DBS enhances customer service touchpoints

It retrained over 500 employees and opened new roles including video biometrics specialists and live chat agents.

DBS has introduced voice biometrics, chatbots and data analytics technologies to its contact centres as part of its efforts to enhance its physical customer service touchpoints and bring down the number of inbound calls by 20% over the next three years.

To achieve this goal, the bank has retrained over 500 customer centre employees and introduced 13 new job roles in recent years including voice biometrics specialists, live chat agents, digital evangelists, VTM managers and customer experience designers that can respond to client queries. The results are starting to bear fruit as call volumes have dropped 12% in 2018 from four million inbound customer calls annually.

The voice biometrics functionality at DBS Contact Centre verifies customer identities and eliminates the need to reveal personal information through the call. Automatic verification through the technology reduces the time by up to 40 seconds from the usual average of 80 seconds and DBS aims to have one in seven customers enrolled to its voice biometrics opt-in programme by end-2019.

The live chat and chatbot function has also been built into the DBS and POSB website and mobile app which can answer simple questions like checking account balance and credit card bill dues for the month in seconds. DBS has seen a 10% increase in chatbot engagements every month. With this function, DBS aims to have clients resolve their queries independently via its website, app or through Facebook or Twitter channels.

The bank is also turning to predictive analytics technologies to anticipate customer needs. For example, he Customer Centre team can anticipate and solve potential issues by using behavioural and device performance data - such as failed card transactions or having their card retained in an ATM – by assisting the customer via SMS, email or chatbot.