Bank Customer Service

Tips to Improve the Client Experience in a Bank

When is the last time you received really great customer service at your bank?

Today? Last week? Never? For millions of customers around the world dealing with banks either in a branch or online, the experience has become a poor one.

However it’s not all bad. Some banks such as Bank of America and the Royal Bank of Canada have gained good reputations for client care.

So, good bank customer service is possible!

In this article I will look at the importance of good customer service and examine a few ways banks can deliver better service.

Most banks have two main objectives; to be profitable and to satisfy customers. In order to achieve the first aim, the second one has to be met. This means finding out just how satisfied customers really are. One way of doing this is to undertake a mystery shopping campaign.

Undercover Mystery Shopping

This is how it works. Skilled secret shoppers visit the bank’s branches and make some enquiries or transactions. They then complete a report detailing their experience and scoring the performance of banking staff, waiting times, the appearance of premises and other important success factors.

The bank then analyses the feedback from the mystery shopper’s report. Management identifies the gaps between the desired quality of service and the quality of service actually delivered.

Next, options for improvement are discussed and improvement plans put into place. These plans may include employee training, changes in processes or procedures and improvements to the bank’s environment.

Banks must also look at the other ways customers deal with them. This could be by telephone or via the internet. More and more organizations are outsourcing their customer support operations overseas and it is important the bank’s customer care standards are met consistently.

Call Centers Can Improve Too

Call centers can be secret shopped with enquiries made over the phone. Performance is monitored and measured just like the face to face mystery shoppers.

When banks provide an online service, they must check their website is customer friendly. Important Information should be clearly available and access to all areas of the site should be intuitive.

Online customer chat is one way that banks could improve their customer’s experience. If the client encountered a problem using the site, they would be able to click on a link that connected them with a live helper. This would not only improve relations with the customer, but provide banks with an opportunity to “upsell” related financial products.

In summary, banks do have a long way to go improve the way they treat customers, but with enough customer focus and the will to improve, they can indeed satisfy their customers – and make a profit.