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digital money
Rise of the Bots
messaging platforms and then check out with the Masterpass glo- bal digital payment service. The bot enables consumers to start a simple conversation with a merchant and complete a transaction without opening their wallets, visiting the merchant’s app or waiting in line, according to the company.
The Mastercard bot for banks will extend Mastercard services to customers on messaging platforms so that nancial information and decision-making “are part of con- sumers’ everyday lives,” Del Valle says. The Mastercard bot engages with the bank’s customers via intelligent conversations to ful ll requests, solve problems and pre- dict needs on messaging platforms, such as Facebook Messenger
and SMS.
“Our goal with the bots is to enable engagement with users,” Del Valle says. “As an ancillary bene t, these engagements have shown increased customer satis- faction while reducing the demand on traditional servicing channels,” she adds.
“The scale and exibility of Face- book’s Messenger platform makes it a powerful channel for Amex
to explore new ways to connect with its cardholders,” according
to American Express’ Matthew Sueoka, vice president and head of mobile payments. Regarding company cost saving, Sueoka says that the Amex bot for Messenger is viewed by the company as a “demonstration” of how American
Our goal with the bots is to enable engagement with users. As an ancillary bene t, these en- gagements have shown increased customer satisfaction while reducing the demand on traditional servicing channels.
—Kiki Del Valle, Mastercard
Express can use bots to assist cardholders, and not as a servicing platform driven by cost saving.
BofA’s Erica will engage customers by being integrated into the mobile banking app to cover a broad spectrum of day-to-day transac- tions, such as checking account balances, credit scores and sched- uling bill payments, according to Betty Riess, BofA spokesperson. Customers will receive a text message from Erica if the AI detects, via predictive analytics, that there’s an opportunity to pro- vide nancial guidance, she adds.
Although BofA didn’t address Erica’s cost-saving potential,
GfK’s Bossey says banks in par- ticular stand to gain from imple- menting chatbots. “Why are we seeing branches closing? Because
50 percent of the tasks I used
to do at a branch I can do on my smartphone. Just as you are seeing smartphones eliminate low-level transactional work in the branch, you’ll see chatbots do the same
for low-level call center activities.”
Getting it Right
Because chatbots are a edgling technology, it’s important for pro- viders to continuously re ne the user experience, experts suggest. Much of a chatbot’s success will come down to the user experi- ence, and something as simple
as whether the chatbot works
the same way, regardless of the smartphone, Web browser or app the consumer is using, according to Bossey. He also stresses the importance of setting expectations for consumers by making sure they know they’re conversing with a chatbot and not a human. Users’ expectations likely will be lower if they know they’re dealing with a bot and will excuse unclear or illogical responses. Along that line, the AI needs to be equipped with an “escape hatch” that makes it easy for a consumer to connect with a human customer service representative if a request exceeds the bot’s capabilities, he says.
Perfecting the chatbot experience “will take a few iterations, and banks and retailers should wade into this slowly, adding capabilities incrementally,” says AZ Payments Group’s Oglesby. “Trying to do too much too quickly is a prescription for a poor customer experience and low adoption.”
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