In a situation where service providers have a lot in common in terms of their offerings, what really makes the difference is how the products or services are packaged and generally how their brands, mounted on a number of pillars including a strong promise, delivers customer service.

Many customers across numerous sectors would acknowledge the fact that customer service delivered by their providers has played a key role in ensuring that the relationship between service provider and customer is maintained on an even keel to the benefit of both parties.

This is the driving rationale for FBNBank Ghana in its quest to put its customers, and indeed its partners, employees and communities, first.

This is also very much in line with the Bank’s brand which aims to “always deliver the ultimate ‘Gold Standard’ of value and excellence” and to always put its stakeholders at the heart of its business. This is the quest which led FBNBank Ghana to establish a Contact Centre in March last year.

This Centre comes equipped with the necessary facilities to enable its staff to communicate and engage customers and clients through multi-channel options which include voice, emails, text chat and the Bank’s social media channels.

The Contact Centre Team seek to encourage interaction between the Bank and its customers thereby eliciting goodwill, increased awareness and patronage of the products and services. Another objective is to gather customer feedback for service improvement purposes.

The overarching service goal is to deliver fast and reliable solutions to customers in order to boost confidence and satisfaction. This certainly guarantees customer retention and supports acquisition.

Last week, the Contact Centre attained its first anniversary, with some exciting results to show.

Within exactly 299 working days of operations, the FBNBank Ghana Contact Centre, has handled 6,106 contacts and achieved a 100 percent enquiries and complaints resolution score.

On the average, the Centre’s staff handled 20.4 cases daily ensuring resolution in order that the needs of their customers and clients would be addressed.

Over the period, the team handled a host of cases which include “Enquiries”, “Account reactivation”, “Card hot listing”, “Mobile App sign-up request”, “SMS, Email Alert and E-Statement sign up”, “Treasury Bill Request”, “Fixed Deposit request and termination”, “Quick Banking *894*”, “Online Banking”, “FBNMobile services” and “Branch Direction request.”

Commenting on the Contact Centre, FBNBank Ghana’s Country Head of Technology and Services, Mrs. Rachel Adeshina said, “the Contact Centre testifies to our commitment to deliver superior service and ensure that we maintain a high satisfaction rate among our customers. Just over a year, the Centre has brought more radiance to the FBNBank Brand by contributing significantly to our efforts to ‘deliver the ultimate Gold Standard of value and excellence’ to our customers. We have always maintained that our customers deserve a high level of service in order for them to be able to undertake the various activities for which they bank with us in a fast, efficient and reliable manner. We, on the other hand, are well placed to support our customers all the way. For us at FBNBank Ghana, it quite remarkable and exciting that within the context of our 25th anniversary, we are able to celebrate the success of our Contact Centre after its first year of operation and offer tangibility to that standard of service which differentiates our brand and makes our offering unique.”

The FBNBank Contact Centre operates six out of seven days in a week, including holidays, and remains open for 13 hours daily. Within this window, customers can receive prompt responses to their contact made via telephone, email, text chat or through the Bank’s social media channels. Complaints and enquiries made outside the Centre’s hours of operation are handled promptly within the set service level standards once the Centre is open for business.

As a key contributor to the Bank’s net promoter score among other performance indices, the FBNBank Contact Centre’s role as a driver of the Bank’s brand is well acknowledged. There are therefore expectations of higher performance levels in the years to come. This will be on the back of support for the Centre and its team in terms of equipment and software upgrade whenever possible and also giving the team the relevant capacity building. According to Mrs. Adesina, “our brand values set the tone for us here; it is about People, Passion and Partnership. Our people are ultimately the drivers of our brand and they will continue to be well equipped to do so. The engagement our people receive and enjoy is what makes them passionate about our brand. This passion serves as the channel for engaging our customers who are, in other words, our partners. To serve our customers satisfactorily, we treat them as our partners, on the basis of ‘their success is our success.’ This is the what we mean by placing them at the heart of our business.”

FBNBank Ghana is a member of the First Bank of Nigeria Limited Group which is renowned for its great customer service and general stakeholder engagement garnered over its 127 years of operation. FBNBank has been operating in Ghana for the past 25 years. The Bank has 20 branches and two agencies across the country with almost 500 staff. FBNBank offers universal banking services to individuals and businesses in Ghana.