With automation rapidly gaining momentum in the banking industry, a growing number of companies are acquiring voicebots and AI-powered voice agents. These virtual assistants based on AI allow to automate recurring calls in the contact center, to increase customer satisfaction while also reducing costs. Let's zoom in on the different use cases for voice agents in the banking industry.
The trend toward artificial intelligence and automation is deeply transforming the banking industry. For an industry that accounts for about 2.1% of French GDP, the productivity gains from AI can be estimated in billions of euros. All functions are impacted, from trading to back-office operations and process robotization.
Customer service is no exception, and an increasing number of banks are looking for innovative solutions to optimize the productivity of their employees, whether they are in agencies or in contact centers. Among the solutions considered, voice agents (virtual assistants) allow to better assist customers in their processes, and to increase their satisfaction while freeing employees from recurring tasks.
As this video explains, voice agents are particularly well-suited to handle massive calls (a few thousand requests per month) and where human intervention has little added value, both for the employee and for the customer. Several dozen use cases can be considered, but the most frequent ones are gathered in three categories: acquiring new customers, managing the daily relationship with customers and managing payment methods.
Use case #1 : Streamline customer acquisition with voice agents
The rise of online banks or "neo-banks" has brought about a new level of competition to traditional banks. While opening an account online can now be done in a few minutes, traditional banks with actual agencies are forced to adapt their processes to offer a seamless experience to their prospects and new customers.
The employee must be at the heart of this strategy, because it is the human and personalized approach that will reassure customers at important moments in their lives: opening a first bank account, buying a car, making a first real estate purchase... But representatives can't be everywhere! Thus, the purpose of the voice agent is to make their life easier, by saving them time on simple operations concerning the acquisition of new customers.
For example, a voice agent can be used to:
- Gather information about new prospects by asking them a series of simple questions about their needs and expectations, before passing the information to a representative to schedule a callback.
- Serve as a dynamic FAQ to share information about an offer or product, and make it easier to understand the Terms and Conditions of Sale.
- Run a credit simulation or follow up on an ongoing credit file.
- Automate appointment scheduling in an agency or with a particular representative, based on availability in their calendar.
The implementation of AI-powered voice agents then makes it possible for a seamless first interface between customers and their future agency, bringing in the human touch where it is most valuable. But these new tools can also save an enormous amount of time in carrying out simple everyday operations.
Use case #2 : Leverage automation to better manage daily customer relationships
One of the main sources of frustration for bank customers is the lack of responsiveness of their representatives, particularly for simple transactions. And on the representatives' side, these small, simple tasks can easily become time-consuming, affecting their ability to handle these simple requests quickly.
This phenomenon is further amplified thanks to a snowball effect: a frustrated customer will tend to call back or send more messages, increasing the pressure on the employee who sees his or her task list growing.
Thanks to voice agents, it is possible to offload the processing of these simple operations from the employee. The robot can directly connect to the company's IS through APIs or web-services, and perform simple operations on demand, completely self-service.
Among these operations, many examples can be mentioned:
- Obtaining a proof of bank transfer
- Obtain a bank statement
- Checking your account balance
- Report a bank account incident
- Request an exceptional overdraft authorization
- Update simple administrative information (change of mailing address, email
address, etc.)
- Make a transfer
- Etc.
While most of these operations can also be performed from an app or a customer area, the voice agent allows these services to be generalized to other types of population, who do not have a computer or a smartphone, or do not think of using them.
A multi-channel itinerary can also be considered, and the voice agent can end the conversation by initiating the sending of an email or sms to the person, with a link allowing them to actually finalize their request. This allows for self-care handling of hot flux (calls), without requiring the intervention of a representative.
Use case #3 : Automate payment management
In addition to the routine operations mentioned above, the implementation of a voice agent can be particularly useful for all the simple operations related to payment management, whether it is to answer routine questions or to perform an operation at the IS level.
For example, the voice agent can:
- Respond immediately to requests concerning the cancellation of a means of
payment (lost or stolen bank card)
- Manage requests to change the spending limit on a card or transfer limits.
- Request the renewal of a means of payment (e.g. checkbook)
- Activate a remote payment method
- Process requests to change a secret code, or to assist a person who may have
forgotten it
- Provide information related to banking mobility, in case of travel or moving
abroad
- And last but not least, serve as a proactive FAQ for any other type of request concerning means of payment.
The above list includes many sensitive operations that can be operated by a robot, implementing secure methods for customer identification, ranging from secret DTMF codes (typed on the phone keypad) to the use of voice biometrics.
And lastly, here is a GIF representation of the automation matrix that our Product and Customer Success teams provide to identify the use cases to be automated as a priority after the contact center diagnostic work!
To conclude, the implementation of voice agents to welcome and support customers in bank agencies can be used to address many use cases. To learn more about the matter, feel free to listen to an example of a conversation with an AI-powered voice agent or get in touch with our team.
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