the scale of the initiative creates a new category of e-banking and sets a benchmark for the industry around the globe. More than a bank; firstititect.com will be the first Internet banking store
A central element in this strategy is to offer Britain's most comprehensive mobile phone banking service, recognizing that more than 70 percent of all adults in the United Kingdom either own or use a mobile phone. Through SMS (Short Message Service) text message, First Direct customer have access to instatements on up to three accounts and can be advised when credit or debits enter or leave the account. In addition, customers are alerted automatically of their accounts go into the red. The service is complemented by WAP Internet mobile phone banking, which enables customers to carry out transactions at the push of a button on their WAP phones. By 2003, 55 percent of all customer contacts were electronic.
Although, the core person-to-person voice telephone service still remains the backbone of the bank's activities, in January 2003 the bank began testing an interactive online help agent called Cara, who moves, talks and gestures as the responds to user questions Jonathans Etheridges, head of E-Futures at First Direct observed:"For many years we have been leaders in customer service on the telephone, now Cara give us the opportunity to learn how to bring some of the First Direct personality to the Web. Cara is the first step on a road which I ultimately see will bridge the gap between the relatively impersonal world of the Internet and the much richer experience of a real person on the phone."