Rethink Customer Support in the Banking Sector: 5 Strategic Ways Freshdesk CTI Can Help

What image pops up in your mind when I mention a bank? For most people, it is long queues, tons of paperwork, and inefficient customer service. The picture however has changed a lot in today’s time. If you ask the younger lot of this generation, they wouldn’t probably recall the last time they had to visit a bank in person. Thanks to technology – most tasks are just a matter of a few clicks on their devices.

But is the picture also serene for the customer service representatives? Most wouldn’t agree!

The average daily hustle of most banking agents is dealing with high call volumes, being stuck with manual, unstreamlined workflows, and juggling between multiple tabs to cater to customers’ needs. Quite a contrast right?

This leaves us wondering, why the benefits of digital banking couldn’t trickle down to the agent’s workspace.

What is the Cause of the Banking Agent’s Agony?

The simple answer is the absence of the right technology or too many tools operating in silos.

In the first scenario, the agent’s performance suffers because they are stuck in the traditional banking scenario where every operation is manually driven, in an age where instantaneous service is the name of the game. This is usually the case for very small enterprises who consider investment in technology as a budgetary burden, obviously overlooking the benefits.

The second scenario corresponds to having all the tools and technologies but lacking communication with each other. So, the contact center has a telephony system like Cisco, Avaya, Genesys, a CRM, core business applications, etc. but the agent still has to manually fetch and feed customer details, and juggle between applications because these systems are not integrated.
All this ultimately impacts customer satisfaction, how?

• Agents juggling between tabs to fetch customer details shoot up the call wait times
• Manual operations are error-prone and time-consuming, hindering efficient service delivery
• Disintegrated applications complicate the workflows and hinder contextual-driven service delivery

A Solution to the Agony: CTI Connector

A CTI Connector solves the integration problem in contact centers by bringing the telephony and other systems like a CRM, helpdesk system, banking applications like Jack Henry/Symitar, Fiserv, FIS, etc. together.

Ticketing, for example, is the backbone of customer service operations in the banking sector. Whether it’s resolving account-related issues, processing transactions, or providing investment advice, ticketing CRMs such as Freshdesk ensure that customer requests are handled promptly and efficiently.

Integrating Freshdesk with a CTI connector provides financial institutions with the efficiency they need to deliver exceptional customer service. By centralizing customer inquiries and facilitating collaboration among support teams, the integrated system renders customers the support they seek. Let’s understand how.

Freshdesk CTI Connector for Banking Contact Centers

Integrating the telephony systems and Freshdesk CRM in the banking sector can boost customer service in several ways. Let’s understand some of these.

1. Simplify Call Handling Operations with Quick Call Controls

The integrated Freshdesk CTI Connector interface equips contact center agents with an array of one-click call controls like – answer, hold, transfer, retrieve, consult, screen pop, screen transfer, etc. This allows agents to make and receive calls right from the screen without switching between tabs. Further, one-click call controls reduce the need for manual call operations ensuring the entire process remains error and hassle-free.

As banks are already dealing with high call volumes, quick call controls can bring down the time spent in operational processes, reducing the average handling times and catering to the need for faster service.

2. Add Context to Interactions with Unified Customer View

Bringing Freshdesk CRM and telephony systems together eliminates the hassle of screen switches. All customer details, updated in real-time are fetched from the CRM and reflected on the agent’s screen as soon as the customer calls. The feature called Screen pop eliminates the back-and-forth juggling between tabs to understand who the customer is and what they are looking for.

When the agent knows who they are dealing with, it becomes easier to read the customer’s preferences based on previous interactions and cater to them in a personalized manner, making them feel valued. A study by Accenture found that 87% of customers are willing to share such data with banks also in return for faster, easier, and personalized offers and services.

3. Enable Customer Authentication with Unification

Establishing the authenticity of customer identity has become crucial for every industry amid the rise of deepfake and phishing attacks. But even more so for the banking sector. We live in an age of instantaneous service and that is what customers prefer, even from their banks. The rigmarole of answering several security questions to verify their identity is not the best way forward when it comes to CX.

The integrated Freshdesk interface renders this possible by unifying all customer data and giving agents real-time access to this data. The CTI solution seamlessly integrates the Freshdesk CRM with backend databases, and other third-party applications, enabling callers to be identified from their numbers.

4. Serve Customers Where They Are with Omnichannel Capabilities

Voice calls are not the sole option for customers to reach out for customer support. Digital transformation has broadened customers’ preferences such as social media, SMS, email, web chat, live chat, and much more. About this, if banks just stick to a single communication channel they are restricting their reach. At the same time, diverse channels mean more resources to cater to customers across them or overwhelming existing agents to log in and out of channels constantly.

What if your agents could cater to customers across all channels from a single unified screen? CTI Connector allows this by integrating the telephony systems with various channels such as email, chat, social media, etc. Agents can switch between these channels seamlessly, bringing a frictionless and cohesive experience to the customers – as customers can initiate a query via email and follow it up on chat, without having to repeat themselves from scratch.

5. Streamline Banking Workflows for Optimized Operations

Agents in most banking contact centers are overwhelmed with high call volumes and being caught up in manual tasks doesn’t help. Usually, agents have to manually switch between screens to fetch customer data upon receiving a call, then add notes once the call is concluded, etc. This takes away the critical time they should have spent interacting with customers.

Freshdesk CTI connector brings down these manual dependencies and allows all operations to be carried on smoothly and seamlessly. CTI automates the various time-consuming workflows and gives agents the bandwidth they need to reach out to more customers and that too in an efficient manner.

Wrap Up

Efficient customer service is a key differentiator for businesses in today’s time, and banks are no exception. Incorporating Freshdesk CTI into the banking operations brings in significant transformation ranging from improved efficiency, optimized workflows, and data-driven insights – all contributing to better customer satisfaction.

NovelVox CTI Connector can render banks the competitive edge they desire to elevate customer support capabilities, strengthen client relationships, and drive long-term success in the dynamic banking landscape.