3 in 4 Americans will ‘take action’ if unhappy with their bank’s customer service

Santa Clara, CA, October 26, 2017 – More than 1 in 5 Americans will leave their bank if unhappy with the customer service, according to a new Omnibus survey, and 78 percent will take some form of action such as lodging a complaint, switching banks or sharing their bad experience with friends and acquaintances, or on social media platforms. 

While most Americans said they were comfortable making a banking transaction in a number of different ways—visiting a branch in-person, bank online or bank via a mobile app— the Avaya-commissioned Customer Experience in Banking 2017 report revealed that nearly two-thirds of Americans (62%) want their problem resolved on the first point of contact regardless of how they choose to contact their bank.

To better serve their customers, many leading financial institutions are now focused on creating an omni-channel automated experience. 

“Consumers are looking for their issues to be resolved quickly, and within reason, want an answer within the first point of contact,” said Karen Hardy, Vice President, Product & Solutions Marketing at Avaya. “However, many contact center agents in financial institutions aren’t prepared to deal with a wide range of enquiries, especially in omni-channel environments. To improve customer service moving forward, large banks need to ensure their contact center agents are equipped to deal with enquiries on every platform, and just as importantly, can shift across platforms without forcing the consumer to explain their issue repeatedly.”

According to the survey, 86 percent of Americans believe Financial Virtual Advisers would be beneficial to them when dealing with a problematic transaction (suspicion of fraud; credit card renewal before expiry) and four in five (85%) feel it could lead to faster resolution of their banking enquiries.

With customers wanting to serve themselves regularly, quickly and effectively, on the channels they prefer, it’s clear that self-service AI technologies have a large role to play in every stage of the customer journey. Automated self-service—with seamless access to agent interaction when needed—is proven to build customer retention and loyalty, while providing operational efficiencies and savings.

When asked about the experience of calling into their bank's contact center, respondents listed the following as their top pain points:  1. I am kept waiting for a long time on the phone; 2. the agent never seems to understand how to resolve my problems; 3. every time I call, I am asked to repeat my problem.”

The survey also showed that millennials (age 18-34) listed these particular call-center issues more than any other age group; which isn’t surprising, considering millennials also showed a greater willingness to bank online or via a mobile app.

Methodology:
From September 11th to September 12th 2017, an online survey was conducted among 1,007 randomly selected American adults who are also Springboard America Community panel members. The margin of error — which measures sampling variability — would be +/-3.1%, 19 times out of 20. The results have been statistically weighted according to education, age, gender, region, and ethnicity American Community Survey data to ensure a sample representative of the entire adult population of America. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.

About Avaya
Avaya enables the mission critical, real-time communication applications of the world’s most important operations. As the global leader in delivering superior communications experiences, Avaya provides the most complete portfolio of software and services for contact center and unified communications with integrated, secure networking— offered on premises, in the cloud, or a hybrid. Today’s digital world requires some form of communications enablement, and no other company is better positioned to do this than Avaya. For more information, please visit www.avaya.com.