3 service pain points that make clients want to switch banks

In an industry where relationships matter, competition in commercial banking is fiercer than ever and both client and employee engagement expectations are changing. According to a Corporate Banking Customer Satisfaction Survey by Finextra and Pega, 90% of big corporate clients would consider switching financial institutions for better servicing. However, legacy systems, antiquated processes, and shifting regulatory requirements all put pressure on banks to balance the delivery of personalized client service with the cost of meeting their customers’ rising service expectations.

Where are commercial banks seeing the most customer service challenges? We’ve outlined below the three biggest pain points and how to fix or prevent them:

1. Lack of proactive, informed customer service

A growing amount of channels, data, products, regulations, and services is increasing the volume and complexity of commercial banking work, making it difficult for client relationship managers to understand and anticipate how each client might be affected by any number of variables.

Solution: Use analytics and AI to anticipate client needs. It’s a fortunate bank that has on staff a relationship manager who really knows the client, his business, and provides exemplary, personalized, proactive service. But something as routine as a simple reorganization or an employee turnover could affect the accuracy and timeliness of the service delivered. For banks to proactively identify and mitigate potential problems, they need to operate on a platform that integrates data and processes across systems and lines of business and allows them to incorporate and apply analytics, machine learning, and AI. These digital technologies help banks evaluate the relevancy of new products and services, in essence turning information into guided insight and identifying the next best action for nurturing their client relationships.

2. Unsatisfactory time to resolution

Fractured, older system architectures that don’t operate across departments, divisions, regions, and channels result in disconnected data and processes. This, in turn, limits a bank’s visibility into real-time client information and makes it difficult for banks to respond to customer inquiries in an accurate and timely way. For example, repeatedly asking clients for the same information – information that should already be captured in their record and visible in an accessible way – slows down the response to an inquiry. Undefined business rules or broken processes similarly contribute to slow resolution times, creating client frustration.

Solution: Leverage digital process automation to improve straight-through processing and first-inquiry resolution. Workflow friction may be caused by any combination of disconnected processes, manual interventions, and siloed technology. Digital tools like self-service portals and natural language processing (NLP) can help identify and triage incoming requests, initiating work based on defined business rules. Stage-based case management helps execute those rules in the most efficient order. Robotic automation speeds essential integrations and data sharing. And an operational backbone of digital process automation (DPA) orchestrates all of the moving parts – digital devices, systems of record, integrations, business rules, and AI to simplify back-end fulfillment, payment, reporting, audit, and other mission-critical operations – while optimizing the overall client journey.

3. Inconsistent service across channels and regions

Today’s banking clients have the same tech-savvy expectations as any consumer. They prefer to connect with banks in real time, when they want and how they want, accessing their information on their own terms on the channel or device of their choice, including self-service portals. But many banks take a channel-first approach, building out the functionality in one channel, and not fully integrating it into the overall enterprise system. This traps the information within the channel, creating blind spots across channels, regions, and lines of business, and limiting real-time visibility into a client’s overall journey. Ultimately it prevents banks from interacting contextually with speed, ease, simplicity, consistency, and relevancy.

Solution: Real-Time, omni-channel support for client journeys. Banks need to approach client engagement as an end-to-end journey. To do that, they need to be capable of accessing a client’s complete transactional and service history across all channels in that moment of need. An omni-channel approach to information and services leverages real-time integration with existing platforms and applications to enable a holistic view of the client, including visibility into context and actionable information. Dashboards that aggregate data from multiple sources allow banks to execute seamless handoffs across channels, lines of business, and regions. An omni-channel approach provides a higher level of consistent, customer service that is valued by clients.

Banks need to evolve their systems of operation into a client relationship platform that is optimized to provide informed, personalized, and integrated end-to-end service. Solving for these pain points can help banks retain and deepen client relationships, provide clients with the excellent service experiences that they deserve and demand, and establish a competitive differentiator in the marketplace.

Learn more:

• Download this one-page brief that outlines the steps banks can take right now to provide real-time, personalized customer service.
• Read this 4-page eBook to learn how to tailor every interaction and simplify the customer experience.
• Check out this HSBC case study on how they deployed a global payments investigation platform across 87 countries that improved customer experience and trust.
• Read the data sheet on how Pega Client Service for Commercial Banking delivers a unified platform for simultaneously strengthening client relationships and optimizing service delivery.
• Read the Scotiabank case study to learn how they embraced real-time, personalized engagement - which meant getting new offers to market faster, removing inefficiencies, and automating the decision-making process.
• Watch a 2-minute demo video on how Pega Client Service for Commercial & Investment Banking provides a complete solution for managing all types of client service.
• Join us at PegaWorld to learn how the world’s leading brands are leveraging omni-channel capabilities and digital process automation to optimize the customer experience.