Pub. 7 2019 Issue 1

www.uba.org 16 2 Nielsen, The Evolution of Modern Banking, March 19, 2014 3 Clayton, Lee, “Bank Call Centers May Be the Key to Revenue Growth,” Gallup, September 30, 2013. 4 Mark Bonchek and Barry Libert, “To Change Your Strategy, First Change How You Think,” May 17, 2017 5 Deloitte, 2017 Global Contact Center Survey Call Value = Strategic Value Account holders like to make transactions digitally, but when they need to fix a problem, they want to talk to a person. In fact, according to Nielsen, that’s what contact centers are for. Most consumers seek to resolve any questions or issues they have with their accounts on the phone with the contact center. 2 There’s no substitute for a live human. Gallup reports one of the most powerful drivers of customer engagement is contact center interaction with a live person, second only to an in-person branch visit. Account holders who experience a satisfactory interaction with a contact center are 14 times more likely to be engaged with their bank — and that’s just with a satisfactory experience. 3 So, while call volume may be declining, call value has never been more important. How do you promote and increase call value? It starts with retooling your strategy. A recent Harvard Business Review article got to the heart of this idea with its exhortation to executives that to change your strategy, you have to change the way you think. Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines explained his company’s business as follows, “I tell my employees that we’re in the service business and it’s incidental that we fly airplanes.” As Kelleher told the Harvard Business Review, “Other carriers fly airplanes that carry people. Southwest serves people using airplanes.” 4 Satisfaction: The #1 Indicator of Success How could you apply Kelleher’s thinking to your business? Certainly you are providing financial services, but you are also in the business of helping your account holders reach their goals. Indeed, that might be your primary service, at least in the same terms as Herb Kelleher’s way of thinking. Similarly, the business of your contact center is to provide satisfaction — to ensure that your account holders are happy when they hang up. ContactBabel’s 2017 U.S. Contact Center Decision- Makers’ Guide explains this change in mindset: “Historically, the success of contact centers was measured in terms of efficiency: average handle time, calls per hour, etc. In recent years, the focus upon customer satisfaction has grown to such an extent that it is now seen industry-wide as the number one indicator of success, being consistently voted more important than increasing revenues, decreasing costs or hitting target metrics.” Indeed, Deloitte’s 2017 Global Contact Center Survey shows that close to 90 percent of companies name improving customer experience as a strategic focus, with just 3 percent naming revenue growth as the primary driver for their contact centers. 5 If you embrace this idea — and my colleagues and I at Harland Clarke Contact Center Solutions certainly do — you can approach your financial institution’s contact center strategy with a service focus in mind. The question then becomes, how can we use contact center resources to proactively nurture and enhance customer satisfaction? How can we ensure account holders are happy when they hang up? Similarly, the business of your contact center is to provide satisfaction— to ensure that your account holders are happy when they hang up. 3