the queue is more likely to purchase," says Archer. The system then puts these prospects at the front of the queue, which allows Huntington to target its resources at the points of greatest profitability.

What are people saying about mortgages today:

Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last week to a seven-month low. Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent two weeks ago. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Territorial Savings Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgages all cut their 30-year mortgage rates to 5.75 percent this week.

Most people think of a mortgage as a means to an end. After all, you buy a house, not a home loan. But a mortgage is much more than the path to homeownership. It is a financial instrument that must be managed, just like any other financial investment.