JIM MORGAN
Customer access
How knowledgeable, polite, easy to understand, interested in helping out and effective in handling customer problems are banks’ call center staff?
Based on results from Claes Fornell International (CFI Group), an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based benchmark consulting company that asked those questions of U.S. consumers and recently released the results, the answer is “very.”
Banks and credit unions ranked second for customer satisfaction among six industries studied nationwide.
Seventy-seven percent of their customers said they were satisfied with the bank’s call centers. That number can be compared to 80 percent of catalog retailers’ customers, who were the most satisfied, and 64 percent of personal computer help-line users, who were the least satisfied.
According to CFI Group, customers prefer to deal with call centers located in the United States and with representatives who are well trained, particularly in helping them navigate a company’s Internet site.
“We found that about 42 percent of banking customers try [the institution’s Web site] before they call,” said Sheri Teodoru, a CFI group partner and author of the nationwide study. “They don’t get the answer they are looking for. Maybe they don’t trust it, so they call.
“If the representatives are familiar with the Web site, they can help more,” she suggested.
Still, “I think at the end of the day, it’s all about results – whether the customer’s problems were resolved,” she added. “The banking industry has clearly put the mechanisms in place to resolve those problems.”
CFI Group, which consults with clients in the industries studied, decided to conduct the survey because it has observed over the years that “touch points” between customers and the various industries make a difference in customer satisfaction, according to Teodoru.
Significantly, the study found that 20 percent of bank customers will consider switching to another institution – even though it’s not an easy thing to do – based solely on a poor experience with a call center, she said.
Massachusetts banks and credit unions measure customer satisfaction by service representatives themselves, who ask a customer if they’ve had their question answered; “mystery shoppers,” people who call a help line depending to be a customer; post-phone call customer surveys; and supervisors who listen in on phone calls.
“Our first-call resolution rate is about 97 percent,” said Cynthia Merkle, chief operational risk officer at Eastern Bank, a $6.7 billion institution whose call center is based in Lynn, employs 50 representatives and runs from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and shorter hours on Saturdays.
Merkle said national industry statistics show banks’ call centers solve callers’ issues on the first try between 90 percent and 95 percent of the time: “One of the key measures is, ‘Did the customer get what they wanted when they called?'”
At Eastern, she said, supervisors monitor random calls and representatives always ask, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” at the end of the call.
Merkle and others attributed the difference between the banking industry’s and CFI Group’s results to different measurement techniques and criteria measured.
TD Banknorth, which has more than 150 Massachusetts branches and two call centers in Maine and Springfield, Mass., calls customers to check how satisfied they were with the results of their own calls. The result have been “strong,” said Senior Vice President and Contact Center Manager Jon Cogswell, though he declined to say how strong.
Cogswell said TD Banknorth’s call center hours were recently extended to a daily period of 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., more than what’s offered by most Massachusetts banks.
‘A Key Channel’
Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America spokeswoman Betty Riess said BofA’s goal is to create a “consistent” and “positive” experience for customers, whether they call, visit or use the Web.
“Our call centers are a key channel,” she said, adding that all of those that serve U.S. customers are located inside the United States.
Another major U.S. bank that does not yet have Massachusetts offices, but is rumored to want to open here, recently made the decision to open a call center in the Philippines early next year. The Charlotte Observer reported last week that Charlotte-based Wachovia Bank would partner with an Indian outsourcing company to staff its 14th center; 13 are already located in the United States.
“Over the next five to seven years, we expect a significant increase in call-center volume. Our plan is to use the Philippines facility to offset that,” Wachovia spokeswoman Christy Phillips Brown told the Observer.
Teodoru, meanwhile, pointed to “off-shoring” of helpline representatives and lack of product knowledge as the main reasons why the personal computer industry scored low on the satisfaction survey – and banks scored high.
She said bank customers CFI Group surveyed perceived that their issues were being resolved within the United States. “And at the end of the day, their issue was solved, so they’re happy,” she said.
Massachusetts bank and credit union executives said call centers are important in their business plans.
Nationally, call center representatives are paid an average of $31,000; stock banks pay more than mutual banks, and savings banks more than commercial banks, according to an America’s Community Bankers national survey in 2005.
“We live in a time-starved nation. Having our services easy to get to is important,” said TD Banknorth’s Cogswell. The bank’s call center, he added, is a “pretty important” part of that. It’s also worked hard to keep its Web site up to date, he said, noting that last year, the site was ranked No. 1 for its “simplicity” in an independent national survey of 65 bank and insurance firms.
Colleen Hughes, a spokeswoman for Leominster Credit Union, said the credit union thought enough of the call center idea to open its first one four years ago.
“We always got a lot of phone calls but having [a dedicated center] allowed us to encourage them more,” she explained. LCU’s call center is located at its main branch in Leominster and employs six staff members.
Mt. Washington Bank Senior Vice President for Retail Banking Jim Morgan said his own bank’s call center, which also employs about a half-dozen workers, also opened within the past several years, after President and Chief Executive Officer Edward Merritt arrived in 1999.
“There was also no online banking then,” Morgan pointed out. “I think that’s true of most banks our size.”
Morgan said the current mindset at South Boston-based Mt. Washington, which has $500 million in assets, is that “we want our customers to access us however they want to.”
The CFI Group survey results are posted online at http://cfigroup.com/callsat. It is meant to be a resource to all industries studied, a spokeswoman said.
The study included the opinions of customers of large banks, such as Bank of America and Citibank, as well as mid-sized banks, community banks and credit unions.
