You know what’s frustrating? Walking into a bank and feeling like just another number. You wait in line, finally get to the counter, and the teller seems more interested in their computers than in helping you. It’s no wonder so many people dread dealing with their banks. It doesn’t have to be this way. Banks can improve customer service by differentiating themselves, prioritizing and improving customer experience, and utilizing transcription solutions to understand customer feedback better.
Customer service boils down to investing in their people, their technology, or their processes to create a smooth interaction for every customer, breaking down silos to promote collaboration, and most importantly, never losing sight of the human element—the fact that behind every account number is a real person.
In this article, you’ll learn:
- There is a direct link between customer service and business performance. Clients/consumers remember their last negative experience and tend to move on.
- Banks can optimize their customers’ experience by utilizing multiple contact channels, analyzing feedback, providing continuous employee training, and utilizing transcription.
- Ditto Transcripts remains the best-outsourced choice for banks and other businesses, with its 99% accuracy guarantee, fast turnaround times, and affordable rates.
How Important Is Customer Satisfaction?
Customer satisfaction is the soul of any thriving business, including banks. A recent study shows 61% of clients/consumers ditch a brand after a single negative experience. 73% of business leaders report a direct link between customer service and business performance.
When clients are happy, they keep returning, spending more, and eagerly recommending your bank to others. However, it’s not only about the bottom line—monitoring satisfaction levels gives you a pulse on how well your team is performing and where they can improve.
Let’s touch on some of the common mistakes banks make that can ruin customer satisfaction, starting with the most common ones:
| Mistakes | Description |
| Lack of Protection of Consumer Data | Failure to secure customer data leads to financial, reputational, and legal consequences. |
| Lack of Straightforward Prices and Fees | Excessive fees, such as overdraft fees, drive customers to seek more transparent options. |
| No Online or Mobile Banking | Customers expect easy access to banking services through digital platforms, and banks must adapt to meet this demand. |
| Bad Customer Service Experience | Poor customer service, including long wait times and unhelpful representatives, is a major reason customers switch to other banks. |
If you can quickly address these mistakes, you can protect the bank’s reputation and prevent “bad experience stories” from spreading like wildfire on social media.
We’ve listed eight practical ways for banks to improve their customer experience. The key is to prioritize it at every step of the journey. Do this right, and you’ll build the loyalty that’ll take your business to higher levels.
1. Use Contextual Data
Contextual data contains insights into customers’ engagements, preferences, and requirements, which could allow banks to customize their services to individual needs. Successful fintech companies, such as Chime and Starling Bank, use the same strategy, allowing them to gain more market share.
Traditional banks must adopt strategies that have made these startups successful, such as leveraging contextual data. Financial institutions can also use CRM software to gather contextual data from their customer base, such as geographic location, life milestones, purchasing habits, customer service interactions, and social media activity.
A detailed client/customer profile stored in a centralized CRM system allows bank staff to access the information. Doing so helps handle service requests, develop targeted campaigns, and more.
2. Provide User-Friendly Self-Service Options
Providing a self-service option to customers is another surefire way to improve customer experience.
Consumer self-service has become a popular trend, with 67% of customers using self-service support portals and 73% attempting to resolve issues before contacting support reps. If the financial services industry implements self-service opportunities, it could lead to an overall reduction in call center volume and improve customer service.
Mobile banking apps also present a solution to capitalize on this trend. In comparison, most banks and credit unions have developed mobile functionality, but not all effectively use their applications—though that’s a different topic.
3. Promote Financial Literacy Among Customers
According to recent research, financially literate customers are more profitable due to their credit-driven nature and higher usage of depository products. Americans tend to overestimate their financial literacy and need to be made aware of financial literacy resources, which presents an opportunity for banks to educate their clients and improve the overall customer experience.
Financial institutions can structure finance literacy programs as educational materials through mobile banking apps or in-house financial advisors at branch locations. Community banks and credit unions have successfully hosted educational workshops, participated in community outreach, and collaborated with schools to develop financial literacy curricula.
If you’re curious, the American Bankers Association and the National Financial Educators Council offer excellent resources to help banks develop financial literacy programs, and banks can also recommend pre-existing programs to customers if creating their own seems too challenging.
4. Support and Train Your Employees
Effective employee training equips staff with the tools to handle customer interactions positively. Banks should invest in these training programs incorporating modern techniques like virtual simulations.
Alongside training, creating an internal knowledge base lets employees quickly access information such as policies and industry regulations. Regularly updating this knowledge base ensures that employees have the most relevant material at their fingertips.
Investing in the latest front-end and back-office banking systems—CRM solutions and CX systems with predictive analytics—also lets staff provide better service. These systems allow representatives a more expansive view of the customer without switching between multiple platforms.
5. Gather Customer Feedback From Customer Engagements
Good business acumen means management listening to customers. They hold a ton of insight that even the most advanced predictive analytics platform can’t replicate. Your customer data might tell you who they are and forecast their future actions, but it can’t get inside their heads.
For that reason, directly asking for their feedback is incredibly valuable. You’d understand if you’re meeting their needs, know what products or services pique their interest, and gain ideas for elevating their overall customer experience.
The possibilities for gathering customer feedback are endless, but one of the most effective strategies is to build it into every customer touchpoint. After a call with a service rep, the rep could finish the conversation by confirming that the customer has no further questions and is satisfied with the support they received. You could have a quick two-to-three-question followup survey after a customer completes a transaction.
6. Create an Omnichannel Customer Experience
Develop a consistent multi-channel strategy that blends the best of both worlds—traditional branch banking and digital offerings. You might think the world is going fully digital, but the data tells a different story.
Past research shows that 29% of Americans still prefer opening a new checking account in person at a branch, while 78% prefer to bank via a mobile app or website.
So, don’t put all your eggs in one basket—creating an omnichannel experience that integrates traditional digital touchpoints means customers can get you feedback. The winning strategy? Leverage as many touchpoints as possible to achieve a better customer experience.
7. Offer Tailored Advice to Retail and Small Businesses
The 2008 financial crisis severely affected small businesses, with 170,000 closing between 2008 and 2010. Many of those that survived took years to recover from loans, layoffs, reduced spending, and halted expansion plans.
Many banks can improve the customer experience by transitioning from lenders to financial advisors to provide effective products and services that support small businesses’ long-term growth.
Deepening existing relationships with small businesses is crucial to preventing them from moving to fintech companies. Banks must adapt small business banking interactions to capitalize on the power of new technology.
8. Utilize Transcriptions
Although it may not be obvious, business transcriptions can help banks create an exceptional customer experience in multiple ways, such as:
| Use Case | Description |
| Call Center Transcription | Transcribe customer calls to identify issues, trends, and opportunities for improvement. |
| Compliance and Quality Assurance | Ensure compliance with regulations and internal policies, and enable efficient quality assurance. |
| Personalized Service | Create detailed customer profiles from past interaction transcripts to provide personalized service. |
| Multichannel Integration | Apply transcription across phone, video, and chat to maintain consistent service quality. |
| Accessibility | Provide transcripts of audio and video content for customers with hearing impairments or reading preferences. |
| Fraud Detection | Identify potential fraud by flagging keywords or patterns in customer conversation transcripts. |
| Agent Assistance | Provide live captions of customer conversations to help agents quickly grasp the context and respond effectively. |
| Training and Onboarding | Use transcripts of exemplary customer interactions to train new agents and showcase best practices. |
Let Ditto Handle Your Transcription Needs
What are the benefits one can experience when choosing Ditto Transcripts? Here are some examples of what you can expect:
- Accuracy: We guarantee 99% accuracy in every transcription project. All you have to do is focus on creating valuable recordings like customer calls, and we’ll transcribe them flawlessly.
- Human Expertise: Our team isn’t filled with robots. We have professional transcriptionists who understand the subtlety of multiple speakers or the banking business jargon. They’ll create transcripts that will reflect the natural flow of your conversation.
- Turnaround Time: We understand time is money, so ensure you deliver your transcripts within the agreed-upon timeframe. You can also choose the turnaround time. You can opt for a rush project or a standard one.
- Security: Not all audio recordings are created equal, and we understand that some may contain sensitive information. For that reason, Ditto Transcripts is HIPAA, CJIS, and FINRA compliant. You can sleep well at night knowing that your content is secured with us.
- Affordability: We acknowledge that bank audio recordings can be highly valuable for organizations, and transcribing them can be costly. So, we offer high-quality transcription services that won’t break the bank. We have options to fit any budget without sacrificing a single bit of quality.
- 24/7 Customer Service: Humans run our customer service process—not chatbots. We take the time to understand your requirements and will gladly assist you with technicalities or answer any questions for a smooth customer experience.
- Customizability: Our transcription services aren’t just about accuracy and meeting the client’s requirements. Do you need a verbatim transcript that captures every “um” and “uh”? Or do you need a polished version for a blog post? We can modify the transcript to satisfy your needs and ensure you get exactly what you need to reach your goals.
Experience Our Business Transcription Services
Witness the full potential of your audio and video content with professional corporate transcription services from Ditto Transcripts. Gain the benefits of improved efficiency, cost-effectiveness, accessibility, and legal compliance with the highest level of accuracy.
Partner with us to smoothen your workflow, enhance decision-making, and drive your business forward in this data-driven world. Not convinced? Contact us today for a free trial.
Ditto Transcripts is a Denver, Colorado-based transcription company that provides fast, accurate, and affordable transcription services for businesses of all sizes. Call (720) 287-3710 today for a free quote, and ask about our free five-day trial.
