Pub. 11 2021 Issue 3

12 azbankers.org Interested in Cutting Customer Service Costs By 30%? Let’s Chat. By Neal Reynolds, President, BankMarketingCenter.com R OBOTS HAVE BEEN DEMONIZED FOR A LONG TIME — and understandably. Hard to believe, but it’s been 50 years since HAL, the spaceship’s computerized brain, threatened to kill the Discovery One astronauts in the film “2001: A Space Odyssey.” It’s one of the earliest films that I can remember that warned us about how artificial intelligence could very well be “an experiment gone horribly wrong.” In years since, robots have continued to be characterized as malevolent, destructive, emotionless job-stealers. Manufacturing jobs would disappear as robots could work much more efficiently, safely, accurately, and less expensively than human beings. In the meantime, their view of the world – one, of course, where robots ruled – would supplant that of their creators; they’d revolt against the human race and take over the world. My, how times have changed. The kind of thinking (aka artificial intelligence) that made HAL a monster is exactly the kind of thinking that today’s community banks are utilizing to supplement their service to customers. Until now, customer service was largely built on human interaction. Whether a mega financial institution or a community bank, the standard for quality customer service is extraordinarily high. Customer service representatives must be patient, efficient, knowledgeable, and quick to solve customer complaints without a hitch. Maintaining this high standard is labor-intensive and certainly not cheap. And during these pandemic days, finding and keeping individuals who can deliver this type of service has become almost impossible. So, say hello to CHATBOT! Okay, what exactly is a chatbot? The latest tactic in “conversational marketing,” a chatbot is a “software robot” that chats with customers on your various customer experience touchpoints such as websites, messaging apps, and devices. A chatbot mimics conversation through text (e.g., 1800flowers.com ) or voice (e.g., Alexa). If you’ve just spoken to your Google Assistant, well, you’ve just chatted with, in effect, a chatbot. Are people really using chatbots? Absolutely, and there’s plenty of consumer research to prove it. Recent research from Survey Monkey and Drift shows that “only 38% of consumers actually want to talk with a human when engaging a brand. This isn’t to say they always prefer chatbots, but it highlights just how many ways there are to get answers today that don’t involve live