National Australia Bank has launched a “social media command centre” to help further support its customer service, the bank announced today.
The system for the new centre is based on Salesforce Marketing Cloud and will allow the bank to respond to customer inquiries via social media more efficiently, NAB said. The bank also plans to offer customer service through its social media channels seven days a week under a trial starting 15 December, it said.
NAB said it has seven people from its staff handling the social media inquiries. The team receives about 5000 comments and resolves about 600 customer service requests through social media each month, it said.
NAB said its social community grew 350 per cent in 2012, and it now has 135,000 followers across Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn.
“NAB has invested in our new social media command centre because, across the board, we want to improve the experience our customers have no matter whether they call us, tweet us or visit us in store,” said NAB executive general manager direct banking, Sam Plowman.
The increased emphasis on social media comes as NAB undergoes a “total environment transformation” in IT. The bank also recently announced that it’s using voice biometrics to authenticate customers.
Social media and mobile trends have forced banks around the world to adapt their business practices or risk potential customer loss, according to financial experts.
Commonwealth Bank has also been active with social media. Last week, the bank announced a Facebook app letting customers make payments to Facebook friends.
ASB, a bank in New Zealand, has set up a virtual branch on Facebook where customers can have secure, real-time conversations with bank tellers.
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