Chatbots are becoming increasingly popular with financial institutions. From the four big banks (Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, NAB and ANZ) to boutique lending organisations and debt collection companies. From quicker replies for common questions to a less intrusive means of notifying of an overdue amount, bots are becoming the preferred method of many end-users.
While cost saving is a huge factor, as a study by Juniper showed that bots can save banks on average about 4 minutes per enquiry, equating to an average cost saving of $0.5-$0.7 per interaction (source), many organisations have been forced to pick up their speed due to the increased competition from challenger banks and fintech disruptors alike.
The recent COVID-19 crisis has given chatbots an extra push as organisations faced increased numbers of customer enquiries overnight. A “COVID-19 Super Bot” was born during the crisis to help super funds cope with inquiries from trustees amid the government’s decision to allow Australians to access up to $20,000 of their own superannuation savings (source).
Contrary to common belief that younger generations, comfortable with technology, are more open to chatbot interactions, AMP found that the over 60s are the biggest users group of their new Facebook messenger bot designed to assist those seeking financial help and information on COVID-19 (source).
For the financial service industry, having a chatbot seems to be the new norm in customer service. And while it has proven to be successful in saving cost and providing the extra help customers require, how can financial service institutions expand its use or take greater advantage of it? With chatbot integration availability, our new Omnichannel Chat solution can help give your chatbot even more exposure and provide better customer service.
Expand the power of chat to more channels
While many financial service institutions are offering chatbots as part of their customer service, most of them are confined in one platform; either via the companies’ own app, or delivered through a social media platform like Twitter or Facebook Messenger.
Even though these are all established platforms and have a substantial amount of users, they inevitably require the end users to either download an extra app, sign up for another account, or “follow” your company page, which could possibly act as a barrier.
Omnichannel Chat is available via all text-based mobile messaging channels – SMS, WhatsApp or RCS – enabling you to take advantage of the already popular mobile messaging apps that 81% of Australian internet users are already using; or SMS which is the native app on every handset, so that your chatbot can deliver concierge customer service to a broader audience on a more proactive way.
Research also indicated that support tickets coming in over WhatsApp spiked over 100% since late February due to the COVID-19 pandemic, showing a huge demand for customer service in this channel.
Seamless omni-channel chat experience
57% of consumers said they do not mind which channel they use to communicate with their provider, as long as they can get what they need. However, only 20% of consumers feel the customer service they receive is of the same quality across all of the communication channels they use with their financial providers (source). Delivering a smooth customer journey has become vital to attracting prospective customers and preventing existing customers from switching providers out of frustration.
With Omnichannel Chat, both your customers and your staff can enjoy a seamless omni-channel experience. Customers can contact you via either SMS, WhatsApp or RCS, and your staff will be able to view and respond from a single platform. The entire conversation history will be stored in a single workspace even if the conversations happen across multiple channels each time, enabling you to provide the same level of service across all channels.
Omnichannel Chat also enables you to send rich content like images, videos, PDF files or SMS Landing Pages in chat sessions. That means for example, you can send customers updated terms and conditions as a PDF file in a chat session and answer any further questions they have, as opposed to sending them the document to their email account and have them contacting you later with any questions.
From the Australian government WhatsApp channel for COVID-19 to the NSW Health SMS bot, COVID-19 has proven the power of combining chatbot and mobile messaging apps in dealing with emergency or sudden surge of demand on services, which is something that’s definitely worth banks and financial service institutes considering.
If you’d like to find out how you can deliver your chatbot via mobile messaging apps, please get in touch at 1300 764 946 or [email protected].
Prachi Bametha
Marketing Coordinator, Esendex Australia