# Customer Service in the Financial Services Industry



## Acorn22 (18 Jun 2020)

Hi is there anyone else experiencing a lot of pain trying to get very basic information from areas such as insurance companies, banks and even service providers at the moment?  Customer services seems to have done a nose dive in these sectors.


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## Sunny (18 Jun 2020)

You mean during the global pandemic when entire offices have had to shut down and try to provide a service as best they can while adhering to public health restrictions?


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## Saavy99 (29 Jul 2020)

Sunny said:


> You mean during the global pandemic when entire offices have had to shut down and try to provide a service as best they can while adhering to public health restrictions?



Can't they answer the phone from the comforts of their  home office??


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## Saavy99 (29 Jul 2020)

kingvagabond said:


> Hi is there anyone else experiencing a lot of pain trying to get very basic information from areas such as insurance companies, banks and even service providers at the moment?  Customer services seems to have done a nose dive in these sectors.



I agree completely, had to give up several times in recent months. Emails don't even gain a reply.


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## Sunny (29 Jul 2020)

Saavy99 said:


> Can't they answer the phone from the comforts of their  home office??



Everyone has a home office where they can sit comfortably do they? Let me guess you have never tried working in a customer call centre while home schooling or minding young children. Never mind the technological challenges of running a call centre from hundreds if not thousands of homes. Have experience of that do you?

Entire offices were closed down practically overnight. Remote working on this scale was never even thought possible. Considering all the technology challenges along with practical day to day issues, I respect any business that has been able to maintain any level of customer service. I think anyone who has worked from home for the previous 4 months under difficult circumstances has done a great job. Yes things take longer but things have still got done.


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## Peanuts20 (29 Jul 2020)

It varies from company to company. Some were able to move quickly to get their staff working from home, others it took time. I'm aware of one company in the UK for example that found it needed to order and build over 10000 laptops to facilitate home working. That takes time. 

Having said that, most should be ok by now in that respect. Whether as companies they have the ability and culture to manage home and remote workers is another thing entirely. If they are not doing what you need them to do, take your business elswhere


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## Steven Barrett (29 Jul 2020)

Saavy99 said:


> Can't they answer the phone from the comforts of their  home office??



They have to record the calls. When people start working from home they had to move off the office phone systems and weren't able to record the telephone calls, so they stopped taking them. Some have been able to incorporate it, others haven't. No excuse for not answering emails mind.


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## Saavy99 (29 Jul 2020)

I found Raisin Bank excellent, a couple of their customer reps returned my calls from their homes. Maybe they have better set up than the Irish banks.


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## Sunny (29 Jul 2020)

Saavy99 said:


> I found Raisin Bank excellent, a couple of their customer reps returned my calls from their homes. Maybe they have better set up than the Irish banks.



Or maybe you are comparing something that isn't a bank with banks? Raisin is a rates supermarket for savers. The volume and complexity of calls they would receive compared to a multi product and channel organisation like BOI and AIB is non-comparable. Not defending poor customer service but there are bound to be delays. I have seen that in Financial Services. I have seen it in legal services. I have seen it dealing with Sky. I have seen it in medical services and I have seen it in public services like revenue and social welfare.


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## Saavy99 (29 Jul 2020)

Waiting over one  weeks now for a reply to my email from Revenue, acceptable...I think not.


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