Intelligent voice and text dialogue systems are becoming increasingly popular with banks and insurance companies. The terminus technicus for this is “Conversational AI”. The technical term describes the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for processing human-to-human and human-to-machine interactions.
Modern-day Conversational AI ensures that customers can interact with a company using voice and text systems based on natural language understanding (NLU) with open dialogue capabilities thanks to the advanced computer models processing both meaning and sentiment or emotions. Virtual Assistants can answer the customer's question immediately getting all the necessary information from the knowledge base. In the case of more complex issues, the system steers the voice or text interaction to the right customer service team in the company. The Speech Analytics solution, such as by Spitch can monitor 100% of the customer conversations with robots to identify customer experience improvement opportunities and help make virtual assistants smarter by assisted learning. Similarly, Speech Analytics helps improve scripts and prompt contact centre agents in real time for compliance and quality assurance purposes.
Ideally, companies should rely on an omnichannel concept. This means that the dialogue initiated via a text or voice bot can be seamlessly continued across all the different communication channels without losing the conversation context. For example: the customer first obtains product or service information through a chatbot and then presses a talk button on the screen because she wants to have an in-depth conversation to learn more. At that moment, the voice bot that picks up the communication has all the information from the text dialogue and passes it on to the customer service staff-member. Success stories from financial institutions show how well this works.
For example, we have implemented a voice system at Baloise Insurance in Switzerland that can communicate with customers using the above scenario to minimize waiting time for customers and understand their concerns even better.
The solution enables the caller to state his request in one sentence in German or Swiss German dialect. The virtual assistant recognizes the intent and steers the customer directly to the right employee. At the same time, this employee receives the transcript of the customer request on the screen and already knows what it is about. In addition, Baloise Insurance can evaluate the identified customer issues to further improve the customer experience. Spitch carried out the project in collaboration with IT integration partner NTT Data.
Another good example is Migros Bank, which relies on a voice biometrics system from Spitch for telephone banking. When a call is made, the bank automatically authenticates the customer by voice (who have agreed in advance) so that they can then carry out secure financial transactions over the phone. As soon as the caller begins speaking, the system verifies the identity within seconds and continues to carry out this verification throughout the entire conversation. Voice recognition works in French, German, Swiss German dialects and Italian. Spitch's solution uses the most advanced text-independent, phonetic-aware approach to voice biometrics, making it highly accurate and much more secure and flexible than other vendors' regular voice biometrics products.
Spitch omnichannel conversational platform combines over a dozen components that work seamlessly together. Virtual Assistants can be used with hybrid voice biometrics solution using one-off passwords to quickly authenticate callers and provide for automatic processing of personal data and financial transactions in self-services. Both the customer service and employee support functions will benefit from virtual assistants connected to the knowledge base, CRM and other backend systems allowing to automatically respond to queries and frequently asked questions, reset passwords, update CRM records, etc. Such digitalization scenarios pave the way towards a natural language-enabled enterprise of the future.
Spitch and BSI are partners and make it easier for companies to start using automated interactive voice systems.
Stephan Fehlmann, Country Manager for the DACH region at Spitch and recognized expert for conversational AI solutions, was one of the company's first employees and, therefore, an essential part of its success right from the start. His academic background is in international management and business informatics.
