How to Improve Customer Service in Banking and Finance  

Customer service in banking is high stakes because it involves something deeply personal: people’s money.

A blocked card, a missing refund, or an error on a statement can trigger real anxiety. And when these issues aren’t resolved quickly, trust erodes fast.

In finance, you don’t get second chances. The margin for error is small, and customer expectations are sky-high.

So how can banks and financial institutions deliver exceptional customer experience under this pressure? What tools, processes, and strategies actually help support teams offer faster, clearer resolutions?

In this guide, we’ll break down how banks and financial institutions can fix the cracks in their service, using smarter tools, sharper processes, and better-trained teams.

Table of Contents

• What is customer service in banking and finance?
• Why customer service is different in the banking industry
• Importance of customer service in banking and finance industry  
• Top 5 challenges of customer service in the banking and finance industry 
• 8 best practices to improve customer service in banking and finance 
• In banking, excellent customer service is where trust is tested
• Frequently asked questions (FAQs) 

What is customer service in banking and finance?

Customer service in banking means helping people resolve money-related issues quickly, clearly, and improving overall customer satisfaction. It’s the kind of support customers count on when things go wrong, or when they simply need guidance on a financial decision.

That could mean:

• Unfreezing an account on a Sunday
• Flagging a suspicious transaction before the customer even notices
• Guiding someone through the fine print of a loan

And every one of those moments has to be handled securely, without making the process more frustrating than the problem itself.

Why customer service is different in the banking industry

Customer service in the banking and financial services industry is fundamentally different from other sectors because customer needs are more sensitive and high-stakes. You’re not just resolving issues – you’re handling banking and financial queries that directly impact a person’s money, security, and peace of mind.

A slow or impersonal response can lead to customer churn, while consistent, transparent communication helps customers feel valued and secure. Additionally, customer behavior in banking is shaped by trust and reliability, making it essential to offer proactive support and clear guidance. To meet evolving customer expectations, banks must go beyond reactive support and invest in personalized service, faster resolution times, and seamless digital experiences.

Here’s a quick comparison to show how it differs from general customer support:

Aspect	Banking & Finance	General customer support
Nature of requests	Sensitive: transactions, loans, fraud, KYC	Product issues, delivery, service delays
Impact of mistakes	Financial loss, legal risk, broken trust	Frustration, refunds, inconvenience
Customer state of mind	Anxious, urgent, high-stakes	Mildly annoyed or curious
Resolution complexity	Often multi-step and cross-team	Usually single-touch or scripted
Regulatory pressure	Heavy compliance (AML, RBI, GDPR, etc.)	Minimal or industry-specific
Data sensitivity	Very high – identity, funds, financial history	Medium – preferences, orders, profiles
Expectations	Speed + accuracy + transparency	Friendly service, moderate wait tolerance

Importance of customer service in banking and finance industry

Support is no longer a back-office function; it’s now a key differentiator in the financial services landscape. When service quality is strong, customers stay loyal without saying a word. But a single lapse in service delivery can damage trust and trigger customer churn. With the ease of switching providers, banks need to build a stronger foundation through customer relationship management.

Offering relevant and personalized services – whether it’s quick help with account issues or proactive fraud alerts, can significantly enhance customer satisfaction. A smooth banking experience also means giving customers control and consistency across channels. That’s where an effective omnichannel customer experience matters. To stand out, financial institutions must focus on providing excellent customer service that is fast, contextual, and aligned with what people actually need.

Here’s why investing in better customer service is critical for banks and financial companies:

It helps you retain customers when it matters most

Financial issues come with urgency: a blocked card, a failed transaction, or a delayed loan approval. If customers don’t feel supported in that high-stress moment, they won’t wait around. But fast, competent help can turn a bad experience into a reason to stay. According to Ricoh USA, 59% of Americans say good service is why they stay with their bank.

It’s one of the few true differentiators

Loans, cards, savings accounts—most banks offer the same products. What sets you apart is how your team shows up when something breaks. Clear, helpful replies during moments like declined cards or fraud alerts build the kind of loyalty that marketing can’t buy.

It builds stronger customer relationships

Support conversations often reveal more than feedback surveys. Customers open up about frustrations, goals, and plans. If your team knows how to listen and capture those insights, support becomes a source of strategic value, not just issue resolution.

It prevents service backlogs and complaints

Proactive service that includes nudging customers about upcoming due dates or expiring cards keeps small issues from snowballing. Fewer inbound tickets means more attention for high-priority queries.

It supports your compliance and audit goals

Structured support processes make documentation easier. When agents log the right info, follow SLAs, and escalate the right way, your records stay clean. This helps both in everyday operations and during compliance checks or audits.

Top 5 challenges of customer service in the banking and finance industry

In our report, “How finance teams are losing time, trust, and money,” 50% of mid-to-senior-level finance professionals (US-based) said that customer relationships are already strained. Here are some of the biggest challenges banks and financial teams are dealing with: 

1. Security is now the top priority for customers

A Utimaco survey found that 61% of U.S. consumers rank security as the #1 factor when choosing a financial institution. For support teams, this means building robust verification workflows without frustrating customers. Overly complex identity checks can cause drop-offs, but underdoing them opens the door to fraud. Finding that balance, especially during high-stress moments like fraud reports, is a growing challenge.

2. Channel hopping is breaking the customer journey

Disconnected systems force customers to repeat themselves and agents to hunt for context. Banks need to move beyond “multi-channel” to true omnichannel support, where every interaction, on any platform, updates in real-time and stays visible to every agent involved.

3. Personalization is hard to deliver

Customers don’t want to explain their history every time. They expect their bank to know who they are, what products they use, and what stage they’re in.

But most teams still operate across siloed systems: CRM, email ticketing tools, and core banking platforms don’t talk to each other. Without shared visibility, meaningful personalization becomes nearly impossible.

4. Inquiry spikes overwhelm teams

Statement cycles, tax season, and app downtimes lead to sudden surges that even large teams struggle to keep up. The challenge today isn’t just volume but instead it’s volume with complexity. Teams need better triage, smarter routing, and tools to auto-handle routine issues so agents can focus on what matters most.

5. Support processes still don’t meet compliance standards

Every customer conversation needs to be audit-ready. But many teams still rely on scattered notes, manual logging, or unrestricted access, leaving gaps that won’t hold up during a regulatory review.

To stay compliant, banks should build audit trails into the tools agents already use. Set up role-based access to sensitive data, automate logging for all customer interactions, and track SLA breaches as part of daily reporting.

8 best practices to improve customer service in banking and finance

In banking, one missed step can snowball into a trust issue. That’s why great service is about being fast, context-aware, and proactive. Below are best practices that help support teams work smarter, resolve faster, and build long-term trust.

1. Use AI where it reduces grunt work, not judgment

The most effective use of AI in banking and finance is to automate the repetitive tasks that slow agents down. This includes categorizing tickets, summarizing email threads, drafting replies, and flagging messages that require urgent human attention.

What it looks like in practice:

• Summarizing a 10-email thread so the agent sees the key issue in seconds.
• Auto-tagging messages that mention fraud-related phrases like “unauthorized,” “card declined,” or “unrecognized charge.”
• Suggesting on-brand responses for routine questions like “How do I reset my PIN?” or “Where can I see my loan balance?”

Some tools worth exploring: 

Hiver AI Copilot: Helps support teams reply faster and stay organized with AI-powered email drafts, and instant summaries. You can train it on your help articles and past conversations in minutes, making it useful for automating routine queries while still giving agents control.

Boost.ai: It’s designed for banks and financial institutions to automate high-volume queries like account balance checks, password resets, or loan FAQs. No coding is required, and it integrates with core systems for smooth handoffs.

Kore.ai: It offers enterprise-grade virtual assistants that automate chats, voice interactions, and even back-office workflows. Banks deploy its virtual assistants to route sensitive issues, such as blocked cards or fraud claims, to the right team, while a call-deflection feature pushes routine phone queries to self-service chat and cuts hold times.

2. Help agents make smarter decisions with full customer context

In banking, small missteps like suggesting an upsell to someone in the middle of a fraud claim can erode trust instantly. Great support depends on agents having the right context at the right time to make sound decisions.

What full context means:

• Knowing if the customer recently raised a complaint or is in the onboarding stage.
• Seeing which products they use, their tenure, recent transactions, and risk tier.
• Having visibility into open tasks from other teams like KYC verification or loan disbursal.

How to make this work:

• Sync your CRM with your help desk so agent views include relationship history and key account metrics.
• Use tools like HubSpot, Salesforce, Freshdesk, for deeper integrations. Hiver has an integration with 100+ apps and tools to streamline workflows and improve productivity. 
• Create custom fields for finance-specific context: e.g., “Loan status,” “Risk tier,” “Compliance stage,” so agents can act quickly without having to ask follow-up questions.

3. Make switching channels feel invisible for the customer

Banking customers don’t think in “channels.” They could start a chat while commuting, reply via email at work, and may call in later if the issue isn’t resolved.

Support should follow them and not reset at every step.

What seamless channel-switching looks like:

• Conversations follow the customer across app, inbox, and voice—with full context intact.
• Internal notes and updates are visible to the whole team, so the next agent doesn’t start from scratch.
• Identity verification is done once and remembered securely across touchpoints.

Some tools worth exploring:

Hiver: A modern AI-powered customer support platform that integrates email, WhatsApp, live chat, SMS, social, and voice, so the support team in banks can manage all customer conversations in one place. It also supports collaboration through internal notes and assignments, making multi-channel support feel truly unified.

Kustomer: Build a customer timeline across all channels (email, chat, SMS) in one view, making it easy to track each step of the journey.

Sparkcentral by Hootsuite: Consolidates WhatsApp, social DMs, and live chat into a single inbox with complete conversation history.

4. Respond faster, but make every reply count

In banking, many queries, like payment delays or account holds, are emotionally charged. A fast reply with no substance feels robotic and dismissive. The better practice is: acknowledge quickly, resolve with clarity.

What helps here:

• Templated replies that cover not just what to say, but what to ask.
• Auto-routing tickets by urgency (e.g., delays > complaints > requests).
• Giving agents access to a case status dashboard so they can reply with specifics.

5. Let customers help themselves; just make it easy

A knowledge base is only useful if customers can actually find and use it. That means clear titles, updated content, and language that mirrors how people really talk. It also means surfacing help content where it matters, like inside your app or chatbot, not buried two clicks away.

What your help center should do:

• Answer 10–15 of your most repetitive queries in a step-by-step format.
• Include screenshots or short videos, especially for mobile tasks.
• Stay updated every time you roll out a new feature or change a policy.

Some tools worth exploring: 

Hiver: Easily create and manage help articles. You can also set up a customer portal where users can raise, view, and track their tickets, making self-service feel personalized and reliable.

HelpDocs: A clean and minimal knowledge base platform that’s easy to set up and SEO-optimized by default, helping your content rank on search engines and reduce inbound ticket.

Notion: While not built for KBs specifically, it’s great for internal team playbooks and process documentation. It works well as a shared knowledge source if you’re just starting out.

6. Treat support data as your early warning system

Support conversations are where early signals of churn show up first. Before someone leaves your bank, they get stuck. They ask the same question twice. They escalate. They vent.

The goal isn’t to track volume but to uncover patterns. Where are customers getting stuck? What are they repeatedly asking? What pain keeps resurfacing?

Here are some key metrics worth tracking and what they reveal:

Metric	What it indicates
First Response Time (FRT)	How quickly customers hear back. Slow FRT can signal work overload or poor prioritization.
First Contact Resolution (FCR)	Whether issues are resolved in a single interaction. Low FCR may point to training gaps or unclear processes.
Customer Effort Score (CES)	Measures how easy it was for a customer to resolve their issue. High effort indicates friction.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)	Tracks customer loyalty and likelihood of recommending your bank to friends and family.
Escalation Rate	How often cases are passed to higher support tiers. High rates can mean inefficient workflows.
Customer Retention Rate	How many customers continue doing business with your bank? Drops here often correlate with poor support experiences.
Tag Frequency (e.g., ‘fraud’, ‘cancel’)	Helps spot recurring or sensitive issues before they escalate.

7. Automate the monotonous tasks so your team can focus

While AI co-pilots help agents reply faster, automation goes a step further and takes repetitive tasks off their plate entirely.

In banking support, where teams deal with fraud claims, disputes, and sensitive issues, removing routine steps like ticket routing or closing “thank you” emails gives agents more bandwidth for high-impact work.

Smart automation examples:

• Auto-close resolved tickets when customers reply with a final “Thanks” or “Appreciated”—usually after 24–48 hours.
• Auto-route tickets tagged “high value” or “priority client” directly to senior agents or relationship managers.
• Escalate tickets nearing SLA breach if untouched for more than 6 hours.
• Trigger alerts when specific keywords (e.g., “server down,” “unauthorized debit”) spike within a short window.

Tools worth exploring:

Zapier: Set up no-code automations between tools like your help desk, CRM, or core banking system. For example, you can auto-log every closed fraud ticket into a compliance tracker or notify the product team when 5+ similar complaints come in.

Retool: Build custom internal dashboards for your team to track escalations, SLA breaches, or categorize incoming tickets visually. Great for operations-heavy banking teams that want more control without writing complex frontends.

8. Proactively support customers to build trust and reduce support volume

In banks and other financial institutions, reactive support is often too late. Customers get stuck during onboarding, form submissions, or while navigating new features, but they don’t always ask for help. That’s where proactive support steps in: by spotting the gaps and offering help before frustration kicks in.

When done well, it reduces inbound volume, improves resolution speed, and shows customers you’re actually paying attention.

Where proactive support creates real value:

• Sending nudges when a fixed deposit is nearing maturity.
• Following up if a KYC step is incomplete after 3 days.
• Offering help when someone abandons a loan application or investment flow.

In banking, excellent customer service is where trust is tested

Customers rarely reach out to their bank when things are running smoothly. They contact support when they’re locked out of their mobile banking app, when a charge looks unfamiliar, or when a customer request around loans or payments stalls. These aren’t minor inconveniences, but moments of stress, and how you respond defines the relationship.

That’s why high-quality customer service matters more in banking than in most industries. Every interaction is a test of trust, and good customer service isn’t just about resolving issues – it’s about doing so with speed, accuracy, and empathy. Your customer service representatives aren’t just support agents; they’re often the only humans customers speak to in an increasingly digital system. How they handle issues directly impacts customer engagement and loyalty.

To offer exceptional customer service, financial service providers need systems that combine traditional and digital components – from well-trained staff to robust help centers and automated workflows. A strong customer service strategy ensures requests are not just acknowledged but addressed quickly and confidently.

If you’re leading customer support at a bank or financial company, ask yourself:

• Do your agents have access to full customer context before replying?
• Are time-critical cases—like fraud or payment blocks—escalated without delay?
• Is your self-service actually helping customers solve problems, or just deflecting them?

These questions help evaluate if your service is truly built to meet customer expectations.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

1. How should banks handle fraud-related tickets without slowing down the queue?

Fraud queries are high priority but can clog up queues if not triaged early. The best approach is to use keyword-based auto-tagging (e.g., “unauthorized charge,” “suspicious login”) and route them directly to a specialized team.

AI-powered triage tools help detect urgency and intent from the first message so that agents don’t waste time sorting through vague or multi-threaded conversations.

2. How can banks personalize support without using sensitive customer data in replies?

In banking, support replies must be accurate, helpful, and compliant. Bank employees can’t include personal identifiers or financial history in messages, yet customers still expect a personalized customer service experience. The key lies in using the right customer service skills and internal tools to reference context without exposing sensitive details.

Train your agents to personalize replies by acknowledging the issue, not the data. For example, instead of writing, “Your account ending in 2456 has a pending verification,” say, “Your loan application is currently at the KYC stage.” This keeps communication relevant while protecting privacy.

3. How can banks scale responses to repetitive queries without sounding robotic?

Use dynamic reply templates that agents can personalize quickly. Pair that with a chatbot or autoresponder that recommends relevant help articles based on query intent.

4. What’s the best way to reduce back-and-forth on loan or credit card applications?

Use checklist-style responses that clearly outline next steps and required documents in one go. Set up internal triggers that flag incomplete applications so the system can follow up before the customer writes back in confusion.

5. How do digital-first banks balance self-service and human support?

Self-service works best for routine tasks like card activation, password resets, and statement downloads. But always offer fast human fallback for anything involving funds, loans, or fraud.

Customers want control but also confidence that help is one click away when things go wrong.

6. Can WhatsApp or SMS be used for banking customer service?

Yes, but with guardrails. These channels are great for sending alerts, confirming receipt of documents, and collecting customer feedback. But avoid sharing sensitive customer data. Hiver’s WhatsApp integration lets banks use these channels securely for light-touch, real-time updates.

7. What are early warning signs that a customer might churn after a support interaction?

Look for signals like:

• Multiple escalations
• Questions about account closure or moving funds

Combine sentiment tracking with CSAT dips to proactively identify and recover at-risk customers.

8. How can banks manage support when multiple teams handle the same query?

Set up internal collaboration threads that stay attached to the ticket. This allows teams like compliance, loans, and CX to work in parallel without asking the customer to repeat themselves. A shared inbox like Hiver keeps the experience seamless and unified across functions.