What Is a Financial Services Call Center?

A financial services call center is an efficient system for serving customers and managing financial risks. Especially since financial services affect many areas of our daily lives. People and businesses are happier and healthier during strong economic times. 

In general, technology has made our daily activities faster and more convenient. Customers within every industry have higher expectations for customer service than they have had in the past. It’s just as important for companies in the financial services industry to be customer-centric as it is for those in any other industry. A financial services call center helps to document important conversations and transactions to ensure compliance and to enhance their experience.

What Is a Financial Services Call Center?

Every time you contact your neighborhood bank, insurance company, investment banker, lender, or realtor, you’re dealing with someone in the financial services industry. The financial services industry is a highly regulated industry, as it should be. Each financial institution is limited to the financial services activities of the actual goods, investments, and accounts they provide. 

The financial services industry is composed of many large conglomerates, as well as a diverse range of mid-sized and smaller institutions. A financial services call center gives global reach to a financial institution’s customers. 

A financial services call center is comprised of a team of people that answer questions, handle problems, and update accounts by making inbound calls or outbound calls. Using a cloud-based phone system and financial services call center software, call center representatives use digital tools to pull up customer data and to communicate with customers via the phone and other communication channels. 

Banks, credit unions, and other financial services companies can serve their customers more efficiently and provide a better customer experience when using a call center. It’s common for financial services companies to set up some combination of remote, distributed, and virtual call center teams to provide support for their customers. 

Accessibility and convenience will continue to be important factors and financial transactions for the foreseeable future. A cloud phone system and software integrations provide the foundation for a financial services call center, and the benefits of these software programs are valued and apparent. 

The Benefits of Call Center Software for Financial Services

The benefits of call center software for financial services, for both companies and customers, are many. If you’re looking for a downside, there really isn’t one when you use the right tools. Whether your financial services company is large or small, you can count on the following benefits of call center software: 

1. Allows your company to be consistent with your level of communication and responses.
2. Makes it easier to streamline and handle calls efficiently.
3. Allows you to monitor your call center’s performance. 
4. Provides a single source of customer contact and account data for call center representatives.
5. Allows call center representatives to accept payments securely and confidentially.
6. Reduces the cost of equipment and long-distance calls.
7. Gives your company metrics to help you recognize and reward top-performing call center representatives. 
8. Allows you to easily scale your call center according to call volume. 
9. Gives your company the ability to reach a greater geographical area without added expense, even globally.
10. Records calls for a greater context of conversations, accountability, and training.
11. Gives your clients greater accessibility to support representatives, even in multiple time zones. 
12. Provides opportunities for training call center representatives and improving their skills. 
13. Provides the right tools to improve the customer experience at every point along the customer journey. 

The Importance of Technology in the Financial Services Industry

Technology comes into play in many aspects of the financial services industry. Nearly every financial institution uses technology in some form, often taking advantage of numerous applications. The sheer number of computations that financial services providers work with every day would be extremely tedious if they had to do them manually. What’s more, manual processes are susceptible to a huge margin of error. Financial reporting is more accurate and accessible for companies with the help of technology. 

Security, global outreach, risk management, and customer experience mark a few areas in which technology greatly enhances the financial services industry. Let’s give them a look one at a time. 

Security

In the financial services industry, every process, mode of transaction, and piece of data must be completely secure. Financial transactions are highly sensitive in nature, and they require the utmost in security. It’s the only way to win over the trust of financial services customers. The best financial services software programs have built-in firewalls and other security measures to ensure that financial transactions are confidential and secure.

Global Outreach

The internet has become a game-changer for financial services institutions. Banks, lenders, and wealth management companies have access to lots of information from various markets across the globe. With access to other financial markets in real time, financial institutions can respond faster and make informed decisions. Overall, the availability of accurate information helps to create stability in the economy.

Risk Management

An inherent degree of risk exists within every financial product and transaction. Every financial institution has a plan to manage such risks. Call center software provides metrics and KPIs to help financial services institutions gather data about customers and analyze it to make good decisions. The more data that a financial institution can gather, the better a position they’ll be in to edge out the competition. 

Customer Experience

Consumers have a desire to keep their finances simple and easy, and financial services companies can easily implement contact center software to achieve that. 

How a Financial Services Call Center Improves the Customer Experience

One of the many ways that financial services companies compete with each other is on the basis of a good customer experience. In fact, about 96% of consumers will leave a company after having a bad customer experience. With so much competition in the financial services industry, it’s a risk that’s not worth taking.

Ways your financial services call center can help to improve the customer experience:

• Depending on their duties, call center agents may need to obtain certain licenses or certifications to comply with regulations before serving customers. Make sure calls are going to the financial service representatives who are qualified to help them. 
• Use your business phone system to route calls accurately and offer self-service options. 
• Implement call center software that allows you to set metrics to measure the quality of your customer service.
• Set up your call center so that software programs work together to provide a single source of customer data that call center representatives can access in a click.
• Monitor your financial services call center to assess wait times, call volume, missed calls, and other data. 
• Scale your call center up during the busiest times to reduce wait times.
• Use call center software to set up automated workflows to enhance productivity and efficiency. 
• Use a cloud-based phone system that offers a live feed feature to gain insight into call center activity.
• Set up automated surveys to gauge customer satisfaction and analyze .
• Use call center software that allows call center representatives to switch between various communication channels like email, chat, and instant messaging. 
• Set up a modern phone system that offers call routing or an IVR system so calls get directed to a support person with the appropriate skills to help them. 
• Strive for all employees, including your call center representatives, to be consistent across the entire customer journey. 

A cloud-based phone system and call center software provide a robust platform that gives your financial services institution the opportunity to service customer accounts quickly and efficiently, create a strong customer base, and enhance your branding.

Best Practices for Training to Improve Financial Institutions’ Customer Service

In order to achieve optimal performance for your financial institution, use the following best practices to better train your call center agents.

1. Understand the importance of active listening techniques and leading calls with empathy.
2. Provide a personalized customer experience.
3. Understand the various roles within the financial services institution and how to determine whom to send customers to. 
4. Use internal chats, emails, and other voice calling features to collaborate on common calls and complex calls.
5. Train them with call center software on how they can assess the scope of the entire customer journey.
6. Describe the common pain points and instruct them on how to handle them.
7. Train them how to use call center software to employ multiple communication channels individually or simultaneously.
8. Instruct customer support representatives on how they can reward customers and the circumstances that warrant special discounts or compensation. 
9. Train them how to communicate clearly and to avoid industry terms with which customers might be unfamiliar. 
10. Instruct customer support representatives to glean information about customers to create a truly personalized customer profile. 

Why Aircall

With Aircall, enhancing your call center software or setting up a call center from scratch couldn’t be easier. Aircall offers a robust set of voice calling features including call recording, call routing, call queuing, and skill-based routing, and much more.

Whether the primary focus of your financial institution is on sales or support, Aircall’s App Marketplace offers a strong listing of call center software integrations to meet your every need.

Strong relationships and trust are vital within the financial services industry. With billions of online transactions happening every day, clear communication and documentation of financial transactions are essential. The right tools and systems support your efforts to create a productive, efficient financial services call center.