Banks are the cornerstone of the current world we live in; businesses and clients alike interact with them daily, some going as far as doing so every minute.

For this reason, Banks understand that their clients, small, medium, or large, need a way to interact with them at every moment to ensure business continuity or take rapid action when a critical situation arises.

The added complexity of the operations needs to be handled every day by a bank; visiting a bank for these operations can take a considerable part of the day.

With this in mind, a Banking institution would not see a viable investment in opening more locations with a large volume of tellers or employees, especially for simple tasks that can be resolved otherwise.

To put things into perspective, a study performed on 200 Banking institutions reported that employees and managers on location spend at least one-third of their day answering questions and inquiries.

For this reason, the investment in creating a Call Center is not a question for a Bank, and their existence is essential to ensure that there is available service 24 hours a day the 365 days of the year.

The Added Benefits of Having a Call Center for Customer Service Also Provide a Wide Range of Solutions Such As:

• Faster interaction and resolution for inquiries, allowing clients to solve their needs without the need to visit their Banking institution.
• Saving time for your clients, through a call it is also possible for clients to receive guidance.
• Resources available to the bank such as mobile applications, website portals, or other digital tools which in turn provides additional options for clients.
• Increase their productivity and interaction time with the banking institution.

• A decrease in the cost of the operation, with proper training and guidance a Call Center is a far cheaper solution than increasing the number of employees in location.

Flexibility in Operations

• A Call Center Customer Support Representative can easily perform different tasks when there is a micro-segmentation in the departments, it is easier to place an additional workforce when the call flow increases on another queue.
• Call Centers can be built as a safe environment that aligns with the needs of a Bank, by following compliance and rigorous security measures it stays inside the requirements that allow for client data to remain private and secure.
• Visibility on Services and Options, clients may not be aware of the full set of services or options at their disposal which a Customer Service.
• Representatives can provide guidance and assistance, this in turn adds an additional return of investment when clients wish to obtain additional services or a loan making it an excellent opportunity for an upsell
• Communication through different methods, Call Centers can provide support beyond calls such as live chat, e-mail, and fax, allowing the clients of the bank greater flexibility on their options to get support, especially when limited on the current tools at their disposal.

Call Center as an investment

The current global situation of Covid-19 also brought up an important change in how Banks and their clients interact, Banking Call Centers around the United States saw an initial surge in January of 2.2% in volume of calls.

In February the increase came to 21.5% and by March the volume had gone up to 36.2% across the board, in a single Banking Institution going up as much as 43.3%.

While these numbers are particular to this situation it is a key factor as to why Banks see a Call Center as an investment that provides them with a considerable return on investment.

It is important to note that to keep up with the requested contingency the Call Centers had to apply measures to allow their representatives to work from home, continuing with the flexibility of growth and service with the required security by the banking institutions.

In the end, a Bank without a Call Center is immediately losing the competitive edge against other peers in the business and risks seeing their clients and their business moving elsewhere to those who offer this option.

Are you keeping at the front of the competition, do you need help expanding your current Call Center solution or creating one for the benefit of your clients?

^[1] https://silvercloudinc.com/blog/top-3-banking-call-center-best-practices/

^[2] https://www.americanbanker.com/news/how-banks-prepared-call-center-reps-to-handle-surge-in-volume-from-home

Luis Olvera