Three Reasons to Prioritize Digital Customer Service

Consumers and businesses are increasingly choosing to complete financial tasks in digital channels, but banks have largely failed to evolve their customer service and support strategies.

Traditional phone service models that banks have relied on for decades are notoriously frustrating and inefficient not only for the consumer, but for the agent as well. Forcing customers to leave the digital channel to connect with a service agent via a time-consuming phone experience is detrimental to customer satisfaction and loyalty. Not to mention, this channel hop leads to higher costs and inefficiencies for the bank. It’s time for banks to take a digital-first approach to customer service.

Digital customer service has experienced significant acceleration in recent months. Banks that modernize their customer service strategies with digital-first communication and collaboration capabilities will be able to enhance the customers’ and employees’ experiences. There are three top reasons banks should adopt digital customer service: modernize communications, boost operational efficiencies and increase customer engagement.

Modernize Communications
The coronavirus pandemic has amplified the use of digital this year, more than anyone could have predicted. With fewer customers visiting branches, digital banking usage has skyrocketed. While this shift made banks realize that the digital experience should be their top priority, many are neglecting the glue that makes digital transformation work: digital customer service.

For many consumers, this is the first time they’re relying on digital for more-complex tasks like opening accounts and applying for loans. Customers must have the ability to be met with full support and guidance within digital channels by bankers that can see their issue in real time and help them find a resolution.

Boost Operational Efficiencies
Contact centers have traditionally fielded simple requests, such as determining account balances and transferring money between accounts, but now self-service and automation allows most customers to handle these more straightforward tasks themselves. As a result, bank agents are typically met with more complex requests and inquiries. This has created a need for contact centers to become more sophisticated, with more highly-trained and specialized employees.

Savvy banks are recruiting AI to help with this transition – not just for customer-facing inquiries but agent training as well. Bots can speed up customer service by surfacing relevant information during interactions, alleviating agents from manually retrieving data from back-end systems. They can also recommend the best next action and pre-approved verbiage for customer responses, reducing time and effort for agents and increasing compliance with bank policies. As agents accept or decline the suggestions, the bank’s system can capture more data to optimize and improve bot recommendations for more accurate, targeted assistance in the future.

Digitizing customer service and enlisting bots to assist agents gives banks a way to save time, increase operational efficiencies and boost staff morale and satisfaction. This is especially important now, as they navigate thin margins and the pressure to do more with less.

Increase Customer Engagement
Today’s phone-centric customer service models typically include long wait times and disjointed experiences. Once customers connect with an agent, they have to spend time reauthenticating and providing context around the issue at hand. Meeting customers where they are in the digital channel instead – whether that’s through chat, video or voice – ensures that the agent can see the issue in real time, eliminating any guesswork. Agents should never have to ask ‘How can I help you?’ again. This more-seamless option leads to a better customer experience and increased engagement and loyalty.

Customers expect their financial services providers to know and understand them, just as big tech companies and major retailers like Amazon.com and Netflix do. Through digital customer service, banks can better, more quickly access relevant customer information necessary to tailor responses and interactions, ultimately boosting customer loyalty. In fact, it’s common for banks that leverage digital customer service to experience 20% improvements in customer satisfaction, reflected in net promoter and customer satisfaction scores.

Banks are increasingly realize that a phone-first approach to customer service will no longer cut it, especially in the increasingly digital world.u202f In fact, the most-advanced institutions are removing phone numbers from their websites entirely, replacing them with flexible, digital-first communication options. Those that embrace digital customer service will be well positioned to keep and grow customer relationships, increase profit margins and secure a strong competitive position.