We’ve all experienced this: we call our bank with an issue that needs to be addressed, and we’re transferred from one department to the next. With each transfer, we become more frustrated. We may lose trust in our banks, complain to regulatory bodies, and close our accounts. With the PositivityTechⓇ proprietary Categorization solution, we make it possible for banks to recognize and solve customers’ issues.

The issue is never the issue

In our conversations with financial institution executives, they, too, share their frustration about categorizing customer complaints and addressing root causes. These are the pain points:

  1. Customers are prompted to select a single category that summarizes their issue — whether or not that category specifically captures their problem.
  2. As a result, many banks are forced to manually switch their customers’ categories.
  3. This creates an inefficient process and inconsistent categorizations.
  4. Problems ensue with customers, who are frustrated, and regulators, who seek accuracy, fairness, and consistency.

Uncovering the real issue and finding the right solution

The PositivityTech platform’s Categorization solution bridges the gap between the issues that customers select and what they actually say. By analyzing more than one million complaints and applying advanced analytic techniques, we developed the Categorization solution to extract the multiple issues nested within a single complaint. For example, the excerpt of the complaint below addresses multiple issues aside from the category the individual chose:

Category chosen: “Trouble during payment process”

Please find my complaint against X Loan Servicing for fraud; theft of the loan; identity theft; conspiracy to defraud; violation of TILA, RESPA, UCC, and RICO Act; and other misconduct.

As you can see, the complaint would need to be manually rerouted from the payment processing unit, based on the category the individual chose, to the fraud resolution unit.

In our analysis, we found the more categories a complaint triggers, the higher the customer’s Severity Score, a proprietary score that identifies severe complaints and future risk based on customer narratives.

  • Complaints that trigger more than one category make up 91% of all complaints.
  • Complaints that trigger exactly one category reveal a Severity Score that is 60% better than the average Severity Score.
  • Complaints that trigger more than one category reveal a Severity Score that is 5% worse than the average Severity Score.

A digital transformation that meets our customers’ needs

With our Categorization solution, we have created a consistent and multifaceted grouping of customer complaints that provides insights to identify relevant resolutions across all customer touchpoints, from digital to in-person.

With digital banking here to stay, banks are under pressure to make their digital operations smarter — and to find ways to accurately solve their customers’ issues. With the Categorization solution, we have made it possible for banks to pinpoint the right solutions for their customers, which is a win-win for customers and banks.

If you’re interested in exploring how our Categorization solution can help your financial institution effectively solve your customers’ issues, I’d be happy to analyze a number of complaints with you. Please connect with me at marcia.tal@positivitytech.com. I look forward to speaking with you.