First Citizens Bank (FCB) CEO Karen Darbasie said the bank is encouraging people to switch to alternate modes of banking, but it thinks it’s important to keep the human touch.
“Our vision for where we go to next is to couple the best of technology with the warmth of human interaction. We’re one of the few banks that’s still opening new premises, in Milford Road, Tobago, and a much bigger operation in Diego Martin. There’s a new branch coming to Sangre Grande, where we’ll be relocating to newer, bigger premises and there are plans for a new south hub. We’re trying to combine both, encourage use of the alternate channels and maintain the branch accessibility.”
Darbasie said the bank had spent a lot on creating tutorials as part of their advertising on how to do online banking and resetting personal identification numbers online, as well as other transactions.
[caption id="attachment_1042019" align="alignnone" width="1024"] FCB's user-friendly website and online banking portal -[/caption]
The bank is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2023. FCB was formed in 1993 after the merger of three banks – the Trinidad Co-operative Bank (the Penny Bank), the National Commercial Bank, and the Worker's Bank.
Customer service
Darbasie said the bank was moving more services online to become more efficient. She said some of the services available included the artificial intelligence chat bot Annie, telebanking, being able to print statements online, and more self-service options. She said they were seeing more people make the change.
Darbasie said different demographics choose to engage with the bank in different ways. She said the bank had conducted research about the demographics and how to fill their needs, offering products and services based on this research. She said FCB was trying to adopt a holistic, hybrid approach that speaks to who it is and where it’s come from.
She said the demographics included Boomers (1946-1964), Gen X (1965-1980), millennials (1981-1986) and Gen Z (1997-2012.)
Darbasie said she knew people had been complaining about long wait times on calls. She said the bank had boosted its call centre, as its call volumes increased phenomenally from 2022 to 2023.
“We hired a whole batch of new staff that were deployed in the call centre over the last month. They’re coming up a learning curve of course. I am monitoring our call wait time on a weekly basis by type of query, by day, by week, and getting weekly reports, and we’re seeing the evidence that the wait time is coming down. We’re monitoring it to see what else we need to do to make it more accessible.
[caption id="attachment_1042021" align="alignnone" width="1024"] A commuter at City Gate was all smiles as she received a token courtesy First Citizens as part of its random acts of kindness initiative in March. - Photo courtesy FCB[/caption]
“We’re also monitoring social media to see if complaints are decreasing. The wait time also depends on the time of the week or month that people are calling, and we have to understand the trends
