5 Contact Center Trends for Banking and Credit Unions

#1. First Contact Resolution

Banks and credit unions anticipate that investments in AI will significantly impact FCR. Advancements such as ChatGPT’s natural language understanding and generation capabilities have demonstrated how interactions with AI-driven chatbots can be more human-like and effective, fostering greater trust in AI solutions to resolve issues faster and without human intervention.

#2. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Anyone operating with a contact center model is well aware of Net Promoter Score (NPS), calculated by asking how likely customers are to recommend your products and services. Then, you subtract your percentage of detractors from the promoters, resulting in a score between -100 and +100.

Most companies target an NPS score between 31 and 50. The average score for banking and credit unions is 28, with respondents hoping to reach an NPS of 41 within the next three years.

The information gathered from your NPS can be leveraged to make impactful decisions to improve your operations. Your NPS data can be used to:

• Identify areas of opportunity.
• Improve agent training and coaching.
• Optimize processes.
• Benchmark performance and set goals.
• Enhance technology.

#3. Average Speed of Answer (ASA)

In a world where people are busy and time is limited, how quickly you can answer calls in your contact center can make a difference in your customers’ experience. Customer satisfaction is critical to the success of your contact center, and customers experiencing long wait times are likely to be annoyed when the call is answered.

This can also trickle down into your employee satisfaction results, as dealing with customer frustration over wait times can lead to increased stress and burnout among agents.

In the report, respondents’ average answer speed was 16 seconds, and respondents want to lower that to 11 seconds within the next three years.

A low ASA indicates that your resources are effectively managed and optimized. By improving ASA, you’re positively impacting CSAT CX and helping to reduce abandonment rates.

#4. Average Handle Time (AHT)

It may seem obvious that a contact center must manage AHT to ensure customers are served promptly. However, your AHT can also indicate how smoothly things are running internally.

The report found that the AHT of the respondents surveyed ranged from three to 15 minutes, with an average of nine minutes. The goal for most organizations is to lower this to seven minutes by 2027; however, some with more aggressive goals and shorter overall call times were looking to get their AHT down to just two minutes.

Your AHT statistics provide valuable data, and studying AHT trends and patterns can help contact center leadership better understand performance. By identifying the drivers of increased handle time, you can focus on streamlining processes and targeting improvements with call handling.

#5. Service Levels

Maintaining a high service level is one of the most important things you can do when running a contact center. Your clients are busy and don’t want to wait on hold for 20 minutes to speak to someone and resolve an issue.

The report shared that the average service level for respondents is 66%, with a goal of 80% within the next three years. While a 66% service level is reasonable, it does mean that roughly one-third of calls aren’t answered within the designated timeframe, leaving room for overall improvement.

A less-than-ideal service level can impact your business, from increased customer satisfaction and churn rates to lost sales opportunities and reduced employee morale.