In a year in which many CRM vendors struggled, Siebel Systems says it added 74 new financial services clients to its customer lists in 2002, bringing total customer numbers for the sector to 490.
Siebel says its financial sector customer base now includes 20 of the world's top banking companies and 13 of the top 20 US banks.
The vendor says customers using its Siebel Finance package are reporting increased lead generation, higher sales closure rates, greater value per sale, higher customer retention, faster problem resolution, and shorter new product cycle times.
Siebel points to the experience of Fleet Bank, which deployed Siebel Finance in 2002 as part of its Business Advisor platform to help its relationship managers collaborate with product specialists. Currently, more than 1700 relationship managers use the Business Advisor tool, and the bank plans to expand the number to 3500. The bank says that in a four-quarter period, the number of products sold per customer increased by 24%, and cross-sell increased by 15%.
Fleet Bank also deployed Siebel Finance to 150 members of its corporate client services organisation, to handle approximately 40,000 customer contacts each month by telephone, fax, e-mail, and post. "The Siebel deployment is providing a wealth of information that is helping us identify cross-sell opportunities, enhance product development, identify service trends, and drive to root cause analysis," said Charles Pierce, director, Fleet Bank corporate client services.
Siebel also cites Meriwest Credit Union, which has used the package to help reduce average call wrap-up time by 75%, increase deposits per customer by 27%, and increase loans per customer by 46%.
Julie Kirsch, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Meriwest, comments: "In terms of enhancing productivity, customer intimacy, and sales effectiveness, Siebel Finance is helping us differentiate ourselves in a very competitive market and quantify our success."