The Critical Role of Bank Customer Service
Report Summary
The Critical Role of Bank Customer Service
Banks must recognize that customer service is a key opportunity for growing and retaining treasury services clients.
Boston, MA, August 3, 2009 – A new report from Aite Group, LLC identifies the value corporate treasury groups place on customer service during the bank selection process. Based on an Aite Group survey of 35 large U.S.-based corporate treasury groups, the report identifies how corporate treasury groups define customer service and how they perceive their banks' performance based on these standards. The report also makes recommendations to banks seeking to better support their large corporate treasury customers.
Excellent customer service was identified by 88% of large corporate survey respondents as either very important or extremely important when selecting a new banking partner. In fact, nearly 80% of large corporate respondents indicated that a bank's reputation for customer service has either broken a tie or pushed one provider over another in a bank selection process. Further, a majority of respondents indicated that excellent customer service is so important that they would be willing to sacrifice some product or service capabilities to have a provider with excellent service. As such, banks must recognize that customer service is a key opportunity for growing and retaining treasury services clients.
"Given the importance of excellent customer service to winning and retaining large corporate treasury services customers, maintaining a consistent level of customer service is critical for success," says Judson Murchie, analyst with Aite Group and co-author of this report. "Instead of viewing customer service as an overhead service that to customer issues, banks should position their customer service offering like a product to meet specific customer needs. Many technology firms already do this, servicing customers by industry vertical and even offering premium levels of customer service at a price."
This 30-page Impact Note contains 20 figures. Clients of Aite Group's Wholesale Banking service can download the report.