How CUs Can Deliver a Superior CX Using AI in the Contact Center

Financial services customers in the digital age expect the same level of convenience and personalized service they get from online retailers, travel and hospitality service providers, and streaming audio and video services. And credit unions are responding, particularly by investing in artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in the contact center.

“Customer experience (CX) is proving to be the strategic differentiator for banks, with experience leaders outperforming laggards,” according to a May 2023 article from business consultancy McKinsey & Company. “Our research shows that banks that are frontrunners in customer satisfaction lead in financial metrics such as total shareholder return, increased growth and decreased costs.”

There is near-universal recognition among executives that the quality of experience provided for customers is inextricably linked to their organizations’ ability to retain business. A new Talkdesk banking report reveals that CX has become a strategic priority in the past 12 months for 98% of banks and credit unions, with 83% of survey respondents regarding CX as a leading driver of customer loyalty.

AI Seen As Key to CX

The CX in the banking report shows that banks and credit unions with integrated AI capabilities are more than twice as likely as organizations that aren’t effectively leveraging AI to believe their contact centers are having a positive impact on CX (80% versus 28%).

More significantly, 63% of respondents deploying AI in their contact centers said they can consistently link CX metrics to return on investment (ROI), versus only 21% of respondents lagging in AI adoption. The ability to link CX data to ROI is essential to providing insights into the value of CX programs and initiatives – information critical in shaping customer retention and growth strategies.

Conducted by Worldwide Business Research USA for Talkdesk, the survey of 200 financial services executives explores the plans banks and credit unions have over the next few years in delivering more personalized services with AI. It’s clear from the survey results that many credit unions are committed to spending on AI-based technologies that improve the CX.

More than one-half of respondents (56%) said they expect their organizations to boost their investment in CX technology by 10% or more over the next three years. Among respondents anticipating more spending on CX technology, improving digital service with AI was the technology most often cited (59%).

Use Cases in the Contact Center

A contact center powered by AI, machine learning and automation can give credit union members a personalized experience and options for self-service, while empowering contact center workers with the tools to provide members with superior, customized service.

Credit union executives responding to the survey identified several planned use cases for deploying AI to boost the CX. These include:

Analyzing contact center data for actionable discoveries and insights (83%). Applying advanced analytics and machine learning to contact center interaction data allows credit unions to better understand member preferences and interests, helping them to personalize services and special offerings.

Optimizing chatbot or guided conversations (73%). AI and natural language processing (NLP) can be used to conduct sentiment analysis of a member’s interaction with the contact center – regardless of the channel used – to provide chatbots or live contact center agents with the most appropriate and empathetic response to a request, question or problem.

Virtual customer assistants for self-service (66%). Consumers want a frictionless experience, and one of the best ways credit unions can fulfill that need is by offering self-service capabilities. Younger consumers in particular prefer the ease and convenience of interacting with a chatbot or similar app that allows them to perform simple tasks such as checking an account balance, transferring funds or finding out the latest mortgage rates. Another benefit of enabling members to help themselves is it frees up support agents to handle more complex member issues.

Improving contact center agent effectiveness. Though survey respondents indicated a greater interest in using AI to improve the CX, 73% of large financial institutions also are prioritizing investing in AI to improve employee efficiency. In addition to guiding agent conversations with members, AI can instantly retrieve customer information brought up during a call, saving time that would be wasted in a search by the employee.

Further, AI can be a valuable employee training device. AI and NLP can analyze specific agent interactions with members and offer suggestions in real time. If a member is upset about a late fee or higher interest rate for a loan, AI can advise the agent to waive the fee or offer another incentive that would ease the dissatisfaction.

Barriers to AI Adoption

Despite the willingness of banks and credit unions to invest in AI, survey respondents pinpointed adoption barriers as well as AI usage gaps in existing CX implementations that may undermine the technology’s effectiveness. More than one in three respondents (34.5%), for example, said their organizations still struggle with digital transformation initiatives, such as migrating legacy CX technology to the cloud.

Asked about the challenges their organizations face in implementing AI, survey respondents from larger financial institutions said lack of quality data (74%), resistance to change (63%) and insufficient availability of talent to maintain the technology (61%) as major barriers. Smaller banks/credit unions said their top obstacles are resistance to change (69%), insufficient AI/IT talent (64%), lack of quality data and uncertainty about ROI (both at 51%).

Credit unions increasingly recognize that AI capabilities in the contact center are essential to delivering a CX that keeps members coming back. By integrating AI-driven digital capabilities with human support in the contact center, credit unions can optimize the member journey to avoid falling behind competitors already leveraging AI to improve CX.

Rahul Kumar is the Vice President and General Manager for Financial Services for the San Francisco-based call center software company Talkdesk.