Brenda Gleeson

Customer Care Center Manager, OceanFirst Bank

Founded in 1902, OceanFirst Bank is a growth-oriented, community-focused financial services organization. Headquartered in New Jersey, this regional bank offers online and mobile banking, savings and checking accounts, mortgage loans, debit cards, commercial loans, cash management, and trust and asset management. 

Supernova Award Category: 
Future of Work: Employee Experience
The Problem: 

As the bank expanded through organic growth and acquisitions, it began to outgrow its legacy call center system, which lacked advanced routing, AI capabilities, omnichannel options, and effective training tools. All calls – averaging more than 40,000 a month – flooded into a general queue for the next available agent without regard for expertise or skill, causing long handle times.  

Additionally, manual, and limited scheduling, reporting, and coaching capabilities underscored the need for a more modern, digital operational solution, one that would preserve the personal touch of a small-scale bank while gaining the flexibility and convenience of a cloud-based contact center. 

The Solution: 

OceanFirst chose Five9 for its robust toolset, including digital channel options, skill-based routing, customizable IVR, and seamless CRM integration. The digital solutions provided enhanced visibility and reporting through Workforce Management, Interaction Analytics, and Performance Dashboards, while Agent Assist and Virtual Observer offered real-time coaching, call summarization, and historical interaction evaluations. Five9’s consistent service and attentiveness ensured OceanFirst’s needs were thoroughly understood and met. 

The Results: 

“Overall, Five9 has simplified our onboarding, training, and scheduling processes while enhancing resource delivery to our agents. Our intraday and historic performance tracking has become more robust, with access to 100% of real-time interactions and AI call summarization and analysis. Additionally, Five9 has improved the customer experience with skill-based routing, ensuring customers reach the right agent and managing ad hoc spikes in volume. It also expands our customers’ options by offering channels such as chat and SMS.” - OceanFirst Bank

  • Skill-based routing now directs interactions to the right agents, simplifying the entire training, onboarding, and evaluation process. This has also allowed OceanFirst to manage ad-hoc spikes in volume.  
  • Alternative channel options for customers, such as Chat and SMS.  
  • Access to transcripts for 100% of real-time interactions, with AI summarization for calls.  
  • Access to enhanced performance metrics at all levels, including agents.  
  • Simplified resource management and onboarding using Agent Assist.  
  • Streamlined customer lookup and authentication using CRM integration. 
Metrics: 

Metrics 

  • Digital interactions prior to Five9 = 0 
  • Latest Avg # of Chats & SMS per Month = Approx. 2,300 
  • Avg Handle Time Prior to Five9 = 8:19 in Nov-20 
  • Latest Avg Handle Time = 6:39 in Apr-24

 

Metrics that were not available prior to implementing Five9 that OceanFirst is now able to track 

  • Intraday and historic scheduling reports, such as schedule adherence 
  • Sentiment analysis and AI-driven trends 
  • Quality-management reporting at a large scale 
  • Skill-based reporting for enhanced insight on interaction types 
  • Customizable reporting with Call Variables 
The Technology: 
  • Five9 Workforce Management - streamlines all schedules, which were once managed on spreadsheets.
  • Five9 Quality Management - enhance agent coaching and measure quality of service
  • Five9 Interaction Analytics - analyze sentiment and trending spoken phrases
  • Five9 Performance Dashboards - accessible reporting to boost accountability, and gamification tools to incentivize performance.  
  • Five9 Agent Assist - real-time guidance and transcription
Disruptive Factor: 

OceanFirst Bank's adoption of Five9 solutions, particularly Agent Assist, transformed their contact center, yielding efficiency gains via streamlined processes and automated routing. Agent Assist enhanced customer interactions with personalized guidance and AI-driven coaching. Employee engagement soared through gamification and performance dashboards. Resource allocation optimized via skills-based routing. This initiative embraced innovation to deliver exceptional service, setting new industry standards externally. OceanFirst's approach and community-centric values set it apart, driving internal tech adoption. This disruptive move cements OceanFirst as a pioneer, reshaping contact center practices and fostering community-centric banking. 

Shining Moment: 

OceanFirst Bank leveraged AI-powered tools like Agent Assist to revolutionize their contact center operations, enhancing both customer experiences and employee engagement. This transformative initiative showcases OceanFirst's commitment to innovation and community-focused banking. 

About OceanFirst Bank

Whether it's home ownership, building a business, teaching children the value of saving, financing higher education, or planning for the future, our goal is to help our neighbors reach their financial goals at OceanFirst Bank. Our mission is to build relationships and financial solutions that empower clients to achieve their goals by providing innovative products backed by great service.