2023-06-22 00:40:50
The development of customer service in the banking field is progressing slowly in Latin America, a region with low financial inclusion and a poor culture of user rights, a region that is advancing in maturity on the part of the consumer in terms of their rights , but where a widespread ignorance persists regarding the power they can exercise over their suppliers of goods and services.
Experts consulted by Bloomberg Línea, who take into account countries such as Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Panama, agree that there is a kind of “social engineering”, or a wall of ignorance, that prevents millions of users of financial services from Punish the banks or exercise your right to better service and resolution of your problems.
Claims, complaints, sanctions, responses by banking institutions, as well as the evaluations of the supervisors of these financial services are the main indicators that Bloomberg Línea took into account for this survey.
The Bloomberg Línea report is a sample of the extent to which the banks in the analyzed markets face and resolve the claims of their users, as well as the type of sanctions or fines that the authorities impose on them when failures or irregularities are detected.
This pan-regional work is part of the specials that Bloomberg Línea presents on its digital multiplatform and that can be a consultation tool for decision-making by the financial community in Latin America.
Customer service in the banks of the analyzed markets
In Brazil, according to the ranking of complaints from financial institutions of the BC, prepared from the public complaints registered in the service channels of the Central Bank of Brazil, Banco Pan (bank acquired by BTG Pactual in December 2022) is the entity with the lowest index among the 15 main banks, finance companies and payment institutions in the first quarter of 2023.
In Chile, the National Consumer Service (SERNAC) reports that for the second half of 2022, the companies with the best rating and, therefore, the best behavior in the treatment of their claims are Banco de Chile, Banco Security and Banco Itaú.
The main banks in Colombia registered a total of 1,262 million complaints last year, according to the latest data available from the Financial Superintendence. The number of complaints is directly related to the number of users of these financial entities, sources from that entity indicated.
In Mexico, the National Commission for the Defense of Users of Financial Services (CONDUSEF) evaluates customer service through its User Service Performance Index (IDATU). There, institutions such as Actinver, Banco Azteca, Banco Base, Inbursa, Banco Inmobiliario Mexicano, Bank of America Merril Lynch, Bankaool, Consubanco, Dondé Banco and Intercam stand out, which obtain a 10 rating.
According to the Superintendency of Banks of Panama, so far in 2023 some 293 claims have been registered against banking institutions. Complaints to services related to credit cards dominate, with 27.99% of the total, as well as savings accounts, with 20.82% of the claims.
The ideal intermediary
The action of regulators or local financial authorities in some markets helps the legislation to order the mediation of consumer defense entities, as is the case in Mexico, Chile or Panama, experts say. Some examples are CONDUSEF in Mexico, SERNAC in Chile, or ACODECO in Panama.
“These entities help a lot to empower users by having someone who forces the banks to respond to their complaints or claims,” Ángel Iván Lozano, career director of the Tecnológico de Monterrey Economics Degree, told Bloomberg Línea. “Although there are limitations and not everything is in favor of the users, the fact that complaints are registered through this mechanism helps consumers.”
Lozano refers that in 2022 the Condusef entered more than 184,000 complaint files, of which some 70,000 were favorable to users of the financial system and more than 114,000 were unfavorable.
According to Deloitte, which carried out a study of trust in Chilean banks, a distinction must be made between complaint and claim. The first is an expression of dissatisfaction with a company’s products or services. The second, he refers, is a right to formally present disagreement with a product or service for which payment was made or if it is believed that consumer rights were violated during the process.
Biases aside, Deloitte suggests that complaints should be taken into account in the region, since they imply a formalization by users in the corresponding channels.
One of the discrepancies between the financial systems of the countries analyzed by Bloomberg Línea is that there is no consistency in the data that the institutions offer. This, according to the experts in consumption and consumer rights, comes more than anything from what is known as ‘social engineering’ and that is explained in ignorance of the tools and complaint mechanism.
“There are public organizations that support citizens, they exist, but the problem is that there is a lack of social knowledge of how these tools are formed,” says Lozano. “There is a lack of social knowledge to enforce consumer rights.”
In Chile, says Deloitte, despite being one of the most mature markets in terms of financial inclusion, bank users rarely express a complaint or file a claim with the institutions: 46% claim to have filed one of these actions at some point once and 54% never.
With the explosion and ubiquity of social networks, channels like Twitter have become a sounding board for airing complaints. Although, as Lozano says, it is not a formal medium, it does attract the attention of banks, especially depending on the caliber of the complaint and the digital footprint (followers or weight) of the person who publishes it.
This is relevant because, as the public moves away from branches and banks channel physical investments to digital ones, digital listening causes companies to worry about attending to this form of exchange with consumers.
“It’s a customer service issue, not a financial problem,” says Lozano. “And for convenience. A user who does not use the official digital channels opts for the networks. The attention inside branches is not observed much since a process can take between one and 50 minutes, either at the window or with an advisor.
In this sense, a survey by Mitto, an omnichannel advisory firm, carried out in Argentina, Mexico, Peru and Colombia, reveals that 60% of users in these countries still prefer to go to branches in person to communicate with their banks.
“Traditional financial institutions face the new needs of their clients, who are looking more and more for digital, instantaneous and efficient services. Although implementing chatbots, WhatsApp messaging, and SMS and email notifications are already slipping into users’ daily lives, customers report that only 31% of their banks offer communication via WhatsApp and 29% via chatbot,” says Mitto in his report.
After all, adds Lozano, the bad experience of users with clients often derives from a bad method of communication with their banks. That is, when a claim is generated or formulated, it is because before there was no consistency in the verbal or textual exchanges between the user and the institution.
Mitto refers to it this way: 35% of users say that the experience with their bank was affected by bad communication methods.
User vs. User user
One issue that some banks and industry agencies face, says Lozano, is that many user complaints and claims have to do with fraud or irregularities between consumer and consumer. This is the case, he says, of purchases on platforms such as MercadoLibre and other marketplaces where a buyer pays and a transaction is made, but the product or service is not delivered.
“Agencies like the Condusef in Mexico have to pay attention to these complaints about electronic purchases and separate them from the banks,” says the academic.
Total attention and eye to fintechs
With references such as the rate of responses to users (such as the IDATU of Condusef in Mexico, or the rates of agencies in Brazil or Chile) banks have a tool to improve not only their statistics, but also the relationship with their customers. However, experts say that it should be taken as a total strategy by companies.
“To improve statistics, entities must seek to improve the customer experience from start to finish, understanding the current needs of customers in a community diverse in age, gender, income and access to information, as well as the digital competition of companies such as fintech,” Bryan Rojas, director of Financial Risk Management at KPMG in Colombia, told Bloomberg Línea.
The latter “have gained participation in the financial market by being closer to the needs of customers and by offering services such as personal bankers, personalized apps, direct communication media, among many, more elements that with the use of technology allow them to improve the level of customer satisfaction”, he said.
He adds that financial institutions must appeal to transparency, open, honest and effective communication. In addition, advance in security and privacy processes in the face of the increase in scams. “Users are increasingly looking for more reliability of their resources and data.”
And finally, he urges these companies regarding the time of use and attention, since “users seek speed in their queries and want instant responses.”
SPECIAL METHODOLOGY
Bloomberg Línea consulted the most recent data on complaints, claims and performance indices in customer service in the various Latin American countries present in this special. Likewise, the editorial team consulted various specialists who cover the financial industry in the region about the value that financial institutions place on the concept of customer service.
The data that Bloomberg Línea presents are those that the regulatory and consumer defense authorities offer to follow up on the responses, complaints and claims of users.
There is no standard that makes it possible to draw a common denominator due to several factors, such as the size of the markets, the priority that regulators and competition agents give to the matter, and the demands of consumers themselves in the face of irregularities in the industry.
With the collaboration of Alexander Angels, Daniel Salazar, Lorraine Guarino, Mary Trini Zea and Maolis Castro.
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