Banking on customer service
Given this backdrop, it is a good time to look at how banks rate for customer service. The last ten years has seen a move away from branch based banking to people accessing their accounts and buying financial products via the phone and internet. This makes the customer service experience even more vital – getting a fast answer to their question via email, phone or the web profoundly affects how a customer rates a bank and whether they decide to remain with them.
As part of the recent 2011 Eptica Multichannel Customer Service Study, banks were tested on how well they answered basic questions via email and the web, as well as measuring links to social media. This was part of a larger study that looked across multiple sectors and the results make interesting reading.
Despite the money invested in customer service, on average banks could answer less than half (just 43%) of common questions people asked on their websites. And there was a real gap between the best and worst at providing service. The top performing bank successfully answered 70% of questions asked via the web, but the worst managed to provide only a single correct answer. Email was another area for concern – while 80 per cent of banks responded to questions emailed to them, only 20 per cent actually answered the query satisfactorily. Essentially this shows that the right process is in place, but the right information isn’t being applied. To view the full analysis on banking and other sectors simply download the report here.
Overall the findings are that banks need to work on their customer service – or risk losing business to their better performing peers.
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