Banks and other lenders spend billions of dollars each year on operational processes to address complaints - much of which is waste. 

Redesigning and automating these processes would not only eliminate much of that waste, but dramatically accelerate banks’ ability to identify, research, remediate, and prevent poor customer experiences and the associated financial harm that comes from them.

There has to be a better way. The good news? There is.

The challenges

Complaints management has for too long been an unwieldy, manual, and subjective process. And a large part of the burden is on customer service representatives to correctly identify and record customer complaints.

Asking agents to manage complaint workflows makes sense - they are, after all, the ones in direct contact with the customers - but comes with drawbacks, including:

• Inconsistent identification of complaints
• Unstandardized descriptions and records
• Complex and time-consuming administration
• Agent concerns (including not wanting to look like a cause of customer issues)

Up until now, technology hasn’t been able to solve these process problems. Banks continue to be disappointed by solutions that:

• Are built on outdated voice analytics tools
• Rely on simple, inflexible keyword and phrase analysis
• Require significant financial investment and technical expertise
• Do not standardize documentation
• Have no training in consumer finance

After investing so much just to find themselves adrift in a sea of false positives and false negatives, lenders often decided it was better to save themselves the cost of the software investment and return the process to agents, despite the issues.

That was then. This is now. 

The answer is in sight

Now that banks have seen what doesn’t help solve their complaints workflow issues, we can help find solutions that do work.

Here’s what will actually help. The right solution for banking should:

1. Understand consumer finance

This one seems like a no-brainer, but many solutions will claim they work for banking without being trained on finance.

But banking isn’t just any business. It’s a complex and highly regulated field, and increased pressure from the CFPB means there’s no room for error. 

The right solutions for banking will be trained on consumer finance conversations instead of trying to be one-size-fits-all.

2. Use AI to correctly identify complaints

Instead of old-fashioned solutions that are limited to a handful of phrases or keywords to attempt to identify issues, AI can actually understand which calls contain complaints, categorize them as such, and tag it appropriately.

Bonus: AI can not only categorize the call as including a complaint, it can flag the moment at which the complaint occurs, allowing representatives and supervisors to evaluate the conversation without having to listen to the full conversation.

3. Improve via machine learning

Your team shouldn’t have to lose time manually training software you’ve spent good money for. 

Machine learning is a must-have for your complaints workflow solution, automating the process of dynamically improving and adjusting to your business and your customers.

4. Support agents in supporting customers

Real-time agent assistance uses AI to replace scripts, helping agents manage complaints effectively and encouraging first-call resolution.

An agent’s empathy and patience can stop a conversation from snowballing into something worse. But both of those things require time and attention. Using AI-powered solutions to automate distracting and repetitive agent tasks can free them up to connect with customers and resolve their issues.

5. Standardize complaints tracking

In addition to the identification and coaching solutions mentioned above, best-in-class solutions for banks will standardize complaints tracking through automated notes. 

Instead of relying on agents to correctly describe the issue, real-time call notes created by AI standardize language, simplifying not only agent work but supervisor evaluation and any follow-up, including being able to identify and address the root cause of the complaint.

The future of complaints management

Shifting from unwieldy and error-prone manual workflows to the best of today’s AI-powered software solutions will revolutionize the complaints handling process for banks…if they choose the right ones. This list of requirements can help you find the perfect solution to automate and manage customer complaints in the best way for your business.