Promsvyazbank's (PSB) call center was ranked at the top of the National Association of Contact Centers' list of the top 20 call centers in Russia's financial sector, which the association released last week.

The PSB center received the highest scores based on surveys that  assessed service quality over the phone at banks and other financial institutions. The evaluations of the calls were based on the availability of staff and the quality of service they were able to provide.

The longer callers wait on hold before speaking with a representative, the lower their satisfaction tends to be, the association said. The bank implemented a system that puts callers in a virtual queue after waiting on hold for one minute.

The bank's CallBack Assist program gives return callers priority while awaiting the next available representative. This also cut phone traffic costs as well.

The bank also implemented a system in which representatives could see histories of previous calls made by clients of the bank; this allowed the representative to be prepared and to better anticipate the caller's needs.