The State of Global Customer Service Report by Microsoft has some interesting statistics on customer experience:
- 58% of consumers consider customer service as a leading factor affecting the choice of a brand.
- 61% of consumers stopped transacting with a brand after an unsatisfactory service experience.
- 59% of consumers expect better customer support than they did a year ago.
This applies to all domains, including banking and financial services. Businesses in this sector need to go the extra mile. Your call center operations are critical as they streamline sales and support, so you need to ensure quality and availability.
Since customers expect expertise, quick resolution, and convenience, you will require high-end cloud contact center software teamed with trained agents to match these expectations. Owing to the various advantages of cloud-based solutions, these are common for BFSI businesses today.
Let us begin with the basics and understand the value of cloud contact centers for the industry.
The value of contact centers for BFSI businesses
The BFSI sector is growing at a rapid pace. Even during the pandemic, this sector witnessed a sustained growth. However, incidences of fraud and cybercrime have increased exponentially and emerged as a big challenge to customers’ security and trust.
Financial institutions realize the significance of customer experience and its importance in acquiring new customers and retaining the existing ones. A powerful contact center lets banks and financial providers meet the expectations of the customers and stay a step ahead.
Here are some ways a call center solution can empower your BFSI business.
- Call center agents can assist customers with simple transactions that may be overwhelming for some individuals. These include withdrawing money, making deposits, paying bills, and checking account balances.
- Some complex transactions require expert assistance to ensure that customers can do them seamlessly. Hence, round the clock availability of call center agents can substantially boost CX.
- Mortgage companies, insurance providers, and investment firms offer new products and services, with certain nuances that may be hard to understand for a layman. Experts at your contact center can explain these products and boost sales for your business.
Call centers have a crucial role in winning the trust of your customers and building the credibility of your business. It even shows your intentions to go the extra mile to serve your customers.
Why BFSI companies are moving from traditional set-ups to hosted contact centers?
A hosted contact center takes your operations on the cloud, which means that you need not be confined in terms of location and time zones. Moreover, unlike traditional setups, there is no need to maintain on-premises infrastructure.
Next, you don’t need an IT team to help with constant upgrades and maintenance. The cloud communication service provider takes care of everything, and you have a reliable system—up and running.
Further, cloud contact centers offer an interactive voice response (IVR) system. This solution empowers your contact center with a self-service feature. This means callers can handle basic tasks on their own, and your agents have ample free time to address more complex issues that require human intervention.
Additionally, hosted contact centers offer a data repository that empowers agents with the requisite information even as they work remotely.
Let us understand some more benefits of hosted contact centers for BFSI businesses:
- Customers may want to access and manage their funds at any point. Contact centers help them by addressing their queries and concerns round the clock—eliminating the constraints of normal business hours. You can even leverage the automation features like IVR to help customers serve themselves. Missed call solutions and call routing also make your call center agents accessible at all times.
- Call center software eliminates the limitations associated with a single location. Your agents can connect with callers from anywhere and at any time. Cloud phone system lets them work remotely with a business number, which addresses the WFH concerns in the new normal.
- Disruption in services is no longer a worry for large financial service companies with offices at multiple locations. If there is a technical glitch or natural disaster in one branch, you can easily route the callers to another call center. The callers wouldn’t even know, as you continue serving them seamlessly and as a result, retain their trust.
- It is vital for agents to be well prepared to handle frustrated clients. The ability to fetch the required information quickly can make all the difference between an agitated and satisfied customer. Cloud contact centers empower agents with a helpful database and facilitate agent training as well. New recruits can access the old recordings of interactions and hone their skills with real-life training.
- A cloud phone system can be integrated with software solutions like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to create a digital ecosystem. Your agents can fetch information from the CRM and offer personalized interactions to each caller, with solutions and offers tailored to their needs.
- BFSI is a highly regulated industry with several compliance norms. Managers need to track each agent to ensure that they follow regulatory guidelines at all times. With a hosted solution, you can easily monitor call center activity and ensure the same.
Conclusion
The BFSI domain is complex, and players such as banks, mortgage companies, credit unions, insurance companies, and related businesses have to balance a good customer experience with the right processes.
A cloud-based phone system makes it possible to attain this delicate equilibrium while providing flexibility, scalability, security, and reliability. Moreover, you end up saving a fortune on infrastructure, maintenance, and upgrades—associated with traditional setups.
Everything boils down to finding the right cloud-hosted call center software that comes from a provider you can trust.
It is worth going the extra mile to find one you can rely on, and Acefone matches the expectations and needs of BFSI perfectly. We offer an innovative cloud telephony suite tailored to the needs of financial companies, ensuring competitive edge, sustainability and profitability goals.
Acefone provides a broad range of cloud communication services to businesses of all sizes, which includes Hosted Phone Systems, Free Phone Numbers, and Cloud Contact Center Solutions. Being the UK’s leading provider of VoIP service provider, we always strive to provide excellent customer service and high-quality custom solutions to our customers.