By Philip Chuck, Territory General Manager, Greater China

“Changing World, Reshaping Priorities” was the theme of the 2017 Banking Conference hosted by Hong Kong Institute of Bankers (HKIB) at the end of September. The conference looked at how the financial services industry can reshape their priorities, try new business models and better leverage technologies to improve operational efficiency and profitability against the backdrop of shifting customer preferences and economic policies. Creative Virtual had the privilege of joining HKT at the annual conference to meet with hundreds of bankers interested in digital transformation.

One key concern voiced at the conference was the need for a better customer engagement strategy. Financial brands struggle with huge call volumes and high operation costs in their call centres. As customer preferences are shifting, companies are faced with the need to handle multiple digital customer contact channels in addition to more traditional channels like phone. This can create even higher costs associated with staffing contact centres and training agents.

At the HKT booth we showed how chatbot solutions can help financial organisations dealing with these issues. Many visitors were familiar with “Ask Amy”, the virtual assistant chatbot we’ve implemented for HSBC in Hong Kong. With this technology, you can provide better customer service in e-channels by offering instant, accurate 24/7 support. Customers also receive consistent answers across the different digital channels and, through back-end integrations, are provided with personalised information based on their specific account or profile.

Chatbots also help improve efficiency within call centres and contact centres. By allowing customers to self-serve online, human resources can be prioritised for more important or complex engagements. The technology can be used within the contact centre as well to support agents by providing an easy way for them to access the information they need to help customers. This reduces average handling times and improves customer satisfaction. Chatbots are also proven to reduce the time and costs associated with training live agents.

There was also a buzz at the conference about artificial intelligence (AI) with a general agreement that AI is everywhere – even a rice cooker with fuzzy logic is now AI! Natural language processing (NLP) is part of the AI field and what allows our chatbots to understand the intent of customer questions and probe further if needed to provide the right and consistent answer.

It was a pleasure to be a part of HKT’s booth and spend the day with some of their experienced team. My thanks to HKT for the invitation to join them promoting FinTech, and to HKIB for hosting a successful event.

Want to learn more? Request a demo and discover how you can create a better customer engagement strategy with chatbot technology.