How Conversational AI Strengthening Customer Support In BFSI ?

We are living in the age of instant gratification where customers are more demanding than ever. Most people are looking for a quick resolution to their problems and don’t want to waste their time pressing 1 and 2 on the IVR leave alone having to visit a bank branch to get their passbooks updated.

Conversational AI has revolutionised the customer support landscape in more ways than one providing quicker resolution to queries, helping customers in saving time and ensuring better retention.

All sectors have started to take notice of these benefits offered by conversational AI and the BFSI segment is no different. As per a report by Business Insider, 80 per cent of businesses are using chatbots or conversational AI platforms in some way or another. The report also adds that these AI-powered chatbots will be able to automate a staggering 90% of all incoming queries in banks by the end of 2022.

Handy digital tool

Conversational AI in the BFSI segment is a handy tool that is beneficial for organisations as well as customers to retain customers. The biggest advantage that it offers is that it can give prompt resolutions to customers. With conversational AI in place, even brands can be assured that their customers will get accurate and precise answers to all their queries. This is extremely critical for the banking and financial services sector, which deals with users’ finances.

1) Never have to worry about FAQs

In the BFSI industry, there are a set of questions that are asked very frequently. For example: What is the available balance in my account? What is my credit limit? When is my insurance premium due? Et al. A Conversational AI can provide accurate answers to all these questions in a jiffy.

2) Make transactions and payment

It is also capable of taking things a notch up and enables users to make payments and keep a track of all their transactions. For example, not only will they be able to know when the premium is due or the total due amount due but also allow the users to make the payment right there. Most people find it inconvenient to switch platforms to complete transactions, but with an omnichannel chatbot, customers can make payments right where they are, and avoid any delays.

3) Upsell and Cross-sell by adding a personal touch

The BFSI segment offers a great deal of personalisation. Every user is unique and will have a unique set of requirements. Conversational AI can understand the needs of the customers and offer specific options to them based on their previous data. This can lead to higher conversion and better revenues for the brands.

4) Manage Frauds

An intelligent AI platform can analyse trends and patterns and also alert in case it sees any abnormalities. In case there is any untoward activity on the account, it can also help in addressing them faster and ensure minimum damage and quicker resolution.

5) Feedback Mechanism

It can also double up as a handy tool to collect suggestions and feedback. It helps the brands to gauge the customer experience at every step of the journey.

Thanks to all these factors and more a lot of BFSI brands are moving towards conversational AI platforms. Another indirect advantage is the market value of the BFSI companies globally post-AI adoption can increase sustainably. A report by Accenture indicates that deploying AI-based solutions can enable a BFSI industry to add more than $1 billion in value by 2035.

The COVID-19 effect on BFSI

In 2019, the world came to a standstill! Most organisations across the world had to temporarily shut down in order to contain the spread of COVID-19, impacting businesses across the world.

While banks were allowed to operate, people were apprehensive to step out for their daily banking needs. During these unprecedented times, Conversational AI helped consumers in getting the assistance they needed. Not only was it quick, personalised, intuitive and available 24X7 but also convenient.

For the insurance and financial institutions too Conversation AIs helped in providing an excellent customer experience and prompt service. All this has resulted in greater adoption of chatbots in the BFSI segment in this post-pandemic phase.

Life beyond IVRs

With time, conversational AI is becoming even more apt and trends suggest that these would soon become voice-based. Many compare Voice-based conversation AI tools with IVR but that is far from reality. The current IVR

systems that most BFSI brands have in place are complicated, sluggish, and difficult to navigate.

Voice AI will not just be a welcome change but it will also have the ability to map emotions and urgency in the user’s speech. They will be trained in emotion and sentiment analysis to identify the right user context and reactions. What this means is that if a user calls in to report a loss of a card, it would understand the urgency of the situation, block the card instantly and also empathise with the customers. In this case, the user will not have to wait for the IVR to pass the call to the live agent and then describe their agony thus streamlining the entire process.

Similarly, a smart voice banking bot can talk to the users much like a live representative does, and lead them to apt resolutions. This is exactly something a basic IVR lacks. This frees up room and time for agents to focus on more complex questions.

AI can remarkably influence the BFSI space. It can reduce operating costs, automate processes, and improve the overall customer experience.

(The given article is attributed to Gaurav Singh, CEO, Verloop.io and has been created exclusively for BW Disrupt website)