The call centers of the country's largest retail banks did not do well as a whole in O'Connor & Associates' latest test of quality and cross-selling, though some say they are satisfied with their phone reps' work despite the study's findings.
The centers' performance was the worst since August 2001, said O'Connor & Associates, which has made the test calls every August and March since 1996. It released the findings of the latest testing last week.
The seven service attributes tested include identifying customers' financial services needs. Anastasia O'Connor, the Stewartsville, N.J., company's president, said that if banks "could nail down the needs identification, they could nail down the cross-sell."
"What we're measuring isn't that complicated," Ms. O'Connor said in an interview last week. "They should be no-brainers, like asking for a name, using it, and at the end of the call asking if you want to proceed with a new product. It may just take a little push."
Most people contact bank call centers for routine matters, Ms. O'Connor said: to check balances, ask about fees, or confirm that a check cleared.
In the August study 13.8% of the service reps attempted to make a cross-sale, against 16.75% in March, 15% in August 2002, and 20.5% in O'Connor & Associates' inaugural testing. The 15 banks called were AmSouth Bancorp., Bank of America Corp., Bank One Corp., BB&T Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., FleetBoston Financial Corp., Huntington Bancshares Inc., KeyCorp, National City Corp., PNC Financial Services Group Inc., SunTrust Banks Inc., USAA, Wachovia Corp., and Wells Fargo & Co.
Some of these companies told American Banker that they are happy with the job their call centers are doing.
PNC says 25% to 30% of its retail banking sales originate in its call centers; Wachovia says its call centers will contribute more than $100 million to its 2003 net income; SunTrust says half of its sales from phone centers start as customer service inquiries at its call centers; and Key says its conversion rate - the number of call-center customers who end up buying additional products - is 40%.
The other five attributes tested by O'Connor & Associates are greeting the customer, establishing rapport,, product knowledge, and closing (leaving the customer with a positive impression). The company's callers ask about free checking, loans, and interest rates.
In the latest test the industry's aggregate score was 67.1%, which means that 67 times out of 100 the banks passed the evaluators' tests. That score was 68.9% in March and 69.6% in August 2002, and had not gone below 68% since August 2001. It was 58.1% in August 1996.
"A lot of institutions still view customer service over the telephone as an expense to be minimized," John McGuire, a SunTrust senior vice president who oversees online and call center customer service for the Atlanta company, said in an interview last week. "Getting people off the phone is big, because expense is a problem - that's why some are shipping to India, but they are missing the boat - here's a customer reaching out to you, it's a contact and you've got yourself a great sales opportunity."
SunTrust has five call centers whose 900 representatives handle more than a million calls a month, Mr. McGuire said.
Craig Campbell, an executive vice president and manager of PNC's national financial services center, said the Pittsburgh company invested this year in technology to help call center representatives sell more effectively.
"First and foremost we need to address the issue, and resolve it," Mr. Campbell said. "And then - and here's where the training and investment comes in - take the customer to the sales level."
PNC representatives now can see aggregated account and product information about each caller, as well as their call history, Mr. Campbell said. The new system also has pop-up screens that alert the representative of products that might be attractive to the customer. And though PNC still uses separate service and sales staff, it is starting to merge the two functions with the help of technology, as are many banks.
Wachovia said its service quality remained high even during its merger with First Union. It uses the Gallup Organization to measure customer satisfaction at its retail banking call centers and said it scored 6.3 out of a 7-point scale in overall satisfaction last month.
"The higher-value customer uses each of our channels - branch, online, and telephone call centers," said Steve Boehm, Wachovia's executive vice president and general manager of call centers. "And the happier they are with us, the more loyal they become and in turn more profitable."
Wachovia said it plans to install a system by the end of 2005 will scan a caller's product history to identify sale opportunities.
But call center staff will not actually make sales, Mr. Boehm said. Callers whose history indicates they may be receptive to a product offer will be transferred to a salesperson.
"At the end of the day, we need to increase customer loyalty," Mr. Boehm said. "You realize the amount of time on the phone is not just a cost, but possible revenue as well."
