Mary Gober International

Bank of America have reported that following the introduction of a Live Chat service which exceeded 90% in customer satisfaction, it was evident that the role of the front line was changing. It was clear that the easier, less emotional queries and transactions were now being completed through the self service channels. This resulted in more complex and potentially emotional queries being the ones most likely to be dealt with over the phone. Agents would need to be equipped to deal with this. In addition, it was clear that there were demographic differences between the team providing the service to Bank of America customers (average age 24 years) and the customers themselves (average age 45 years).

A partnership was instigated with Mary Gober International in Q4 2009. Following several weeks of call listening and agent interviews, a new programme was designed to give the agents both the mind-set and approach to build a better rapport with customers and deal with more challenging contacts in a positive and solution-oriented manner.

Following a pilot scheme early in 2010 there were positive results:

• · The ‘Gober Method’™ saw a 50% reduction in Manager Escalations
• · And a 20% reduction in formal Customer Complaints
  
  

•