Bankwest claims world-first with cross-platform customer chat app
Bankwest in Australia is claiming a world first in the banking sector, with a new cross-platform messaging service.
It allow customer conversations with its staff to continue across multiple devices and sessions, removing the call centre frustration of lengthy repeated phone calls. The new in-app messaging service has been developed over the past year alongside Nasdaq-listed LivePerson, which has worked on customer apps for global giants such as T-Mobile as well as local firms including Telstra and Qantas.
It will allow customers to get their questions answered via a human operated messaging service within their banking app. However, uniquely it operates in a similar vein to an ongoing WhatsApp or instant messaging conversation with the bank, whereby a chat can be resumed on different devices and in different sessions if it isn’t immediately resolved. Bankwest chief information officer Andy Weir told the Financial Review the bank was increasingly cognisant of the higher standard of communication services its customers were experiencing in other areas of their lives.
It wanted to match this in an industry where the “when, where and how” of doing business has evolved past the old nine-to-five contract centre model.
“It doesn’t mean that existing channels necessarily disappear – because there are customers that still want to use those.
“But as new channels emerge across other industries and other services, it’s essential that we’re at the forefront of providing those for our customers too,” Mr Weir
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Despite saying the bank is confident in the security of the app, Ms Tovey said there were some requests, such as changing contact details, which would not be allowed through the conversation app, in order to ensure this wasn’t done improperly.
“But the messaging itself is absolutely authenticated and has secure elements associated to it, so we know who we’re actually chatting with.”
LivePerson Asia Pacific boss Andrew Cannington said the work that BankWest had done in creating an in-app experience that was similar to the everyday consumer behaviour of sending iMessages or SMS, was a first in the financial services sector.