The proliferation of the Internet and e-Commerce has created significant demand for self-service channels in the contact center space and financial institutions are no exception. However, consumers continue to contact organizations via the call center through traditional phone calls and as a result, this channel needs to be specifically customer-centric to ensure high levels of service are achieved.

 

To measure the performance of this channel in the financial services industry, Vocal Laboratories studies the quality of telephone based customer among six financial services companies for the second half of 2006. This study, the SectorPulse, focused on Washington Mutual, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank, e-Bay subsidiary PayPal and Wachovia.

 

When measuring the percent of its customers able to complete their business with a single phone call, Washington Mutual, while still the satisfaction leader, dropped from a “B” to a “C” and from an “A” to a “B” in overall customer satisfaction from the previous study.

 

Wells Fargo dropped from a “B” to a “C” in satisfaction while remaining at a “D” in single call completion. Citibank struggles with satisfaction as it remained at a “C” in this area and a “D” in completion.

 

No change was seen in the results for Bank of America which earned “D” scores in both categories. Feedback indicated that Wachovia should rank near the top, but too few responses were received to actually issue letter grades for this institution.

 

PayPal, although not a direct competitor with traditional banks, processes millions of online financial transactions each year. For the second half of 2006, the company’s satisfaction score dropped from a “B” to “C” with single call completion remaining at the “B” level.

VocaLabs CEO Peter Leppik commented in a statement: "As an ever greater percentage of routine financial transactions are handled electronically, telephone contacts are increasingly for more complex transactions and problem resolution. This adds to the difficulty financial institutions have in pleasing callers. Some part of the declining scores are likely to be attributable to holiday season related consumer cash flow issues as well."

Interested parties can visit the Vocal Labs website to access an Executive Summary and the complete SectorPulse-Financial data reports are available by subscription.

While little information is shared by Vocal Labs on the scientific validity of this study, it is interesting that organizations that are employed by individuals to protect their financial interests are struggling in the area of customer satisfaction and many saw a decline in the measured areas during the second half of last year as compared to the first half.

 

This is information enough that the organizations in this space should sit up and take notice. This is a highly competitive industry and most organizations offer the same types of products and services and thus customer service deliverables can often be their only differentiator. Without a heavy focus on changing to a customer-centric strategy, these organizations should expect to see an increase in customer churn.