Operational determinants of caller satisfaction in the banking/financial services call center

Abstract

Banks and financial institutions depend upon telephone call centers to meet the needs of a changing and ever more demanding consumer for 24×7 access. Call centers serve as a source of service recovery, added value, market intelligence, and strategic advantage. Despite their ubiquity, there are no studies outlining the determinants of caller satisfaction in the banking call center. This study uses data available from the Purdue University Call Center Benchmark database to determine the critical relationships between call center metrics and caller satisfaction. None of the key factors found to be determinant of customer satisfaction in call centers in other industry groups was found to be significant in bank call centers. This raises questions about how call centers are managed and serves to highlight the very low customer satisfaction that customers have with their banking call center experience.