This article was originally published on the FCA Capital France website.
Having experienced a surge of requests due to the health crisis, FCA Capital France started working with the startup calldesk to improve the welcoming experience of its customers thanks to the implementation of an AI-powered voice agent. This smart assistant is available 24/7 over the phone to retrieve key information about customers, before transferring them to an advisor or recording their contact details to set up a callback. FCA Capital continues to expand the use of this technology to improve the availability of its customer service as well as to allow its employees to focus on higher value-added tasks. FCA Capital France, a financial company specializing in transportation financing solutions, deployed an AI-powered voice assistant in its customer service department in December 2020.
A tool to improve the reception of its customers in a context of increasing demands
The company, whose French head office is located near Paris, offers leasing and long-term rental solutions for individuals and professionals. FCA Capital's customer service department receives several thousand calls per month for questions related to its contracts and vehicles: schedule management, changes to vehicle registration documents, accident declarations, balance requests, etc. Faced with an increase in the number of calls for 2020, the group has decided to invest in innovation to help its agents respond to requests and improve customer service.
The voice agent: a smart assistant to greet customers 24/7
The AI-powered voice agent answers the call and then transfers it to an advisor, who picks up the call with all the information needed to process the request. And if no advisor is available, the voice agent records the reason for the call and the customer's contact information, then transfers this information to FCA Capital by email. An advisor can then call the person back during off-peak periods.
Yet, after this great step forward, FCA Capital feels that it is only the beginning. According to Xavier Jardin, the group's IT Director: "We are aware of the need to improve customer service, and our teams are working intensively to resolve the situation. The voice agent is a success, and we are proud of the investment of our teams and calldesk on this project. We now want to continue in this direction and continue to improve our customers' experience. We are in regular contact with calldesk to find ways to expand the voice assistant use".
A project deployed in 3 weeks and constantly being improved
On the calldesk side, the feedback on the project is very positive. The company is not at its first try. Calldesk, a European pioneer in AI voice agent solutions for customer service since 2016, and a specialist in conversational AI, handles more than ten million calls a year for the customer services departments of La Poste, Enedis, CNP Assurances, Dalkia, etc.
Thanks to the strong resolve of the teams at FCA Capital, the project went from draft to production deployment in just three weeks. The first conversation with the voice agent took place in mid-December. Since then, the robot has handled more than 10,000 calls, with an 86% understanding rate in the first month. And this rate is improving week by week, as the field teams are gradually training the machine not to make the same mistakes again.
Customer-focused telephone advisers
The voice agent assists the call center agents and allows them to better organize their daily tasks. As a result, at the customer service level, FCA Capital's agents can focus on their core business: accompanying clients and helping them solve their problems. This is why the team of advisors is now available at extended hours to better adapt to customer needs, Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., without interruption.
Over the next few weeks, FCA Capital plans to add new features to its voice agent, such as allowing the client to indicate their availability to schedule an appointment with an advisor. The company also plans to schedule the sending of text or email messages with instructions to allow customers to manage the request immediately and independently.
In addition to the technological aspect, the study of virtual voice assistant statistics has identified that a significant proportion of calls takes place outside of customer service hours (lunch break, evening, weekend...). The company has therefore modified its organization to ensure the presence of human advisers at times that are most convenient for their customers. FCA Capital now wishes to capitalize on this first success to continuously improve its customer experience.
