How2invest

There are numerous chatbots designed specifically for banking available on the market—this solution has been gaining popularity for over a decade. However, from the client’s perspective, this is not always good. While chatbots can be a major advantage, and impact customer experience positively, many fail to fulfill this role and cause irritation instead. Thus, in this article, we want to take the client’s point of view and discuss what a good chatbot for banking should look like. We invite you to read on!

The Features of a Good Chatbot for Banking

Let’s start with the features that a good chatbot for banking should have. These include:

24/7 Availability and Prompt Responses

First of all, a good chatbot for banking should be based on AI—it should react to prompts rather than fixed options. What is more, 24/7 availability is an absolute must. Thanks to this, clients won’t feel that you don’t want them to talk to real humans but rather appreciate the fact that they can receive support even when humans are unavailable.

Personalized Interactions

Banking clients strive for a high level of personalization. This should be reflected in the way your chatbot responds. If the conversations are generic, you will not build a positive customer experience and lose with those banks, FinTechs, and leasing companies that do offer personalized customer service.

Multilingual Support

Your clients might speak different languages, especially if the country in which you operate is highly diverse. Plus, using a chatbot might be a great opportunity for the client to talk with someone who understands them—this is not always possible with human customer service agents.

Therefore, one of the main features of a good chatbot for banking is multilingual support; ideally, the more languages the better, though if you have limited resources, you should stick to official languages + the most common ones, like English, Spanish, German, Mandarin and French.

The Features of a Good Chatbot for Banking in Practice

Practice is often different from theory. So is the case with chatbots. While the above features matter, other, often smaller things may be the make or break of your solution. What are they? What does a really good chatbot for banking look like?

Ease to Talk to a Human

Many chatbots make it extremely difficult to talk to a human customer service agent. At the same time, they stubbornly give the same answer, while a different solution is possible if one talks to the bank employee—and many clients know that. Therefore, your chatbot should allow for an easy transfer to a human CS agent if the client is willing to chat with a living person.

Elimination of Accuracy Concerns

Another issue your clients may have with chatbots is their lack of trust in them. People often perceive chatbots as inaccurate, especially with the widespread use of generative AI (especially ChatGPT) and its tendency to hallucinate.

To dispel these doubts, you should address the concerns after each interaction. What we recommend is implementing a feature that makes your chatbot provide the source of information (if it is accessible to the public). This way, your clients will be able to double-check the information to address their concerns.

The Takeaway

As you can see, the image of a good chatbot for banking might differ depending on the perspective. Clients look at the ease of using them, personalization, and their accuracy, while you mostly think about customer experience, productivity, and accessibility. In the end, the best solutions combine both worlds and fulfill both your and your clients’ goals—you should aim for such solutions for your bank.