Once a fraud has occurred, customers can be kept happy if they are provided with the right service

(23/09/2009)

A recent ACI Worldwide global consumer fraud survey highlights the areas that banks need to focus on following a card fraud incident.

The most important factor to ensure customers were happy with their bank after they were hit by fraud is how quickly any stolen money was reimbursed. However, just under a third of those surveyed also judged their bank’s customer service by how quickly they identified a fraudulent transaction. For a quarter of respondents it was most important that the financial institution identified the fraud before they did.

The post-fraud service offered by banks is crucial to keeping customers happy and preventing attrition. Overall, 74 percent of respondents were happy with the treatment they received from their financial institution after becoming a victim of card fraud. However, with 26 percent reporting that they were somewhat unhappy or very unhappy, there is still more that banks can do to ensure customer satisfaction following a fraud incident.

This is particularly the case in Dubai where only 16 percent of respondents to the survey were ‘very happy’ with how their bank handled fraudulent attacks on their credit or debit cards. UK customers are the most satisfied with their bank’s customer service, with 62 percent saying they were ‘very happy’ with the treatment received. Banks in the U.S. and Singapore also fared reasonably well with 55 percent and 40 percent of respondents respectively saying that they were happy with the post-fraud service offered by their banks.

It is however important that banks understand regional differences and tailor their customer service accordingly. In Singapore, for example, consumers felt the speed at which their bank identified the fraud far outweighed the importance of the speed of reimbursement at 45 percent versus 15 percent of respondents. It also seems that Singaporean banks are good at spotting fraudulent transactions first as only 16 percent of respondents had noticed a fraud before their bank had notified them about it, compared to 21 percent in the UK and USA.

The best customer service is of course to prevent fraud from occurring in the first place. This is also the case if banks want to continue the transition from cash to cards by their customers. The survey found fraud could influence consumers to revert back to cash, with 18 percent saying they would definitely use cash over cards following a fraud and a further 59 percent admitting that they would do so ‘in some situations’.

David Nussenbaum, vice president and product line manager at ACI Worldwide, comments, “When it comes to fraud, prevention is obviously better than cure. However, our survey shows that once a fraud has occurred, customers can be kept happy if they are provided with the right service. The findings indicate that customers care about how quickly their bank identifies a fraudulent transaction, and they want their bank to identify the fraud before they do. In order to meet these expectations and retain customers, banks need to evolve their fraud strategies and ensure they are implementing the latest anti-fraud tools and techniques.”

Related topics:  Crime and Fraud Prevention 

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