Examples of Conversational AI in Financial Services

Banking and financial services customers expect high quality customer service because their money and time are both valuable to them. Forrester found that 66% of customers said the most important thing a company can do is value their time.

Conversational AI Financial Service Solutions

Interactive Virtual Agents (IVAs) are a convenient, efficient and effective technology for helping customers with redundant tasks or answering common questions. They also provide a improved customer experience over the use of basic interactive voice response (IVR) for digital or online banking because they don’t require  customers to dig through numerous layers of menus to get  to the right account or perform the task needed. 

According to American Express, over 60% of customers expressed a preference for self-service, so getting this experience right is paramount to your overall customer experience for a financial institution.

Combined with traditional IVR, conversational AI makes it possible to deliver personalized, intelligent and engaging customer service that automatically answers questions. The following are a few examples of how software solutions using conversational AI can enhance the customer experience for banks, brokerages and other financial institutions while reducing  operational costs by improving overall call containment and lessening the need for live agent interactions:

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Solutions in Financial Services

Anti-fraud activity

Anti-fraud activity can include both inbound and outbound interactions. A customer who contacts you to report fraudulent activity on their account will already be stressed and panicked.  To simplify the process of reporting malicious activity, a virtual agent can collect information regarding the transaction(s) and place the account on hold. Similarly, virtual agents can contact the customer via conversational outbound applications to verify  transaction(s) and take any follow-up steps like blocking or unblocking a card to address customer concerns.

Card activations and servicing

Use conversational dialogue via virtual agents to help customers quickly activate and service prepaid, debit and credit cards. They navigate customers through all of the verification steps for new card activation more quickly  and securely than web activations. For prepaid or gift cards, self-service dialogue can also assist with checking balances, balance top-ups, check expiration dates and other card servicing.

Payments

Businesses can facilitate payments from existing accounts or through other forms of payment like credit or debit cards with secure conversational applications built on PCI-compliant cloud platforms.– It’s less frustrating for customers than inputting details into traditional IVR systems. 

On the outbound side, proactive payment reminders can help customers make full or partial payments with virtual agents who utilize conversational AI.

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Product election

Conversational AI allows customers to get answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) quickly and easily. Sample FAQs include:

• What’s the difference between a regular IRA and Roth IRA?
• What mortgage terms do you offer? 
• Which credit card is best for me, if I pay the balance in full every month? – 

IVR systems on their own could never perform these actions. 

In many cases, this empowers the customer to get the answers they need without a live agent which saves time and prevents frustration. 

Virtual agents can assist with setup and onboarding new accounts. They can educate the customer on common topics to help alleviate the call volume to the live agents. When the situation is more complex, they  can transfer the caller to a live agent who then handles the details and finalizes their application.

Onboarding support and process automation

After product selection, there may be a need for subsequent interactions during the onboarding process, especially for complex financial products. For example, customers pursuing a mortgage may have questions regarding what is needed to complete  their application. 

Products like IRAs need to be funded, and AI-powered conversational outbound dialogues can notify the customer when the account is ready for a deposit. They can even help with the transfer of money from an existing checking or savings account.

Everyday interactions

Conversational AI also facilitates self-service for the most common, everyday interactions financial customers have. For customers who prefer interacting via voice, simple activities like checking balances, making transfers and confirming bill payments are easily completed in natural language processing (NLP). Voice applications are an essential element of multi-channel communication offerings.

Secure IVR Systems by Plum Voice

Whether you’re looking to upgrade an existing IVR system or implement a completely new automated customer service solution for your financial institution, selecting the right provider is important. PCI-compliant hosting is essential in this field, and choosing the right developer and platform to provide the solution is important. 

Plum Voice’s platform is built on a fault-tolerant and scalable cloud architecture which eliminates on-site hardware and support. It is delivered over a Tier 1 telecom infrastructure with built-in redundancy and designed for 99.9% uptime of your voice applications. It meets PCI-DSS, SOC2 and HIPAA compliance specifications.

Easy Cloud Migration with Scalability

Flexibility in solution building is also important. For companies with in-house development capability, templated applications can get you up and running quickly and allow for easy updates. For more sophisticated coders, they should look for standards-based and customizable platforms like Plum DEV that supports VXML coding. 

When you don’t want to build in-house, choose a vendor with a robust professional services department withs experience in developing banking and financial solutions. They can help you choose the right AI engine for your use cases and rapidly deploy your new applications.

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Plum Voice provides reliable, PCI-compliant cloud hosting for your self-service applications and a variety of options for deploying AI-powered IVA solutions, whether you choose no- or low-code solutions, building your own VXML applications, or working with our professional services team.