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DBS Bank Ltd, Singapore, Singapore, Singapore: Making Customer Centre Great Again!

Company: DBS Bank Ltd, Singapore
Company Description: DBS Bank is a leading financial services group in Asia with a presence in 19 markets. Headquartered and listed in Singapore, DBS is in the three key Asian axes of growth: Greater China, Southeast Asia and South Asia. DBS has been named yet again by Global Finance as the ‘Best Bank in the World’ for 2022, making us an awardee of “world’s best bank” for the fifth year running.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Training or Coaching Program of the Year - Business Services Industries
2023 Stevie Winner Nomination Title: Making Customer Centre Great Again!
  1. Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the nominated achievement since July 1, 2021, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
    Written answers to the questions
  2. If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below.

     

  3. Briefly describe the nominated organization: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):

    Total 197 words used.

    DBS Bank is a leading financial services group in Asia with a presence in 19 markets. Headquartered and listed in Singapore, DBS is in the three key Asian axes of growth: Greater China, Southeast Asia and South Asia. The bank is at the forefront of leveraging digital technology to shape the future of banking, having been named “World’s Best Digital Bank” by Euromoney.

    Set up in 1999, DBS Customer Centre (CCTR) is an in-house contact centre with over 400 Customer Service Officers (CSO), serving Consumer Banking customers 24/7. Our vision is to be a World Class Customer Centre, delivering a RED and joyful digital banking experience for our customers. We offer multi-channel services, including voice, email, online messaging, video teller machine and social media. We have received industry recognitions for customer service excellence and innovation, with numerous wins in the CCAS (Contact Centre Association of Singapore) Contact Centre Awards. Most notably, over the past decade, we won 7 Golds and 2 Silvers in the "Best In-House Contact Centre (Above 100 seats)" category, as well as 74 individual categories (such as Best Customer Service Professional, Best Team Lead, Best Quality Assurance Specialist, Best IT Infrastructure Specialist, Best Trainer,

  4. Outline the nominated achievement since July 1 2021 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):

    Total 250 words used.

    During Covid, DBS Customer Centre experienced high staff attrition and our service levels dropped significantly. By June 2022, almost half of our CSOs were new hires. In 2023, we revamped the employees’ learning and career journey in the following ways:

    1. Cross Training for CSOs – We dialed up on cross-training of CSOs and aligned skill to rank, encouraging CSOs to take up cross-training. With that, dual-skillset trained CSOs jumped from 29% (Jan) to 61% (Dec) of the CSO population
    2. Learning Council – We formed a cross-functional squad Learning Council in Customer Centre, such as reps from Training team, Knowledge Management team, Risk team, Operations). Its objective is to collectively implement the best interventions to improve our CSO performance and service delivered, based on data-driven insights from VOC (compliments, complaints, escalations) and other internal metrics (transaction monitoring, errors).
    3. Buddy Programme – We implemented a Buddy programme in February 2024 for new hire CSOs, providing them support and easing their transition into the new workplace. A more experienced CSO in the team will be assigned to help the new hire in areas such as leave application, getting to know the team mates, and how to seek help whey face problems at work.
    4. Job Shadowing – Staff could sign up to learn about other roles within Customer Centre through 2 hours of Job Shadowing, with the objective of career development within the Centre.

    Results: A record Customer Satisfaction score of 4.86 / 5 and L&D dimension score (Staff Engagement Survey): 88% (up 12%),

  5. Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):

    Total 24 words used.

    Please see attached file for examples of the programmes, staff verbatim from the annual MyVoice Staff Engagement survey and accolades from DBS Bank management.

  6. Explain why the achievement you have highlighted is unique or significant. If possible compare the achievement to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the organization's past performance (up to 250 words):

    Total 248 words used.

    1) In the past, cross training for CSOs had been met with feedback from CSOs citing lower overall performance, having to juggle with >1 product. With assurance that cross-training will provide career progression opportunities (among other criteria), CSOs are more motivated to be cross-trained.

    2) Many service gaps (e.g. inaccurate information given, wrong choice of words) were previously managed in silos by various teams (e.g. Training team, Knowledge Management team), with little consensus on how best to make it a learning opportunity for CSOs. It resulted in CSOs receiving duplicate information on service improvement opportunities, resulting in a less-than-ideal CSO experience. One key change was in using the bank’s Chatbot to push content to CSOs, making it easier for CSOs to be notified and complete any required eLearning.

    3) From Staff Engagement surveys feedback, we learnt that:

    a) CSOs tend to feel disengaged after training and being deployed to operations team, where they need to be more independent in learning. Hence, the 180 days Buddy programme served to provide that support. It also created an opportunity to identify upcoming leaders as Team Leads.

    b) CSOs would like to develop their career in the bank, but are unsure which roles suit them. Hence, we curated a job Shadowing experience where staff volunteer their time and get paired up with a colleague with a role that is related to their area of interest (i.e. Data, Journey, UX Design, Leadership). Results has been positive with great staff verbatim.

Attachments/Videos/Links:
Making Customer Centre Great Again!
PDF Award_2024_Attachment___LD.pdf