The Bank of Ireland is investing €34 million in customer service improvements, marking the largest single technology investment for branch and contact centre staff that the bank has ever made.

The bank said that the investment will enable the use of voice biometrics to improve customer authentication, reduce call waiting times, and provide better fraud protection.

It went on to say that the technology will provide around 2,800 employees with a quick “single view of customer” data for faster call resolutions; give customers more self-serve options like requesting new cards; and enable more round the clock transactions.

The announcement follows an investment of €60 million in February which funded branch improvements, including the rollout of new ATMs across all of the bank’s 182 branches. The bank also announced it would spend €50 million on customer fraud prevention and protection in February.

The latest investment will bring the total amount being spent on customer service improvements to around €150 million by the end of 2025.

“We receive more than 11,000 calls on average each day and when customers call us they want speed, expertise and security,” said Susan Russell, chief executive, Bank of Ireland Retail Ireland. “This investment equips colleagues with the latest technology to provide better and faster resolution of calls, and colleagues will now have a ‘single view’ of the customer at the touch of a button providing them with instant access to all their information without having to talk to another part of the bank.”

---