Many employees are misquoting, misstating, and misinforming
For 20 plus years, we’ve conducted thousands of telephone mystery shops with hundreds of hours of recorded calls. What we’ve found is that well over 75% of bank employees are out of compliance when quoting savings and lending rates. They consistently fail to inform the customer if the rate being quoted is the APY or APR depending on the product. Loan officers within the same bank consistently quote conflicting rate information. When shopping multiple branches of the same community bank, we will receive misinformation on account details about 20% of the time.
We know that banks are required to train employees on what to say when customers inquire about deposits, loans, insurance and investments, but most don’t monitor their employees to ensure the training is implemented. From a compliance standpoint, it’s critical to know that your training is being utilized when dealing with your customers. Are you curious to know how your employees are handling your customer calls?
We have many examples from large banks but we limited this information to the community banks. Many who read this will be thinking, “this never happens at my bank”. Think again. If you’re an executive or manager, the odds are pretty good that employees will perform at a higher level when you’re around. But what happens when you’re not there? Mystery telephone shops can give you a front row seat to what is happening when you’re not around, including recorded monitoring of how your employees are dealing with incoming calls, which can be a valuable resource when dealing with UDAAP and the regulatory environment we are now in. We’ve listed 4 actual quotes from the recordings of phone shops we have conducted in just the past few months.
Alarming statements made by community bank employees
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Asking for the 1-year CD rate…
Employee Response: “It’s .40”
Problem: She didn’t say if this was the APY or not. -
After quoting the money market rate…
Employee Response: “We do have an investment side of the bank. If you’re interested in that, I know it’s a mutual fund and you wouldn’t pay a very large penalty if you put your money in that”.
Problem: This was a bank employee giving details about investment products regulated by the SEC and NASD. -
Asking for mobile home loan information…
Employee Response: “Do you bank with us?” (I responded, that I don’t.) “We wouldn’t be able to get involved in it, but thanks for calling.”
Problem: He immediately hung up and gave no chance to respond. Because this caller had a thick accent, the response could be considered discriminatory. This was a bank that offered these types of loans and the recording indicated possible discrimination. -
Asking for the 15 and 30 year mortgage rates with the same term, loan amount, down payment and credit score.
Employees’ Responses: “quoted 3 different rates between 6 different loan officers at the same bank on the same day within the same hour”.
Problem: This is especially a serious problem when having branches in different areas. Differences consistently arise when discussing down payments, fees and required documentation.
Compliance Training vs. Customer Reality
Did any of those responses give you cause for concern? What you don’t know about your telephone customer service can hurt your bank. Unfortunately, none of the statements above are one-time occurrences. We hear many of them every single month when conducting competitor shops for our customers. Sometimes we hear them from our current customers’ branches. The good news is that our customers can now use the recorded information as a tool to make necessary changes.
Whether we monitor your phones, someone else does, or you do it yourself, one thing is for sure, it needs to be done. That should be a non-negotiable. With the current regulatory environment in banking, it’s critical to have a process in place that shows you are not only training but also monitoring. Our current community bank customers can defend their compliance process, can you? It’s one thing to train, it’s another thing to implement and do.
“If you’re curious to see how your bank employees are doing when dealing with your customers? Find out today with our FREE Telephone Mystery Shop. There’s no obligation and all we need is some basic information.”
