Inside a successful cross-training initiative at Citizens Bank
Inside a successful cross-training initiative at Citizens Bank
2 PagesCitizens Bank, one of the oldest and largest financial institutions in the US, has a frontline workforce of 7,000 consumer banking colleagues. Ordinarily, they’re split between the 24/7 contact center and the bank’s 1,000 branches in 11 states. But the COVID-19 pandemic changed things. “COVID-19 caused us to rethink how we support customers,” says Leanne Kearney, VP of Learning and Development for Citizens Bank. “Customers were primarily reaching out via the phone. Volume went up considerably.” They immediately saw the opportunity to transition retail colleagues in the branches onto phone support to keep up with demand. These colleagues already had the customer service skills—but they needed to get up to speed on the contact center’s systems and processes. “We were able t
