Like most companies competing in the modern marketplace, the financial industry is subject to spikes in call volume due to seasonality. Despite the increased offering of digital channels for handling customer service requests, surges in call center activity for financial institutions are a regular occurrence. The reason for these surges varies: They may be the result of unexpected crises (such as a data breach) or more predictable events like annual mortgage renewals or tax season. Added to this are the challenges brought forth by the digital era, which have the financial sector rushing to adapt to meet the increased demands of contemporary customers.
As banks close their physical branches, with more services being offered through their digital channels, customers take to the phones to have their questions answered. 30% of customers calling in are doing so with “moment of truth encounters” that “have higher emotional stakes for the customers.” These become key interactions in maintaining – or losing – customer loyalty. When call volumes spike, the stakes are even higher as customers deal with frustratingly long hold times.
Having an omni-channel contact center is becoming increasingly important as channel options are diversifying and consumers are using more touch-points to interact with companies. Consequently, ![[Whitepaper] The New Customer Service Lexicon](https://fonolo.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Whitepaper-The-New-Customer-Service-Lexicon.png "[Whitepaper] The New Customer Service Lexicon")
Picture it: Your customer service is being inundated with calls, emails, and messages through every channel – perhaps you’re facing a product recall or a Black Friday sale, or it’s just one of “those” days – how do you effectively prepare for times like these? To successfully dodge any customer experience disaster it’s important to be proactive and have preventative measures in place. When you have a reliable back-up plan, preventing disaster can be accomplished in 5 minutes or less.![[Video] 4 Takeaways from Our Google Hangout on the Voice Channel](https://fonolo.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Video-4-Takeaways-from-Our-Google-Hangout-on-the-Voice-Channel-1.jpg "[Video] 4 Takeaways from Our Google Hangout on the Voice Channel")
Last week, Fonolo hosted yet another insightful Google Hangout discussing the voice channel as a relevant medium for contact centers. This fabulous panel of contact centers experts was determined to uncover the truth behind the future of the voice channel. To save you some time, we’ve extracted video snippets showcasing highlights from the discussion.
With organizations focussing on the customer experience as a key differentiator, it’s critical that they pay close attention to consumer channel activity. As we all know the options are endless: self-service, chat, mobile apps, social media, email and the conventional phone channel. It’s no wonder why call centers have now truly become contact centers as they support customers through a variety of mediums, countries, and languages.
The multi-channel customer experience has raised a number of questions about how call centers should effectively measure the customer journey. More than ever before customers are moving across channels and devices to find support and purchase products. Whether it’s the phone, chat, social media, web, messenger or any number of channels, customers are doing a lot of things, in a lot of different places. Are all these touch-points working in synchrony, or are your customers pulling their hair out when they navigate from one to the other? That’s where customer journey tracking comes in; businesses can begin to understand their customer’s behaviors and uncover details that they otherwise wouldn’t catch. It can also measure how well each of these channels are working both individually and holistically.
Here’s a simple question: Are contact centers handling more or fewer calls compared to one year ago? How about five years ago?
The burning questions for the customer service industry today are which channels of communication are currently most relevant, and which will be most relevant down the road. In recent months, the discussion has centered around Facebook Messenger and other messaging channels.Many people are debating whether any of these platforms (Messager, Snapchat, Kik, Line, etc) can “win” the B2C communication platform war. (See 
