2016 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards Gold Winner – Philippine Savings Bank
Company: Philippine Savings Bank, Makati City, Philippines
Category: Award for the Innovative Use of Technology in Customer Service > Financial Services Industries
Entry Title: Reaching out to more customers through PSBank LiveChat
Digital technology has given birth to many changes and conveniences for consumers, and this includes the way that banks reach out and maintain its relationship with clients. Before, the banking public’s traditional channels to make an inquiry only include the customer service hotline; the e-mail; or the branch. Because clients need a new, faster and more contemporary way to get instant answers on their important questions, Philippine Savings Bank created the PSBank LiveChat.
The PSBank LiveChat—the first and only real-time chat service in the Philippine banking industry —is another innovation of the Bank to meet its clients’ evolving needs. PSBank values its clients’ time and financial goals in life, thus it rolled out this communication platform that allows existing and potential clients to interact with the Bank’s customer experience assistants anytime, any day through an instant messenger-type of platform in the PSBank website (visit: www.psbank.com.ph).
The PSBank LiveChat was mainly conceptualized to provide top quality and holistic customer service and a real-time communication channel that enables timely and interactive communication between the Bank and the banking public. In particular, clients here and abroad have an added channel that can instantly address their inquiries or concerns in a timely manner. This will be on top of the Bank’s existing customer touch points, which includes the PSBank 24/7 Customer Experience Hotline; e-mail; and mobile phone; and branches nationwide.
This innovative communication platform allows clients who cannot physically visit a PSBank branch due to their busy lifestyle to make a quick inquiry on the Bank’s products, services and other concerns. It will also spare overseas Filipinos from high mobile phone charges because PSBank LiveChat only requires an Internet connection to get in touch with the Bank.
PSBank LiveChat was launched in August 2014. It was rolled out through radio, TV, print and online advertisements. A press release was also distributed to the media and a digital buzz was done in different social media platforms through the viral video produced for the new service (https://youtu.be/QnavNxd_u5I).
Clients’ reception of the service has been encouraging since its launch. Its effectiveness is reflected by the average efficient rate, which stood at 92%. This covered the November 2014 to September 2015 period. The average waiting time of clients for requests or inquiries through PSBank LiveChat, which normally takes a minute or 0.75, is at par, if not less than the average waiting time if they opt to use other customer touch points. Thus, the 0.75 minutes waiting time is acceptable for clients. Add to this the convenience of allowing clients to do other tasks with their Internet-ready mobile device while they are making an inquiry. Moreover, the average handling time per inquiry of PSBank LiveChat chat assistants is 11.94 minutes.
Results of a phone interview survey conducted from October 1-25, 2015 among 30 clients found that 73% of the respondents see the PSBank LiveChat as a convenient channel. Clients were asked to rank the convenience of the channel from 1-5, with 5 being the highest or most convenient and 1 being the lowest or not convenient at all. Of the respondents, 93% said they would use the platform again to contact the Bank.
In the end, through the creation of PSBank LiveChat, clients are offered another communication touch point that can address their concerns real-time through their mobile devices.
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