For Issuers, Unhappy Customers Need Not be a Tough Call

  Automated voice-recognition systems and issuers' Web sites have reduced the need for cardholders to speak with live customer-service representatives. But person-to-person telephone interactions still can make or break a customer's loyalty to a card.
  "In today's hypercompetitive market, customer service can be a key differentiator for organizations looking to expand customer relationships and, ultimately, gain share of wallet," says Kim Lankie, senior vice president of operations, collections and quality at GE Money, an issuer that manages cobranded card portfolios.
  The good news for issuers is that banking call centers get high marks from consumers compared with other types of call centers, according to a survey conducted in June by CFI Group, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based consultancy.
  The 900 respondents gave banking customer service representatives 81 points out of 100 for courteousness, 79 points for speaking in an understandable manner, 78 points for knowledge, 81 points for interest in helping customers, and 78 points for effectiveness at handling customers' issues.
  "What they're doing right is having representatives that anticipate the kinds of questions they'll get," says report author Sheri Teodoru, CFI Group program director and partner. "This isn't rocket science. It's basic blocking and tackling."
  Most questions reaching customer-service call centers are more complex than they used to be. That is because more customers conduct basic account management, such as making payments or checking balances, online or via interactive voice-response systems, says Alan Mattei, managing director at Novantas LLC, a consultancy based in New York.
  Interactive voice recognition (IVR) prompts can help manage some calls for pennies per interaction. That compares with an average of $6.95 per live customer-service interaction, according to a recent report by Boston-based Celent LLC.
  Automated systems, however, often frustrate customers trying to reach live representatives. "If I'm stuck in a labyrinth of voice prompts, I'm starting to think of the financial institution in another way," Mattei says.
  Discover Financial Services has won a number of customer-service awards, including a recent honor from Consumer Reports magazine, by providing access to human representatives within an average of 60 seconds per call.
  "Our IVR system includes short, concise menus and information that is relevant to our customers," says Keith Heckel, Discover's senior vice president of cardmember services. "And pressing zero any time will get you to an agent."
  That is important because some callers want human contact even if an automated system could help them. "If you've had your card lost or stolen, you could handle that on an IVR," Heckel says. "But sometimes that is an emotional-call type, and they want to speak to an agent."
  Besides offering human help, issuers should find ways to avoid small annoyances, Mattei says. "It's the simple things, like 'Why do I have to keep saying my card number over and over?' that frustrate people," he says.
  Customers appreciate easy-to-use Web sites and IVR systems, Teodoru adds. Forty-two percent of banking customers CFI surveyed said they tried to resolve their own account issues using other channels before calling customer service. Of those, 90% say they tried to resolve the issue using the bank's Web site.
  And callers do not mind recordings that inform them of Web and other automated service options. But issuers should not push too hard in trying to get customers to use those services, CFI's Teodoru says.
  "The goal shouldn't be pushing everyone to the Web," she says. "It should be answering people's questions in the channel they want."
  Respondents to CFI's survey were split in their perceptions of U.S. versus offshore call centers. Asked whether knowing a call-center representative is in another country affects their likelihood to do business with a company in any industry, 44% said it would affect their decision and 43% said it would have no impact. The rest said they did not know what impact it would have on their decision.
  GE Money relies mostly on its call centers in the U.S. and Canada but routes some calls to centers in the Philippines and India based on call volume and client agreements, according to Lankie. "The Philippines is fast emerging as a destination for customer-service processes," she says.
  Columbus, Ga.-based processor Total System Services Inc., or TSYS, routes calls from U.S. cardholders to call centers it operates in the U.S., the Philippines and India. It is building another center in South Africa, and calls from European cardholders go to centers in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, says Dale Sahs, TSYS senior vice president.
  India has an edge on technical support, Sahs says. "But for pure customer service, I would personally recommend the Philippines over India.
  Culturally, residents of the Philippines are much more Westernized than those of India, Sahs says. They watch U.S. television shows, and their accents are generally more palatable to most Americans.
  While large issuers generally use a mix of in-house, outsourced and off-shore call centers, smaller issuers tend to keep call centers in the U.S., Sahs says. "Smaller banks are marketing the personal touch: 'We know you, we're your neighbor,'" Sahs says. "It runs in the face of that marketing if a call goes to the Philippines."
  Properly screening call-center employees is crucial no matter where they are located. Applicants to U.S. call-center jobs generally have broad electronic files detailing credit histories, past addresses and possible criminal records.
  But background checks abroad may be just as rigorous, if not as automated, says Leigh Williams, president of BITS, the technology and operations division of the Financial Services Roundtable, a discussion and educational forum for bank executives that also lobbies legislators on behalf of the industry.
  BACKGROUND CHECKS
  "Electronic databases are not as complete in India, so firms tend to rely more on individual references and manual background checks," he says. "They might hire private contractors to check [paper] records in the home town of an employee."
  While continuous monitoring of employee activities may seem like a given, issuers should make sure contracts with third-party call centers detail employee audit procedures, Williams says.
  Whether across the world or next door, banks and third-party customer-service call centers that service card programs face an ongoing struggle to find the right service representatives, train them appropriately, then keep them happy enough to remain in the job long enough to recoup training costs. With average U.S. wages for call-center workers falling between just $10 to $12 per hour, plus bonuses, turnover of staff at call centers is between 25% and 50% per year, Mattei says.
  "The lower performers don't make their bonuses and then attrite," he says. "But it costs you a lot of money to bring people in and train them only to have them depart in six months to a year."
  Discover tries to keep its staff well-prepared with a ratio of 14 staff members per supervisor and with frequent training that includes listening to and evaluating their own calls and those of others that serve as teachable moments, Heckel says.
  More issuers are sweetening the call-center employment deal for top performers by letting them work from home. Discover says it allows a small number of its elite customer-service pros to handle inbound calls at home. And TSYS is considering a similar move.
  "There are some great benefits from a flexibility standpoint," Sahs says. "Since most of our people are part-time, you can get more hours out of them, which they can do on their schedules."
  TSYS uses a system called SmartCenter, by Nice Systems Ltd., to help forecast staffing needs based on past call volume. But having extra representatives at the ready is key when events such as a large retailer data breach bring a flood of calls from cardholders seeking security reassurances or new card activations, Sahs says.
  Security need not be an insurmountable obstacle for some call center representatives to work from home, Sahs says. That is because home computers can be taken over by secure connections to the same databases of cardholder data that monitor and limit access to information based on security clearance at call centers.
  "The technology takes over their computer, and it becomes a dumb computer, just a keyboard and a monitor," Sahs says.
  Whether they wear bunny slippers or wing tips to work, issuers' call-center staff members often have the most direct interaction with cardholders. Issuers should ensure the staffs are properly trained, monitored and rewarded.
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