Oh No, I Lost My Credit Card! Responding to the Voice of the Customer

Have you ever misplaced your wallet and after frantically searching for it for 20 minutes that seem like eternity, decided it must be stolen—and that it’s time to call your bank to cancel all your cards?

Very frustrating!

What’s even more frustrating? Finding your lost wallet in your coat pocket right after canceling your cards.

If this has happened to you, don’t feel bad. You’re not alone. This somewhat embarrassing scenario is apparently common and not only a headache for the customer—it can also be costly for your bank.

A large international bank and credit card issuer was using Verint Speech Analytics to identify “moments of truth” and customer frustration. They leveraged the solution to find calls with high levels of emotion, and cross correlated these with repeat calls. One of the topics they found was exactly the scenario mentioned above—customers frantically calling to cancel their credit card only to call several hours later after finding the lost card.

One of the most irritating elements for the customer was the typical agent’s response—the card has already been canceled and can no longer be used. As a result, the customer will have to wait for the new card to arrive within 5-7 business days.

This was obviously a hassle for all those customers who could no longer use their cards, but the actual cost and risk was on the bank. They had to pay for issuing and mailing a new card and also risk losing those customers to a new introductory credit card offer from a different vendor.

Fortunately this bank developed good communication channels with their back-office operations. After a short investigation, it was found that technically the back office had an option of putting a hold on the card for up to 48 hours. Most contact center agents were not aware of this option, and the back office folks did not realize how often customers call back after finding their lost card.

Speech analytics helped surface this opportunity by connecting the customer experience to the back office. A relatively simple change in the process resulted in over a half-million dollars in annual savings. Even more importantly, a significant customer pain was eliminated that could expose the bank to potential churn and long-term revenue loss.

Many opportunities like this typically surface when voice of the customer insights are used to identify back-office processes that impact the customer experience.  Read the Aberdeen Group Knowledge Brief, “The Business Value of a Next-Generation Back-Office,” to learn how organizations that integrate front- and back-office activities are dramatically outpacing their peers on quality SLA achievement, employee productivity, annual revenue and more.