SUCCESS STORY

Extraco Banks
Extraco Banks and Consulting
Take SWARM Banking Digital

2014

CUSTOMER SUCCESS Extraco Banks and Consulting

Extraco Banks likes to think outside the box and to deliver a differentiated experience
to its customers. With the creation of its SWARM Banking methodology, Extraco Banks sought
Extraco Banks

to integrate its SWARM Banking experience into its digital channels. It found the right fit with digital
engagement powered by LivePerson. Initially deployed in 2011 as live chat, the LivePerson LiveEngage

Headquarters: Waco, Texas

solution has evolved into digital engagement and is delivering results such as a 30 percent annual growth

Founded: 1902

rate in live chat interactions equating to 1,000-plus per month, a 20 percent call deflection rate, and a 90

FDIC: Member

percent-plus customer satisfaction score. The addition of mobile live chat in early 2013 is getting rapid
adoption; more than 19 percent of live chat is coming from mobile devices.

Assets: $1B+
Locations: 19
Employees: 400+
extracobanks.com

Extraco Consulting

In 2005, Extraco Banks began to think outside of the box on how to interact and transact business with
its customers. The bank studied other companies, including those outside of the financial services
segment, with a goal of finding best practices that would differentiate it from competitors. We looked

Formed: 2011

at companies across various industry segments and determined that our business is much broader

Subsidiary Corporation of

than simply being order takers in a bank lobby, recalls James Geeslin, the vice chairman and chief

Extraco Banks
Focus: People, Products,
Processes, and Technology
Methodology:
SWARM Banking
extracoconsulting.com

consumer banking officer at Extraco Banks and president and CEO at Extraco Consulting.
The unique nature of its business was a key factor that drove Extraco Banks search for a new customer
engagement model. About 40 percent of our income is non-interest income from non-traditional
banking products such as a mortgage division, insurance, financial services, and trust services, Geeslin
notes. Extraco Banks is unique in other ways as well. Were probably the first bank in the nation to
have a small business technology company that manages its networks, Geeslin proudly states.

The Results
Adoption-Growth

20% of customer

interactions handled via

live chat

30% annual growth in live

chat interactions

1,000+ monthly live

chat interactions

19% of live chat now from

mobile channels

Customer Satisfaction

90%+ customer

satisfaction rating for live chat

2o% referral rate for

live chat

2014 LivePerson, Inc.

CUSTOMER SUCCESS Extraco Banks and Consulting

The Challenges
Mirror customer experience
in bank lobbies online
Ease of implementation
and ongoing management

We are a conservative bank, and the security

standards built into the LiveEngage platform are very
important to us.

Lindsay Green, Managing Director and SVP, Extraco Consulting

Protect customer
interactions and data
Integrate with Jack Henry
Banking Online and Mobile
solutions platform

The Solution
Engagement Model
Proactive live chat on
desktops and mobile
engagement channels
Under the Hood
LiveEngage platform for live
chat integrated with Jack
Henry Banking Online and
Mobile banking solution
Customer Success
Implementation, training,
and ongoing support,
including scorecard analysis
and consulting

SWARM: move to where the customer is

One of the outcomes of Extraco Banks assessment

have a previous banking background. We actually

was the development of a patent-pending retail

dont look for banking experience but rather a

banking methodology called SWARM Banking.

personality and propensity to engage and connect

The idea is for employees to swarm to where

with our customers.

the traffic is, notes Lindsay Green, the managing

director and senior vice president for Extraco
Consulting. In addition, we want each employee to
have the ability to take each customer through the
entire banking experience without handing him
or her off to a colleague. The only exception would
be for products that require a license, and then the
customer is introduced to an employee who has
the required credentials.

Customers experience SWARM banking when

they are welcomed by a relationship banker.
Headsets facilitate the management of traffic flow
and movement of the relationship banker with the
customer throughout their entire store experience.
Green explains that this is from whence the
concept of SWARM banking came. Relationship
bankers are able to swarm to the customer traffic,
Green explains. Technology solutions, such

With this in purview, hiring is a critical undertaking

as recyclers and teller capture, enable higher

for Extraco Banks. We hire people with the right

customer satisfaction rates while cutting the

personality for our SWARM banking culture, Green

transaction time in half. This turns into a win-win

explains. Many of the employees we hire do not

scenario for both the bank and its customer.

Innovation think tank: Ok, I do want to chat

To help facilitate ongoing innovation, Extraco Banks

The Customer Care Center was identified as the most

maintains a think-tank group designated as the

appropriate area to try out the live chat solution.

Innovation Committee. In 2008, some members of

These are really an extension of our lobbies, Geeslin

the committee recommended that the bank take a

relates. You can do just about everything there as

look at implementing live chat. I remember sitting

you can in our bank lobby. His team started with

in that room and thinking, as a traditional banker,

two concurrent live chat agents using the LivePerson

Why would anyone be interested in live chat?,

platform. The ability to click to call and click to chat

Geeslin recalls. I initially did not understand why we

gave our customers the means to interact with us

would spend money on it. But as we looked into the

based on their requirements, he recalls. The initial

technology, including a demo, I began to understand

results were promising, and Extraco Banks knew it

the value of digital engagement. It gave us the ability

was onto something.

to humanize the web experience for our customers

by providing an in-person impression.

2014 LivePerson, Inc.

CUSTOMER SUCCESS Extraco Banks and Consulting

The ability to click to call and click to chat gave our customers the means
to interact with us based on their requirements.

James Geeslin, Vice Chairman and CCBO, Extraco Banks, and Chairman and CEO, Extraco Consulting

Selecting and implementing a digital engagement platform

LivePerson rose to the forefront of live chat providers when Extraco

Based on the results of the initial live chat deployment, Extraco

Banks looked at different solution options. Customer experience

Banks decided to extend the solution, adding three more concurrent

was the overriding priority for the bank. Each digital interaction

agents in 2012 and another in early 2013 for a total of six. Directly

with a customer should enhance the value of the relationship,

out of the gate, Geeslins team elected to offer both static and

Geeslin says. Secondary requirements for the solution included ease

proactive live chat. We wanted it to mirror the experience in our

of implementation and ongoing management as well as security.

lobbies, Geeslin points out. Just as we proactively greet customers

Training time for our staff was also important in our evaluation of

when they come into our lobbies, we want to proactively engage

different solution options, Geeslin adds.

with customers when they are on our website.

Deploying the LivePerson LiveEngage platform was just one piece to

Integration of live chat into its existing Jack Henry Banking Online

the larger project for Extraco Banks. Simply buying the technology

and Mobile banking solution was also an important consideration for

isnt enough, Geeslin says. You need the people, products, and

Extraco Banks. We have a significant investment in our Jack Henry

processes to go with the technology.

Banking platform and integration points with it was most certainly a

As a result, Extraco Banks rolled out a training program that included

identification of employees who would excel at live chat. Not every
employee has the right personality to be a live chat representative,
he explains. By putting the right people in those roles, we are able to

core requirement, Green states. The integration between LivePerson

and the Jack Henry Banking platform enables Extraco Banks agents
to have more information at their fingertips while delivering a more
seamless experience for their customers.

help our customers answer their questions, solve their problems, and
cross-sell and upsell additional services.

Engaging from mobile to social

As more and more of its customers began to use mobile devices,

Security was a critical requirement for Extraco Banks when it came to the

the bank also began to integrate mobile live chat using LivePersons

rollout of mobile live chat. We are a conservative bank, and the security

LiveEngage platform in early 2013. The latter is proving quite successful:

standards built into the LiveEngage platform are very important to us,

19 percent of all live chat interactions now occur via mobile live chat.

Green says. These security requirements factor into Extraco Banks social

For its mobile live chat deployment, Extraco Banks added a mobile
component to the digital-engagement training track for its employees.
How customers chat via mobile is different than how they chat from

media engagement model as well. We plan to pull the interactions

we have with our customers in the social channel into live chat, Green
explains. It will provide us a secure engagement channel.

their desktops, Green says. We have our associates refresh their training
periodically, and thus they all were able to gain insights into
the different nuances of chatting with customers who were using their
mobile devices.

2014 LivePerson, Inc.

CUSTOMER SUCCESS Extraco Banks and Consulting

Live chat gives our customers the ability to interact with us
more frequently.

Lindsay Green, Managing Director and SVP, Extraco Consulting

Onboarding connects to digital engagement

The onboarding and training of employees at Extraco Banks is much more intensive than at most other banks. We run them through a 12-week
training program focused on back-office systems and front-office functions, Geeslin explains. The program contains a dedicated digital engagement
track for which the LivePerson Customer Success organization worked with the Extraco Banks team to develop.
The overall focus of training programs for Extraco Banks is to coach associates on strategies to facilitate quality conversations. We want our
associates to be trusted advisors, Geeslin asserts. The training we provide to our employees corresponds with how educated our customers are
regarding the different technology solutions we offerand this includes live chat.
Seeking to ensure that its associates are comfortable engaging with customers via multiple channels, including digital, Extraco Banks provides
training for employees outside of its three Customer Care Centers. We train relationship bankers who are based in our Customer Care Center so that
they can float between the two engagement channels, depending on fluctuations in business and special campaigns, Green explains. This provides
us with great bench strength and gives our employees a development opportunity at the same time.

Accruing digital engagement results

While Extraco Banks is still in the process of rolling out a customer satisfaction measurement program based on the Net Promoter Score (NPS), its
preliminary survey data on customer satisfaction is very positive. Based on live chat exit surveys, were getting in excess of 90 percent positive
customer feedback for our live chat solution on LivePerson, Geeslin reports. When everything is added up at the end, the foremost KPI for
Extraco Banks is qualified referrals. Ultimately, if you take care of your customers, you win, Geeslin says.
I like to talk about having quality conversations with our customers, Geeslin says. If customers get the information they need, then
corresponding results around conversation rates and customer satisfaction scores will follow.
Interestingly, while the number of lobby visitors has decreased substantially over the past couple years for the bank, the number of interactions
it has with customers has gone up even faster. Live chat gives our customers the ability to interact with us more frequently, Green says. They
can choose whichever avenue is most appropriate at that time.
Adoption rates for digital engagement continue to increase. Since early 2012, weve seen the number of live chat conversations grow 30 percent
annually, Geeslin notes. We now receive more than 1,000 digital interactions each month.

Consulting is born
Extraco Banks didnt plan for the launch of its consulting business; it simply happened. Geeslin recounts: Different banks were visiting our
headquarters to gain insight into our banking operations. We found that more and more were coming to visit, and we were spending increasing
amounts of time hosting them. We determined that we should create a new revenue stream and formed Extraco Consulting in January of 2011.
Geeslin argues that Extraco Consulting has a unique advantage. Because were also bankers, we very likely have seen and tackled nearly every
challenge facing our customers, he says.

2014 LivePerson, Inc.

CUSTOMER SUCCESS Extraco Banks and Consulting

Supervisors and managers need to be able to do more than tell; they
must be able to coach as well.

James Geeslin, Vice Chairman and CCBO, Extraco Banks, and Chairman and CEO, Extraco Consulting

Extraco Consulting bakes digital engagement directly into its service offerings. We provide services around 42 different areas that are based on
different use cases and banking pain points, and digital engagement is part of the broader set of services we provide, Green relates. It may begin
with an assessment but then evolves into an actual implementation and training.
Helping the client understand the value of digital engagement and get LiveEngage configured to deliver optimal results is a critical starting point, Green
says. Then, to encourage adoption, we offer a train the trainer approach where we work with the client to certify their employees to do training.
The response of Extraco Consulting clients has been very positive. Our clients typically see high digital adoption rates after deployment, Green
reports. And as growing numbers of customers use digital engagement, this drives website traffic.
As part of the consulting engagement, Extraco Consulting works with its clients to construct a scorecard that is used to hone their metrics around
live chat deployment and all other touch points the client provides for interactions with their customers. This enables them to showcase how the
increase in interactions translates into more tangible results such as improved conversion rates, enhanced customer satisfaction, and even higher
referral rates, Green explains.
Recognizing the value it was seeing around mobile live chat into those engagements, Extraco Consulting added this component to its consulting
offerings in early 2013. It makes sense to include both, Green notes. We advise our clients on everything from the design of their websites, to what
marketing strategies they should implement, to technology options.

SWARM to the future

Extraco Banks is constantly evolving its business and the technologies it uses to help it to maintain its competitive differentiation. This feeds the services portfolio for
Extraco Consulting at the same time. For 2014, Geeslin and Green see big dataspecifically the conversation analysis for live chatas critically important.
Green elaborates: The conversations we have with our customers via live chat is something that we can learn from. The data will enable us to analyze our live
chat sessions and how we can more effectively engage with our customers.
The SWARM is gathering on the horizon, and the future is bright. It is dynamic and transformative, and full of value for Extraco Banks and Extraco Consulting.

About LivePerson
LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ: LPSN) offers a cloud-based platform that enables businesses to proactively connect in real-time with their customers
via chat, voice, and content delivery at the right time, through the right channel, including websites, social media, and mobile devices. This
intelligent engagement is driven by real-time behavioral analytics, producing connections based on a true understanding of business
objectives and customer needs. LivePerson is headquartered in New York City with offices in San Francisco, Atlanta, Tel Aviv, London,
Amsterdam, and Melbourne.

Contact
LivePerson, Inc.
T: 212.991.1794

475 Tenth Ave

F: 212.609.4233

5th Floor
info@liveperson.com

New York, NY 10018

www.liveperson.com

Follow the conversation on Twitter: #LiveEngage

2014 LivePerson, Inc.