• by Tanya Gazdik , October 30, 2017

Seventy-eight percent of Americans will “take action” if unhappy with their bank’s customer service and more than one in five will leave their bank, according to a study.

Other forms of expressing displeasure include venting on social media platforms, according to the Avaya-commissioned Customer Experience in Banking 2017.

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 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.

Eighty-six percent of Americans believe financial “virtual advisers” would be beneficial to them when dealing with a problematic transaction  such as suspicion of fraud; with 85% feeling it could lead to faster resolution of their banking enquiries.

Not surprising, 62% of Americans want their problem resolved on the first point of contact regardless of how they choose to contact their bank, The expectations stem in part to the shift to a digital world, which has streamlined  access to information and as such, consumers have come to demand that services — including the banking industry — deliver unparalleled customer service. 

The problem is many contact center agents in financial institutions aren’t prepared to deal with a wide range of inquiries, said Karen Hardy, vice president, product and solutions marketing at Avaya.

“To improve customer service moving forward, large banks need to ensure their contact center agents are equipped to deal with inquiries on every platform, and just as importantly, can shift across platforms without forcing the consumer to explain their issue repeatedly,” she said in a release.

On Sept. 11-12, 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.