According to research, customer service is by far the most influential factor when it comes to keeping clients. 75% of respondents indicated that positive customer experiences determined their decision for a banking service provider - this underscores why providing excellent customer service is vitally essential to banks' and financial institutions' retention strategies - yet many need help to meet that goal.
At the core of banking and finance is trust. Financial institutions can build it by offering relevant, insightful financial advice with exceptional customer service, but how can technology improve customer service at financial institutions? Before answering that question, let's discuss what is customer service and issues at financial institutions.
What Does Good Customer Service Look Like?
Customer Service in the Banking and finance Sector relies on quick, efficient service as one of its primary objectives. Offering excellent and prompt assistance will foster good public relations, reduce complaints, and expand business. Customer service in banking is of utmost importance because it makes customers feel valued, helps meet customer needs more efficiently, and improves overall retention rates in banking.
Customer Service Issues That The Banking And Financial Industries Are Facing
Financial institutions currently possess some of the highest customer acquisition costs in their industries today, often costing five times more to attract new customers than to keep existing ones. Furthermore, 75% of their customers are lost within one week after initial acquisition. There's little dispute that a disconnect exists between service delivery, customer expectations, and service provision. What are the root causes? Find answers here-
It Needs To Be Able To Offer Customized Experiences To Every Consumer
Most consumers and small businesses view financial institutions as significant, impersonal entities that do not care about individual needs or challenges - an accurate portrayal. This is one of the main banking and financial industry issues. A local bank branch might know its customers by name and offer personalized care; this can become challenging as these banks become larger organizations with online-focused offerings.
Financial matters can often be sensitive, and each customer requires tailored approaches to their economic issues. Simply asking all customers the same generic set of questions or providing all customers with similar financial solutions seems impersonal and impersonal.
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Slow Service Delivery And Long Wait Times
Financial institutions typically need to improve in two areas of service delivery and wait times: service delivery and wait times. Banks frequently outsourced customer care duties to third-party service providers to effectively address customer requests and problems. However, outsourcing only adds obstacles and delays to a bank's customer service process.
When calling banks for assistance, customers must often navigate complex IVRs before waiting in a queue before being connected with customer service representatives who might route their query back to the bank or an external department for further evaluation - only lengthening wait time and increasing frustration levels further.
Failing To Resolve Customer Complaints
Customer service issues in finance tend to be far more intricate and lengthy than most B2C scenarios, meaning customer service reps in banks must deal with more inquiries with longer turnaround times covering an array of simple and complex problems.
According to the Report, nearly 50% of companies guarantee resolution to customer issues within 6 hours - these are ambitious expectations. Technology may provide banks and financial institutions with solutions for many of the problems plaguing them; however, there are other means they can use to boost customer service delivery - we will explore them further below.
Methods For Financial And Banking Establishments To Upgrade Their Customer Service
As previously discussed, the banking and finance industries face unique customer service issues that must be overcome through technology and interpersonal strategies. To tackle such challenges here are some methods to upgrade customer service effectively which requires taking an integrated approach involving both.
Providing Industry-Specific Knowledge To All Employees Who Interact With Customers
The first step to providing customers with an excellent financial solutions experience is having in-depth knowledge about those solutions you provide - this usually includes:
- Checking and Saving Options Available (CHSOA)
- Certificates of deposit, college savings plans, and individual retirement accounts all represent ways of saving for retirement.
- Tax and Estate Planning For Business, personal, home, and auto loans.
- Today's Credit products range from lines of credit and other loans to installment plans and other credit products.
- Safe deposit boxes: financial planning
Customer-facing employees should have an in-depth knowledge of all services offered and be up to date on industry trends and best practices to provide guidance that best serves their customers' needs. They must be able to engage customers effectively by asking pertinent questions and accurately gauging their needs to help them make sounder decisions.
Clarity And Transparency In Communication
At its core, banking rests upon trust - and to build it effectively, it requires communication that is both clear and open. Employees in financial institutions must endeavor to avoid using any jargon when speaking. Contact your customers as you would if speaking to friends and family, and double-check that they understand any financial decisions made during conversations with them. Keep a written record of conversations to avoid future miscommunication. Some areas of banking that could prove confusing include:
- Calculating interest rates
- Understanding various forms of overdraft protection
- Determining which loan products are optimal can be a daunting task.
- Understanding credit scores: What it means
- Protecting against and recovering from identity theft
- Utilizing online and remote banking options
Ensure the customer understands these calculations quickly by explaining everything step-by-step until their understanding is complete.
We Are Training All Employees On Interpersonal Skills Development
Money can be an emotional topic for everyone; therefore, having employees with superior interpersonal skills at the forefront is invaluable to any financial institution. Sometimes, you may need to explain to customers why their loan application was declined or why a mortgage can no longer be processed. Though it's essential to provide honest answers and explanations, one must show empathy while remaining mellow - this will go far toward helping customers feel assured.
Therefore, banks and financial service providers should invest in training their staff so they are equipped to deal with all scenarios that may arise. Training may appear expensive at first glance; however, customers who stick with you due to excellent customer service more than makeup for any associated costs.
Enhancing Tech Literacy Among All Customer-Facing Employees
Banking transactions increasingly utilize technology platforms. Therefore, an excellent customer service representative needs to have in-depth knowledge about them to assist their customer using these easily. Instead of simply telling customers they need an ATM/internet banking/mobile app, why not ask if they would like a walkthrough and provide an appropriate demo instead? This way, customers get exactly what they want out of this experience.
Financial institutions can streamline this process while decreasing customer service team intervention by investing in training guides and demos that allow customers to familiarize themselves with or troubleshoot available technology platforms. Customers may use these videos as training aids.
Integrating Contextual Data Into Daily Operations
Mortgage CRMs provide banks and financial institutions with an effective tool for survival and expansion by taking advantage of contextual data. Contextual data is any information that provides a greater understanding of an individual/organization/event and their surrounding environment.
Banks and financial institutions use contextual data to track behavioral patterns and measure customer loyalty to develop better customer relations and tailor bespoke financial solutions to each customer's needs. Banks and financial institutions rely heavily on customer data collected via helpdesks and CRM (customer relationship management) software as sources for valuable contextual customer insight.
Banks often utilize CRMs for customer relationship management (CRM). CRMs allow banks to efficiently keep an eye on customer details like phone number and email address as well as location, social media activity, and purchasing preferences; helpdesk software or customer service software may then track post-purchase interactions as well as any customer support requests received after sales transactions take place.
Organizations Must Solicit Customer Feedback As Regularly As Possible
No one knows your customers better than themselves, and no tool or technology can predict them fully. While your CRM and helpdesk tools provide some data insights, only customers can tell us everything we need to know. No piece of technology could do that for us.
After each interaction with customers, it makes perfect sense to solicit their feedback to gain valuable insight into whether their needs are being fulfilled adequately, what financial products or services are of interest, financial goals for their plans, customer experience improvements that could be implemented, etc.
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Conclusion
The banking and financial services industry constantly shifts, with new regulations and trends appearing almost daily. Stay abreast of industry developments and adapt quickly to change if you wish for your institution to provide outsourced customer support services, which includes continuously seeking technological advances to optimize existing processes or streamline customer interactions. Creating exceptional customer experiences by giving attention to customers while remaining open-minded and making wise investments will guarantee outstanding service delivery from any banking or financial services institution.
