Customer service is a vital part of any organization’s success. In fact, it won’t be wrong to say that customer experience is the most critical part of a banking organization’s success. According to a Forrester study, improved customer experience, with 33%, is the top driver for organizational transformation.
However, banks face some unique challenges when it comes to providing excellent customer service. They need to keep their customer’s sensitive financial information secure while also giving them easy access to that information whenever they need it. With the right tools in place, however, banks can overcome these challenges, provide excellent customer service, and increase revenues simultaneously.
Leverage AI to Personalize Services
Personalization is critical for enhanced customer experience. According to data, customers are 80% more likely to do business with a brand that offers a tailored experience. Moreover, over 65% of customers feel that brands should understand their individual needs.
AI is an essential technology for banks to personalize services for their customers, understand their needs, recommend products and services that meet those needs, automate processes and provide customer support.
Banks can also use AI to detect fraudulent transactions and stop them before they occur. Banks can use AI for both internal and external purposes. For example, banks can use machine learning technologies such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) or deep learning algorithms to understand what the customer is saying through social media channels like Twitter or Facebook. The bank then uses this information to automatically respond with personalized messages using NLP-based chatbots on Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, etc.
Banks can also use AI for fraud detection. Banks employ different fraud detection systems, including behavioral analytics software solutions, which analyze fraud patterns across multiple financial institutions to identify potential areas where fraudulent behavior could occur.
Reduce Turnaround Time With an IVR System
To give your customers a better experience, you should get an IVR system first.
An Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system is a computerized customer service system that allows customers to interact with your company through the phone in a way that feels less impersonal than calling an actual person.
It’s a menu of options that allows customers to choose what they want and then prompts them through their options. For example, if you have an IVR system set up for self-service at banks when someone calls in, they will hear something like this: “For balance inquiry, please press 2; net banking details, please press 3; talk to an executive, please press 4.”
Once they’ve selected their option by pressing various numbers on their phone keypad or speaking into their mobile device microphone, they’ll be prompted with another series of questions or instructions until they reach the desired destination or end point of their call with your organization.
Hence, the IVR system can allow banks to give the command to customers, similar to a self-service portal. Using an IVR system, customers can quickly find answers to their queries without waiting for a bank employee to answer them.
While there are many IVR systems, it is best to go for a cloud-based one as it can operate virtually from the cloud. That’s why cloud spending was at a whopping $270 billion in 2020, according to Gartner. However, all cloud IVR systems won’t be equally beneficial to you because each will have some advantages and disadvantages. Hence, you need to research to find the best one that suits your requirements. You can go through cloud IVR system reviews to find the quality of the service each of these systems offers. You can then decide what system will best benefit your bank based on the information.
Deploy a Multichannel Support Strategy
Siloed customer support is another significant challenge in the customer journey. Most banks have a siloed support system, wherein customers can get the required support only from a specified channel. For example, if a customer wants to get help with an Internet banking issue, they will be directed to a specific department (or channel) that handles only this type of problem. This causes two major problems:
First, the customer has to wait longer for the support team to respond because the team needs time to determine whether the issue is related specifically to Internet banking or not. Second, the customer is confused about where to go for a particular problem, increasing their chances of leaving before receiving the help they need.
Using a multichannel support system can help overcome this problem. You can use the following platforms and traditional calls, emails, and texts.
- Use Social Media: Social media is one of the most popular channels for communicating with customers today. It can be used to answer questions or resolve issues, both in real-time and after hours. For example, if there is an outage or another problem with your website or app, you can use social media as part of an out-of-hours response plan so that users know what happens when things go wrong. Data shows that there are over 4.6 billion active social media users. This means that almost all of your customers are using these platforms. You can use this opportunity to interact with them on a platform they are more comfortable using.
- Deploy Chatbots: A chatbot allows customers to interact directly with a computer program on their mobile or desktop computer through messaging services such as Facebook Messenger, Slack, and Telegram Messenger. Moreover, it is also beneficial to your business. According to a Juniper Research study, chatbots can reduce 4 minutes per interaction, equalling $0.7.
Put Customer Experience at the Heart of Training
To deliver a great customer experience, you must put the right people in place and train them properly.
You probably already have an idea of what makes for a good CSR. They’re the ones who know your account numbers, can tell you how much money is in your account at any given time, and are ready with helpful information about interest rates. But if you want your CSRs to go above and beyond basic expectations, they must understand all the facets of what makes for great service.
Your entire team should be trained on how to deliver exceptional customer experience from every angle, such as
- How to greet customers when they walk through the door
- How to ask questions so as not to offend anyone
- How to respond quickly when there’s an issue with their account
- How best to interact with angry or upset customers, etc.
Conclusion
A customer-centric approach is a key to success for a bank. It’s not only about creating an experience that makes a customer feel valued and confident in your brand but also about understanding how best to manage the customer service experience. This requires understanding how each channel works best for your customers and what tools or technology can help deliver that experience.
