According to the First Orion 2022 Retail Survey Report, consumers still prefer dial-in phone for both urgent and non-urgent banking needs. Offering personalized, expert assistance from human representatives is crucial for delivering satisfying interactions, resulting in happier and more loyal customers.
At the heart of your user’s phone-call experience is the call-center software that powers it. Software helps automate and organize traffic making its way to your reps. To ensure a smooth, successful experience for callers and reps, your software must contain features and functionalities that intertwine with one another.
Here are a few essential capabilities to look for when shopping for your own call-center software, so you can ensure your system delivers maximum value for your users and staff.
Routing and Queuing
Your call-center software should effectively route incoming callers to reps best suited for their needs. Let’s say, for example, a caller has a question about charges on their recent bill. After asking the caller about their need, the software will direct them to the billing department and put them into a queue until a qualified rep is ready to offer assistance.
Some call-center software offers Intelligent Call Routing (ICR), which uses AI to route callers rather than requiring callers to manually sort themselves into queues. ICR saves time, provides more accurate assistance, and offers users a more effortless experience.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Almost everyone has interacted with an IVR at some point in their lives—including you. If an automated voice has ever asked you to say the name of the department you’d like to reach, you’ve spoken to an IVR. This call-center software sorts incoming calls and guides users to the right reps by prompting callers to use either voice responses or touch-tone menus.
IVRs can make or break the call-center experience: They’re often the first thing the caller interacts with, so it’s important to make sure that the experience is as quick and seamless as possible. A good IVR should be easy to navigate through, with no confusing menu mazes. It should also allow callers to easily reach live support if they need help from a human.
Some IVR solutions for call centers use voice-activated AI to answer a user’s questions without even needing a live agent. These solutions offer relief to overburdened contact centers by reducing the number of calls that require human assistance.
Recording
Many call-center solutions record the interactions between callers and agents, for both quality assurance and training purposes. The ability to listen to past conversations helps you determine what went right or wrong—and can be crucial towards improving future service.
Some call-center software, however, goes beyond simply recording conversations. These solutions automatically annotate, sort, and review conversations. By pulling useful information from these recordings without requiring that you spend time analyzing them, these solutions help you fast-track improvements to your workflows.
Agent Desktops
While handling incoming calls, your reps will need their own set of tools and functionalities to work with. Call-center software includes a platform to help your support staff keep track of incoming calls, get information about who they’re currently talking with, and record any other useful information they might need during the interaction.
Ideal desktop experiences should be intuitive and require minimal clicking through additional screens to find relevant information. Making the employee experience as smooth as possible will greatly improve call center productivity, satisfaction, and staff retention.
Your FI should ensure that the information contained on these desktops is useful to staff by pulling up the user’s banking record and displaying necessary information without requiring cumbersome screen switching.
Dashboards and Reporting
All of the useful insights gathered from call-center traffic needs to live somewhere—ideally in an easy-to-access dashboard that provides both current and historic information. The dashboard should contain everything from:
- Average call lengths and wait times
- Number of calls served
- How effectively your representatives are helping out each call
Collecting and displaying this information is critical for helping you determine how well your call center is performing, as well as areas for improvement.
Call-center software for FIs should not only automatically track this information, but present it in an easy-to-access place that provides actionable insights.
Integrations
The software you need to run your FI call center will likely not be able to operate on its own. Instead, it must interact with other software you use to serve customers. From online banking platforms to customer relationship management software, your call-center solution must effectively communicate with multiple platforms to create a smooth user experience for both callers and staff.
Interconnectedness is one of the features that sets apart general-purpose call-center software from solutions designed specifically for the financial industry. Realizing the full value of integrations is the key to unlocking the full potential of any new solution—and ensuring your FI gets the most out of your software.
Bringing It All Together
Best-in-class call-center software for the financial industry will offer far more than standard software offers: It will be a fully unified solution that combines dial-in phone with digital and AI-focused service. This interconnectedness will allow for easy transitions between different channels of service for both callers and the representatives assisting them.
Glia’s Unified Interaction Management (UIM) platform includes a robust call-center solution encompassing every feature listed above—and much more. Even better, it’s part of a larger platform that brings together all aspects of the customer service experience. Additionally, it’s the only call-center solution designed specifically for banking. Because it’s purpose-built for FIs like yours, it offers not only a breadth of unique functionality but the depth of expertise you need to unlock max value for callers and staff.
Want to learn more about Glia Call Center? Hear testimonies from real GCC customers, or book a live demo.
