26 October 2009 News

 

Chordiant survey finds banks' customer service teams struggling

Chordiant Software has released the results of its 2009 UK Retail Banking Survey which analysed marketing trends in the industry. The survey found that there is a significant gap between a marketers' vision and the reality of what customer service representatives can actually deliver in support of a bank's various marketing campaigns. 72 per cent of marketing managers in the UK's retail banks believe that there has been a greater focus on retaining customers in light of the economic downturn, but nearly half of all customer service representatives questioned said they do not have software which supports them in conversations with customers who want to leave the bank.

Similarly, marketing executives agree that treating the customer as a unique individual is an important  marketing priority, but only 57 per cent of customer representatives indicated that they have software that helps them suggest what products or services would be appropriate for an individual customer. Furthermore, only 55 per cent of customer service representatives reported that they have software that enables them to make decisions in real-time for the bank's customers. The marketing teams do however seem to recognise the shortcomings of the software available to their customer-facing teams with 64 per cent rating it as only medium in quality.

 Despite the perceived weaknesses in the customer service technology, the retail banks participating in the survey appear to be embracing the trend of integrating their marketing strategy with their customer service initiatives. In fact, seven out of ten marketers consider their customer service strategy as part of their marketing strategy. The majority of respondents reported integration over the past two years and a quarter in the last 12 months, highlighting the growing importance of developing a consistent strategy. However, while 88 percent of the marketers questioned reported that their bank regularly integrates their customer service and marketing strategies, only 27 per cent reported that their bank always communicate these marketing strategies to the customer facing team. This underlines the need for greater co-operation between the two departments.