One year after migrating its contact centre operations to the cloud, Bendigo Bank is celebrating a 20% improvement in its customer service efficiency and the uplift of key performance, productivity and service standard metrics:
- 20% improvement in customer service efficiency
- 17% year on year improvement of Bendigo Bank’s Net Promoter Score (measure of customer loyalty and satisfaction)
- 90% reduction in call wait time complaints
- 46% reduction in internal call transfers within the Customer Contact team.
In November 2023, Australia’s most trusted bank migrated its contact centre operations to omnichannel contact centre, Amazon Connect, on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to contribute to more effective management of the steady increase in call volumes in recent years, largely in line with sustained customer growth.
With telephony remaining the main method of inbound contact from customers, the Customer Contact team received more than one million calls last year. In those one million calls, General Manager Customer Contact at Bendigo Bank, Megan Papadopoulos, saw one million opportunities to do things differently.
“With digital being the next frontier, moving this key functionality to the cloud was the logical next step for us,” Ms Papadopoulos said.
“We also identified improvement opportunities in our insights and reporting, so we transformed the way data is accessed, presented and interpreted across our operations. This program of work is now arming our people and leaders with all the intelligence needed to make decisions quickly, act with confidence and deliver results for customers,” she said.
“The resulting and significant reduction in average handling time over the past 12 months has allowed capacity to be reinvested back into improving overall customer experience.”
By introducing better tools, overhauling processes, reimagining training for team leaders and members and driving more meaningful insights, the Bank has empowered its people to deliver a better customer experience.
The cloud migration consolidated multiple legacy, on-premises contact centre applications into a single, cloud-based solution on AWS, enhancing agility, reliability, and operational efficiency. Part of the Bank’s wider transformation agenda, Bendigo Bank is transforming banking for its 2.5 million customers simplifying, modernising and digitising operations to reduce complexity, improve security and to better respond to changing customer needs.
Jamie Simon, Director of Financial Services for AWS Australia and New Zealand, said Bendigo Bank's successful migration of its telephony systems to Amazon Connect in just six months is testament to the Bank's commitment to embracing technology for the benefit of its customers.
"We're pleased to support Bendigo Bank's migration to Amazon Connect as part of their digital transformation journey, helping them optimise operations and accelerate innovation,” said Mr. Simon.
“It’s great to already see rapid and measurable improvements in productivity metrics, and customer satisfaction scores. By leveraging the power of AWS and Amazon Connect, the Bank has positioned itself at the forefront of innovation, powered by a modern cloud environment. It also provides the Bank the ability to leverage cutting edge AI to deliver exceptional customer experiences while gaining valuable insights into customer sentiment and ongoing experience with the Bank,” he said.
By utilising more of the analytics, fraud detection, generative AI, machine learning, automation and digital engagement available on Amazon Connect, the Bank intends to further improve the experience for callers by streamlining interactions and reducing even more friction points, like on-hold wait times and identification processes.
“Things like simple configuration to set up target call flows and effective call tagging, and by enhancing call reason data, we’re excited to support the next wave of customer-focused initiatives at the Bank,” Ms Papadopoulos said.
“And it’s not just our contact centre that’s seeing results. We have more than 50 teams on Amazon Connect across every division in the bank and the wholesale efficiency improvements are contributing to an uplift in our overall service offering.”
