KQ Article

The phone rings, and the service representative sighs with exasperation. She dreads fielding yet another call from another irate customer, regarding another issue she doesn’t have the wherewithal to adequately address.

The representative races through the scripted greeting. “Good morning, and thanks for calling Our Bank,” she begins, her monotone voice matching her gloomy expression. “How may I help you?”

This same dread looms over service departments atfinancial institutions across the country. After conducting exhaustive research on problem resolution, the 2007 Collaborative validated what many in the industry suspected: financial services representatives are ill equipped to deal with customers and their problems. As a result, many of these employees develop a defeatist attitude from their inability to resolve the issues that come their way.

This behavior clashes sharply with the original reason many choose to work in customer service. Most newly hired banking representatives are genuinely excited to assist others and serve as a customer advocate, but this enthusiasm slowly succumbs to a sense of powerlessness and disconnection.

Although not obvious, such insufficient service performance can pose a serious threat to a financial institution’s brand equity, because how your customers and members feel about you profoundly shapes your brand in the marketplace. And few experiences influence customer perceptions more than their interactions with your service representatives.

A matter of priority
So what are the causes of this poor service department performance? Our research reveals that a near-universal tension exists between sales quotas and service orientation. Customer service representatives feel they are restricted in  terms of their latitude in creatively resolving issues. Their supervisors focus primarily on sales, while senior management remains preoccupied with new customers and new products. Service staff are evaluated in terms of dollar signs and efficiency measures instead of customer satisfaction.

Consider the damage that a rushed, sales-focused service representative can do to your reputation and brand. When customers or members call with issues involving their hard-earned money, they rightfully expect to reach an empathetic, patient advocate on the phone. A sales pitch is the last thing they want to hear, and both customer and service employee satisfaction levels can suffer in consequence.

Effective service, strong brand
The Collaborative set out to remedy this situation with a new, holistic problem-resolution approach. The approach considers not only the elements of the problemresolution conversation itself, but also the employee attitudes and skills brought into the encounter, as well as the customer’s level of satisfaction after the problem gets resolved. In addition, the approach stresses giving service representatives the tools and training necessary to feel empowered and comfortable in doing their jobs. And this preparation seems to make all the difference.

THE HOLISTIC APPROACH: KEY PROBLEM RESOLUTION FACTORS
Service representative attitude.
If a staff member feels powerless, rushed and pushed to sell instead of serve, the effectiveness of the problem’s resolution will almost certainly suffer.

Initial customer attitude and expectations.
A customer who encountered little help during the last service call might betray a less-thancooperative mood this time around.

Service representative usefulness during customer interaction.
By equipping and encouraging your service department to resolve issues instead of merely meeting quotas, you can improve service outcomes, reduce turnover and enhance loyalty.

Final customer attitude.
Customer gut feelings define your brand. But you hold the power to influence these feelings, and an engaged and empowered service staff will do much to sway them in your favor.

While the customer problems didn’t go away when service representatives were adequately prepared, the word problem practically disappeared from the representatives’ vocabulary. Rather than dreading the next phone call, they began to actually look forward to the next chance to assist a customer with their specialized skills.

This attitude adjustment can have a profound positive impact on the customer experience, revealed by this real-world example. Recently, a service representative was on the phone with a customer experiencing online banking problems. The typical resolution path would have been to promptly get the customer logged back in — resetting passwords, accessing online help, etc. — and ending the call in the name of efficiency.

But after receiving the adequate training and tools, this representative recognized that in addition to needing help with online account setup, the customer required a tutorial of the online banking system in general.

This customer wasn’t comfortable using a PC, so the representative slowly and confidently walked him through the basics of using the online banking application.

Later that day, flowers and a $25 gift certificate arrived for the service representative, as a token of the customer’s appreciation. The accompanying note read, “Thank you for the miracle of getting me online. You were patient and helpful. You’re just another reason why your bank is the best!”

As financial services professionals, we are experts at streamlining processes. Our business teams typically focus on root-cause analysis and processes to eliminate problems. But our research shows that when you also work to strengthen the effectiveness of your service staff, problems have a way of disappearing — especially in the eyes of the service representatives themselves.