Summary

Cash Services: Cementing a CIT leader’s position through customer experience.

Challenge:

A leading Cash Solutions business wanted to elevate their customer engagement and experience delivery whilst on their digitisation journey. Overt was tasked with assisting them in clearly defining and building out the experience strategy and solution.

Process:

We engaged internal and external stakeholders, building out a full-and-complete picture of the proposed customer journey including a comprehensive design system and full page and prototypes build-outs for walkthroughs, testing, and developer handover.

Outcome:

The platform was taken live, with full adoption across the four major banks. We were able to achieve a 17% reduction in cases, a 99% in-SLA performance, and an average customer satisfaction rating equal or greater than four-out-of-five stars.

A large-scale, market leader in the Cash Solutions sector had begun the journey of digitising their processes to optimise delivery and maintain a competitive edge. In order to enable better customer service, they sought to develop a customer-facing platform that would address some of the existing pain points and enable a more seamless customer-engagement experience. 
Having built a ‘rudimentary’ first pass, there was a realisation that the execution did not align with the level of professionalism expected by the core customer segment, especially from a market leader. The business services the majority of the large financial services providers in South Africa, as well as large commercial retail groups. 

A large-scale, market leader in the Cash Solutions sector had begun the journey of digitising their processes to optimise delivery and maintain a competitive edge. In order to enable better customer service, they sought to develop a customer-facing platform that would address some of the existing pain points and enable a more seamless customer-engagement experience. 
Having built a ‘rudimentary’ first pass, there was a realisation that the execution did not align with the level of professionalism expected by the core customer segment, especially from a market leader. The business services the majority of the large financial services providers in South Africa, as well as large commercial retail groups. 

Process

Overt was approached via our collaborating partner, Tiltshift, to craft an experience that would meet customer expectations and help drive solution usage and customer satisfaction. 
Overt undertook a comprehensive process of understanding the full scope of requirements for the customer engagement platform. To do this, we engaged with internal and external stakeholders, working meticulously to understand and map the day-to-day operations, tasks, and output requirements (from both an internal and customer perspective). We then built out a view of the most common points of contact - particularly the parties involved, the reason(s) for contact, the channels currently used, and the points of escalation. 
From here, we developed a service blueprint which outlined the key roleplayers, processes, and the full end-to-end customer journey. Along this path, we identified key points to reduce manual processes, improve efficiency, and enhance delivery. We sought to prioritise aspects of the journey that could (and would) make the biggest difference from a customer experience perspective. 
Working with designers from our collaborating partner, we built out a full design system for the Cash Solutions client, creating the basic overarching structure for the platform. This design system was to be adopted and utilised by the development team that had already been deployed on the project preceding our involvement. To further support the development of the platform, we mapped processes from the blueprint through in UX wireframes and pageflows to guide the development. This extended to full page and prototype build-outs to help with walkthroughs, testing, and ultimately developer handover.

Process

Overt was approached via our collaborating partner, Tiltshift, to craft an experience that would meet customer expectations and help drive solution usage and customer satisfaction. 
Overt undertook a comprehensive process of understanding the full scope of requirements for the customer engagement platform. To do this, we engaged with internal and external stakeholders, working meticulously to understand and map the day-to-day operations, tasks, and output requirements (from both an internal and customer perspective). We then built out a view of the most common points of contact - particularly the parties involved, the reason(s) for contact, the channels currently used, and the points of escalation. 
From here, we developed a service blueprint which outlined the key roleplayers, processes, and the full end-to-end customer journey. Along this path, we identified key points to reduce manual processes, improve efficiency, and enhance delivery. We sought to prioritise aspects of the journey that could (and would) make the biggest difference from a customer experience perspective. 
Working with designers from our collaborating partner, we built out a full design system for the Cash Solutions client, creating the basic overarching structure for the platform. This design system was to be adopted and utilised by the development team that had already been deployed on the project preceding our involvement. To further support the development of the platform, we mapped processes from the blueprint through in UX wireframes and pageflows to guide the development. This extended to full page and prototype build-outs to help with walkthroughs, testing, and ultimately developer handover.

Process

Overt was approached via our collaborating partner, Tiltshift, to craft an experience that would meet customer expectations and help drive solution usage and customer satisfaction. 
Overt undertook a comprehensive process of understanding the full scope of requirements for the customer engagement platform. To do this, we engaged with internal and external stakeholders, working meticulously to understand and map the day-to-day operations, tasks, and output requirements (from both an internal and customer perspective). We then built out a view of the most common points of contact - particularly the parties involved, the reason(s) for contact, the channels currently used, and the points of escalation. 
From here, we developed a service blueprint which outlined the key roleplayers, processes, and the full end-to-end customer journey. Along this path, we identified key points to reduce manual processes, improve efficiency, and enhance delivery. We sought to prioritise aspects of the journey that could (and would) make the biggest difference from a customer experience perspective. 
Working with designers from our collaborating partner, we built out a full design system for the Cash Solutions client, creating the basic overarching structure for the platform. This design system was to be adopted and utilised by the development team that had already been deployed on the project preceding our involvement. To further support the development of the platform, we mapped processes from the blueprint through in UX wireframes and pageflows to guide the development. This extended to full page and prototype build-outs to help with walkthroughs, testing, and ultimately developer handover.

Outcome

Once the platform was developed, the Cash Solutions business was able to complete a full rollout with the major banks. This included multiple components such as Case Management, Incident Management, Penalties Query Management, and a client-specific Evidence Management (with the capability for immediate deployment for other clients). With full adoption across four major banks, the results speak for themselves: In the first year of deployment, 99.89% of cases (35 058) were handled within customer service level agreement, with baseline reduction in cases of 17%. This paired with a 99% customer satisfaction rating equal to or greater than 4-out-5 stars (65% rated 5/5 and 34% rated 4/5), has set the platform up for success. Off the back of the work completed, the team was asked to help build out a new service offering designed to re-engage with direct retail customers. Following the same process, the team developed the service blueprint, page flows, and interface for the new retail cash handling offering. This is planned to launch to market in the second half of 2025.

Thinking Ahead

As the Cash Solutions business continues on the journey to digitise their processes, it will be interesting to see how they integrate new technology and recommendations into their processes. We’re excited to see how the retail cash handling solution will shift the market, as more power is put directly into the retailers hands, and more business intelligence can be unlocked. Whilst we believe cash has a role to play in society, especially in spending and debt management amongst less financially experienced groups, financial institutions continue to push for a cashless environment. It will be up to the Cash Solutions business to decide: do they continue to counter this narrative through ongoing service delivery, innovation, and market-leading research? Or, do they start to branch out to additional risk-mitigation and security services?