AI-driven contact centers serve customers on their terms

This post was first published in Raconteur.

Purpose-built, AI-based contact centers can help financial services firms overcome legacy challenges and better meet the evolving expectations of banking customers.

Consumers have become more demanding of their financial services providers over the past decade, expecting banks to meet them where and when they want to interact through their preferred channel and device. When it comes to the interactions themselves, they expect to be served not only quickly but in a personalized and contextual way that doesn’t require answering the same questions repeatedly while being passed through different channels and agents.

While these are firm expectations of contact centers across all industries in the digital age, customer emotions often run deeper when dealing with banks – the guardians of our money and day-to-day transactions. Consumers increasingly want banks to not just provide financial services but also advice, looking out for their overall financial wellbeing.

There’s a lot at stake. The days of staying with a bank for life are dwindling, while digital-first banks have made the ability to switch between financial services institutions seamless and easy. In a recent global study by Talkdesk, almost two-thirds of financial services customers said a single poor customer service experience will negatively impact their brand loyalty, presenting a stark and immediate threat to incumbent banks.

“Banking customers today are no longer sticky,” says Rahul Kumar, director of financial services strategy at customer experience solutions firm Talkdesk. “The proliferation of digital technology means our interactions with money are now constant; it’s embedded in everything we do. And if something goes wrong, people ultimately expect their bank to be available, proactive, and able to resolve issues promptly. If that experience is not delivered, they can very quickly take their business somewhere else, which is a real threat for banks.”

Seven in 10 customers are more loyal to financial services companies that are actively investing in customer experience and accelerating their pace of innovation, the Talkdesk research found. However, expectations are failing to be met, in large part because banks are using traditional contact center solutions not built specifically for financial services firms.