The financial sector’s landscape is not spared from today’s rapidly evolving digital world. From mobile banking to fintech start-ups, the industry is in a constant push to reinvent its business strategies to meet customer’s needs. Amidst this tech-driven revolution, a critical but often overlooked aspect is call management- specifically, inbound and outbound calls.
What are Inbound and Outbound Calls Management?
Inbound call management refers to the system of handling incoming calls, typically from customers who have inquiries, complaints, or need assistance. Examples in the financial sector include clients calling to ask about their loan status, report fraudulent activities, or update their account information.
On the other hand, outbound calls involve representatives from the organization initiating the call. These calls serve different purposes such as sales pitches, account updates, scheduling appointments or customer satisfaction surveys. A loan officer calling potential clients to propose a mortgage plan, for instance, constitutes an outbound call.
Relevance in Financial Sector
According to Aircall, the average financial service call lasts 4 minutes, and 85% of customers are still using the telephone to handle their financial service issues, making it the most preferred channel for customer service interaction. These compelling data amplify the need for effective inbound and outbound call management in the financial sector.
The question then, is how do we optimize these processes? In addressing this concern, we focus on two key areas: Enhancing Customer Experience and Streamlining Operations.
Enhancing Customer Experience
In inbound call management, the objective is to satisfactorily resolve the customer’s request in the shortest possible time. A Harvard Business Review publication notes that “exceeding customer’s expectations during service interactions…makes customers loyal.” With this in mind, the financial services sector can leverage technology such as call queuing, call recording and forwarding features to enhance efficiency and overall customer experience. These solutions help minimize customer waiting times, provide useful insights through call data, and ensure seamless service in event of call transfers.
In outbound call management, predictive dialing software can significantly increase productivity by identifying ‘alive’ leads, thus avoiding unproductive calls to invalid numbers or answering machines. Furthermore, the use of personalized scripts can send a powerful message to the customer that they are valued and understood.
Streamlining Operations
Call management is not just about the customer; it equally affects the efficiency and productivity of the agents. By automating repetitive tasks such as dialling and recording, agents can focus more on providing high-quality service.
A case study by Talkdesk showed that integrating the call centre software with a CRM system led to a 15% improvement in first call resolution, a 25% quicker average response time and a massive 100% increase in customer satisfaction scores. This integration provides agents with a comprehensive view of customer’s history, enabling them to better serve the customer while also reducing average call times.
Conclusion
In the highly competitive financial services industry, efficient and effective inbound and outbound call management can provide a significant advantage. It fosters improved customer satisfaction, increases operational productivity and ultimately promotes customer loyalty.
In this digital age, the prominence of human interaction should not be underestimated. Harnessing the power of call management amidst all the digital integrations and fintech innovations is not a matter of choice, but a competitive necessity for the financial sector. As legendary business executive Lee Iacocca once said, “You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.”+
