How the Leading U.S Retail Banks Perform for Customer Service
Banking has evolved a lot since the 1700’s, when merchants established the Bank of Pennsylvania to fund the American Revolutionary War.
Today the U.S banking system, much like its British counterparts across the pond is undergoing one of the most historical transformations it’s ever seen.
Large banks are making long-term investments to transform and digitize operations in an all out effort to stay competitive and relevant in both their customers and employees lives. While there is no dispute that digital banking gives banks an enormous opportunity to reduce costs, the risk is that those cost savings come with lower levels of customer engagement.
According to research from J.D Power, the big U.S banks have the largest concentration of digital-centric customers (47%). But as customers ditch physical branches and migrate from out-dated communications to digital channels they are also becoming the least satisfied among all customer segments.
Communication is where relationships fall short: the lower satisfaction scores found among digital-only customers were largely driven by weaker performance across three factors: communication and advice; products and fees; and new account opening — J.D Power
In this exclusive in-depth insight we decided to take a closer look at how the leading U.S retail banks are using social media to bridge the digital divide and help customers.
HelpHandles™ U.S Banking Service Index
Summary
The PNC Bank Help social media team were the overall standout performers for customer service across inbound volume, response rate, responsiveness and sentiment among customer conversations. While the TD Bank US team were the fastest bank overall to respond to customers, Ask Captial One were the busiest seeing the highest volumes of mentions over a 6-week period.
1. PNC Bank Help
Supporting customers 7 days a week, Monday — Sunday from 6am til midnight EST time, the PNC Help team have risen to the top of the HelpHandles Service Index this year to become the №1 US Retail Bank for Customer Service.
Ranked as the 9th largest banks in the US by assets, PNC Financial Services Group is a bank holding company and financial services organisation based in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, its subsidiary PNC Bank offers consumer retail and business banking services across 19 states with approx. 2,500 branches and 9,000 ATMS at its mercy.
PNC Bank’s customer service social media team work hard to bridge the digital divide by responding to customers on Twitter, triaging problems before moving any sensitive or confidential issues into private conversations when necessary. On the flip side the social media marketing team offer engaging insights into the financial habits of the American public, and have produced their own unique take on Christmas, with the original PNC Christmas Price Index.
This proactive, and insightful approach to marketing and customer service is why PNC are the leading U.S Bank for customer service on HelpHandles Service Index.
2. Ask Capital One
With just under 115k followers on Twitter and operating a dedicated help handle, the Ask Capital One service reps are available to support customers on Twitter from Mon-Sat 8:00 a.m. — 10:00 p.m, and Sun 10:00 a.m. — 7:00 p.m.
Ranked 2nd on the HelpHandles U.S Banking Index, the Ask Capital One team received the largest share of mentions over the 6-week period, achieving the 2nd highest positive sentiment among conversations with customers. Again the Ask Capital One team are careful to educate customers on public social media, and are proactive to moving them into private messaging when necessary to confirm any sensitive or confidential details.
Capital One is ranked 10th on the list of largest banks in the United States by assets. The bank has 755 branches including 30 café style locations and 2,000 ATMs. It is ranked 98th on the Fortune 500, 17th on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list, and conducts business in the United States, Canada, and the U.K.
3. Ask Citi
With 33k followers on Twitter, @AskCiti is the official customer service help handle for @Citi and @Citibank. Supporting customers everyday between 9am-10pm ET.
Citibank is the consumer division of financial services multinational Citigroup. Founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City Bank of New York. The bank has approx 2,649 branches in 19 countries, including 723 branches in the United States and 1,494 branches in Mexico operated by its subsidiary Banamex.
4. Ask U.S Bank
Receiving the lowest share of mentions, @AskUSBank official reps of U.S. Bank, are available to answer your questions Mon-Fri 7am-11pm, Sat-Sun 10am-7pm CT time.
U.S. Bancorp is an American bank holding company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and incorporated in Delaware. The company provides banking, investment, mortgage, trust, and payment services products to individuals, businesses, governmental entities, and other financial institutions. It has approx 3,106 branches and 4,842 ATMs, primarily in the Western and Midwestern United States, and has approximately 74,000 employees.
5. TD Bank U.S
Promoting its #UnexpectedlyHuman hashtag on Twitter, TD Bank U.S were the fastest bank to respond to customers, notching up a respectable 27 min response time on average. Operating a single handle with over 50k followers, the TD Bank U.S social media team are available everyday between 6am–11pm EST and offer a highly proactive, personal and human response on Twitter…
TD Bank, is a U.S. national bank and subsidiary of the Canadian multinational Toronto-Dominion Bank. It operates primarily across the East Coast, in fifteen U.S. states and Washington, D.C. TD Bank is the seventh-largest U.S. bank by deposits and the 8th largest bank in the United States by total assets, resulting from many mergers and acquisitions. T.D. Bank, N.A. is headquartered in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
6. Chase Support
The official Twitter customer service team for Chase Bank, the Chase Support team are listening, learning and helping customers from M-F 7AM-11PM ET & Sat/Sun 10AM-7PM ET.
JPMorgan Chase, through its Chase subsidiary, is one of the Big Four banks of the United States. Headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and financial services holding company, JPMorgan Chase. The bank was known as Chase Manhattan Bank until it merged with J.P. Morgan & Co. in 2000.
Chase offers more than 5,100 branches and 16,000 ATMs nationwide.
7. Ask Wells Fargo
Available 7 days a week, if you tweet the @AskWellsFargo team for assistance you’ll most probably receive a response in and around 40 mins, not too shabby, if you ask us.
Wells Fargo & Company is the world’s fourth-largest bank by market capitalization and the fourth largest bank in the US by total assets. Wells Fargo is ranked number 26 on the 2018 Fortune 500 rankings of the largest US corporations by total revenue.
Along with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup, Wells Fargo is one of the “Big Four Banks” of the United States. As of June 2018, it had 8,050 branches and 13,000 ATMs. In 2018 the company had operations in 35 countries with over 70 million customers globally.
8. Bank of America Help
With the longest response time on Twitter, youll probably get a response from Bank of America Help in just over 3 hours. Available to connect on Twitter between 8a-9p M-F, 8a-8p Sat, 8a-5p Sun (ET)
The Bank of America Corporation is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company founded in San Francisco, California. Bank of America was formed through NationsBank’s acquisition of BankAmerica in 1998. It is the second largest banking institution in the United States, after JPMorgan Chase. As a part of the Big Four, it services approximately 10.73% of all American bank deposits, in direct competition with Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan Chase. Its primary financial services revolve around commercial banking, wealth management, and investment banking.
Conclusion
It’s been a busy year for the financial U.S sector, long term investment in the digitisation of banks has sparked a proactive and competitive dialogue with customers on social media.
For many this is just the start of a long term investment in digital which requires a completely different set of skills and frameworks that will need to evolve at speed in the ever changing face of the customer.
HelpHandles insights clearly show that U.S banks are willing to meet customers where they are at, on their own terms. In fact 7 out of the 8 U.S banks included in the study have adopted dedicated Help Handles to support customers in real time on channels like Twitter.
The volume of conversations between customers and the leading U.S banks on Twitter is above average (Top 30%) across sectors by volume on the HelpHandles Index, averaging just over 3,000 mentions within a 6-week sample period. Response rates were lower on average dipping at 48%, while 64% of mentions were responded to on average in under 30mins.
Sentiment remained overall positive with many banks working hard to respond to customer queries in public and where necessary moving them to private channels to confirm on sensitive or personal details.
All of which brings new opportunities for banks to bridge the digital divide and retain and acquire customers. But as we start to look into 2020 and beyond, there is still a great deal of work that needs to be done to improve, and bridge the customer gap and to better manage expectations and proactively satisfy a maturing generation of baby boomers and the emergence of a new generation of digital natives.
