Integrated Financial Technologies (IFT), a provider of outsourced portfolio management and business processing services, launched an Operational Assessment Service to help financial institutions ensure the operational adherence of outsourced customer service vendors. This service is available to banks, credit unions, lenders, and collection agencies that employ offshore, virtual or otherwise outsourced customer engagement staff.
Each assessment reviews the processes and technologies used by customer service vendors to confirm they adhere to data privacy requirements, regulatory statutes, best practices and specific parameters detailed by each financial institution.
These assessments are conducted by IFT’s team of industry experts. The evaluations span areas like customer interactions, contact center technology, workflows, IVR routing systems, collections performance, branding, reporting and quality assurance. Specific emphasis is also given to data management and privacy practices to make certain that all government, industry and institutional mandates are satisfied.
IFT will provide a report on the outsourced customer service center’s operational processes, and will include specific recommendations addressing any ineffective business processes or instances of non-compliance.
“Because both regulations and technologies evolve at a rapid pace, it’s difficult for outsourced customer service teams to keep up with evolving practices. An outdated customer service environment not only reduces productivity and customer satisfaction, it potentially leaves a financial institution vulnerable to penalties for compliance violations,” Tod Chisholm, president of IFT, said. “Our assessment process evaluates technology gaps, non-conforming procedures and unproductive workflows that can severely hinder a financial institution’s success. Our goal is to suggest a path to operational excellence which will boost business outcomes, while allowing lenders to continue to benefit from the cost-effectiveness of outsourcing.”
