Source: ABN Amro
ABN AMRO clients who are deaf or have a serious hearing impairment can now receive ABN AMRO mortgage advice over the webcam, using sign language.
There are no additional costs for this service. ABN AMRO is the first major Dutch bank to start providing this feature.
Personal Banking Manager Klaas Ariaans: 'ABN AMRO wants to be available around the clock for its clients, regardless of their location or the time of day. Whether in person or over the webcam, the phone, or the internet - the client chooses his or her preferred channel and where-and-when to contact us. Two of our deaf employees indicated that we can improve our service to deaf and hearing-impaired clients, and they went on to organise this new feature. We've started off by offering mortgage advice over the webcam in sign language, since that is where demand was strongest. In the future, depending on how this is received, we want to expand our range of services for deaf and hearing-impaired clients to webcam consultation about other topics as well.'
An increasing number of clients are opting to speak to a bank employee about their mortgage over the webcam, from the comfort of their own home. ABN AMRO started offering webcam mortgage advice late 2011. In 2012, we had around 2,000 webcam consultations, which resulted in nearly 500 new mortgages. Nowadays, roughly 25% of our mortgage-related meetings take place by webcam, and ABN AMRO wants to further boost this figure to 50%. Sign-language mortgage advice is an innovative solution for clients with a hearing impairment, and it's just the first step ABN AMRO has taken to expand its services towards this particular group of clients.