In the digital age, there’s little doubt that customers have become increasingly influential and impactful in the minds of business-owners. Companies have come to value good and proactive customer service as a result, particularly as it costs between six and seven-times more to attract new consumers than retain existing patrons.
This also impacts significantly on the bottom line, with a report by Bain and Company suggesting that companies which excel at offering a superior customer experience can expect to grow their revenues by up to 8% above the relevant market value.
Customer service is arguably particularly important in the financial services sector, where clients are often required to invest or commit their existing capital. But what steps can financial sector firms take to improve their levels of customer service going forward?
What Challenges do Financial Firms Face in Terms of Customer Service (and how can They be Overcome)?
Despite the obvious importance of customer service to financial firms, too many companies focus solely on front-line departments such as sales, marketing and dedicated service agents.
This is a flawed approach, however, and one that causes businesses to miss out on numerous opportunities to adopt good service and potentially upsell products at every conceivable stage of the customer journey.
This also creates holes in basic customer service and often creates an inconsistent journey for individual consumers, causing businesses to actively lose custom and revenue over time. This is borne out by various statistics too, with an estimated one-fifth of consumers confirming that they’ve actively switched banks after a negative service experience.
This also leads us on to another potential issue, as while poor or inconsistent customer service may be one of the key reasons why banks (and similar finance institutions) lose clients, studies show that there weren’t clearly defined attempts to win back lost patrons in 56% of all instances.
Clearly, this highlights the importance of prioritising customer retention in the financial services sector, while also encouraging firms to adapt to modern service methods that successfully collate and utilise feedback to their advantage.
Can Forex and Trading Companies Blaze a Trail for Others to Follow?
With these points in mind, financial firms face two key challenges when delivering a viable customer service; namely understanding the needs of individual clients and communicating effectively throughout the consumer journey.
However, forex and financial trading firms may be blazing a trail for others to follow with regards to these issues, largely by embracing artificial intelligence (AI) and investing in an advanced and intuitive CRM system.
An effective CRM system relies on the range and volume of customer data that it’s able to accrue, with modern-day platforms now the logical focal point for the accumulation of information and insight.
With the use of AI and machine learning, these platforms are now capable of collating data from disorganised sources such as social media, which can offer accurate and real-time insight into the behaviour and expectations of clients.
By utilising an AI-driven CRM system, brokers and financial companies can become increasingly efficient when understanding the core needs of their clients, while also using predictive analytics to improve communication over time.
This holds the key to consistent customer service, while it also makes it easier than ever to create a personalised consumer journey that optimises long-term retention rates.
