In 2014 Citiphone (Citibank, Russia) was known as a very disciplined and loyal team, strictly following approved scripts, determined to pursue the bank’s interest and deaf to any criticism. The call centre was not really popular among customers, they would complain calling call center agents “robots” or “parrots”… so top managers of Consumer Business and Operations were open to changes.
Citiphone colleagues went a long way. We started from simple, too simple, some might say, rules of interaction with clients and continued with regular serious discussions on how these rules or, rather “golden standards” should be applied to different situations. This project was a big success thanks to cooperative effort of Citiphone Head and the team dedication and above-mentioned disciplined approach to every project blessed by top management.
After one year or so, other departments approached Customer Experience asking to help create and implement their own “golden standards” so that their customer-facing staff become as skilful and as customer-oriented as Citiphone agents.
There were several regular activities for different groups: call listening sessions with heads of product teams where not only Citiphone agent performance but adequacy of supporting material as well. The sessions would always raise process issues; as quick fix, scripts got re-written, as proper problem solution – CSO project team would get a process change task.
Apart from that, I participated in induction process of all new Citiphone agents giving one-hour presentation on a bigger picture of customer experience related work in the bank. The most high-value work took place at joint call calibration sessions of Citiphone managers, agents, trainers and internal quality control colleagues. We would listen records of random calls as long as calls resulted in complaints; trying to think deeper about customers’ complaints or somewhat awkward conversations would test our own understanding of the standards we have set.
All quantitative metrics saw significant improvement within one year, especially FCR and RSAT. Presentations for conferences – on the importance of staff close involvement in projects aimed at changing mindset and culture -– for CX Summit, JP Morgan, Amsterdam, 2017, оn digital transformation – for Customer Focus Forum, Moscow, 2018.
EmployeeEngagement-Citibank-0617
Для конференции Customer Focus Banking Forum Москва 7-8июня -1
