Six Technologies That Are Transforming Customer Service and Banking Relationships

Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) is another technology that’s forever changing the contact center paradigm. Previously locked in channel silos, financial service industry companies can use SIP to anchor a customer and bring the appropriate resources to them. Customers can navigate through multichannel communications without being forced to repeat information several times over as they move across channels. Agents also have the necessary insights and understanding to pinpoint the customer’s specific needs.

Mobile applications also are having a significant impact on the quality of bank customer service, enabling customers to easily follow automated prompts to address their questions themselves. Quick-deposit applications on smart phones are also quickly taking hold, cementing client relationships and building brand loyalty.

Sophisticated data analytics capabilities, in concert with the above technologies, are helping banks efficiently leverage the growing amount of client data unearthed by the increase in contact center communication channels. As a result, banks can quickly capture, analyze, and act on customer information to improve service and the productivity of their customer service staff. Banks are able to act quickly, while ensuring seamless regulatory compliance.

Using sophisticated data analytics tools helped one of the world’s largest mortgage-services companies pinpoint weaknesses in its client-service workflow that added unnecessary steps and frustrated their customers. With such analytics, banks can more accurately and more quickly measure the performance of their organization and agents by analyzing how specific interactions were handled. Banks can then enhance workflows where necessary and work with weaker-performing agents to customize and invest in additional training.

Social media monitoring is another tool that can be used to expose customer care flaws. Myriad technologies are now available to help banks monitor social media conversations, including any negative critiques of their service quality. Most contact centers operated by banks simply are not equipped to process messages streaming across Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, and Web sites.

Reputations are built over time. But it takes just a short time to permanently damage a brand, given the impact and influence of online conversations and commentary today. The most forward-thinking financial services companies fully recognize the power of social-media monitoring tools and have implemented these solutions.

The look and feel of client service in banking is forever changing. As the customer-service expectations of banking consumers continue to go through the roof, the will want and inevitably demand access to the array of next-generation channels available to them. Now is the time to prepare for that inevitable moment, because it’ll be a tipping point in the banking industry unlike any seen before.

Chuck Hall is managing principal and Kevin Reilly business development manager at Avaya Global Financial Services.

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