Automation has the potential to transform digital banking, bringing many advantages such as freeing up advisors to concentrate on more complex inquiries. An important example of artificial intelligence in banking is chatbots. In customer service, bots can interact with customers in place of advisors, speeding up response time and easing workloads. But for certain things, customers still want to talk to a real person. Human advisors continue to play a vital role in digital banking. A hybrid digital experience means customers can begin interactions with a chatbot but transfer to an advisor when they need to.
Statistics about chatbots in customer service
Chatbots make customer service faster and more productive. When customers have a query, rather than waiting for an answer, chatbots can either help resolve the issue or tell them when to expect a reply. Customers are happier and banks can reduce drop-offs.
Furthermore, 64% of advisors with chatbots say that it allows them to spend more time solving complex problems, compared to 50% of advisors without chatbots (Salesforce, 2019).
This is made possible by chatbots. Advisors can delegate part of their workload to bots, and banks can save up to 30% in customer support costs (The Chatbots Explainer, 2016).
Statistics about chatbots trends in banks
Chatbots enable banks to automate more of their customer interactions. This is convenient for customers who can get prompt answers 24/7, no matter where they are. Chatbots can reply faster and to multiple messages at once, which is more efficient and productive. This saves banks time and money on customer support.
43% of customers deal with their banking problems by using a chatbot rather than going to their branch (Humley, 2018). This convenience is a clear advantage offered by chatbots.
This is a win for banks, with one study showing that bots can save banks 4 minutes per inquiry. This means cost savings of $0.50-0.70 each time (Juniper Research, 2017).
But there is a long way to go, only 16% of consumers said they are satisfied with their primary financial institution’s digital experience. In the same survey, 76% of banks and credit unions describe their digital customer experience strategy as “rock solid”.
Statistics about chatbot usage
Chatbot usage is on the rise with many customers already interacting with bots to solve their banking problems, mostly to find quick answers to questions and to resolve complaints. While chatbot interactions are not at the level of entirely replacing human conversation, customers are content to use chatbots as simple question-answer machines.
We are witnessing a new confidence in chatbots. 59% of millennials and 60% of Gen Xers in the United States have interacted with chatbots. However, 59% of respondents in another study (Spiceworks, 2018) said chatbots often fail to understand the nuances of human communication.
This is no doubt why the majority of chatbot usage remains simply about answering simple questions and resolving complaints or problems. More than 60% of U.S. consumers say that their go-to channel for simple inquiries is a digital self-serve tool such as websites, applications or chatbots
Chatbot statistics for 2020
One thing’s clear. Chatbots have a big role to play in the future of banking and business more generally. Face-to-face conversations will still play a part too, but with the increased automation of services, and as it becomes more familiar, customers will be increasingly happy to conduct business with a bot.
This automation is going to affect all industries. 80% of businesses are expected to have some sort of chatbot by 2020 (Business Insider, 2016).
Also by 2020, 85% of consumers will interact with businesses without even speaking to a human (Gartner, 2019).
Most striking of all is the fact that by 2020, the average person will have more conversations with bots than with their spouse (Gartner, 2016). That’s maybe too much…
Conversational banking and Unblu
Be part of banking’s digital future. Unblu’s conversation platform for Financial Services allows you to bring chatbot technology and human advice together into one system. Create faster, easier, and more productive conversations.
Offer your customers the chance to access real-time advice, whenever they need it. Book a demo here and one of Unblu’s team members will get in touch.