Customer relationships lie at the heart of customer service

Peter Nicol, Vice President of Northern Europe at Aspect, argues for the continuing importance of
the contact centre and focusing on the customers’ needs.

The tools for customer service are changing more rapidly than ever and the contact centre industry perhaps has more big ideas and ‘management speak’ than most industries to describe this change. UC, CRM, CTI, BPO and WFO provide an alphabet soup of concepts and technology and a mistake for the industry could be that these letters are masking a different – and more basic – truth.

Human and personal relationships lie at the heart of effective customer service and they always will.

People may say that this over-simplifies the problems the industry has, and perhaps it does on a certain level. However, relationships should be the primary point of reference in all contact centre development, and at present they are not. Cost, making sure the technology works efficiently, or focusing on an agreed KPI with the management team are the measurements that align decisions made in the contact centre. While useful as indicators, they are not the end goal and, like any dogma, can in the end distort the true picture and not build good customer service.

While technology is changing the way many people view their banks and insurers, recent research from Aspect demonstrates that small failings in the contact centre have a direct connection to customers’ frustrations and where they think their providers can improve the most.

I can’t get no satisfaction

Aspect’s research asked a sample of UK consumers about their attitudes towards their banks and insurance providers. When asked how satisfied they were with the customer service received, specifically from the contact centre, 48 per cent claimed to be dissatisfied.

When the respondents were asked what bothers them the most with their insurance providers’ customer service, ‘call centre staff unable to perform necessary transactions’, ‘do not return calls’ and ‘takes too long to answer the phone’ all came out on top – all issues which originate from, and can be resolved in the contact centre.

These issues stem from inefficiencies in support systems and simple integration of more effective technologies, processes and training – all contributing to a better customer experience. Contact centre agents must be equipped with these tools in order to service customers well, and whilst many financial services providers have embraced these measures, there are clearly further improvements to be made by some.

Consumers’ greatest expectations of both their banks and their insurance providers is a high level of customer service, with a third (33 per cent) stating this factor above the range of products, security and varied channels of communication. The standard of customer service is also the highest influencing factor (28 per cent) for consumers when choosing a bank. Perhaps interestingly, this differs with insurance providers, where 46 per cent regard product specifications as the most important influencing factor when choosing a provider.

The greater focus on product rather than service when it comes to insurance illustrates the weaker personal relationship people have with their insurers than their banks and gives a clue as to the ease with which people feel able to change insurer while sticking with their bank.

Two-thirds (66 per cent) of consumers considered moving to another insurance provider in the last 12 months, and over four in ten (43 per cent) considered changing banks. Of these, nearly half (42 per cent) actually did move to another insurer, but only 8 per cent moved their accounts to another bank.

It is clear from the results that customers are more personal, passionate and committed to their relationship with their banks than with their insurance providers. This is possibly due to the fact that insurers are battling with aspects such as the fact that a customer who may never make a claim has spent thousands over many years, and each policy renewal is looking for a better deal, whereas for the banks, as long as a person is confident that their money is safe and being handled correctly, they’re extremely reluctant to change.

Integrating communications

Today, it is also essential that providers should be able to engage with customers via email, an online web application and even instant messaging (IM), with all channels so deeply integrated that the customer interaction is seamless. Consumers are also increasingly expecting convenience, but with a less automated and more human touch.

The changing expectations of customers that are driven by technology can be seen in what people thought financial services providers can do to improve – the most important being to develop a secure phone app, to be able to text questions to their providers, to have a single (and less complicated) access security system and a designated account manager to handle their problems.

While social media is the talk in many industries as the future of interaction with customers, it is not a view shared by those that responded to the survey, with only 3 per cent wanting to engage with their bank through social media, and 4 per cent with their insurer respectively.

The telephone, however, remains very important to customers, with 45 per cent of respondents saying that this is their main method of contacting their insurance provider.

The research also found that the biggest potential area for growth in communication is in email. Currently scarcely any customers use this channel to engage with their providers but a fifth of respondents expect to be able to. Contact centres need to tighten up their email processes and integrate them with the other key communication channels – online and telephone – and take advantage of this expectation amongst their customer base.

As wider and more advanced communication technologies become available, enabling customers to connect through a variety of channels, the financial services provider market will become more competitive.

However, to truly achieve the multi-channel status the consumers are craving, organisations must be able to successfully unify all channels. It is important to note, however, that human interaction should be supported and enhanced with technology, not hinder or replace it.

Customer service, as outlined, is extremely important to consumers within the financial services sector, and ensuring you provide a seamless experience for the customer, through communication is and will continue to be essential.