By W.B. King
Over the years, changes in technology have impacted how credit union employees interact with members, especially banking queries routed through call centers. To better understand key performance indicators (KPIs) in this setting, Talkdesk recently published its 2024 Talkdesk Bank and Credit Union Contact Center Benchmark Report — The Top 5 Metrics Shaping Bank and Credit Union Performance.
“Two-hundred CX [customer experience] and IT leaders across banks and credit unions of all sizes were asked to prioritize their KPIs in order of importance and provide insight into their performance today and where they hope to be by 2027,” the report said. These include: first contact resolution (FCR), net promoter score (NPS), average speed of answer (ASA), average handle time (AHT), and service level (SL).
According to Talkdesk, the respondents are final decision makers (13.5%), part of the team that makes decisions (32%), or influencers (54.5%) of their company’s investments in contact center software. Half of the respondents are from companies that manage more than $10 billion in assets.
How AI Will Impact FCR
Explaining that FCR is the percentage of customer inquiries or issues that are successfully resolved during the initial contact with customer support or service, without the need for follow-up interactions, the report noted that two-thirds (67%) of banking customer support interactions are resolved during first contact.
“In three years, that number is expected to increase 14 percentage points to 81% of all support interactions resolved at first contact,” the report noted.
“Banks and credit unions are anticipating investments in AI will have a big impact on FCR,” the report added. “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, which is fostering greater trust in AI solutions to resolve issues faster and without the need for human intervention.”
Promoting NPS
Measuring customer satisfaction and loyalty is referred to as NPS, which is determined by asking customers/members how likely they are to recommend a product or service on a scale of 0 to 10, the report shared.
According to the report, responses classify customers as promoters (9-10), passives (7-8), or detractors (0-6). The NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters, resulting in a score from -100 to +100. Any score above zero is favorable. Typically, a score of 20-30 is considered passable, with most companies aiming for a score in the 31-50 range.
“At present, the average NPS among respondents is 28. The spectrum of responses ranges from as high as 90 to as low as -45. In three years, the respondents hope to have an average NPS of 41,” the report stated.
ASA: Not a Standalone Metric
The amount of time an agent takes to answer an inbound call, including time when the agent’s phone rings, but excludes the time the caller spent in the queuing, is referred to as ASA.
“Currently, the ASA among respondents is 16 seconds. No respondents say they take longer than 20 seconds to answer. In three years, the respondents hope to reduce that time to an ASA of 11 seconds,” the report continued. “Rather than looking at ASA as a stand-alone metric, tie it together with average wait time to determine the total time it takes for a customer to reach a live agent.”
Striking the Right AHT Balance
The average amount of time it takes a customer service representative to handle a customer interaction — from the moment the customer initiates contact until the issue is resolved or the interaction is concluded is called AHT, according to the report.
“The average AHT among respondents today is 9 minutes. The range of reported AHTs is from 3 minutes to 15 minutes. In three years, respondents hope to reduce their AHT to 7 minutes. The most aggressive firms hope to reduce their AHT to just 2 minutes,” the report stated. “While a shorter AHT can indicate efficient service, it’s essential to balance this with maintaining quality customer interactions. Striking the right balance ensures that customer issues are adequately addressed, while also optimizing the overall efficiency of the contact center operations.”
Hoping to Increase SL Scores
The percentage of calls answered and missed within a predefined period of time or threshold, such as two minutes, is known as SL, which measures the availability of a company to its customers, the report noted.
The average SL percentage today among respondents is 66%. This means that two thirds of customer calls are answered within the firms’ predefined minimum threshold times,” the report continued. “Although this represents a majority of calls, it implies that one-third of incoming calls aren’t answered in time. Respondents hope to increase their SL 14 percentage points to 80% by 2027.”