PORTSMOUTH, N.H.–A new report offers some insights into the micro-trends banks and credit union is are seeing as they deploy a virtual assistants as part of a broader conversational banking strategy.
SilverCloud has released its latest Conversational Banking “Micro-Trends,” report, which it said is not a survey of what “people claim to do,” but instead reflects is real-time data showing real usage from financial institutions with virtual assistants in production.
The October 2020 monthly report is based on usage covering 200+ financial institutions and 11.9 million end-user sessions across the service spectrum from sales through transaction processing.
The Findings
Among the findings in the report:
• 80% Reduced Usage Sundays. Sunday sees the lowest usage of the week and Monday sees the highest – rising more than 90%, every Monday. Saturdays are not much better, where usage is just slightly ahead of Sunday, SilverCloud said. “Clearly people stop asking questions on weekends. This is contrary to digital banking usage trends where weekend usage remains strong compared to mid-week.”
• Top 3 Questions – Routing, Rates and Transfers. According to SilverCloud, people are looking for help with routing number and rates, followed by questions about Zelle and P2P transfers. “Way to go banks for pushing your new P2P solution,” SilverCloud said. “Venmo is way down the list; apparently, a few people still think credit unions and banks can do Venmo.”
• #1 Utterance – Say Hello. “Virtual Assistants are personal,” SilverCloud said. “The first thing people say when interacting with a virtual assistant is ‘hello’ or ‘hi.’ Yes, people personalize these darn things. People treat the assistant as an actual entity and take the time to say hello before asking a question. And they do so politely. The ninth most used phrase is ‘Thank You.’”
• 27% Sales Focus – Sales Are King. According to SilverCloud, “Sales queries lead the pack, right behind our favorite question about routing number. Sales inquiries account for 27% of the top 10 questions asked to a virtual assistant on bank and CU digital channels. Rates top the types of questions, as well as info about checking accounts and auto loans. Clearly a virtual assistant needs to be an effective sales resource. Sell, bot, sell.”
• COVID & Corona Top 20. In a sign of the times, the terms “COVID” and “Corona” made the top 20 phrase list, the SilverCloud report found. “These are instances where questions were asked directly about the two terms. There were many other related queries about branch hours, call center availability, etc., all of which spiked during the early days of the pandemic, and these questions still linger as we enter the winter months. Virtual assistants are helping to manage the crash of calls credit unions and banks are receiving during these COVID-times.”
The full SilverCloud Labs report here.