Say goodbye to boring, automated tele-conversations

Industry   |   
Published January 4, 2017   |   

Panic!
One can’t truly appreciate the sense of this word, until you realize you have misplaced your wallet that has your credit cards! So, you frantically call home or office just to check whether you have left your wallet over there. And you finally realize that you have lost your wallet. That is when the moment of panic steps in! Someone may now have access to your credit and debit cards.
In a frenzy, you pick up your mobile phone and call your bank’s customer care number. And what are you greeted with? An annoying automated response of course. With each automated menu option, your blood pressure rises steeply. Since it’s peak hour, the call doesn’t get through to the customer service executive directly, and you are on hold. With some extremely irritating music to keep you company. Finally, when you get hold of a representative, and explain your predicament, he bugs you even more, by asking for details like your account number, card number and a series of questions for verification. That you never seem to remember. After authenticating yourself, you can finally block your cards and place a request for a new one.
You feel like you have aged 10 years in the half hour it took for you to get it sorted.
Now look at this scenario:
You realize that you have lost your wallet or your credit cards. So, you pick up your mobile phone, open your bank’s messenger and send a message to block your credit cards and apply for a replacement. The messenger then asks for a fingerprint authentication to proceed with the request. Once you are authenticated, your request is processed.
You sigh with relief! It took you 60 seconds to sort it out and voila! The lost cards get blocked and the new cards are on their way. Intriguing right?
Chatbot
The second scenario that has saved you at least 30 minutes and a blood pressure spike is a friendly chatbot.
A chatbot is a computer program that can simulate human like instant conversation powered by artificial intelligence. Chatbots can be used across industries, and they have a multitude of functions. Notably, its demand in the financial industry is increasing. It can help you with day-to-day banking activities, provide alerts, send specific requests, ask questions, and provide customer support. All this with personalized responses.
Chatbots should be used by banks to enhance customer experience, not as a promotional tool. Ideally, chatbots should be programmed to identify and provide valuable information to customers. They should also provide proper insights and guidance based on customer queries and needs.
It wouldn’t hurt if the chatbot had a unique personality. The chatbot’s responses to messages should be smart enough for a customer to continue the conversation. It needs to use the context of current messages, customer profile details, past messages and the substance of conversation, to select the best response from a predefined list of bot messages – through an AI-powered bot platform.
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Some advantages of using a chatbot:

  • Increased user engagement
  • Reduced call center calls
  • Lower developments, and most importantly
  • Access to big data

I would say that for a bot to be as useful as possible, it should have a personality. Here is an example of a Chatbot with personality:
chatbot-applications_1     chatbot-applications_2     chatbot-applications_3
Conclusion
The chatbot is quite an important development, as it can be termed as the evolution of the personal business assistant. It works on the principle that “If people can chat with a person, why can’t they chat with a bot?” -Especially, if the bot can provide intelligent responses, easily. The chatbot is a definitive concept of looking ahead, as it can handle repetitive queries. If utilized and set up efficiently, it can change the way we bank.