Migros Bank now offers extensive customer support around the clock. This is made possible by a voice bot that augments the customer support team during the day, and works independently with customer issues late in the evening and at night. The solution won a podest place at the “Best Bot Award 2023”.
Since the beginning of October this year, Migros Bank customers have been receiving telephone service around the clock thanks to an innovative voice bot. As a first step, a voice biometrics solution was introduced in 2019 for telephone calls in the customer center. This offers the possibility of recognizing and authenticating callers by voice. On this basis, further automated services were added in 2022. Since the system proved to be reliable and secure in daily practice, Migros Bank now also operates the voice bot outside of its business hours. The bank thus meets the customer needs to have issues resolved quickly, reliably, and at all times.
The voice biometrics and virtual assistant solutions come from the leading Swiss and international conversational AI platform provider – Spitch. The basis for the newly offered services in the system was the analysis and direct implementation of optimization potential by NTT DATA, a leading global company for digital business and IT services.
Manuel Kunzelmann, CEO Migros Bank, comments: “With the innovative voice bot, Migros Bank is expanding its level of customer service, which is now available around the clock. The technology behind it increases accessibility and offers additional convenience for callers. The fact that this advanced solution achieved a podium place in the Best Bot Award encourages us to consistently develop our services in line with the wishes of our customers. Many thanks to the teams involved”!
The 190 customer advisors in the Migros Bank customer center received 650,000 calls in 2022 alone. Without the use of technical aids, this enormous number could only be handled with waiting times for the callers. To ensure that customers always receive help with their concerns as quickly as possible, the voice bot has been increasingly taking on additional standard tasks since 2022.
The bot can now answer questions about the account balance or accurately identify customer concerns and refer them to the responsible service point. It can also address various concerns automatically and send links to the Migros Bank website with the relevant content via SMS. The bot also offers numerous self-services, such as unlocking e-banking access devices and automatically sending new activation codes for these devices. Support is provided in multiple languages: in German, Swiss German dialects, Italian and French.
Voice biometrics ensures the highest level of security to authenticate callers based on their individual voice profile. Before voiceprints are created, customers are expressly asked for their consent. Using the voice profile also improves customer experience because authentication takes place without additional steps such as further security questions. The fact that customers can now arrange a callback appointment with a service employee on the next working day via the voice bot ensures additional convenience if their query cannot be resolved immediately. One can be forwarded directly to a customer advisor at any time during operating hours.
Christian Seider, General Manager Switzerland at NTT DATA DACH, comments: “The heart of customer service is people and their need for a simple and quick solution to a concern. With the 24/7 voice bot project, we have shown together how digitalization makes life easier for employees and customers alike. We are pleased that our experience in pioneering digitalization solutions has contributed to further project success at Migros Bank”.
Stephan Fehlmann, Country Manager DACH region at Spitch, adds: “We are proud that our market-leading expertise in natural language processing and conversational AI solutions helps Migros Bank customers have an optimal banking experience”.
Contact us to learn more about Spitch conversational AI solutions and how they can make a real difference for your business.
