Have you ever considered how much time you waste facing the automatic teller machine? The traveling time from your place to the ATM, then time spent queueing up, and finally the time taken for completing the transaction itself. Today the financial world has been revolutionised. It has transformed all of your “wasted” time into something practical and, surely, efficient.
According to Forbes, “Mobile banking apps are increasingly becoming more important than bank branches. A recent study showed that people visit (bank) branches at less than half the rate that they use on banking apps.”
How can this happen? This is because consumers always prefer innovation that will make it easier for them to run every kind of financial transaction. As a result, these conditions are pushing banks and financial services to make innovations that suit consumer demands.
Such revolutionary innovations in financial technology will provide many opportunities for banks and financial services. But of course, it also comes with great challenges. Banks and financial services are required to produce applications that are simple, intuitive, fast, and easy to use. To achieve success in this regard requires capabilities in steady chat applications, not only for the customer’s satisfaction, but also to make customer service agents more productive.
According to the American Banker, “mobile chat addresses the two trends [mobile banking and increasing usage of text messages] in one fell swoop and presents a win-win scenario for banks and their customers.”
The list below will show several benefits of an In-App Chat function for customers:
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Immediate support for users
Especially for urgent issues such as reporting fraudulent transactions, identity theft, and other security issues requiring prompt response from the bank.
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Ease of accessibility
To contact a bank representative from anywhere, anytime, for any matter without needing to drive to the bank to file a report or make a transaction. No need to search for the bank’s phone number hence saving time, energy, and stress.
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Easy to find transaction history
With all communications stored in one channel, this allows users and businesses to review their conversation history and interactions and to track their money, transactions and other things which they need. Past chat conversations can be stored and easily referred to in future disputes or clarifications, unlike a phone call where the conversation may be lost when the call has ended.
Also read: “Basic “Attachment” Features in Qiscus Chat SDK“
User-to-User Engagement Within FinTech Apps
The in-app chat feature for financial technology applications is not limited to customer service-oriented cases. The use of in-app chat features can also be applied to apps for user-to-user engagement, such as when chatting while sending money to other users. One example is the case study of DOKU app, a free digital wallet app that lets you create and share payments with friends. DOKU is also a virtual wallet equipped with credit card and cash wallet features which you can use to shop online with its merchant partners.
In its latest release, the Doku app has come with new features. One of these features is a chatting feature between “DOKU-lads”, referring to friends who are both registered under DOKU. DOKU offers an in-app chat which can be used to send and receive messages between registered users. Its built like any other instant messaging app which also allows users to send pictures and other media with this feature.
Benefits of In-App Chat for Banks & Customer Support Agents
Additionally, in-app chat is beneficial not just for users but also for banks and their customer service officers. These benefits include:
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Improving productivity:
Customer support agents may often face difficulties in responding to consumer demands. By using in-app chat, a customer support agent can respond to multiple requests and queries simultaneously in a shorter time.
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Access to transaction & case history:
This eases both the customer support agent and the customer, as they can easily track and refer to past service interactions and account history within one consistent channel as they are conversing with one another.
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Enhanced experience:
In-app chat improves customer satisfaction since it allows immediate and real-time support and response just from a single tap. Similarly, agents will experience quicker interactions which results in less frustration and time taken to serve customers.
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Improving customer loyalty:
Certainly, with increased customer satisfaction, customers will have more loyalty towards and trust in the company, where deeper connections and stronger relationships will be built.
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User engagement & retention:
Providing app users with opportunities to connect to the app will facilitate experience in sticky apps, increase user engagement and retention. It can also attract new users to try the application. In the end, it will benefit the bank as a return on investment.
ArtificiaI Intelligence (AI) & Chatbots
Banks and financial institutions can also take advantage of new trends in chat applications such as through chatbots. Chatbots are now getting smarter and come with a variety of capabilities that are promising for banks who may want to use AI to analyze customer accounts, provide solutions to common problems, and handle simple transactions for them. The Chatbots can also help banks manage overworking and reduce the pressure and strain imposed on customer support agents.
Chatbots can handle many commonly happening situations such as simple user requests and questions (e.g. “I lost my password.”), leaving customer support agents free to prioritize and respond to more complex issues. While using chatbots is considered a smart choice. Using chatbots to replace human interactions have to be considered wisely to prevent disruption in user experience with a bot. Which is essentially only a machine with no feelings and are just programmed to complete tasks. The innovation that needs to be done is to combine gradually both chatbots and human beings from time to time. Resulting in an efficient conversation between users and bots but supported by human interaction.
In conclusion, having an in-app chat feature for banks and financial institutions offers many benefits for customer service and users. The integration between live chat and both mobile apps and websites is a way to gain a competitive industry edge. In-app chat facilitates immediate response. And is also efficient in many other aspects such as providing better service and increasing productivity of customer support agents. Handling a single customer who has many problems is as difficult as in the past. Allowing customers to access their bank transactions easily. Giving them instant support, guidance, and assistance will also build a stronger customer-bank relationship.
Explore A New Banking Experience With In-App Chat Now!
Interested with the many benefits of in-app chat? Don’t hesitate to think about how In-App Chat capabilities can improve the customer experience in the banking and finance industry. Just drop us a note at www.qiscus.com or e-mail [email protected] to find out how your customers can have a revolutionary banking experience!
This article is inspired by this story here.
