Case Study
Truist reduces financial stress for customers during COVID-19 pandemic
-
COVID-19 and CARES Act led to increased call volume and long wait times
-
Connected back-end to customer-facing systems and increased electronic communication
-
Significantly limited impact pandemic had on day-to-day operations
“We were able to continue our operation without having to increase our capacity massively … this has also helped limit the impact the pandemic has had on our day-to-day operation.”
The Business Issue
Truist was formed at the end of 2019 through the merger of BB&T and SunTrust Banks, forming the sixth-largest bank holding company in the United States. The organization’s mission is to help build better lives and communities, but just a few short months into its existence, the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic tested its ability to realize that purpose.
The impact of the pandemic on its customers and the subsequent creation of the CARES Act led to an unprecedented number of customer requests for assistance related to mortgage obligations. In the first few weeks of the crisis, Truist received as many as 10,000 customer calls a day, with wait times reaching four hours or longer.
On top of increased call volume, Truist was also shifting employees to work from home while still in the midst of critical merger activities to bring BB&T and SunTrust together.
Simply increasing staff would not be enough. Truist needed to move rapidly and think differently to respond in real time.
The Solution
Truist already had strong backend workflow systems but had not connected them to front-end client portals. The bank partnered with Pega to move client interaction online and increase avenues of electronic communication to assist as many customers as possible. The application went from idea to first release in just four weeks.
The Results
Despite this unprecedented time, Truist was able to continue operations without significantly increasing capacity. The organization also saw the following benefits:
- Loan modification process reduced from 90-120 minutes to 5 seconds.
- Reduced team and system handoffs and manual updates.
- Ten production releases in 5 months.
Related Resources
Video
Cisco: World class customer service
Whitepaper
Achieving digital customer service transformation
Research
Global customer service insights