Navigating Risk and Revolutionizing CX: How Access Bank is Leveraging Avaya Technology to Double its Customer Base by 2027

Access Bank Customer Story

Access Bank is a leading full-service commercial bank, operating across three continents, 22 markets, and serving over 60 million customers globally. With its headquarters in Nigeria and subsidiaries in sub-Saharan Africa, the UK, and other major markets, the bank employs around 28,000 people and is a key player in the financial sector. Access Bank continues to expand its global footprint, with a long-term strategy centered on leveraging innovative technology to place customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) at the heart of its growth.

By 2027, Access Bank aims to double its customer base to 125 million. To achieve this goal, Access Bank is harnessing technology to not only modernize its service delivery but also ensure that both customer and employee satisfaction drive its growth.

current customers served globally

target customer base by 2027

daily transactions processed

Access Bank

Challenge

  • Scaling operations to serve a growing global customer base
  • Maintaining fast, frictionless interactions across multiple channels
  • Upgrading outdated technology to support future growth
  • Ensuring business continuity while adopting innovative solutions
  • Managing diverse customer needs in regions with underdeveloped internet infrastructure

Value Created

  • Improved customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Score (NPS)
  • Reduced response times for voice and email channels
  • Enhanced customer authentication with voice biometrics and conversational AI
  • Enabled secure, scalable operations with a hybrid cloud system
  • Introduced video banking for personalized and inclusive customer service

 

Challenges and the Need for Innovation

With 13 million daily transactions and 60 million customers across various geographies, Access Bank faces the challenge of massively scaling its operations without disrupting services. Virginie Nowak, Group Chief Customer Experience Officer at Access Bank, emphasizes that fast, frictionless interactions are critical in the banking sector:

“When customers are coming to you, it’s got to be fast. My job is to create a seamless experience and make sure that I remove friction... Our current technology is obsolete, and with our growth plan, I need to ensure it’s sustainable.”

To address these challenges, Access Bank sought solutions that would modernize their customer engagement strategy while mitigating risks. Key to this transformation was maintaining security, optimizing employee experience, and preserving the bank's strong culture of risk management.

null

Partnering with Avaya for Seamless Innovation

Access Bank partnered with Avaya to embark on a transformative journey, designed to revolutionize both customer and employee experiences. Leveraging a hybrid system that combines Avaya Experience Platform (AXP) on-premises for inbound and outbound voice, video banking, conversational routing, and speech analytics, with AXP Public Cloud for digital channels and chat bot integration, the bank created a seamless, unified platform for customer engagement. This hybrid model allows Access Bank to scale its operations while reducing the risk of disruption. Nowak explains:

“We are the third biggest bank in the world in terms of transaction volumes. Moving entirely to the cloud would risk disruption, so we’ve built a hybrid system. This way, we can turn features on and off without risking business continuity.”

Access Bank worked with Avaya to integrate these capabilities into their Microsoft Dynamics CRM system, creating a consolidated customer journey and analytics framework. This integration delivered significant improvements in customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Scores (NPS).

The hybrid model also allows the bank to test and refine new technologies, including voice biometrics, conversational AI, and video banking, before full-scale deployment. Nowak emphasizes the bank's cautious approach to innovation:

"We have a mindset of pilot, so we are very happy to try and fail quickly. We limit damage, adjust, and avoid disrupting the overall technology."

"We are the third biggest bank in the world in terms of transaction volumes. Moving entirely to the cloud would risk disruption, so we’ve built a hybrid system. This way, we can turn features on and off without risking business continuity."

—Virginie Nowak, Chief Customer Experience Officer, Access Bank

The Role of Voice and Video in Access Bank’s Strategy

In regions where internet infrastructure is underdeveloped, such as Nigeria, voice remains the dominant and most reliable channel, making up 80% of Access Bank’s customer interactions. Recognizing this, Access Bank implemented voice biometrics and conversational AI to streamline authentication and customer service.

To further enhance customer experience, Access Bank introduced a video contact center, providing customers with a more personal and secure channel for engagement with improved identity verification. As well as adding a convenient channel for customers, video has also enabled the bank to save on branch infrastructure costs.

The inclusion of real-time language translation in the video environment and enabling sign-language support for deaf customers not only elevates the customer experience but also positions Access Bank as a pioneer in inclusive banking for customers with diverse needs. This innovation demonstrates Access Bank’s commitment to ensuring all customers can engage with the bank seamlessly.

CX Transformation and Motivated Agents Drive Continuous Improvement

Access Bank’s focus on CX, under Nowak’s leadership, has led to remarkable improvements in customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and engagement metrics. The bank improved its customer satisfaction score from 54% to 64% in fiscal year 2023, and its Net Promoter Score (NPS) rose from negative to 23. Additionally, key metrics across the contact center have improved significantly:

  • Voice response time reduced from 2:25 minutes in 2022 to 30 seconds in 2024.
  • Email response time dropped from over 144 hours to under 7 hours.
  • First contact resolution improved from 70% in 2022 to 74% in 2024.


Nowak attributes this success to the integration of CX and EX strategies:

"There is no CX without EX... Employees need to understand customer pain points to deliver better service. We made CX part of onboarding, and now every employee spends time in the call center and branches to understand the customer experience."

Avaya also helped Access Bank improve employee experience by introducing agent gamification. This feature keeps agents motivated, engaged, and aligned with CX goals. By integrating digital and voice channels into a unified agent desktop, agents gained better visibility into customer journeys, enabling more personalized and efficient service.

Sustainability and Future Goals

Access Bank’s ambition to grow its customer base to 125 million by 2027 requires ongoing innovation and scalability. The bank’s roadmap includes expanding self-service workflows, integrating conversational AI, and leveraging blockchain technology to speed up dispute resolution. The bank also plans to address the linguistic diversity of its customer base by training AI systems to support languages like Hausa, widely spoken in Nigeria.

As Access Bank continues its journey, its focus remains on sustainable growth, ensuring that both customer and employee satisfaction drive the bank’s future.

"By 2027, our ambition is to expand to 125 million customers, so I need to make sure we are prepared to serve this number of customers," says Nowak.

Conclusion


Access Bank’s partnership with Avaya has enabled it to modernize its customer and employee experiences, ensuring that both are central to its growth strategy. By embracing a hybrid cloud approach, piloting new technologies, and focusing on inclusivity and accessibility, Access Bank is poised to achieve its ambitious goals while maintaining its strong risk culture.

As Virginie Nowak concludes:

"Ultimately, if your employees are fine, your customers are fine, and that results in business growth because you reduce churn and grow value."

Through continuous innovation, inclusivity, and a commitment to CX and EX, Access Bank is not only shaping the future of banking in its target markets but setting the standard for financial institutions across the globe.

"There is no CX without EX... Employees need to understand customer pain points to deliver better service."

—Virginie Nowak, Chief Customer Experience Officer, Access Bank

Access Logo

About Access Bank

Access Bank is a leading full-service commercial bank operating through a network of more than 700 branches and service outlets, spanning 3 continents, 22 markets and 60 million customers. The bank employs about 28,000 people in its operations in Nigeria and has subsidiaries in sub-Saharan Africa and the United Kingdom, a branch in Dubai, UAE and representative offices in China, Lebanon and India. Access Bank’s parent company, Access Corporation, has been listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange since 1998 and has over 900,000 shareholders.

 

22
international markets

28,000 
employees

700
branches

Loading page...
Error: There was a problem processing your request.