THE BANK IS NEAR YOU, NO MATTER WHEN AND WHERE
Thursday, September 25th, 2014
Ameriabank
Armenia’s Panorama.am news agency recently interviewed the head of
Ameriabank’s Contact Center, Lilit Hovhannisyan. The full interview
is below.
PANORAMA: What purpose did Ameriabank pursue when creating its Contact
Center, what does it include?
LILIT HOVHANNISYAN: Given present-day developments, financial markets
put forward new standards, and technological developments enable us
to make our services more convenient and accessible for clients. I
do believe that in the current competitive environment it is very
essential to follow international best practices and implement new
technologies in order to establish long-term partnerships with our
clients, and this process should be as sustainable and intense as
possible.
Today the client has a great deal of choice, and chooses the option
which is convenient, provides a comprehensive solution and offers
quick as well as affordable service.
Bearing in mind our aim of establishing long-term partnership with the
clients, Ameriabank constantly offers innovations ensuring convenient
and attractive terms for a top-of-the-line service.
A contact center is probably one of the most effective tools of
servicing present-day financial clients. If we look at the history
of development of the contact center concept, we will see that today
“contact center” means not just phone support, but availability through
all types of telecommunication means. In other words, by means of a
multi-functional contact center we spare our clients both distance
and time, becoming open and available with a whole range of services.
At present, Ameriabank’s Contact Center represents a system which
incoperates all means of communication with clients: phone, electronic
inquiries, web site, SMS, social networks, etc.
P.A.: What kind of technologies and innovations were implemented for
the creation of this Contact Center?
L.H.: Ameriabank’s Contact Center runs Avaya solutions, one of the
leaders on the international technological market specializing in
the analysis of competition. Creation of a multi-functional Contact
Center requires a very flexible program with all-around technology
solutions enabling us to perform incoming call segmentation, online
monitoring and control, as well as providing multiple possibilities
for mass communication. We selected Avaya software because it provides
the necessary comprehensive solutions for our contact center.
P.A.: What services does Ameriabank’s Contact Center currently provide?
L.H.: Telephone is no longer the only tool for providing mobile
support, that is why at present Ameriabank’s Contact Center also uses
other telecommunication means such as online chat, which enables the
client to directly submit his questions and get answers via the bank’s
web site; electronic inquiries and SMS, interactive voice response,
etc. Ameriabank’s Contact Center is proactive, which means that apart
from handling the clients’ inquiries, we are the one who initiates
communication with the clients, provides them with information
on various services of the bank while at the same time performing
virtual sales.
Non-cash transactions are growing daily making it a pressing challenge
to provide clients with maximum convenience when using card services
and quickly solve any problem which may arise during the card usage.
We offer our clients an unprecedented service on the Armenian financial
market – the fraud monitoring function of our Contact Center which
is 24/7 monitoring of all types of card transactions to identify and
prevent fraud as soon as possible. We are available for our clients
anytime and anywhere in the world.
P.A.: What competitive advantages does Ameriabank’s Contact Center
have as compared to other similar services available on the market
and what possibilities does it provide to its clients?
L.H.: First I would like to mention that contact centers are crucial
for the development of any business since their function is to provide
service availability 24/7, as well as time and cost savings. Given
the current competitive environment, a professional contact center
first of all ensures loyalty of our clients, availability and easy
access for our services anytime and anywhere in the world.
>From the operational efficiency point of view, it does not only result
in significant cost savings, but also serves as a unique infrastructure
to identify client needs on one-window basis and offering all-inclusive
solutions covering a wide range of financial tools and services.
Another important advantage of a contact center is resource
optimization which makes it possible to automate a great deal
of similar activities and functions, assuring highly specialized
servicing of clients, including sales options.
As I have already said, Ameriabank’s Contact Center is a 24/7 support
system, and this, I believe, is a highly competitive advantage,
especially given all possible card-related problems in different
countries and in different time zones. No matter where our client is
and what kind of card problem he or she has, they can call + 374 10
561111 anytime, and our specialists will always be there to help. I
think this is already a breakthrough; however, we still work hard
towards improving and further developing the capabilities of our
contact center.
P.A.: Are you ready to adjust the Contact Center’s services to clients’
demands? What developments should we expect in future?
L.H.: In fact, all services implemented by Contact Center are based on
clients’ requirements and needs. Our objective is to create a common
service system enabling each client to choose his or her preferred
way of service.
To make this possible we are currently working hard to implement mobile
banking services and plan to launch it in the near future. This service
will enable clients to execute any account transaction by means of
a single call to the bank. Moreover, clients will no longer need to
visit the bank to use its products, e.g. order a card, deposit, etc.
Now we strive to become a virtual branch to service each and every
client anytime and anywhere in the world. In other words, we lift
the restraints of both time and distance, meaning that the bank is
there for the convenience of the client. This, I believe, will be a
significant improvement in client servicing, when each client will
be able to state that his Bank is always at his hand.