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CITIZENS CAPITAL INVESTMENT IN NEW TECHNOLOGY WILL EXCEED MORE THAN $100 MILLION
WebTone Technologies, Inc. selected to provide enhanced customer service system

PROVIDENCE, R.I., April 14, 2003 -- Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (“Citizens”) announced today that it will invest more than $100 million over the next three years to further enhance the service it provides to its 2.4 million bank customers.

As the core component for this significant commitment, Citizens has signed a contract with WebTone Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of customer interaction solutions, said William K. Wray, Citizens Executive Vice President and the bank’s Chief Information Officer.

Wray said Citizens has selected WebTone’s TouchPoint® solution as the bank’s enterprise-wide customer service and sales platform. It will be installed in Citizens’ more than 850 branches across seven states in the New England and Mid-Atlantic regions between July 2003 and the end of 2005.

This new technology will provide powerful new sales and service tools for its platform staff (managers and customer service representatives) at traditional and in-store supermarket branches throughout the region.

Through this “branch automation” project, platform automation to sales and service staff throughout the New England banks will take place this year, along with the 24-hour Phone Bank. The platform automation will be available to the Mid-Atlantic branches in 2004. Tellers in all states will receive the new TouchPoint® tools, including new computer screens and higher quality printers, in 2004.

Citizens systems will employ web-based technology, generally new for banks in branches. In addition, the platform automation will be implemented with an integration architecture that will assist Citizens in integrating multiple channels to make each customer experience as seamless as possible.

While Citizens has grown its commitment to customer convenience – allowing them to bank when, where and how they choose through retail branches, supermarket locations, telephone banking through its 24-hour PhoneBanks and ATMs – branches remain the cornerstone of relationship banking.

“This affords our branch staffs even greater ability to fulfill our customers’ banking needs,” Wray said. “Citizens is making a sizeable investment to expand our customer relationships and reward our customers’ loyalty. With the WebTone TouchPoint® solution, we will be able to reduce further the time it takes customers to open new accounts. In pilot testing, new account opening time was reduced by two-thirds.”

IDC Financial Insights has estimated that one in five customers switched banks last year, with 45 percent of the defectors complaining about poor service and another 20 percent citing perceived indifference by the provider.

“With our new TouchPoint® technology, Citizens service personnel will quickly be able to provide customers with a full picture of the financial services they receive from Citizens,” Wray said. “We believe this will enable us to better meet our customers’ needs.”

“Citizens clearly is dedicated to outstanding customer service,” said Jim Szyperski, President and CEO of Atlanta-based WebTone. “WebTone’s combination of deep financial service expertise, proven delivery results and TouchPoint®’s unparalleled sales and service functionality will be invaluable to Citizens’ customers.”

“We believe that investing in initiatives to further enhance the customer experience with Citizens’ legendary service makes good business sense,” said Wray.

About Citizens Financial Group
Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is a $64 billion commercial bank holding company. It is headquartered in Providence, RI, and has more than 850 offices, approximately 1,700 ATMs and more than 15,000 employees in seven states. It operates as Citizens Bank in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Citizens is one of the 20 largest commercial banks in the United States. Citizens is owned by The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc. The Citizens website is www.citizensbank.com.

About WebTone Technologies
WebTone Technologies provides solutions that optimize the interaction between financial service institutions and their customers. The company’s flagship solution, TouchPoint®, combines robust sales, service and fulfillment functionality with the latest in multi-channel interaction management to allow institutions to consistently, predictably and profitably interact with their customers across the entire enterprise. With its enterprise-wide reach and multi-channel functionality, TouchPoint enables a complete, 360-degree interaction between an institution and its customers. For more information, please visit www.webtonetech.com, or call 866-WEBTONE.

Citizens Contact: Barbara Cottam
Telephone:
WebTone Contact: Kevin Lash
Telephone:
[email protected]