Bank of America 2005 Annual Report Download - page 13

12 Bank of America 2005
How We Grow: Operating Excellence
N
Helping customers fi nd repayment solutions
Groundbreaking service offers convenience to consumers
ew Web-based technology in
combination with special cus-
tomer-service training for our
associates has transformed
Bank of America’s collections and fraud
protection activities into a loyalty-building
Customers are also able to use Bank of America’s innova-
tive voice-response technology to conveniently arrange
payments over the phone 24 hours a day.
These self-service approaches provide customers
managing past-due debt with exactly what they want:
convenience and a degree of anonymity. Providing both,
myeasypayment.com processed approximately $335 million
in online delinquent collections payments in 2005.
The rapid implementation of myeasypayment.com demon-
strates how the bank applies a broad range of core operating
strengths to leverage growth and provide customers with
the service they want and need. In this case, excellence in
customer service, technology, process control and the ability
to manage scale were combined to turn delinquent
collections, often a negative for both customers and the
bank, into a tool that instead increases customer satisfaction
and retention as well as the bank’s profi ts.
To boost customer satisfaction even further, the
collections staff is motivated to provide help, not necessarily
to maximize immediate collections. Customers managing
debt respond better to associates who are focused on helping
and who derive job satisfaction by assisting customers with
meeting their payments.
With an innovative, relationship-focused collections
philosophy, Bank of America helps customers deal with and
fi nd solutions to manage their debt issues. When we stand
by customers in diffi cult times, those customers are more
likely to remain loyal to us when times get better.
Bank of America has applied its success in col-
lections to its fraud protection business by launching
myfraudprotection.com. When customers log on to the
service, they can review recent credit card activity on
their accounts to monitor for any unauthorized usage. In
addition, the site provides tips to help customers identify
fraudulent activity and provides suggestions for them to
protect themselves. In 2005, use of myfraudprotection.com
generated more than 49,000 Web hits; conversely, overall
fraud calls dropped, enabling Bank of America associates
to concentrate on more complex fraud issues.
Customers can conveniently arrange payments on the bank’s new
self-service collections Web site, myeasypayment.com. The site has
increased customer satisfaction and retention while processing
$335 million in delinquent collections payments in 2005.
program that helps customers manage troublesome debt
and protect their accounts by identifying and prevent-
ing credit card fraud. This innovative focus on operating
excellence has improved collections while increasing
customer satisfaction and retention, resulting in stronger
relationships overall.
Listening to our customers is the best way we know
to create the solutions they need. Customers with past-due
accounts told us that they wanted to use the Internet to
arrange their debt payment programs. Our Consumer Risk
Operations group responded by creating the industry’s
fi rst self-service collections Web site, myeasypayment.com.