Conversational Banking: Future of Banks with Chatbots

Less than three decades ago, the banking industry experienced disruption with the digitization of multiple processes. It was sparked by the proliferation of desktop PCs, fast processors, and the advent of the internet. With further advancements in banking technology, customers were able to review their financial transactions, check account balances, and pay bills according to their convenience. The next wave of transformation in banking is touted as ‘Conversational banking’ led by AI technologies.

Chatbot development services enable banks to consolidate their internet and mobile banking services with a single platform. It provides a unified user experience across various channels like online banking, mobile banking, and ATM services with a more personalized experience.

Chatbots developed using AI and ML techniques enable banks and financial institutions to reduce costs with significant improvement in customer satisfaction. It establishes two-way communication, and in many cases, replaces channels like phone, email, or text. Moreover, customers can ask questions or request services in a conversational manner. The goal is to provide effective customer service and transactional support using a chatbot, freeing customer care agents’ time to resolve complex issues.

In this blog post, we will discuss how conversational AI technology enables banks to establish long-term relationships with their customers.

The Benefits

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): Leading banks and financial institutions are strengthening customer relations with AI. One of the most basic tasks of a banking chatbot is to provide an automated service. It may include requests such as resetting a password, blocking lost cards, finding the closest ATM, and much more.

Some banks have developed bots that assist customers to block their cards instantly in case of misuse or theft. They ask certain questions related to the card and an OTP is sent to the registered mobile number. Once fed, the card is blocked instantly.

Increasing customer satisfaction: Chatbots have the potential to enhance customer satisfaction by answering a host of queries within seconds. A majority of customers want prompt responses to their queries and an IVR system often puts their calls in queues. It leads to bad customer experience.

Chatbots are effective in improving the customer experience. They provide real-time responses to simple queries raised by customers. With predictive analysis, the bots can gauge customers’ intent and answer accordingly.

Bank of America introduced an AI-based virtual assistant called Erica. It effectively caters to the bank’s customer service requirements in a number of ways. It notifies the customers, provides balance information, money-saving tips, and credit report updates. Erica also assists customers to perform simple transactions and take important financial decisions. As of early 2019, Erica surpassed 6 million users and has serviced over 35 million customer requests.

Suggesting products and services: Apart from answering common FAQs related to banking operations, bots are also being used in customized product recommendations. For example, if a customer inquiries about a personal loan, the bot lists all available products offered by the bank. Additionally, it can calculate a customer’s loan eligibility and the loan amount based on the inputs provided.

Financial goal setting and spend tracking: Chatbots have the potential to answer customers’ queries related to budget and other financial activities. Clari, a newly launched chatbot was integrated into TD bank’s top-ranked mobile app. It empowers customers with in-the-moment personal spending insights and enables them to make everyday transactions. Clari provides a personalized experience to customers by using conversational artificial intelligence.

Reduced costs: Deploying a fully-functional conversational banking system is much cheaper than developing a cross-platform application or hiring staff for each task. Businesses now have multiple options to choose from such as ready-made software developed by Microsoft, Facebook and other tech giants. They can handle multiple customers simultaneously. As a result, costs and errors resulting from human errors can be minimized to a great extent.

Closing Thoughts

The adoption of conversational AI services is rising in the banking industry. AI-powered chatbots have demonstrated their ability to handle queries and keep customers engaged at every stage of the customer life cycle.

Why Choose Oodles for Chatbot Development Services

We develop intelligent virtual assistants to conduct meaningful conversations and reduce customer service costs. We integrate third-party AI applications provided by leading platforms to accelerate chatbot development. Talk to our AI team to avail chatbots with advanced features.

Gain a competitive edge with our chatbot app development services. Talk to us now for a demo.