Putting a lid on bank customer call volume

CUSTOMER service at retail banks often resembles an arcade game called Whac-A-Mole, in which a mallet is used to pound a plastic mole popping up from different holes. Banks launch initiatives to eliminate the 50-70 per cent of call volumes that are bad or avoidable - those generated by errors or that should go to lower-cost or higher-service channels - only to find that total call demand stubbornly remains high. Take out call demands here and watch new call demands pop up there.

Unlike the arcade game…