Company: PREMIER Bankcard, Sioux Falls, SD
Company Description: PREMIER Bankcard, headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota has been offering credit in the financial inclusion space for over 30 years. Founded on the principle that everyone deserves access to credit we serve nearly 3 million customers across the United States. We are proud of our team of over 1,700 associates who live the PREMIER values.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Department Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Department of the Year - Financial Services - 100 or More Employees
 Nomination Title: PREMIER Bankcard
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the achievements since July 1, 2021 of the nominated department, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- Briefly describe the nominated department: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 200 words used.
PREMIER Bankcard was founded to provide financial opportunities to people with less-than-perfect credit, offering a second chance to credit to those who need it most.
Community involvement is a priority. We invest in our communities with our time and resources. We support nearly 700 local organizations and are the largest United Way donor to the communities we serve.
Customer Service is the heartbeat of PREMIER Bankcard. We empower our Customer Service professionals to represent our brand and services. Our wholly owned, 100% U.S.-based Customer Service team of over 300 dedicated employees is 100% committed to putting our customers first. This award-winning team fields inbound calls, helping customers, troubleshooting inquiries, and solving customer issues.
Our team thrives on a culture of inclusion, and we have created an environment where growth opportunities are constant. Customer Service has proven to be a launching pad for many long-term careers. The average tenure for the department is 9+ years. Approximately 25% of our associates have 10+ years tenure, with 9% of those at 20+ years. Fifty percent of our management team has 15+ years tenure with many having started as associates. Due to workforce demand, 64% of our Customer Service workforce is remote.
- Outline the department's achievements since July 1 2021 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 247 words used.
The team continues to pivot and respond to customer needs. Handling an average of 450,000 calls a month since July 2021, with an average speed of answer just under a minute at 53 seconds. Over this same period, Customer Service earned an 89.6% satisfaction rating through customer surveys.
2022 was a challenging year for the Customer Service team. During the months of May-August we experienced the effects of several fraud rings including address change attempts through an agent. Customer Service phones implemented strategies to deter the fraudulent activity from happening. From August-December we experienced plastic delay issues with our vendor causing customer friction. Through this entire timeframe, the team was able to work through the issues calmly and professionally by treating our customers with the empathy and kindness they deserve. Our satisfaction surveys remained steady at 89% during this time.
Our associates also worked very hard on their personal goals as evidenced with the number of career paths (promotions). Thirty percent of our associates career pathed to the next level.
The team is empowered to help customers, answer their questions and concerns and can work with customers asking to close their accounts and successfully retains nearly 40% of those accounts, assisting customers through their credit journey.
As a response to our customers’ needs during natural disasters, such as hurricanes and fires, the team enrolls customers in a relief program waiving the minimum due for one payment cycle to ease the financial hardship following the event.
- 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.
- 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 145 words used.
PREMIER Bankcard hold high standards for customer service. Key Performance Indicators are monitored and reported to the entire business monthly. The two KPIs are number of calls handled and the average speed to answer (ASA) time. Each month we strive to answer these calls within 25 seconds, better than industry standard of 28 seconds. We have been able to achieve that goal since March 2023 with an average of 21 seconds.
The overall customer experience is very important to the customer service team. Customers are offered an opportunity to complete a survey at the end of their phone call with a customer service associate. PREMIER has achieved a 4.58 star rating out of five stars with the billing dispute average at 4.69. The other benchmark is the customer experience. This score is measured through this same survey. Our Customer Experience score is 89.
- Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the department's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 245 words used.
Our Customer Service team frequently works with customers experiencing emotionally difficult situations like catastrophic illness, job loss, divorce, and the aftermath of natural disasters. Many of our customers have been previously declined by other credit issuers and are left feeling hopeless.
We send approximately 225,000 surveys a month with an average 11% response rate. Our agents receive a star rating on the customer interaction with 5 stars being the highest. Our team averages a 4.58-star rating.
While we enjoy assisting customers, we understand their time is valuable. Our digital team launched a new mobile application in May 2022 that required our customers to complete the login process again to transition to the new application. We were able to not only assist the customer with the transition but educate them of the new self-serve options available to them, should they choose.
In March of 2022, within the Customer Service department we created a specialized team of 18 associates to handle our billing dispute calls. This team can streamline the dispute process for the customer by obtaining all necessary information while on the phone call eliminating back and forth between the customer and our Chargebacks department. The team handles 15,000+ calls per month.
The credit journey is different for each of our customers and this award-winning team fields many call types with the end goal of assisting customers in navigating their credit journey. This team has earned a 4.69-star rating demonstrating customer success!
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