Citibank Tops Survey of Call Center Staff Effectiveness

by Mike Bevel, CollectionIndustry.com

Fake callers prefer Citibank and Bank of America to Washington Mutual (still on notice for those terrible “WaMu” commercials) and JP Morgan Chase – this, according to the results of a mystery-shoppers survey of 15 banks’ call centers.

On average, banks asked for the business of the caller 48 percent of the time, and thanked them for calling 71 percent of the time.

O'Connor & Associates, a Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., research firm, conducts the survey of national and regional banks twice a year, monitoring each institution 100 times over 30 days. Mystery shoppers complete a 24-question, yes-or-no form in seven areas of service, including customer rapport, professionalism and product knowledge.

JP Morgan Chase, one of the lower scoring banks, tried to salvage its reputation with the mystery shoppers by pointing out that the survey measured a call center’s effectiveness in trying to sell products – not necessarily in serving other customer needs.

"Consumers interested in our products tend to come into our branches where bankers are trained to find the right product to meet their needs," a Chase spokeswoman said. "Our call center workforce is more focused on resolving issues or addressing the needs of existing customers who might call in."