How We Created World-Class Customer Experience at the Best Bank in the World
With Geeta Sreeraman, Head of Customer Centre at DBS Bank
Show Notes
Geeta Sreeraman is the Head of Customer Centre at DBS Bank in Singapore.
She has 22 years’ experience in banking across 3 countries, and 15 years’ experience in the contact centre industry.
Today, she shares how she helped create world-class customer experience in the bank’s contact centre, and how it’s lead to:
DBS becoming the World’s Best Bank, 3 years in a row.
An increase in complements from 300 to 10,000 a month.
A consistent drop in customer contacts year-on-year, of between 8 and 10%.
Consistent Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) ratings of around 4.6 out of 5.
Consistent awarding of the Best Contact Centre of the Year by the Contact Centre Association of Singapore.
Geeta’s Top 3 Tips
Given your agents are dealing with customers everyday, you have rich insights into what customers like and want. Find a way to capture the essence of that data, and see how you can use it to refine your customer journeys (17:02).
Ensure you have a very strong support system for your agents, which includes their training, how they’re empowered, and the simplification of systems which they use (18:12).
Put customer experience at the centre of everything you do. All other metrics should play only a supporting role (18:55).
You'll Learn:
The 3 parts of DBS’s service which turned around customer experience (03:26).
How the contact centre changed from meeting only the functional needs of customers, to also meeting their emotional needs (04:32).
The radical change in agent empowerment that was made in the centre (07:15).
The clever (and simple) piece of technology agents use to hone their skills (08:25).
How agents working from home are supported, so they have just as much support as they’d have in the office (08:57).
The 2 steps Geeta takes to continually reduce call volume (10:38).
Connect with Geeta on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geeta-sreeraman-0575337/
Transcript
Blair Stevenson (00:00)
Welcome to the Secrets to Contact Center Success podcast, connecting you with the latest and greatest tips from the best and the brightest minds in the industry.
I am Blair Stevenson, founder of BravaTrak. Our Sales Leadership System enables contact centre leaders to increase revenue and achieve their sales growth targets.
Today I'm joined by Geeta Sreeraman, who is the Head of Customer Centre for the DBS Bank in Singapore. You might recall from an interview I did with Andrew Sidwell recently, that DBS was recently recognised as the World's Best Bank three years in a row.
Today, I'm talking with Geeta about how service delivery has been transformed in her centre over the past decade.
So Geeta, welcome along. It's great to have you.
Geeta Sreeraman (00:44)
Hi Blair. Great to be here.
Blair Stevenson (00:46)
Fantastic. So just as a starting point, tell us a bit about your background.
Geeta Sreeraman (00:51)
I won't tell you my age, but I've been around the block for a while now. And my career spans across three countries, mainly. I started off in India and worked there for about seven years, took a few breaks when I had my kids. Then I worked for the next five years in New Zealand. And it's been 10 years since I've been with DBS now. So it cuts across different countries, but it's always been in the banking industry.
So I worked for Citibank in India, I was a Branch Manager when I left there. In Bank of New Zealand, I was working in the contact centre in New Zealand. I've actually done your training, Blair, the BravaTrak coaching, because I used to be a quality coach there. And I started my career in Singapore, also in quality in a contact centre. And now for the past three and a half years, I've been heading the centre.
Blair Stevenson (01:49)
Very cool. So just for context, tell us about the size of your business and the volume of service requests that you receive.
Geeta Sreeraman (01:57)
DBS is an in-house contact centre, and it services the consumer banking customers of the bank, which is about half a million customers. We're about a 600 staff centre, and we service about 350,000 to 400,000 interactions every month
And the DBS contact centre services all channels. So whether it's the main channel being calls, we also do emails, we do live chats, we do social media. We also do the annotations for chatbots. So all the servicing, which is outside of a face-to-face servicing in the branches, is done in the contact centre.
Blair Stevenson (02:48)
Right. So from a New Zealand perspective, you have a large operation.
Geeta Sreeraman (02:55)
Yes. We are a small country, but in terms of population, yes. I think it's very comparable.
Blair Stevenson (03:02)
You joined DBS about the time that RED was established, and that program has created a massive transformation - cultural transformation - across the bank. So for listeners who didn't get a chance to listen to the interview I did with Andrew Sidwell, just tell us a little bit about what RED stands for.
Geeta Sreeraman (03:26)
RED is a very simple acronym, because you want to make it easy for people to remember. But essentially, RED represents the kind of service - the kind of Asian service - that the bank wants to deliver to its customers. And at the time when RED was being conceptualised, we wanted to make it relatable to our people who were going to deliver that service.
So RED really stands for, 'R', being 'Respectful'. Respectful to your customers, to your internal stakeholders. And 'E' stands for 'Easy to deal with'. So how can you make your customer experience frictionless. And 'D' stands for being 'Dependable'.
So at the time when RED was introduced, at that point, the bank felt that the service that we were delivering was still very functional in nature. It didn't really take into account the emotional aspect of servicing as well. So that's really the essence of RED service.
Blair Stevenson (04:32)
Cool. So you talked about functional and emotional, and that shift from being - as we've previously talked about - very functional to more emotional. How did you achieve that?
Geeta Sreeraman (04:48)
So when RED started, when the whole idea of RED service was introduced, at that point, even in the contact centre, even the way we would deliver a service to our staff, was very functional. It was all about the processes, the policies, the things that you can or cannot say from a business point of view. So we had to do a full revamp of that training.
So we introduced something called the RED phone interaction training to let people know about how to go beyond meeting the functional needs of the customer, to actually meeting the emotional needs of the customers.
Because at the end of the day, it's one human serving another human. So we had to bring in all the elements of empathy, the elements of trying to understand the customer's job to be done, to really rethink the way we deliver that service. The tone of voice, choice of words. A little more focus on that aspect, apart from just talking about what you can or cannot do from a process side.
So it was really trying to bring in the emotional needs of the customer, and then teaching it to our frontline on ways they can deliver a service that is more holistic.
Blair Stevenson (06:12)
Yeah. So I think of that as active listening, in terms of building empathy, building rapport, the normal human needs. So what else did you do?
Geeta Sreeraman (06:26)
So when we started the RED training, it was RED movement of sorts. So telling everybody about what is that service that we aspire to give, and what does it mean to individuals. How can we then change the way we service.
But when you're in a contact centre role, and when you're on the frontline, you realise that it's more than what you say. You've got to make processes easy. So part of RED is also 'easy to deal with'. So how do we make sure that we remove the friction from customer experiences? So it went beyond just the contact centre.
Even at the bank level, there was a lot of process reviews, customer journeys. So we adopted the Human-Centered Design (HCD) principles of designing a customer journey end to end. And from a contact centre point of view, that also meant giving our people more empowerment in the way they service a customer.
(07:30)
So I'll give you a little bit of a history here. Before RED, we had a lot of empowerment given to our frontline, but there wasn’t one simple way to deliver that empowerment. So we would probably have about 30 or 40 different permutations and combinations of how much empowerment you can give in what situation.
And it was quite a nightmare for our frontline staff to remember. And then you still feel that there are lots of do's and don'ts that you've got to deal with.
So we really simplified that empowerment, so that it's really up to the frontline officer to decide what they want to do right for the customer. So that was one. We talked about improving our journeys. We've also, over time, looked at ways we can improve the competency of our frontline staff.
(08:25)
So we've used a lot of technology to help us. We created a sparring bot a couple of years back, with which our frontline staff can actually train. So traditionally, we do a lot of mock calls in contact centres when you train. And somehow mock calls are not very real, because you know the other person on the other side is not your real customer. You're not that scared.
So we started this sparring bot that people can practice and rehearse with, and learn and get better. So that's something that we've done.
And very recently, if I may add, the past two years we've seen ourselves working from home. And what that means to a contact centre is that you don't have the luxury of standing up and asking for support, or have a team manager next to you telling you what you can do better. So we've resorted to a lot of technology to be able to activate help.
(09:23)
So when you're stuck in what I would call an 'empathy call' with a distressed customer, where you really have to display that RED, but you sometimes don't know how. So we have a Teams chat, and when you activate that chat, it has a whole lot of people - I'm there as well in that group - to think for you, and maybe give you a suggestion, so that you as a frontline officer can then help your customer.
It's all about supporting the frontline, because it's very easy for us to tell them what to do, but I think you also need to show them how to do it. So this is how our RED journey in the customer centre has evolved, from just telling people about it, to really living and breathing RED in everything that we do in the centre.
Blair Stevenson (10:14)
So what I'm hearing is a lot about focus on your agent - or customer service officer - experience, which then translates into the customer experience. So obviously you're going to still have to meet your operational efficiency goals. How are you going about that?
Geeta Sreeraman (10:38)
So a big part of what we've been focused on in DBS, Blair, is about managing the demand that comes into the contact centre. So typically, the way we look at it is that you should really design your journeys for no calls. That's the best journey.
And so over the past five years or so, we've been very focused on looking at what drives demand, because there's invariably a negative connotation to it. The customers obviously don't understand something or they're facing problems. So we work very closely with our business partners to bring down that demand.
And then the next thing is the kind of demand that you can't completely remove. We work internally on improving the way we deliver. So it could be a process that we want to make more efficient, or we could be automating some of our standard calls, which is why we leverage a lot on our chat bot through guided conversations. So these are some ways that we are delivering operational efficiency.
(11:45)
And actually last year in 2020, because of COVID, we did see a spike in our call volumes, especially because customers couldn't go any other way, they couldn't go to the branches. Or you had a lot of people going digital, which is a good thing for us, because that's also what we want to drive. We do want to drive digital adoption.
We did see a lot of customers going digital because they couldn't go to branches. But of course it also meant that in the contact centre, we had to do a lot of handholding. We had to help our customers on that journey.
And more recently, since last year, Blair, we've also then invested significantly to improve some of our digital capabilities. So these are some ways where in the contact centre, we are trying to drive efficiencies. Mainly by, A), working on the demand itself. And B), the calls that do need a human touch, we find ways to really handle those in an efficient manner. So it could be the systems that we use, or the processes that we do, and finding ways on how we improve on that.
Blair Stevenson (13:00)
And of course, people using the digital channels, some of them have problems doing so, as you say. So that handholding is really necessary. So based on what you've told me, it sounds like you've made three moves. The first part was some time ago, where you made that shift from having very functional interactions to more emotional.
You're really enhancing agent empowerment, and providing support for your agents. And you've been working on improving your customer journey and enhancing those digital capabilities, so that you're designing as much as you possibly can to avoid customers actually having to contact you directly.
What impact have all those changes made?
Geeta Sreeraman (13:53)
It's been a long journey. It's almost 10, 11 years now since we’ve implemented RED. And anecdotally, Blair, when I first joined the bank, that was when RED was being introduced, I remember that at that point, the customer centre would get about 300 compliments a month. Customer compliments.
And those days, officers would think, "It's not easy to get a customer compliment." And there would be a lot of staff who would probably never get a single compliment in the month.
Today, we have close to 10,000 compliments every month. And if I were to ask anyone, "Did you get a compliment?" They probably wouldn't believe me. They'll say, "Getting one compliment is a no-brainer." So we've getting a lot more positive feedback from customers.
It also showed in our customer satisfaction scores, where today we are very consistently high. We get about 4.6 out of five, on a five star rating. Which I think is a very high consistent score for a centre of this size. And I think it's a result of that empowerment and embracing that whole RED service.
(15:21)
In terms of customer demand, we've also seen a year-on-year drop. So every year, we get about an eight to 10% drop in our demand. Of course, 2020 was slightly different, and we understand why. But that's been our focus, as well as to drive digital adoption and to really bring down that demand. So that's one.
As a contact centre, we participate in the contact centre awards for the Contact Centre Association of Singapore (CCAS). In fact, my pitch for this year's awards is tomorrow morning. So I'll be doing an interview - virtual interview - for the Best Contact Centre. And we've won the gold place for about three or four years running, so we are a very respected and acknowledged centre in the industry, and in Singapore and in the region.
And of course, as frontliners, we've contributed greatly to the bank's accolades - the Best Bank in the World - everything that we stand for, I think we are a very important contributor to that recognition as well.
Blair Stevenson (16:29)
Totally. And that CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) of 4.5 out of five consistently, that's impressive. Just to wrap up, if you were providing advice or guidance to another contact centre leader who is wanting to make a similar transformation in their business, what would be your key tips for them?
Geeta Sreeraman (17:02)
Tip #1 (17:02)
So my top three tips that I would give anybody, Blair, is that in a contact centre, your people are dealing with customers day in and day out. So you really have very rich insights on what customers like and what customers want. And as a result, every contact centre is a very key business partner, in any business that you may be in. So it's a very strategic position.
And it's important that as an organisation, if you're working for an organisation, that they recognise that partnership and the importance of the contact centre in the whole customer journey. So at the end of the day, I think most organisations know by now the importance of having an end-to-end customer journey. So contact centres play a very important role.
There's also rich data that you acquire when you're talking to customers every day. There's a lot of unstructured data, but very insightful. So organisations should find a way to capture the essence of that data, and see how you can use it in your customer journeys.
Tip #2 (18:12)
The second point I'd like to bring is that your agents, your frontline staff, are the most important link to your customers. And so making sure that they have a very strong support system. And like I mentioned in my conversation with you, whether it could be training, or whether it could be the way they are empowered, or the support that you give them, or the kinds of systems that they have to use to interact.
Do you have one single system, or do they have to toggle a hundred systems to kind of give that service? So I think all of that becomes important, so it's an easy journey for them to go and help your customers.
Tip #3 (18:55)
And my last tip would be really focusing on the right metrics in a contact centre environment. I strongly believe that having the customer experience as your core metric and making that the centre of everything you do is very, very crucial.
I know that contact centres, and even me, we look at efficiency, productivity, a whole lot of things. But I think put the customer experience at the heart of it and everything else should be a supporting role. And that should really be your star in the contact centre.
Blair Stevenson (19:32)
Yeah, I agree. And I always think about this as framing. How you frame those metrics, whether your primary focus is customer experience, or whether your primary focus is operational efficiency, will very much dictate which way people go.
Geeta, great tips. Thank you for your time today. Really appreciate it.
Geeta Sreeraman (19:54)
Thank you. It was wonderful talking to you, Blair.
Blair Stevenson (19:57)
Well, that's it from us today. For listeners, you'll find the link to the show notes in the episode description below.
And if you'd like to connect with Geeta on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/geeta-sreeraman-0575337/), you'll also find the link to her LinkedIn profile in the description too.
Also, if you'd like to follow me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevensonblair/) or connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/blair.stevenson.980), you'll find links to my profile there as well.
Well, that's it from us today. Have a productive week.