Five year Increase in Customer Complaints an Opportunity for Banks, Financial Ombudsman Reports

  • Infrastructure
  • 15.05.2019 10:36 am

The number of customer complaints have climbed to a 5 year high in the financial services sector, up 130 per cent in some cases owing to customer service, according to the Financial Ombudsman Service complaints handling data out today. The increase in customer complaints poses a new challenge to traditional banks – the last year has seen a sharp rise in the number of new fintech start-ups entering the market[1], putting 35 per cent of the revenue of traditional banks at risk[2].

63 per cent of current financial services players didn’t exist a decade ago[3]. Millennial customers, who are largely brand-agnostic, are being offered superior products and services which can help them move, manage, and make the most of their money.

To stay competitive in an increasingly disruptive market, traditional banks are now focussing on providing a seamless digital customer experience and ‘on-the-go banking’, thereby transforming customer engagement, according to Aditya Arora, MD of the International Business Unit at Teleperformance Digital Integrated Business Services .

Aditya comments:  “By eliminating previous customer complaints surrounding forced hours spent on hold or promised call backs that rarely materialise, traditional banks are using chatbots to provide their customers with real-time communication throughout each touch point of their interactions with companies, resulting in higher efficiencies”.

Aditya continues:  “This said, the narrative has moved from ‘Humans vs Bots’ to that of assisted intelligence – which marries the human touch along with digital efficiency. Customers are now keen to experience real-time sentiment in chatbot technology, capable of offering social and emotional interactions, and not just automated responses. Chatbots that mimic human conversations help solve simple to medium complexity queries, however there are times when customers need something beyond an automated helpline. That is when a human empowered with unique sentiments is able to sort out a complex situation, leading to increased customer satisfaction.

“Accelerating digital transformation will see more traditional banks boost their workforce operations with software robots freeing employees to spend time on more impactful work. Success for banks will continue by bringing together human intelligence with analytics in a manner that strengthens the digital customer experience and thereby increasing customer loyalty. Each interaction matters!”

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