The financial sector must follow current trends, changing behavior and ever-growing consumer expectations, both related to products and the service itself. In this reality, the Role of Call Center cannot be overestimated.
The banking sector is regularly examined – in terms of product matching, bank reputation, customer loyalty, service satisfaction and many other criteria. Banks and insurance institutions are highly aware of the need to constantly respond to high customer expectations and create a positive experience at every stage of their purchasing path. Banking “customer-centricity” is carefully planned, uses every point of contact with the customer, new technologies and Big Data methods.
Despite the fact that in the last few years, financial institutions have been trying to outdo each other in creating new communication channels, focusing mainly on mobility, customer service still remains a key area determining satisfaction, further cooperation or – ultimately – the opinion about the brand of a given institution.
Role of Call Center in Banking and Insurance
The financial sector has been using contact center outsourcing for many years. In the past, cooperation began with outsourcing mainly sales tasks to external partners – outgoing sales of products (cash loans, credit cards and insurance products), CATI research, as well as arranging meetings at bank branches.
However, dynamically changing customer expectations regarding 24/7 service and in each communication channel mean that external call center partners more and more often serve customers also in inbound traffic.
The Tasks of the Call Center Include:
- Customer service around the clock, 7 days a week in electronic channels (including mobile) and by phone (voice)
- Implementation of financial inter mediation projects, including cross-sale sales to existing bank customers, product activation
- Ongoing customer transaction service, registration of customer instructions in the banking system
- Handling of transaction and transfer monitoring processes
- Advice on payment instruments and financial products
- “Help desk” for users of internet banking systems
- Handling customer complaints and claims
- Handling of e-mail inquiries and online contact forms in real time
- Preparation and verification of documents
- Handling substantive inquiries on forums and social media (Facebook, Twitter)
- Handling of mail and chat processes as well as video chat during the on-boarding and customer verification process
- Co-creation of interactive IVR systems.
One Client – Many Channels
In the multichannel era, banks and insurance companies, even if they have so far carried out customer service tasks in-house, decide to either use the services of a backup (external) partner or outsource the contact center in its entirety.
In the first case, the backup department complements internal resources, for example in situations of greater incoming traffic or for purposes related to improving the quality of customer service, by building two independent teams that compete with each other and complement each other, constituting a specific BCP (Business Continuity Plan). ). In the second – the contact center handles all (except direct – in the branch) communication channels with the client, thanks to which financial institutions are able to respond to consumer expectations related to the possibility of smooth switching between different channels.
The ability to choose a channel and standardized customer service in many channels are the key tasks facing the banking sector today. Customers not only expect the presence of an institution in many places, but most of all – the possibility of carrying out their activities related to the purchase or service in the channel that suits them at a given moment.
As experts from e-point and the “Bank” monthly note, customers will not switch to one selected communication channel, but will still expect multichannel and rebel against the “default” choice of a given channel. The challenge for the sector will be not so much the implementation of multi-channel technology, but rather the unification of the handling of products and services dedicated to one customer.
Big Data and Data Security
Experienced contact center outsourcers cooperating with the banking or insurance sector know and meet extremely restrictive requirements related to data and information security as well as the client’s internal procedures.
The development of Big Data and specialized tools, analyzing both the history of customers, operations (transfers or purchases) and the quantity and quality of interactions with the website and the hotline (or other communication channel), helps banks profile the customer in terms of, for example, personalization of the offer (e.g. scoring) credit), geolocation, prediction of purchases or development (in the case of corporate clients) or in investment banking.
For a contact center, it is a huge challenge for at least three reasons: firstly – consultants must be part of the customer data co-creation system, second – outsourcing is required to ensure an appropriate level of security, and thirdly – to be constantly familiar with new regulations and regulations related to with the processing of personal data, data covered by banking secrecy and all new regulations related to consumer protection. The protection of customer data and banking secrecy is of paramount importance.