Many customers still prefer a contact center connection. How can banks leverage new technologies to maximize call center efficiency and increase client engagement?
86 percent of consumers today list email as their top contact line 65% still say phone calls are their preferred connection methods. Recent research from McKinsey found that contact center call volume is steadily increasing despite efforts to streamline service and support.
78% of customers want personal advice from their bank, while only 28 percent say their financial institution provides this benefit. In what seems like a counterintuitive consumer approach thanks to advanced technology options, 65 percent of clients still want direct access to local branches — even when banks close physical locations more quickly, like during a pandemic.
With emails less fast and text messages lacking in detail, consumers turn to contact centers for personal attention, personalized advice, and active engagement. As call volume increases, client expectations evolve, and delivery methods vary. How can financial services companies build modern call centers that meet digital demands and facilitate authentic engagement?
Banks Leverage Bigger Chatbots
The increase in call center volume creates a paradox: Clients want immediate engagement but have limited patience to wait. Recent data shows that 50 percent of subscribers will hang up after 45 to 95 seconds of the call on hold.
Here, chatbots provide a way to bridge the gap and offer instant introductory interactions that keep customers connected. Survey data shows that 99 percent of consumers have interacted with chatbots and 65 percent are pretty satisfied with the experience of dealing with chatbots immediately rather than waiting for a service agent.
Chatbots in contact centers can help sort and streamline calls by responding to simple customer questions for financial institutions. Bots can identify what clients are looking for — from specific advice about banking or investing to more general questions about bank products and services. This direct involvement often satisfies consumers with direct inquiries and provides a curated client queue that requires agent escalation.
Banks Use AI to Redefine the Role of Agents
Contact center agents provide essential customer engagement by helping callers deal with specific — and often complex, financial issues. Is this a challenge? More than 50 percent of customers said they needed to re-explain the problem to agents after using self-service solutions such as chatbots or voice recognition, increasing call completion times and caller frustration.
An evolving artificial intelligence solution offers a way to increase agent efficiency by using machine learning algorithms to predict customer needs and supply agents with relevant information.
For example, AI used to listen to chatbot conversations. Using natural language processing and sentiment recognition tools, AI agents estimate the possible emotional state of the caller and provide appropriate human assistance. If clients are frustrated or angry, they will direct with trained customer retention specialists to help defuse a difficult situation.
AI can also pull relevant data from customer relationship management tools and databases to equip agents with live call data and historical service interactions. This eliminates the need for customers to re-explain their concerns and allows agents to provide prioritized and personalized service quickly.
Contact Center Needs To Be Relocated
Outsourced call center investment has increased rapidly as banks seek to deal with increased call volume, but this geographically distributed approach can harm customer engagement. Many have recognized the “relationship between customer service and profit” and have turned to hire locally trained call center personnel.
Historically, the biggest challenge to this approach has cost; personnel and infrastructure are often cheaper outside Jakarta. However, advances in technology such as cloud computing and unified collaboration have created a viable market for virtual contact centers. The staff works remotely from home or in smaller offices with secure access to financial networks and customer history, enabling them to provide local services on demand.
Without the overhead of traditional contact centers, virtual options can help finance companies reduce total expenses while increasing agency productivity: Research has shown that remote workers are happier, more productive, and less likely to miss work. The result? Will improve customer engagement by combining digital channels with local connections.
Financial companies must evolve to provide authentic engagement through digital channels. New solutions such as chatbots, AI, and virtual contact center staff can drive increased engagement and deliver sustainable ROI.
Your contact center will help you towards a more efficient organization both in time management and utilization of company resources. Visionet will help you connect with your clients through a contact center solution, and for that reason, we are here to help you regardless of any doubts you may have. Contact us!