OLB transforms CX with Genesys Cloud, driving faster service and higher NPS

Best-in-class AI-powered digital banking   

With roots dating back to 1869, Oldenburgische Landesbank (OLB) is a privately owned former regional bank. When a series of acquisitions diversified the customer base, OLB transformed from a traditional, branch-first institution into a modern, omnichannel digital bank — with security and deep customer relationships at its core.   

Today OLB supports 5,000 to 6,000 daily customer interactions across inbound service and outbound sales, with over 300 users on the Genesys Cloud™ platform. The bank has seen a 15% reduction in wait times, a 5-point increase in transactional Net Promoter Score (NPS) and 5–10% efficiency gains.   

A new vision for customer experience 

Historically a branch-based institution, OLB reached a critial inflection point following a series of mergers. “OLB today is the result of combining several banks, which naturally led us to prioritize the customer experience,” said Mirko Menkens, Director, Central and Digital Sales, at OLB. “Through our last merger, we saw growth of 30% to 50% in our digital customer base. With our small team and the existing software and resources, we simply couldn’t keep up. Scaling up and improving efficiency became a necessity.”  

The previous customer experience (CX) system was no longer sufficient. “We needed sophisticated call processing, routing methods and especially workforce management,” added Menkens. “We couldn’t just rely on spreadsheets anymore.”   

The vision was clear. “Our goal was to improve the customer experience with smart, effective tools,” said Felix Leshoff, Senior Associate, Central and Digital Sales, at OLB. “We wanted to be among the best digital, multichannel banks in Germany, and Genesys is key to achieving that.”  

The essentials: Intelligent, responsive, empowering 

At the core of the evolution at OLB was centered on three foundational goals: ensuring customers could easily reach the bank across channels, resolving issues effectively on the first contact and empowering employees with intelligent, responsive tools.  

High availability was non-negotiable. “Customers must be able to reach us easily,” said Menkens. “And when they do, our priority is first-contact resolution. Our software and internal processes need to be intelligent and efficient — not just to enhance the customer experience, but also to enable and support our employees.” 

To achieve these goals, OLB implemented Genesys Cloud for voice, digital channels, routing and workforce management, and AI, building out a flexible system that supported both internal teams and outsourced partners. 

The addition of new digital channels including WhatsApp, live chat and a chatbot have expanded the bank’s customer support capabilities. “With WhatsApp, our customers can reach us at any time, directly from their phones,” said Leshoff. “It’s convenient and meets modern customer expectations.”   

Increased productivity with AI predictive routing  

The company applied AI predictive routing to 90% of its inbound queues, with calls intelligently routed to the best skilled agent, resulting in faster handle time and increased productivity. “We saw waiting times decrease by approximately 15%,” said Leshoff. “That’s when we knew predictive routing was doing its job.”  

The bank’s reachability via phone now consistently exceeds 90%, often hitting 95%, compared to 80–85% before implementing Genesys Cloud. Team credits the platform with improved routing, call management and faster call resolution.  

Boosting agent productivity and engagement 

OLB has replaced manual spreadsheets with tools like Genesys workforce management, quality management, and speech and text analytics. “Forecast planning is now much easier and more detailed,” said Menkens. “We have accurate forecasts and team planning, which makes a significant difference.”  

Employees are supported in real time with Genesys Copilot, built on Amazon Bedrock. Copilot provides knowledge in real time and summarizes calls automatically. “The auto-summarization is very effective,” said Leshoff, noting that it provides this information effectively in German. “It’s helpful during the interaction, and afterward when quality managers evaluate performance.”   

While experienced agents may rely less on AI-powered suggestions, the tools are proving useful for onboarding. “For new agents who are still building their experience, copilot helps them get up to speed faster,” said Leshoff.  

“Most of our agents use Genesys intensively and provide positive feedback,” added Menkens. “The individual configurations we’ve introduced make the software intuitive and comfortable to use, which has had a big impact on employee satisfaction.”  

ROI realized 

Through predictive routing and agent copilot, OLB has made employee efficiency gains of 5–10%, resulting in faster growth and lower operating costs. “The Genesys tools we have implemented have been essential it enabling us to grow at the pace we needed and to operate with the level of skill we have achieved,” said Leshoff. “From the platform to the telephony, the workforce management and other features, these solutions have been critical in supporting our success.

The partnership with Genesys has also been a key enabler of success. “The cooperation with Genesys employees is excellent,” added Leshoff. “Our technical account manager is exceptional; always available and ready to help us no matter what we’re facing.”  

Reimagining the future with AI 

The future at OLB involves staying at the forefront of AI-powered innovation, such as replacing menu-based IVRs with natural language virtual agents. Agentic AI will also play a role as the OLB team can easily create bots to solve customer intents and integrate front- and back-office processes. 

Horizon capabilities could include evolving web messaging to support secure, personalized interactions — possibly using avatars to help customers access sensitive information like account balances. “We’ve achieved so much over the last four years,” concluded Menkens. “Now we’re excited for what comes next. I believe we’re well positioned to meet future needs and continue delivering exceptional experiences. Genesys plays a key role in making that vision a reality.”