This case study explores how Oration deployed a cloud-based IVR solution into Kiwibank’s contact centre providing them with the in-house capabilities to reduce their process of configuration and testing - from 12 weeks to near real time.
With digitisation, the finance sector is evolving quickly with new products, services and alternative channels to engage with. Contact centres need to continually adapt to the changing environment through digital transformation. They need to meet customer expectations by resolving an increasingly complex range of queries whilst completing transactions more securely than ever before. Fortunately, it’s easy to future proof operations by switching to a more responsive and versatile IVR solution, and it can be done without compromising the experience that customers are accustomed to.
THE CLIENT
Established in 2002, Kiwibank is a locally owned and operated bank in New Zealand with more than one million customers. Kiwibank offers a range of personal and business banking products and services and focuses on doing business responsibly by helping to create a sustainable future for customers, communities and the environment.
THE CHALLENGE
Kiwibank was using a fully featured but aging natural language IVR solution that had been in place for several years. Along with their long-term integration partner, Spark, they wanted to update their legacy IVR platform to a more efficient, cost-effective, flexible, and easy-to-manage solution that preserved existing levels of customer experience and service. Due to the nature of customer calls, migration to a new IVR platform needed to be executed without impacting Kiwibank’s contact centre operations or compromising the quality of service received.
THE SOLUTION
Convai and Spark worked together to deliver an updated architecture including a cloud based IVR solution coupled with Convai’s Oration. Oration was deployed into Kiwibank’s contact centre by directly taking training data from the legacy IVR system. Importing the data into Oration meant they were equipped to achieve the same or better call-routing accuracy from day one. With the capabilities of their previous IVR platform secured, Oration’s advanced technology brought several customisable benefits to Kiwibank:
DATA ENHANCED CALL-ROUTING
By learning from the data captured by their legacy system, Oration gained an immediate and deep understanding of caller intent to ensure a seamless transition and continuity of the customer experience.
IDENTIFICATION AND VERIFICATION
Kiwibank must ensure that interactions and transactions are performed securely to protect customers private information. Oration has delivered fully configurable custom actions to identify and verify a customer’s identity using their Access number and PIN.
SELF-MANAGEMENT OF THE CALLER EXPERIENCE
The previous IVR system required complex change request and testing processes. Updating messaging relating to incidents, changes to services or general improvements to the caller experience were difficult, costly and time consuming to deliver. Oration offers a series of sophisticated features that are easy to reconfigure or switch on and off – this enables Contact Centre leaders to manage changes in real time themselves. Customers can be kept up-to-date with key information as business needs change on a daily, weekly, or as events arise.
DATA CAPTURE
Oration captures verbatim caller intent which gives agents clear insight to why the customer is calling. This provides a seamless experience giving customers confidence (show me you know me) and allowing the agent to take responsibility for understanding the customer’s needs. It also provides greater transparency over call flows so the caller experience can be adjusted in response.
The Results
VOICE BANNERS
Equipped with Oration First Contact, they were able to deploy multi-layered IVR messaging to their customers, who while waiting to be served were given relevant and timely communications based on their intent.
Their approach included:
- Messaging to all customers, covering how they were dealing with the regional COVID lockdowns
- Messaging to targeted customers who enquired about ‘Branches’ and ‘Branch appointments’
- Messaging to specific customers, who mentioned ‘Auckland Branches’.
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INCREASED INSIGHTS
With an increase in accessible voice data, Kiwibank is gaining a richer understanding of their customers and the types of language and descriptions they use while interacting through their voice channels.
This knowledge gives Kiwibank a broader understanding as to how they can enhance their call flows, ensuring that the customer has a seamless and great experience from the first moment they call Kiwibank, to the moment their banking needs are met.
DISAMBIGUATION
Kiwibank is now capable of adding disambiguation questions themselves – enabling them to better understand customer outcomes. Historically, this was a lengthy and expensive 12-week process for Kiwibank as they were required to follow internal procurement processes and wait for their third party to prioritise and build their requests. With this capability sitting inhouse Kiwibank can configure questions, test, learn and then iterate in near real time.
EXAMPLE
In New Zealand’s lending market, the major banks made the decision to increase the interest for their two-year fixed home loan rates, while Kiwibank reduced its two-year fixed home loan rate instead. This resulted in significant increases in the number of customers wanting to discuss possible break options for their current lending.
With the available data and knowing what customers were calling in for, they were able to:
- Analyse the language and statements customers used to enquire about fixed rate break costs
- Create new tags, intents, and routing rules
- Fine-tuned Oration to digest and increase the pool of tags, intents, and statements
- Add disambiguation questions for increased accuracy of the newly created tags.
All resulting in customers getting to the right team the first time.
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