State Bank of India (SBI) on Monday unveiled its next-gen contact centre service to deliver superior customer experience, drive business outcomes like sales and collections, and support strategic focus areas like digital handholding for the bank’s products.

“The revamped contact centre offers 30+ banking solutions in 12 languages, available 24x7…The bank has introduced easy-to-remember 4-digit toll-free numbers (1800-1234 or 1800-2100) to simplify the process further,” India’s largest bank said in a statement.  

Currently, the contact centre manages about 1.5 crore monthly calls, with about 40 per cent self-serviced through IVR, and the rest managed by over 3500 tele-caller representatives operating through 4 toll-free helpline numbers.

Array of services

SBI said customers can avail of an array of services related to accounts, ATM cards and cheque book, emergency services (ATM card or digital channel blocking), access to digital products and support, product information, etc.

In the future, the bank aims to explore embedding advanced AI/ML-based technologies, including conversational IVR, and voice bots. 

Dinesh Khara, Chairman, SBI, said, “While customers are continuously moving to digital channels, we have seen that ‘voice’ continues to be a preferred channel for certain customer segments. Hence, we started this journey of reimagining and building a next-gen contact centre, under Project Dhruva in 2021.” 

Khara emphasised that SBI is looking at the contact centre not just as a service channel but as the bank’s new 18th (virtual) circle that will drive business objectives.

“The bank is getting higher conversions on pre-approved loan offers with the contact centre outreach. In addition, the centre’s collection outreach has improved asset quality by reducing slippages. These efforts have transformed the contact centre into a profit centre”, he said.

comment COMMENT NOW