Posts Tagged ‘customer care’

Exceptional customer service no longer an option, it’s a banking necessity

Posted on: October 24th, 2012 by art

In today’s age where customer retention and loyalty is as good as your last phone call, providing a fast and satisfying banking experience is more important than ever. With new regulations like the FFIEC Guidelines holding financial institutions more accountable than ever before, fulfilling federal requirements without sacrificing customer care is one of the top challenges many banks face today.

The recent American Banker article, “The Golden Rules of Retail Banking Customer Service,” highlights the important role that quality service has on customer satisfaction and retention. As ever-shifting banking trends such as the growing mix of sales channels and banking fees confuse and frustrate customers, banks have to work smarter and be more diligent to maintain customer trust and provide top flight customer care. If they don’t, customers will certainly find someone who will.

With customer loyalty being tested at every touchpoint — whether you’re servicing a customer over the counter, online or over the telephone — providing efficient, highly personalized customer service across all customer channels is no longer an option in today’s banking industry, it’s a necessity. Not including customer service initiatives in your overall business strategy or investing in the operational and security tools and technologies to get you there will eventually impact your customer satisfaction rating.

The article points out a number of things banking institutions can do to improve customer satisfaction across all channels. But achieving this is not easy. It’s a process that requires continuous measuring, analyzing and improving your overall business approach and strategy; then, once you’ve achieved that, repeating the process all over again.

When it comes to the telephone channel, addressing and satisfying your customers’ needs is about being proactive and resolving issues before they impact your ability to deliver exceptional customer service. One of the ways is to deploy security tools that allow you to work more efficiently within a more secure environment.

The TRUSTID® Physical Caller Authentication tool helps banks do both by taking a proactive, non-intrusive approach to authenticating customers over the telephone. By validating the Caller ID and ANI before the call is answered, TRUSTID allows financial institutions to take action against high-risk calls in real time. This process invisibly shuts the door on spoofed calls, essentially stopping fraud before a criminal has the opportunity to socially engineer a call center representative.

It also allows banks to quickly accept good customers with confidence without having to interrogate them with a bunch of non-predictive knowledge-based authentication (KBA) questions. This way, banks don’t waste valuable time or money on bad calls and can address good customers’ needs at the onset of each call, all of which provides for a better overall customer experience.

How invisible customer authentication blindsides criminals attempting phone fraud

Posted on: July 11th, 2012 by art

Much like any new or popular remote device, criminals see the telephone as a potential vehicle for fraud. Although low-tech by today’s standards, crooks still see value in using the phone as a way to commit crimes against financial institutions.

If trends like Juniper Research’s prediction that mobile device usage will become a $630 billion industry by 2014 hold true, social engineering over the telephone will not be going away anytime soon. If anything, crimes originating from telephones — whether a landline or mobile phone — will likely escalate along with overall consumer usage.

Despite these increasing threats, this doesn’t mean banks should stop servicing customers over the telephone channel. Personally, I don’t believe this will ever happen. Here’s why. First, the telephone remains one of the financial industry’s most widely used means of communicating with and serving customers. Second, with mobile technology growing like never before, there are too many opportunities for banks to grow new business to ever shut the door on the phone channel.

That said, the answer isn’t to eliminate one of the banking industry’s most relied upon customer service and sales channels. With more advanced Caller ID spoofing technology available for criminals to exploit banks’ security gaps and weaknesses, financial institutions need to proactively identify criminals before thieves have the opportunity to socially engineer their call centers. What I mean by this is banks need to find a way to validate who’s on the other end of the telephone line before the call is answered.

While many banks still use personally identifiable information (PII) in the form of telephone security questions to authenticate customers, these knowledge-based authentication solutions are basically “after the fact” solutions that essentially allow criminals in the door. When crooks reach this point, they have a significant advantage over unsuspecting call center agents. By correctly answering a series of security questions, the criminal’s trap is set. Gaining a false sense of trust with call center agents puts crooks in the position to obtain the personal or account information they need to access another person’s bank account.

To keep call center representatives from falling into this trap, banks need to authenticate callers before the phone conversation begins. That way nothing’s left for interpretation, and agents don’t fall prey to stolen information. In other words, identifying risky calls before the call is picked up is essential for reducing bank telephone fraud.

The TrustID® Physical Caller Authentication tool does this by automatically validating the Caller ID and ANI before the phone is answered. While remaining invisible to criminals and non-intrusive to customers, TrustID identifies the physical location of the landline or mobile phone in real time so financial institutions can see when an incoming call is coming from a legitimate customer or from an entirely different location. This level of validation blindsides criminals before they can attempt to defraud bank call centers, giving them an advantage over Caller ID spoofing and social engineering schemes conducted over the phone. Along with keeping fraudsters in check, TrustID’s non-intrusive, customer friendly approach also allows banks to improve the overall customer experience.

Ignoring the telephone channel leaves bank reps susceptible to social engineering

Posted on: May 29th, 2012 by art

Ignoring emerging social engineering threats and hoping your bank is not targeted by criminals is an unrealistic and ineffective way to stop attacks in today’s threat landscape. That’s the consensus of Symantec’s new Internet Security Report.

In the BankInfoSecurity article, “Social Engineering: Mitigating Risks,” Liam O Murchu, the manager of operations at Symantec Security Response, said lax security procedures, failing to address known security gaps, and not keeping up with fraud trends can make organizations susceptible to the latest incarnation of attacks launched by today’s crafty social engineers.

O Murchu said in recent years it’s become more difficult for criminals to launch silent attacks that don’t tip off the infected user, so they’ve been changing their ways. Today, they are designing schemes to exploit the weaknesses of the user instead of the weakness of the system. Since there’s no product that controls human behavior, we’re starting to see more social engineering attacks that are effectively convincing users into fall into their trap.

“At the end of the day, the user is definitely a vulnerable point in the chain and we need to have the technology that can aid them in making better decisions and protect them.” 

O Murchu added that organizations that have lax security procedures in place or have either overlooked or ignored some aspect of security are the most likely to be hit by social engineering attacks.

One area that has been overlooked has been the telephone channel. Not for a lack of usage, but primarily because of the perceived notion that most of today’s criminals are focused on the Internet to carry out their dirty deeds. While more Internet savvy criminals, combined with the proliferation of easy-to-use malware toolkits, have put pressure on financial institutions’ IT security teams to deploy solutions to stop online attacks, ignoring the telephone channel can leave banks vulnerable to social engineering.

While education can certainly help bank call center agents become more aware of new and evolving criminal tactics, each time they pick up the phone they are still exposed to methods aimed at convincing them to divulge personal or account information.

The TrustID® network-based Physical Caller Authentication tool prevents bank representatives from finding themselves in this situation by automatically verifying the physical location of the telephone before it is answered. Using Caller ID and ANI as validated sources to instantly authenticate legitimate customers and identify fraudulent ones before criminals can talk with bank representatives, TrustID adds a critical layer of defense against Caller ID spoofing and social engineering schemes aimed at defraud today’s banking institutions.

Linking call center service with customer retention and the bottom line

Posted on: May 23rd, 2012 by art

Every bank knows the role customer service plays in the profitable bank-customer relationship. Providing a great customer experience is essential to customer retention and building a stronger brand reputation that can help increase the bottom line. But if call center service remains one of the most frequent and important touch points for banking customers, why does it fall to the wayside when it comes to corporate priorities and investments?

I’ve written a ton about the changing face of customer service in the financial services industry, but recent events have made these scribblings more relevant than ever. Just this week I came across the article, “Why Most Call Center Service is So Bad,” in which Colin Taylor of the Taylor Research Group brings up some meaningful and pertinent points, including:

“The second form of neglect is neglecting to understand that a call center is a primary communications channel between the organization and its customers. In fact for many organizations it is the primary communications channel and the only meaningful one that facilitates a two way discussion, a dialogue. Failing to recognize this fact leads organizations to undervalue the contribution the call center and broader customer service and technical support plays in sustaining the business. Not only can a call center generate revenue through orders, up-sell and extensions, but the call center also protects revenue already promised through solving issues and fixing problems, many of which were not caused or created by the call center. As my colleague John Cockerill says, ‘There are only two kinds of calls; Value, where we gain revenue and Fault, where we fix a problem someone else created.’ By neglecting to understand the role played by the call center in maximizing lifetime value and customer retention these organizations treat the call center as an after- thought.”

Colin’s writing style is direct, perhaps even a bit blunt. However, he brings up some extremely valid points about how the expectation of poor service has unfortunately become engrained in our society. And he cites some pretty credible data to back up his words:

 

  • 86% of consumers quit doing business with a company because of a bad customer experience, according to Harris Interactive.
  • American Express found that 32% of Customer Service Experiences generally “Miss Expectations.”
  • AMEX also found that 61% of Americans report that quality customer service is more important to them in today’s economic environment, and will spend an average of 9% more when they believe a company provides excellent service.
  • More than 70% of senior call center executives revealed their companies fail to meet their customers’ expectations, according to Bain.
  • Companies give bad customer service because they see that it is far cheaper to pay for a corporate rally and “mission review” teams than to overhaul their tactical processes.

Numbers like these should serve as a wake-up call for banks. Instead of refocusing on new growth areas, financial institutions ought to sit up and take a good look how they are servicing their customers. Done right, they can sustain existing customers while also attracting new ones.

While I’ve said this before, I believe we are on the cusp of a major transformation in the financial services industry; an era where the success of the entire enterprise is dependent on the customer experience and its ability to service its customers’ needs. Over the next several years, we will start to see a market shift where financial institutions are no longer able to define their own brands. Instead, the consumer will define them through the influence and power that social media and other tools have given them. Banks that understand this shift, and alter their business processes to improve the customer experience and ensure consumer safety, will gain a competitive advantage that will significantly improve top and bottom-line performance for their shareholders.

How a customer feels during and after phone interactions can be a significant differentiator for banks today because too many have lost sight of how to provide quality customer service over the telephone. The good news is not all is lost. When you understand that reconciling the needs of the customer with the needs of the enterprise is paramount to the mutually trusting relationship between customers and their banks, you realize they can co-exist.

One way to do this is by eliminating interrogation at the onset of every call and giving the customer more perceived control over the bank-customer relationship. The TrustID® undetectable, network-based Physical Caller Authentication tool helps financial institutions achieve this on two levels – by re-establishing Caller ID and ANI as a valid credential for customer authentication and improving customer service in the telephone channel.

The bottom line is banking customers want to be trusted and respected, and demand both safety and convenience. By paving the way for banks to transform the customer experience, TrustID is proving that customer service and the bottom line don’t have to be at odds, particularly when it comes to one of the financial services industry’s primary communications channel — the call center.

Customer Care: Key to building a strong financial brand in the digital age

Posted on: February 15th, 2012 by art

The financial services industry is experiencing a major transformation, where the success of the entire enterprise is dependent on a bank’s ability to quickly and non-intrusively serve their customers’ needs. Today, we’re entering a new age where unhappy customers can instantly express their dissatisfaction for a brand across the Internet at the speed of light. Moving forward, banking institutions will need more than a clever marketing spin to build and maintain a positive brand; they will need to protect their customers, enhance the customer experience and improve overall customer satisfaction, all at the same time.

Doing this over the telephone channel requires the ability to authenticate callers without hitting them with a bunch of knowledge-based authentication (KBA) questions before customers can even clarify their needs to call center agents. While KBA has long been used to identify customers over the phone, this method has become outdated, and is no longer predictive of identity. In fact, for banks that rely on KBA and personally identifiable information (PII) to identify customers over the telephone, the good work that fraud teams are doing to create a positive customer experience is being undermined by highly intrusive phone interrogations. This sets the wrong tone with customers and prospects. As a result, banks are:

 

  • Putting themselves and their customers at risk of phone fraud and social engineering schemes
  • Not respecting the customer’s time by requiring them to initially answer a bunch of security questions
  • Increasing call center operating expenses by adding seconds to the average handle time (AHT)
  • Doing great harm to their customers’ trust and goodwill by creating an unpleasant experience

In today’s digital age, to build a strong brand and improve the larger, more profitable bank-customer relationship, financial institutions need to provide a new level of customer care that eliminates unnecessary and costly banking procedures.

At TrustID, we are committed to making the telephone channel safe for financial institutions and businesses to serve their customers. By automatically validating the customer before the call is answered, the TrustID® network-based Physical Caller Authentication eliminates the need for customer interrogations at the beginning of each call. By using the phone as a valid “Something you have” authentication credential for identifying customers, we’re also helping banks improve the overall customer experience.

Over the next several years, brands will be defined by how banks protect and treat their customers. In an environment where every customer touch counts, none more so than the most personal channel, the telephone, a bank’s ability to quickly serve customers will have a huge impact on how banking customers perceive their brand. Financial institutions that understand this, and take steps to alter their banking processes to invisibly improve safety and the customer experience, will gain a hard-won competitive advantage by retaining existing customers and earning the business of new ones.

How banks can balance enterprise demands with customer care

Posted on: October 4th, 2011 by art

We’d all like to believe we are in control of our own destiny. But for the financial services industry, which is on the cusp of a transformation, nothing could be farther from the truth.

Today, the success of the entire enterprise is dependent on the customer experience, and the ability to service customers’ needs. This is no easy task for financial institutions trying to perfect the delicate balancing act of improving the top and bottom line performance for their shareholders while maintaining the trust and respect of their customers.

The answer, of course, is finding a way to secure the enterprise without interrupting or negatively impacting the customer experience. Unfortunately, current fraud prevention strategies — many of which still focus on knowledge-based authentication (KBA) — are at odds with both customer care and the bottom line. KBA eats up precious phone time with customer interrogations to validate caller identity before the bank’s call center agents can begin servicing them, creating an even bigger disconnect between fraud prevention strategies and customer care goals.

Banks and financial institutions need to understand how their authentication services are impacting the trust and goodwill of their customers. Why is this important? We needn’t look no further than Forrester analyst, Bill Doyle, who explains why big banks receive poor customer rankings.

“Part of it is that the banks are preoccupied with their bottom line. They are public institutions who are in business to make money for their shareholder and inevitably, that shows to customers.”

The impact on customer retention and attrition all lies in the customers’ perception of what the bank truly cares about — customers or the bottom line?

In a New York Times article covering Forrester Research’s “Customer Advocacy” report and the least trusted banks in America, Jennifer Saranow Schultz writes:

According to [Forrester Analyst] Bill Doyle, customer advocacy rankings are a predictor of customer retention and attrition, and customers who rate their financial service firms high are more likely to consider their firm for additional products. In contrast, customers who give their banks a low ranking are most likely to switch in the next year and are “going to be reluctant to put any more money and open new accounts at those institutions,” Mr. Doyle said.

The good news is, I’m here to say is the bottom line and customer service do not need to be at odds with one another. While reconciling the needs of the customer with the needs of the enterprise is paramount to the mutually trusting relationship between customers and their banks, it can be done.

How?

By eliminating interrogation at the onset of every call and giving the customer more perceived control over the important bank-customer relationship. Understanding the shift that’s taking place in the financial services industry and altering existing business processes to invisibly improve the customer experience and ensure consumer safety will help banks gain a competitive advantage that will improve their top- and bottom-line performance.

TrustID is paving the way for financial institutions to do both.

We understand that customers want to be trusted and respected, but also demand both safety and convenience. The TrustID® Telephone FirewallTM validation solution instantly authenticates identity with physical validation of the phone location (landline or mobile) to empower financial institutions to confidently identify calls coming into a call center before the call is answered. This prevents social engineering security breaches by combating the growing threat of Caller ID and ANI spoofing and reduces reliance on KBA, which lessens average handle time and produces savings of millions of dollars in operational expense.

Undetectable to callers and invisible to criminals, the Telephone Firewall solution is non-intrusive and customer-friendly, so banks can get straight to selling and servicing, which is beneficial to both their customers and bottom line.

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  • CISO Text

             

    Authentication without caller involvement materially improves the customer experience, especially for ‘premier accounts.’ TrustID will greatly assist with not only customer service, but also with board level compliance issues.

    – CISO, top 10 global bank

  • CISO 2 Text

             

    As less customer PII is made available to our contact  center advocates for identity validation, our enterprise risk of a costly data  breach is dramatically decreased.

              – CSO, global financial company

    Offshore agents are highly vulnerable to fraud schemes  and social engineering. TrustID’s solution enables informed routing decisions,  optimizing agent cost reduction programs.

             - CISO, top 10 global bank           

  • VP Quote text

         

    Since  it is now commonly sold by criminals, personal information for identity  authentication is no longer the single solution to identity resolution. The  value of knowing reliably that a customer is calling from their phone is far better security than knowing the last four digits of someone’s SSN.

    - VP of Card Fraud, large international bank