This community bank, a trusted financial institution in its region, spent decades building its brand for personalized service with its growing customer base. Expanding to more than 35 branches to date, the bank has found a balance in providing the highest level of customer service while keeping up with changing customer needs.
Anticipating the shift to digital-first service, the bank started evaluating online options even before the pandemic. In reviewing various solutions, the community bank realized that having a single platform integrating all digital channels for a seamless customer experience would allow it to incorporate digital communications while not compromising service levels. In 2021, the bank launched Glia’s Digital Customer Service (DCS) solution to ensure its representatives could connect with customers in real time and fully support their online banking needs.
Building on the success and popularity of live chat with their customers, this institution decided to deploy an automated virtual assistant to add a convenient self-service option that could offer support after hours. The chatbot needed to be easy to implement without requiring extensive training, and should be up and running fast to start providing instant results. The bank selected a Glia Virtual Assistant (GVA), seeing these advantages as well as the benefit of pre-trained, conversational AI for banking that integrated seamlessly within Glia’s platform.
Capable of answering a wide range of requests based on more than 800 proven retail banking scenarios, the AI-powered chatbot can manage a high percentage of engagements through to resolution without requiring human intervention. The bank especially valued that the GVA could also easily transition customers to a live representative for more complex issues or to provide a more human touch.
The AI-powered chatbot was rolled out at the end of 2021 to support the bank’s digital banking platform, providing 24/7 guidance and alleviating high contact center volumes. Given the bank’s keen attention to the customer experience, it wanted to ensure that all customers felt comfortable with the new technology and didn’t feel forced into an automated solution. The community bank made it very easy for customers to connect with a live rep, if needed.
The results speak for themselves—its GVA successfully resolved 60% of inquiries alone, with no need for live assistance. The 40% which requested human assistance experienced a seamless transition from chatbot to live service. Customer adoption of the self-service features is steadily climbing as the abandonment rate has sharply declined.
Just as its chatbot is constantly learning and improving with AI, the bank continues to enhance its overall digital-first service to become even more personal and collaborative. OnScreen Voice, for example, provides a frictionless segue for the institution’s customers to speak with a service representative right from their screen without breaking the digital connection to make a disconnected phone call. Plus the service rep retains digital context from the engagement to maintain a seamless experience. Video adds a face-to-face connection for an even more human touch. With DCS, representatives can easily shift the conversation to a more personal channel to guide customers and meet expectations.
This community bank also uses CoBrowsing on the Glia platform to visually guide its customers through their digital banking journey to accelerate interactions. Beyond screen sharing, CoBrowsing allows service reps and GVAs to securely guide customers on the bank’s digital properties and even help to fill out forms, such as loan applications. This has been especially effective in helping customers who are less tech-savvy and need more online direction.
With continuing good customer feedback, the bank looks forward to keep improving the digital customer experience and optimizing service efficiencies with Glia’s solution. So far, it is helping a rapidly growing number of customers seeking support online. The combination of AI-driven self-service and live human guidance has helped the community bank effectively handle a steady increase in online engagements while maintaining its high customer satisfaction rates for an all-around win.
