The real impact of poor customer service
Poor servicing is the top deal-breaker for customers, and it’s about time financial institutions take action.
Service is the #1 deciding factor
when opening an account, scoring above low fees, product availability, and security.
Only 29% of service agents
feel that they're effective in helping customers due to information silos and disconnected tools.
The warning signs of poor customer servicing
Happy customers and members are key to a successful business, but most of them say that service often feels like an afterthought. Here are some tell-tale signs that you are failing to meet their needs today:
- The number of digital transactions doesn't match the high volume of calls and branch visits - customers relying on call centers and physical branches for routine transactions could indicate that your digital channels are not meeting their needs. With physical transactions costing 50x more to process than digital, this greatly impacts your operating cost.
- Long dispute resolution time - customers and members often complain that financial institutions are too slow at resolving issues or making loan decisions. This can indicate massive underlying inefficiencies and deter current customers and future ones.
- Low productivity of customer service representatives - With multiple and disconnected tools, customer service employees have to use multiple systems to serve a single customer. This makes training new employees more costly, and resolving a case longer as employees lack a 360 degree customer view.
What is the impact of suboptimal servicing?
Customer service is a key differentiator in the financial industry. It can mean the difference between standing out or falling behind competitors.
It consumes your budget
With sales channels taking up 40% of banks’ annual budget and operations taking up another 15 to 20%, an institution’s customer service inefficiencies heavily weigh on their costs.
It gives poor returns on digital investments
When customers prefer to ring your call center or visit branches instead of using the channels you’ve invested in, you lose out on getting the most value from them.
It makes you lose out on referrals
Unhappy customers don’t refer their friends. In a study of almost 10,000 accounts at a German bank, referred customers were 25 % more profitable, more engaged, and showed a higher customer lifetime value.
Take your customer service to new heights
Explore these strategies to overcome customer servicing challenges in banking.
Thirty-five percent of customers and members consider mobile as their primary banking channel, in comparison to individuals who prefer banking on the web (28%), in-branch (13%), and call centers (4%). It makes it increasingly important for banks and credit unions to beef up their apps — by adding basic self-service capabilities, beyond banking, and even real-time communication with their banking representatives. Your move: Give your retail, business, and private banking customers intuitive apps that make banking digitally more convenient than branch visits with Backbase Digital Banking.
Around 6 out of 10 customer calls to a contact center are minor issues that could’ve been handled by the customer or member in full autonomy, if they had the right tools. Making sure that daily banking transactions can be easily carried out by users on their own digitally is now the expectation rather than a nice-to-have. Self-service capabilities reduce your reliance on branches and call centers for lower value transactions. These rich features also establish your credibility on little things, making your institution look trustworthy for the big things — like new accounts, investments, or loans. Your move: Give your customers a 5-star banking experience and more with Backbase Digital Banking.
A study revealed that 74% of financial business leaders agree that employees play a vital role in customer retention. But just a quarter of representatives working for banks & credit unions feel empowered to do their jobs well. Investing in employee capabilities increases their productivity and frees them to focus on higher-value tasks and projects. Your move: Give your teams the flexibility and tools they need for quick resolution, servicing, and upsells with Backbase Digital Assist.
3 benefits of great customer service
- Satisfied customer base. Customers get instant and efficient service rather than waiting for hours or being passed around representatives.
- Lower cost-to-serve. Reduced costs and optimize profitability with less reliance on costly branches and call centers.
- Maximized ROI on digital investments. Increasing self-service capabilities and building more intuitive apps leads to more engagement on digital channels.
