BMO Financial Group Drives Customer Adoption of New Features While Reducing Support Burden with WalkMe’s In-App Guidance

As Bank of Montreal Financial Group (BMO) focused on implementing its digital transformation, it needed a ready-to-go support solution that would gracefully lead customers through new or updated features—without them calling the support centre. WalkMe allowed BMO to do just that, by providing intuitive support and analytics tools that did not impose a heavy burden on the support or development teams.

After implementing WalkMe’s Digital Adoption Platform, BMO reported:

• 50% drop in customer support requests
• Significant reduction in development costs

As one of North America’s largest banking groups, BMO needed to be certain its digital transformation initiatives would be embraced, trusted, and understood by its customers. As it worked to upgrade its online services, BMO searched for a solution that would support and guide customers without relying on the in-house development team, and without overburdening support.

WalkMe met BMO’s needs seamlessly. By providing in-app guidance, WalkMe introduced customers to new or updated features painlessly, eliminating customer confusion. Its analytics allowed the BMO team to monitor exactly how customers interacted with WalkMe, facilitating adjustments when required—all without involving the development team.

Since implementing WalkMe, BMO has noticed a 50% reduction in calls to its support centre, improved customer adoption of new features, and a significant reduction in development costs.

The banking industry is embracing the digital age. Top priorities now include transforming online platforms to better serve customers and drive revenue. In line with this, BMO planned to upgrade its existing services, dramatically changing its customers’ online experience. To ensure a smooth transition, BMO needed a way to mitigate any trouble its customers might face.

BMO’s helpdesk was already at capacity with support calls, and was not equipped to handle any increase in incoming requests due to the service upgrades. BMO was looking for a solution to the challenges impacting its support teams—while not overwhelming development with new features for in-product help.

Additionally, BMO was interested in quickly migrating users to new functionality, without relying on email and other external communication methods. Customers had indicated that they wanted new ways to learn and receive help, without long wait times on the phone for customer support representatives.

BMO’s overarching goal was to help customers navigate its website easily and effectively. One pain point that emerged:customers were not always aware when or if they made an error, and support representatives were inundated with high volumes of calls to answer relatively simple questions. BMO needed a solution that would clear up customer confusion in the moment of need, without a phone call to support, and allow users to take advantage of all the site’s features, frustration-free.

BMO utilizes WalkMe to guide its users to task completion on commercial banking processes, and critical day-to-day business tasks, ultimately enhancing its users’ experience. The addition of Walk-Thrus, SmartTips, and ShoutOuts deflect calls from customer support, and result in both faster resolution of issues and the adoption of new tools.

With WalkMe’s ready-made, customizable solution, BMO is able to enhance its existing support infrastructure without involving its technology department. This lets the technology department focus on initiatives that drive revenue and value for BMO.

BMO also uses WalkMe to assist with change management on its system. Walk-Thrus and Auto-starts highlight relevant areas on the site that are new or recently updated, to encourage feature use and minimize user confusion.

“We were seeking ways to increase scalability of our support operations and drive adoption of critical banking functionality, without driving a software development cost – with WalkMe we achieved this.” Sarah Cairns, Initiative Manager, BMO Financial Group

By implementing WalkMe, BMO was increased user adoption of key services on their site. Customers are now quickly notified of critical platform outages and changes, which results in a better user experience without the need to engage the development teams. BMO is able to avoid weeks of development time when new features are introduced with the implementation of WalkMe applications.

BMO also noted a 50% drop in customer support requests. Customers were able to successfully complete complicated tasks on their own, without frustration and the need for assistance. Because BMO was able to capture immediate customer feedback with WalkMe’s advanced analytics, they were able to anticipate future support requests and alleviate challenges by adding and modifying Walk-Thrus to best support their customers.

WalkMe was identified as one of the most powerful support tools in surveys issued to BMO customers who had experienced a service upgrade. “The business value delivered by WalkMe was so great that we are in the process of expanding the solution to other lines of business,” says Cairns.