OREANDA-NEWS.  October 24, 2012.  Keeping in pace with technological development and as part of customer service improvement, a new function was introduced in Telephone Banking in October – now customers can have their identity authenticated already before being put through to the specialist. This will speed up the customer identification process and ensure even better customer service quality, reported the press-centre of Swedbank.

How does it work?
Similarly to logging in to Internet Banking, with the new system, customers themselves will get their identity verified. When the customer calls Telephone Banking, he or she will be asked to enter their Internet Banking user number and the requested code from the code card or the security token (‘code calculator’). Data must be entered using keypad on the phone. After successful authentication, the customer will be put through to the bank’s specialist for receiving the necessary information or services.

This novelty guarantees even greater safety for customer data as the user number and the code from the code card or security token won’t need to be stated orally – now customers will be able to enter the credentials in their phones themselves. The automatic identification substantially shortens customer service time as the bank’s specialist doesn’t need to start the conversation with customer identification related things and can immediately get down to dealing with the matters of concern to the customer.

“During the digital age, our customers are increasingly expectant of new technological solutions for receiving remote services. We, on the other hand, strive to create unified customer experience in providing our remote banking services. The new identification process in place at Telephone Banking is as similar as possible to how customers work on the computer on their own and take care of the safety of their identification data when entering credentials in the system”, comments Inese Grike-Ukstina, the Head of Telephone Banking Department.

Why is identification necessary?
Customer identification enables handling specific matters related to customers’ personal data and finances. If the customer does not require identification and only needs general advice, they can request being put through to the specialist by entering asterisk (*) instead of the user number.

What customers can do via Telephone Banking
Telephone Banking is a convenient way of using one’s phone to get advice about banking services and do a range of other things such as setting up and administering contracts or performing various daily transactions from anywhere in the world.

To use Telephone Banking, the customer needs to sign the Remote Banking Services Agreement at any Swedbank branch. Telephone Banking is available around the clock seven days a week on 67 444 444.