Scaling Quality Customer Service in the Pandemic Era

Since February 2020, the pandemic has reshaped everyone’s daily reality, creating a perfect storm of financial challenges.

In early March 2020, the economy was thriving. Six weeks later, over 30 million U.S. workers had filed for unemployment. The pandemic has exacerbated already–crushing consumer debt loads. At the end of the first quarter, nearly 11% of the $1.54 trillion student loan debt was over 90 days past due. Emergency lending programs like the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program have not been renewed.

Guiding consumers, especially millennials and Gen Z, to financial wellness is critical to the future of financial institutions. These demographics bring long-term value to banks, given their combined spending power of over $3 trillion.

But the banking support system is straining under incredible demand from millions of consumers, and it feels broken for many. Consumers are scrambling for help from their banks; their banks are failing them. With hold times ranging from 20 minutes to three hours, compared with an average of 41 seconds in normal times, customers are having an increasingly aggravating experience. And website content isn’t helping either. Often too generic or laced with confusing jargon like “forbearance,” customers can’t get advice that is relevant to their unique situation and make good financial choices.

All this comes at a time of restricted branch access. Gone are the days when customers could easily walk into their local branch for product advice. Afraid of coronavirus exposure, most consumers have gone digital. Moreover, many branches are closed, reduced hours or use appointments due to the pandemic. No wonder digital has become an urgent imperative.

How can community banks scale high-quality service and advice cost-effectively in the pandemic era and beyond? The answer lies in a new breed of technology, pioneered by digital engagement automation, powered by artificial intelligence and knowledge. Here is what you can do with it.

Deliver smarter digital services. AI-automated digital self-service enables banks to deliver service to more customers, while lowering costs. For example, next-gen chatbots are often just as effective as human assistance for solving a broad range of basic banking queries, such as bill payments, money transfers and disputed charges. The average cost per agent call could be as high as $35; an AI-powered chatbot session costs only a few pennies, according to industry analysts.

Provide instant access to help. The next generation of chatbots go beyond “meet and greet” and can solve customer issues through AI and knowledge-guided conversations. This capability takes more load off the contact center. Chatbots can walk customers through a dialog to best understand their situation and deliver the most relevant guidance and financial health tips. Where needed, they transition the conversation to human agents with all the context, captured from the self-service conversation for a seamless experience.

Satisfy digital natives. Enhancing digital services is also critical to attracting and keeping younger, digital-native customers. Millennials and Gen Z prefer to use digital touchpoints for service. But in the pandemic era, older consumers have also jumped on the bandwagon due to contact risk.

Many of blue-chip companies have scaled customer service and engagement effectively with digital engagement automation. A leading financial services company implemented our virtual assistant chatbot, which answers customer questions while looking for opportunities to sell premium advice, offered by human advisors. These advisors use our chat and co-browse solution to answer customer questions and help them fill forms collaboratively. The chatbot successfully resolved over 50% of incoming service queries.

The client then deployed the capability for their IT helpdesk, where it resolved 81% of the inquiries. Since then the client has rolled out additional domain-specific virtual assistants for other functional groups. Together, these virtual assistants processed over 2 million interactions in the last 12 months.

The economic road ahead will be rocky, and financial institutions cannot afford to lose customers. Digital engagement automation with AI and knowledge can help scale up customer service without sacrificing quality. So why not get going?