A significant number of businesses still retain the use of touch-tone (DTMF) push-button dialling, a technology that has been in use by the general public since 1963. With this system, customers use the buttons on their telephone keypad to input information and interact with an automated service. Businesses such as banks, internet service providers, and health insurance companies often use DTMF to gather info for identity verification before passing the caller onto a human agent.
If you’ve ever had to input information using your phone’s keypad, you will hardly need us to explain what a nightmare this can be. Whether entering your memorable data when contacting a bank or telecom company, or typing in the correct date in order to book a table at a restaurant, a host of problems can arise when using DTMF.
Push Button Nightmares
Firstly, by taking the customer through a series of rigid steps that cannot be skipped, the system is incredibly inflexible. The customer cannot ask clarification questions, and the system cannot accommodate information offered out of turn. When forced down a rigid dialogue path, customers often become quickly frustrated.
Secondly, if you press the wrong button or input the wrong information, it is almost impossible to correct that mistake without restarting the entire process. This can be particularly frustrating when a customer is trying to input security information in order to speak with their bank. Inputting personal data over the phone can feel stressful, especially when one mistake can mean restarting the entire process. Furthermore, the impersonal and rigid nature of this process can have a negative impact on customer trust, an especially important factor in automated banking.
While push-button solutions are easy to set up and manage (a large factor in their widespread adoption), with modern advances in conversational technology your customers have inevitably come to expect better. And let’s face it, interacting this way just isn’t natural.
The power of conversational AI
The next generation of virtual assistants, powered by conversational AI technology, are capable of holding extended conversations with customers. This allows them to give information and make requests in their own time and in any order they choose. The goal of this technology is to provide customers with human-like and instant responses to their naturally worded requests. A conversational AI-powered system can recognise customer intents with unprecedented accuracy, meaning it can rapidly and intelligently gather the information needed from the conversation. This not only saves time for your contact centre staff, it saves time for your customers too.
Furthermore, these virtual agents are equipped with expert knowledge about your business and its services, allowing them to answer any additional or unscripted questions that may arise. For example, when using a conversational AI to contact a bank, customers can inquire about overdrafts, business loans, or enquire about suspicious transactions. And as the conversational AI can remember all of its previous interactions with the customer, these services can be further tailored and personalised to the specific individual on the end of the phone.
Crucially, conversational AI offers a substantially more flexible and personalised service than DTMF-based solutions. And when you work with action.ai to build conversational technology for your bank, we ensure that the deployment process is fast and that the service is easy to maintain going forwards.
No virtual assistant has to take a day off, and they can take calls at any time of day. With the ability to recognise and respond to complex requests, conversational tech can handle a large proportion of customer calls without the need for a human agent to intervene. This is extremely important for banks in particular. As more and more bank branches close in the US, the average number of people served by a single branch is set to rise by 393% from 2020 to 2030. By accurately emulating the abilities of a human agent, conversational AI tech allows customers to be attended to instantly without having to wait on hold over the phone or in line at a physical branch.
Powered by intuitive voice technology, the speed and convenience offered by today’s virtual assistants have the potential to convince even the most hesitant of customers to switch to online banking.
Beyond DTMF button pushes
Both touch-tone dialling and conversational AI can be used to gather basic information from your customers, but the similarity ends there. The latter service offers far greater flexibility and functionality. By enabling voice interactions, conversational tech gives your customers a more intuitive way to engage with your business.
While DTMF constrains your customers with rigid conversations, our conversational virtual assistants are able to hold a natural back-and-forth conversation that both leaves customers satisfied and further engages them with the services your business offers.
