Service Excellence Drives Business Excellence September 05, 2008 20080905 PDF Investors continue to become more sophisticated and are demanding far more from their financial organizations than just access to innovative solutions. Personalized service, respect, and trust are the differentiating factors for many clients. 20081105
Investors continue to become more sophisticated and are demanding far more from their financial organizations than just access to innovative solutions. Personalized service, respect, and trust are the differentiating factors for many clients. PDF
Service Excellence Drives Business Excellence

September 05, 2008

Successful financial services firms understand the importance of constantly adapting to the changing needs of their clients. Over the last decade, financial organizations have responded to their client's needs by expanding their range of services and solutions, and broadening their technology offerings.

The competitive landscape of the financial services industry continues to evolve and many services and capabilities traditionally offered by financial organizations have become commoditized. This has forced financial services firms to further differentiate their businesses and their operating models by placing a greater emphasis on client service and forging stronger, consultative relationships with their clients.

Investors continue to become more sophisticated and are demanding far more from their financial organizations than just access to innovative solutions. Personalized service, respect, and trust are the differentiating factors for many clients. The most successful financial services firms build long-term loyalty by taking ownership for customer satisfaction, being responsive, and honoring their commitments. This loyalty is a key factor in driving a firm's growth.

Pershing associates work as a team, and with a collaborative spirit, across the firm to deliver service excellence in all that we do. Our customer care principles are built on a long history of reliability and comprehensive quality management processes, founded on listening to customers and continually striving to enhance their experiences. We proactively monitor a key set of metrics that drive behaviors linked to the efficiency, accuracy, and professionalism of the customer experience. For example, in 2007 we implemented a facility that enables our customers to easily “reopen” completed transactions if they aren’t completely satisfied with the results. From January to July 2008, our reopen rate has been cut to less than three percent. Related to call professionalism, 99% of our customer service associates met or exceeded expectations in July.

The focus on making a satisfying customer experience at every interaction through a combination of people, processes, objective measurement, and continuous improvement is a critical factor for success. The challenge is to ensure that financial organizations have the proper suite of metrics defined that directly relate to their clients experiences and increased satisfaction. We encourage you to examine the service excellence best practices below to help you increase the loyalty of your client base:

  • Process each of your clients requests quickly and accurately at its first touch point;
  • Rapidly respond to exceptional situations;
  • Take personal responsibility for excellence;
  • Provide tools and processes to help delight your clients;
  • Proactively measure your success against service commitments; and
  • Insist that your solution providers measure against their service commitments.

We are committed to delivering service excellence and innovative business and technology solutions to help our customers achieve their goals and continued success. We are confident that our consultative approach and our team of experienced industry experts will help you grow Your Business Without Limits™.

Links to Lucille Mayers Bio