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By Rick Rothacker
Jan 28 (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp must focuson improving customer service as it moves past its crisis-eraproblems, CEO Brian Moynihan said in a letter sent to employees,signaling one of his strategies for boosting revenue at thebank.
The letter, mailed to the homes of nearly 270,000 employeesworldwide and seen by Reuters, says employees need to make iteasier for customers to do business with the company, which hasfared poorly in U.S. customer satisfaction surveys.
Bank of America posted the lowest score among four large U.S.banks in a report last month by the American CustomerSatisfaction Index, and was the only large bank whose score hadnot matched or eclipsed pre-crisis levels. [ID: nL1E8NA6L7]
Giving an example of how to improve customer service,Moynihan says in the letter that customer call centers shouldprovide the same "problem-solving approach" to helping customersas the bank's Merrill Lynch financial advisers and U.S. Trustprivate bankers, which work with wealthier clients. The letteralso highlights efforts to provide more clear communicationswith customers and initiatives to put investment specialists andmortgage loan officers in branches.
Bank of America's image has taken a beating in the past fewyears, including a backlash in 2011 over an aborted plan tocharge a $5 monthly debit card fee. Many of its mortgagetroubles stem from its 2008 acquisition of subprime lenderCountrywide Financial.
Last year, Bank of America put its advertising account upfor review as part of an effort to show it was a "new day" atthe bank, according to a document sent to the agencies. The bankselected a team at WPP Plc to craft a new marketing pushfor the bank, which is likely to debut later this year.
These steps are crucial for Moynihan, who in his fourth yearas CEO is coming under increasing pressure to show investors andanalysts that the bank can boost profits amid new regulationsand low interest rates. He has spent most of his time as CEOfocusing on cleaning up the mistakes of his predecessors,including billions of dollars of losses from mortgages.
Bank of America this month reported a 63 percent decline infourth-quarter profits after taking more than $5 billion inmortgage-related charges. But the bank is beginning to put itsmortgage woes behind it, shifting the focus to growing revenues.[ID: nL1E9CH2SC]
The letter doesn't identify any new initiatives or ways ofmeasuring customer service, but puts renewed emphasis onMoynihan's long-running goal of focusing the company onconsumer, business and institutional customers.
A companywide event on Thursday will kick off the newcustomer service push, according to the letter, which did nothave further details about the event. Employees will also havemeetings with top company executives in coming months. A Bank ofAmerica spokesman declined to comment on the letter.
