How BFSI Contact Centers Are Using Omnichannel Capabilities to Enhance Their CSAT?

I recently renewed my health insurance policy. After the policy renewal, I received an email from the insurance company asking me to give my consent on the policy inclusions and the terms and conditions within 12 days.

This is a huge nightmare for me as I have to read through 12 pages of a PDF document before I give my consent.

I really didn’t want to go through this experience.

That’s what got me thinking as to how this experience could be made better with omnichannel capabilities.

Insurance companies can do a lot better here. Here are a few ideas on how they could turn this nightmare into a truly customer-friendly experience by leveraging omnichannel capabilities.

• Send an email summary and trigger an SMS alert that points to your in-app dashboard. You don’t need to download PDF documents.
• Let customers tap ‘Explain changes’ on mobile or desktop and get instant, plain-English summaries via a smart chatbot.
• Send key highlights and the consent link on WhatsApp so the customers can review and ask questions in their favorite chat.
• Offer a one-click callback or short video walkthrough, as this would be ideal for those customers who prefer talking versus reading.
• In your app or portal, show simple steps, starting from highlights to Q&A and consent, with clear due-date reminders.
• If there is no action five days before the deadline, proactively notify an agent to reach out to the customer via their preferred channel.

Any of these would make my experience effortless and would result in a high CSAT score.

Why Does CSAT Matter More in BFSI than Anywhere Else?

Banks, Financial Services, and Insurance Industry handle people’s life savings, financial safety, and dreams.

A high CSAT means happier customers, and it augurs well for the BFSI industry.

Here’s the kicker:

• A happy customer trusts you with bigger products like a high-value loan, a new investment plan, or a comprehensive insurance policy.
• A happy customer is 60 to 70% more likely to explore additional services with you.

What happens when your CSAT dips?

• It would increase callback volumes, and handling them would cost a lot of money.
• Increase customer’s branch visits unnecessarily.
• Increase social-media complaints and rants.
• Increase in customer churn

So, BFSI needs to look at CSAT as a strategic survival tool. 

Why Omnichannel Capabilities Are the Lifeline of BFSI?

Gone are those days when you had to deal with customer care in just a single channel, like voice, between 9 AM and 5 PM on working days.

Today, customers expect you to seamlessly hand off between multiple channels like email, voice, chat, SMS, chatbots, mobile, and website without ever having to repeat themselves.

This kind of omnichannel experience would help BFSI boost its CSAT considerably. Let us look at how it does with personal examples.

Context Carryover

I wanted to subscribe to a systematic investment plan (SIP) of a mutual fund. I started chatting on their website at 2 PM, continued the conversation on the phone at 5 PM, and subscribed by clicking on the link I received in my email at 5.15 PM.

I never had to repeat my need even once after my chat conversation. Agents at every touchpoint knew my needs, and it felt seamless.

I gave them a five on five after this experience.

Personalized Routing

I am a privileged customer of my bank. It doesn’t matter what channel I try to reach them, be it voice or chatbot; my conversations get routed to one of their senior agents immediately.

I am not stuck in the same queue as other customers, and my queries get resolved immediately.

This is one of the reasons why I have been continuing with them for the past 23 years.

Obviously, their CSAT soars.

Self-Service with Seamless Transition

Whenever my wife tries to reach her bank, the first point of contact for her is the AI-powered chatbot, as her bank believes in an AI-first approach.

She gets most of her queries answered by the chatbot, and whenever she needs additional assistance, she has the option of requesting a callback from their agent or reaching the agent directly from the chatbot.

It is managed seamlessly, and the power lies with the customer.

How would you rate this experience? High on CSAT, right? 

Proactive Outreach

I recently applied for an auto loan. Someone came home, helped me fill out the online application, and collected my photographs and other KYC documents. Just after that, I received a text stating that the application was being processed and a link for me to initiate a video verification process at my convenience.

I could click on that link anytime and complete the verification process. Once that was done, I received my loan approval message as a text and email.

The proactive nudges help lift their CSAT considerably.

Unified Analytics

How do you monitor your customer sentiments across different channels?

You use speech analytics and text analytics and social media mining.

When there is an escalation or an expressed negative sentiment in your text and voice channels, you can easily catch them and de-escalate them in real-time with analytics.

What happens when the escalation is on social media?

For instance, if negative tweets spike after a system outage, your social mining tool will capture it, and it is an opportunity for you to acknowledge and respond with a resolution to the tweet. Besides, you can activate your messaging or broadcasting to keep all your affected customers informed about the outage.

You can also apologize for the outage and suggest a few workarounds for the affected customers with a possible timeframe for addressing the blackout.

This is one of the ways to turn a potential CSAT dip into an advantage where your customers feel that you care.

The Biggest CX Headaches in BFSI and How Omnichannel Helps Remedy Them!

Customers are wrestling with endless forms and dozens of fine-print clauses.

How about using interactive digital forms with pre-populated data and combining them with in-app chat support and video assistance?

I recently filed a health claim directly using their mobile application. It had step-by-step prompting with an option for me to talk to an advisor anytime during my interaction with the app.

Agents jump between five different screens: core banking, CRM, deposit system, email, and chat console.

How about connecting all of these interactions via APIs? Then, your agents will get to have a single view of your customers across all interfaces, where they get to have the context of all their interactions across different touchpoints.

You don’t have to switch between screens to piece together the customer’s profile and their needs.

Customers want answers at midnight when your branch is closed.

Chatbots, voicebots, and smart IVRs can help answer routine queries 24/7, and your customers would thank you for that. For anything complex, it would take the query, assign a complaint number, and communicate the likely SLA to you. 

It feels like your bank never sleeps.

If there’s one thing I have learned working with BFSI customers, it is this:

CSAT in BFSI is not about fixing problems, but it’s more about crafting moments of ease and trust.

As a CX leader, here’s what you should do:

• Audit all the touchpoints you service, like voice, chat, email, WhatsApp, mobile, web, and social.
• Identify the biggest drop-off points and the clunkiest handoffs.

After auditing and understanding the challenges, deploy an omnichannel solution that stitches the challenges together seamlessly.

Your agents will thank you, as they will not have to wrestle with multiple systems, and they will feel empowered to delight customers.

Your customers will be so happy that your CSAT scores will soar through the roof.

Let us stop settling for ‘good enough’ service and ensure better experiences with omnichannel capabilities.