Banks are looking for ways of harnessing technology to alter customer service by automating customer queries, minimizing human interference and extending services to achieve financial tasks over chat or voice discussions. Well-known lenders like HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Yes Bank are taking up chatbots and voice bots for customer care. The shift has started in an unprecedented way which is enhancing their capabilities.
According to experts who are highlighting the reasons behind this shift in trend is because financial institutions need to be on social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, or twitter and others. The idea that this is the places where millennials spend maximum time, and to enhance their reach towards them the banks require to be conversation-friendly. The studies show that messaging apps have more than 300 Mn users in some cases, whereas the banks are still in the 25 Mn user base range and the financial institutions need to use conversation-based AI platforms to connect with customers within.
It is projected that chatbots will give the financial institutions a chance to save billions of dollars in the coming decade. According to a survey released by Juniper, chatbots will be responsible for over $8 Bn annual cost savings by 2022. As per the Gartner report, by 2020 chatbots will be managing no less than 85 percent of all customer service communications.
The Inclination towards Chatbots
The pathways the banking customer utilizes and the channel they take to carry out banking is more complicated than ever. It is no longer conceivable to document and see a single customer visit. Consumers use online and offline courses and expect personalized expertise from their financial institution at all steps of their course.
Financial institutions must retain with their customers and members in the right way, and at the right point and time. Proper assimilation of chatbots as part of the engagement method can accommodate consumers with immediate and personalized interactions, using artificial intelligence and machine learning as a framework. Although only 19 percent of customers are currently using chatbots, 95 percent believe they will make more use of chatbots in the future.
Few reasons to adopt a chatbot for consumer engagement in financial institutions include:
Cost savings is a primary reason because chatbots are relatively inexpensive to build up and maintain compared to the human equivalent. Chatbots need less coding than standalone banking apps, can be backed by an expanding array of channels and don’t need valuable data storage owing to chatbots’ cloud-based systems.
A 24/7 instant chat characteristic is anticipated by the increasingly digital ‘always-on’ customer. This means that banks with chatbots developed into their websites have a contentious advantage, and are expected to attract and retain customers.
The efficiency of use is another primary reason. Chatbots are more spontaneous and more natural to use than a traditional banking app. There is no download needed, and the experience can be personalized over time by machine learning.
Advanced banking chatbots give access to all of a customer’s information. It can track spending attitudes, provide credit scores, set and control budgets and tell the customer where they are misusing their money. This provides for AI-based recommendations and information for better money management.
New account generation is more convenient. If a prospect visits a bank’s website and is acknowledged with a polite ‘hello,’ invited to ask questions about output, and pointed in the correct direction where they can find appropriate information, the engagement is more prone to result in a new account possibility.
Studies have previously shown that people find phone calls wearisome and slow as opposed to instant chat. Customers are looking for momentum and personalization when communicating with their financial institution. At the same time, they don’t want the disinterested experience of email or online forms. Customer support chatbots allow a mix of both live communication and speed.
