My experience with a bank has led me to think why a division of their contact center handles its customer transactions differently, in relation to service.
A customer service representative I spoke to regarding my balance was very polite and professional. You would literally want to hug and thank her for solving your problem. But, a friend of mine who received a call from their collections department said she wanted to hire an assassin to shoot the agent.
Though one would understand the difference, my question is why shouldn’t it be the same? Digging deeper, the agent’s metrics are entirely different, having CSAT and FCR for customer service and commissions drive the collections agent’s aggressiveness. This is a classic example of assigning the wrong KPIs that lead to bad behavior.
I disagree with this approach because I know one could be successful when collecting overdue payments by still being providing excellent service. There are other ways of dealing with delinquent customers without adding more of their stress by being rude and condescending. I would suggest adding retention as a metric for collections, bearing in mind that person who may not be able to pay on time, can still impact your marketing efforts of getting new contacts.
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