Call Center Support

A call center is a physical place where customer and other telephone calls are handled by an organization, usually with some amount of computer automation. Typically, a call center has the ability to handle a considerable volume of calls at the same time, to screen calls and forward those to someone qualified to handle them, and to log calls. Call centers are used by mail-order catalog organizations, telemarketing companies, computer product help desks, and any large organization that uses the telephone to sell or service products and services. Two related terms are virtual call center and contact center. 

When customers experience issues with your product or service, the top priority and main goal is to provide immediate help and consistent answers to prevent negative feedback or product/service returns.

Services

Contact centers run support or help desks, which regularly answers technical questions from customers and assists them using their equipment or software. Support desks are used by companies in the computing, telecommunications and consumer electronics industries.

Dynamics

A contact center supports interaction with customers over a variety of media, including telephony, e-mail, and internet chat. A telephone answering service is a more personalized version of the call center, where agents get to know more about their customers and their callers; and therefore look after calls just as if based in their customers' office. Calls may be inbound or outbound. Inbound calls are made by consumers, for example to obtain information, report a malfunction, or ask for help. In contrast, outbound calls are made by agents to consumers, usually for sales purposes (telemarketing).

Outsourcing

In contrast to in house management, outsourced bureau contact centers are a model of contact center that provide services on a "pay per use" model. The overheads of the contact center are shared by many clients, thereby supporting a very cost effective model, especially for low volumes of calls. Outsourced centers have grown in popularity. There is criticism of the outsourcing model.

Investment Banking

Investment banks specialize in large and complex financial transactions such as underwriting, acting as an intermediary between a securities issuer and the investing public, facilitating mergers and other corporate reorganizations, and acting as a broker and/or financial adviser for institutional clients. Some investment banks specialize in particular industry sectors. Many investment banks also have retail operations that serve small, individual customers.

The advisory divisions of investment banks are paid a fee for their services, while the trading divisions experience profit or loss based on their market performance. Professionals who work for investment banks may have careers as financial advisers, traders or salespeople. An investment banker career can be very lucrative, but it typically comes with long hours and significant stress. Because investment banks have external clients but also trade their own accounts, a conflict of interest can occur if the advisory and trading divisions don’t maintain their independence. Investment banks’ clients include corporations, pension funds, other financial institutions, governments and hedge funds.

Features

·    Raising Capital & Security Underwriting: Banks are middlemen between a company that wants to issue new securities and the buying public.

  Mergers & Acquisitions: Banks advise buyers and sellers on business valuation, negotiation, pricing and structuring of transactions, as well as procedure and implementation.

·     Sales & Trading and Equity Research:  Banks match up buyers and sellers as well as buy and sell securities out of their own account to facilitate the trading of securities

·    Retail and Commercial Banking: Investment banks now offer traditionally off-limits services like commercial banking.

·        Front office vs. back office:  While functions like M&A advisory are front office, other functions like risk management, financial control, corporate treasury, corporate strategy, compliance, operations and technology are critical back office functions.

·      After the 2008 financial crisis: The industry has not fully recovered from the financial crisis that gripped the world in 2008.

About Author: The author of this blog has a passion for writing and has written many blogs related to outsourcing, bpo, business solutions, customer service etc.

Challenges for banks

Indian banks are stable but there will be challenges ahead for state-owned banks given weak core capitalization and slow earnings recovery.

Capital-raising will be a key theme for Indian banks, as asset-quality pressures gradually stabilize and banks look to revive credit growth in support of a recovering GDP outlook, however, there will be challenges for state-owned banks in particular, given weak core capitalization and expectations of slow earnings recovery due to high credit costs, said in report by rating agency, Fitch.

Public sector banks require Rs 2.40 lakh crore capital by 2018 to meet global Basel III norms.

State banks' large stressed asset stock should remain an overhang on banks' equity valuations for the foreseeable future, although the state's expected capital injection will provide a critical buffer for the near term The gross Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) of Public Sector Banks rose to 6.03 per cent at the end of June, as against 5.20 per cent in March this year.

Fitch believes that the banks will have to conduct much more capital raising to pursue sustainable growth rates while achieving Basel III requirements and cushioning balance-sheet stress at the same time.

The report also features questions on related Indian banking themes such as AT1 issuance, domestic systemically important banks, and the recently announced reform measures for state-owned banks, the rating agency said.

About Author: The author of this blog has a passion for writing and has written many blogs related to bpo, business solutions, customer service, outsourcing.

Rules to follow when taking a loan

Don't borrow more than you can repay

The first rule of smart borrowing is what the older generation has been telling us all the time: don't live beyond your means. Take a loan that you can easily repay. One thumb rule says that car EMIs should not exceed 15% while personal loan EMIs should not account for more than 10% of the net monthly income. Your monthly outgo towards all your loans put together should not be more than 50% of your monthly income. If your EMIs gobble up too much of your income, other critical financial goals, like saving for retirement or your kids' education, might get impacted. Retirement planning is often the first to be sacrificed in such situations.

Keep tenure as short as possible

The maximum home loan tenure offered by all major lenders is 30 years. The longer the tenure, the lower is the EMI, which makes it very tempting to go for a 25-30 year loan. However, it is best to take a loan for the shortest tenure you can afford. In a long-term loan, the interest outgo is too high. In a 10-year loan, the interest paid is 57% of the borrowed amount. This shoots up to 128% if the tenure is 20 years. The longer the tenure, the higher is the compound interest that the bank earns from you. Increasing the EMI amount can have a dramatic impact on the loan tenure. Assuming that the borrower's income will raise 8-10% every year, increasing the EMI in the same proportion should not be very difficult.

 Ensure timely and regular repayment

Missing an EMI or delaying a payment are among the key factors that can impact your credit profile and hinder your chances of taking a loan for other needs later in life. Never miss a loan EMI, even if it means missing other investments for the time. In an emergency, prioritize your dues. You must take care never to miss your credit card payments because you will not only be slapped with a non-payment penalty but also be charged a hefty interest on the unpaid amount. If you don't have the money to pay the entire credit card bill, pay the minimum 5% and roll over the balance. But don't make a habit of this because at an interest rate of 24-36%, credit card debt is the costliest loan you will ever take. To avoid missing the due date every month, just give standing instructions to your bank to pay the minimum 5% amount whenever the bill is due.

Don't borrow to splurge or invest

This is also one of the basic rules of investing. Never use borrowed money to invest. Ultra-safe investments like fixed deposits and bonds won't be able to match the rate of interest you pay on the loan. And investments that offer higher returns, such as equities, are too volatile. If the markets decline, you will not only suffer losses but will be strapped with an EMI as well. Avoid taking a loan for discretionary spending. You may be getting SMSs from your credit card company for a travel loan, but such wants are better fulfilled by saving up. It's not a good idea to take a personal loan for buying luxury watches and high-end bags.

Take insurance with big-ticket loans

If you take a large home or car loan, it is best to take insurance cover as well. Buy a term plan of the same amount to ensure that your family is not saddled with unaffordable debt if something happens to you. The lender will take over the asset (house or car) if your dependents are unable to pay the EMI. A term insurance plan of Rs 50 lakh will not cost you too much. Typically, banks push a reducing cover term plan that offers insurance equal to the outstanding amount. However, a regular term plan is a better way to cover this liability. It can continue even after the loan is repaid or if you switch to another lender. Moreover, insurance policies that are linked to a loan are often single premium plans. These are not as cost effective as regular payment plans.

About Author: The author of this blog has a passion for writing and has written many blogs related to bpo, business solutions, customer service, outsourcing.

Some opportunities for creating value with your customer base

Customer

·         Give customers reasons to trust you. Not just once, but repeated over time

·         Make customers happy, make their lives easier (not more complicated)

·         Segment customers and develop value propositions for target segments, based on needs and behaviors

·         Measure and improve customer loyalty, across product lines

Process

·         Rethink processes from a customer experience perspective and create a superior customer experience

·         Optimize processes to present a seamless face to the customer across all products and channels

Channel

·         Rethink branch operating models and branch network footprint

·         Incorporate all channels into an integrated customer experience.

·         Use technology to provide multi-channel, more convenient access to products and services

Product

·         Create more transparent products (for assets, liabilities, off-balance products)

·         Offer the right products to the right customer segment based on their risk profile

·         Bundle products and services relevant to a target segment to reward customers for keeping more products with you

·         Build a strategic pricing framework that drives relation deepening and customer loyalty

·         Train front staff to be able to describe products simply and clearly, rightly target them and take new clients properly on board

Service

·         Improve service operation excellence. Train staff to delight your target customers.

·         Develop personalized relationships with your most valuable customers. Redirect front staff time to relationship-building with most valuable customer segments; automate standard transactions through remote channels to gain efficiency

·         Align the service model with the value that customer segments bring

·         Innovate your sales systems; improve cross-selling and retention rates

aAbout Author: The author of this blog has a passion for writing and has written many blogs related to bpo, business solutions, customer service, outsourcing.

Internet Banking Solutions for Financial Services

Online banking is an electronic payment system that enables customers of a financial institution to conduct financial transactions on a website operated by the institution, such as a retail bank, virtual bank, credit union or building society. Online banking is also referred as internet banking, e-banking, virtual banking and by other terms.

The common features fall broadly into two categories:

1)       A bank customer can perform non-transactional tasks through online banking, including -

·        Viewing account balances

·        Viewing recent transactions

·        Downloading bank statements, for example in PDF format

·        Viewing images of paid cheques

·        Ordering cheque books

·        Download periodic account statements

·        Downloading applications for M-banking, E-banking etc.

2)       Bank customers can transact banking tasks through online banking, including -

·        Funds transfers between the customer's linked accounts

·        Paying third parties, including bill payments (see, e.g., BPAY) and third party fund transfers (see, e.g., FAST)

·        Investment purchase or sale

·        Loan applications and transactions, such as repayments of enrollments

·        Credit card applications

·        Register utility billers and make bill payments

·        Financial institution administration

·        Management of multiple users having varying levels of authority

·        Transaction approval process

·        Increase customer satisfaction – and reduce service costs – with online self-service

·        Maximize ease-of-use, create differentiation, and speed customer service initiatives

Online Business Banking

·        Easily and effectively manage an entire organization's cash position   

·        Move to electronic processing to eliminate inefficiencies and errors   

·        Ensure service with support for transaction-intensive deployments   

·        Leverage services for small, midsize, and large businesses with a single solution   

·       

Inward and Outward Clearing Services

The security related to imaging and creating the electronic cheque needed to be defined and the cheque clearing process adjusted to accommodate electronic cheques.

Banks and financial institutions use cheque truncation systems (CTS) to manage this process. These systems have to deal with two main processes, outward clearing and inward clearing.

In outward clearing, the deposited items are scanned and the operator performs amount entry, account entry, item verification, balancing and bundling of the items at the branch level. The items are then sent to a service branch.

In inward clearing, the items received from branches are processed in the service branch where the operator performs amount entry, account entry, item verification, balancing and bundling of the items.

In India the clearing system is local and confined to a defined jurisdiction covering all the banks and branches situated in the area under a particular zone. The clearing house is a voluntary association of banks where the settlement accounts are maintained. Wherever RBI has its office the clearing house is managed by it. In the absence of an office of RBI the clearing house is managed by the SBI, Its associate banks and in few cases by public sector banks. The following are the various processes used by the bank for clearing:

Outward clearing: Cheques deposited by the customers sent for clearing to the respective banks is called outward clearing.

Inward clearing: Cheques received by the branch from various banks for debiting their customers’ accounts of the branch is called inward clearing

Outward return: Cheques which were sent in outward clearing returned unpaid, received by the branch along with the inward clearing

Inward clearing return: Cheques which are returned by the branch for various reasons from the inward cheques received by the branch.