Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 22, 2018

We had to put in a daycare center, a catering center, provide cash because there was no way for people to take money out of the bank, provide cars for people, especially reporters, to get around. Our call centers became the FEMA call centers. And that was just for our employees. and Caribbean.

Media 10

Media Company Call Center Real Estate 10

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 10, 2017

In an experiment, we approached the call center of a bank’s consumer loans business. (We’ve This call center employed all the best practices of the day: A psychologist created scripts of talking points. We made a number of operational changes to the call center. Building Balanced Cultures.

Organization 12

Organization Tactics Call Center Metrics 12

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 13, 2018

It is frequently used to automate financial processes, such as comparing invoices with shipment notices, or transfering data from email and call center speech-to-text systems into transactional systems of record. Two examples are described below (both clients of Symphony Ventures, David’s consulting firm).

Process 12

Process Six Sigma Company Technology 12

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 5, 2014

Point solutions, such as focusing on the call center, the store, or the website, no longer cut it in a multichannel environment, not when delivering excellent customer journeys can increase revenues up to 15 percent and cut costs by up to 20 percent. Become the organizational “glue” to deliver change. “If

P&L 10

P&L Banking Marketing Call Center 10

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 22, 2011

With much of the corporate world's customer interactions handled by offshore call centers, reps are often incapable of relating to customers' needs. The Bank of Montreal Financial Group uses simulations and coaching to improve its call-center operations, and a similar strategy was adopted by Primera Therapeutics.

Call Center 13

Call Center Offshoring Policies System 13

Strategy Driven

DECEMBER 3, 2019

These new capabilities connect to the work we’ve done over the past several decades inside our enterprises to automate processes with tools — such as accounting systems, supply chain, call center, and such. That requires a new way of thinking about people and leadership.

Agility 65

Agility Banking Supply Chain CTO 65

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

Consider the most obvious, and pernicious, perverse incentive: publicly tweeted complaints get faster/better reaction than calls or emails to the corporate customer contact centers. Social media circumstances invite organizations to prioritize indiscreet tweets over less transparent call center interactions.

Disintermediation 15

Disintermediation Call Center Core Competence Incentives 15

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 28, 2015

While this would seem sufficient to alert the bank to his impending trip abroad, “transaction denied” flashes across the terminal screen, leaving this longtime customer stranded, fuming, and no longer so loyal. Similarly, bills and call center script guidelines reinforce the same personal tone that’s been established.

COO 8

COO Planning Metrics Call Center 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 26, 2016

Sena Aslan, the CEO of FDM Turkey, wished the drive from the Ankara airport to the bank’s largest branch were a bit longer. She had made site visits a hallmark of her short tenure at the company’s helm, because they helped her see how frontline employees were weathering the changes she’d been spearheading across the bank.

Case Study 8

Case Study CEO Banking Agility 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 19, 2011

While it may not be intuitive to global readers, I see many similarities between Samsung's transformation from local leader in Korea to major player on the world stage and our own journey in building the United Bank for Africa into a group that operates in 20 countries and on three continents.

Venture Funding 12

Venture Funding Banking Participative Globalization 12

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 11, 2015

Dennis Campbell , Frances Frei , and I have done some research looking at self-service technologies, in banks in particular. Customers’ overall satisfaction with the bank fell as the proportion of their total interactions shifted away from face-to-face channels and toward using ATMs. But that’s not always true.

Banking 8

Banking Technology Norton Ryan 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 23, 2012

From airlines to banks to telecoms, companies are gouging us in our moment of need, piling shady fees on top of mediocre service as people struggle with the ongoing effects of the Great Recession. Consumers are up in arms. In contrast, the cost drivers of service are often harder to see, if not invisible.

Airlines 12

Airlines Price Cost How To 12

Harvard Business Review

JULY 19, 2013

No big deal, I thought: Simply call the bank. When I got home, I eventually found, hidden on a remote corner of the web site, the number to call for lost cards. I was assuming this would be an important call for them, but I was left on hold to think about the power asymmetry between service provider and customer.

Airlines 8

Airlines Hotels Loyalty Call Center 8

Terry Starbucker

OCTOBER 21, 2010

I work for Fifth Third Bank as the Social Media Strategist, and every day I have conversations with many excited execs who want to get started in Social Media right away. This has served as a blueprint — the strategy — for how we think about and plan for Social Media at the Bank. Community, and Measurement.

Media 289

Media Tactics Strategy Open-book 289

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 27, 2013

For example, Citibank wanted to copy the Apple store so badly that it actually hired the same architects responsible for the Apple store concept to design its bank of the future. Not surprisingly, it wound up with a bank that looks like an Apple store. Imitation may be the highest form of flattery — but it''s not innovation.

Innovation 8

Innovation Forrester Business Model Long-term 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 25, 2015

Rather than letting the assumptions attached to their existing products limit how they explore and define customer needs, insurers can gain in-depth insight into what motivates customer decisions through a variety of sources, including social media, analytics, mobile and call center data, and feedback from digital marketing efforts.

Insurance 8

Insurance Policies Productivity Products 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 23, 2010

Rather than relegating customer complaints to a far-off call center, the firm's leaders listened to and interpreted them. It has allowed us to secure a new bank and insurance company as clients this year.". As a result they developed and successfully pitched the idea of alliance partnerships to telecommunications firms.

Entrepreneur 14

Entrepreneur Strategy Telecommunications Software 14

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 26, 2015

From banking to computing to beer , mergers and acquisitions are accumulating at a breathtaking pace, raising antitrust concerns in the middle of a contentious presidential election cycle. Where only the largest organizations could operate 24-hour call centers, today, even small organizations have access to companies like Global Response.

Competitive Advantage 8

Competitive Advantage Pharmaceuticals Industry Trends 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 6, 2017

You can use old technology like a land line to enter your SSN or you can relay it to a call center employee in India who can verify it. Individuals need to trust that the same verification data they use to authenticate with their bank won’t also be shared with third parties looking for specific and marketable data.

Crisis 9

Crisis Insurance Technology Credit Scoring 9

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 24, 2014

Even in economies where the “talent wars” still rage, is it really such a triumph that young people in China and India can finally aspire to…spend eighteen hours a day working in call-centers and factories? Wages (Hi, I’m the ghost of capitalism—it’s very nice to meet you!

Transportation 14

Transportation Education Hedge Bottom-up 14

Skip Prichard

OCTOBER 14, 2019

Appletree Answers is a call center company created through a “roll up” of smaller companies. No small order for someone with $160 in the bank whose life feels like it is falling apart. To help people in such situations, the company started a program called Dream On.

How To 83

How To Simon Learning-by-Doing Organization 83

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

To open a bank account today, for instance, a typical customer embarks on a multichannel journey: researching online; downloading an application; speaking to a call center agent; linking brokerage accounts; visiting a branch; and installing the bank’s mobile app. Those steps leave a long and complex digital trail.

Call Center 8

Call Center Banking Analysis Knowledge Management 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 24, 2013

For several weeks earlier this year, we collected daily electronic diaries from the employees of the HR department in a New York bank. A study by Stanford researchers revealed significant differences between call center employees in a Chinese company who were randomly assigned to work from home for nine months and those who were not.

Call Center 11

Call Center Banking Survey Participative 11

The Horizons Tracker

OCTOBER 25, 2023

Trained on the bank’s proprietary research reports, this bot grants rapid access to its extensive knowledge base. In call centers of major software companies, chatbots improved the productivity and quality of underperforming workers more significantly than that of “superstars.”

Finance 118

Finance Power Early Adopters Call Center 118

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 7, 2017

With automated pricing engines, insurers and banks can roll out new offers as fast as online competitors. Artificial intelligence systems make a huge difference when unstructured data such as social media, call center notes, images, or open-ended surveys are also required to reach a judgment.

Company 13

Company Telecommunications Retail Supply Chain 13

Harvard Business Review

JULY 1, 2013

Similarly, Brian Moynihan, CEO for Bank of America, one of the country''s largest banks in both assets and branches, has implored employees to improve their relationships with customers. He mailed letters to the homes of 270,000 employees outlining the need to make it easier for customers to do business with the bank.

Mayo 8

Mayo How To Banking Budgeting 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 25, 2018

Managers in banks, hospitals, police departments, call-centers, and retail outlets who want to know what employees are up to can now quite easily do so. These technologies run the gamut, from body-worn cameras and closed-circuit televisions, to traceable identification cards and keystroke trackers.

Travel 9

Travel Airlines Transportation Call Center 9

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 27, 2015

call centers). Similarly, in finance, payment providers and investment banks such as Schroders and Goldmans Sachs Group fared badly while retail insurance and banking such as PNC Financial Services Group performed well. They don’t use twitter as a broadcasting service for promotion or investor announcements.

Company 8

Company Airlines Brand Analysis 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 8, 2015

As the CEO of a British bank confided at last year’s World Economic Forum, “We all know it’s important to be empathic, but how do I galvanize 48,000 people in my UK operations — most of whom think that empathy is for wimps? The sector that fared worse was the telecoms, with Vodafone and BT scoring particularly badly.

Emotional Intelligence 8

Emotional Intelligence Media Sample Banking 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 21, 2015

It’s more likely to be about the world outside your business transactions—what your customers and prospects are saying on social media, what they’re telling your call center reps, and how they’re moving around your store. These analytical decisions are made not by humans, but by computers.

Analysis 8

Analysis Supply Chain CRM Banking 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 7, 2016

They pursue what our colleague and loyalty expert Fred Reichheld calls “bad profits” : efforts to extract more money from customers without offering them additional value, making them feel coerced, deceived or misled (think airline baggage fees or excessive banking penalties).

Bureaucracy 8

Bureaucracy Short-term Budgeting Long-term 8