Swedbank has added a virtual assistant developed with Nuance Communications to its website in a bid to help customers and call centre staff to get quick answers to their banking questions.
Based on Nuance's Nina, an intelligent assistant using natural language understanding technology, the system is designed to simulate human conversation. Customers type their questions to quickly find answers and identify the financial services that are best suited for their needs.
The bank says that with 75% of its customers preferring to deal with it through its app or website, the new tool is proving popular, carrying out around 30,000 conversations a month during its first three months. About eight out of 10 questions are being successfully answered.
For customers who do prefer to call the bank, employees also have access to the virtual assistant to quickly source answers to inquiries, limiting the client’s average call time. During the first three months of use, the technology has helped Swedbank hit a 78% first-contact resolution.
Martin Kedbäck, channel management at Swedbank, says: "We like to be where our customers are, and that includes providing support online and in our other digital channels. For us, it feels natural to offer our customers easy and effective ways to contact us and resolve their queries."