Australia’s largest bank has been using digital enhancements to deliver better customer experiences and take a proactive approach in identifying and helping customers who needed support through the COVID-19 pandemic and other disasters.
Speaking at a recent Digital Banking Summit NSW in Sydney, Matthew Malady, Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s general manager of data and analytics channel and customer, and Lee Challoner-Miles, general manager of integrated channels, outlined how digital services are being used to provide customers with more tailored support.
In line with CBA’s strategy to deliver a global best digital customer experience, the bank reached out to more than 1.6 million personal and business customers directly through virtual means during the recent catastrophic flooding across eastern Australia.
Speaking to CBA Newsroom, Challoner-Miles said that in the past, customers who required financial assistance in times of disasters like floods or fires would often need to directly contact the bank.
But thanks to the creation of CBA’s virtual assistant, Ceba, in 2018, and the launch of CBA’s AI-powered customer engagement engine, the bank can now proactively identify customers who may be impacted by a natural disaster and offer financial assistance and support in a streamlined, timely manner.
“In the past, we would make [financial] grants available and the customers would work out if they were eligible and then call a specific telephone number, where they would then sit on hold because there were so many people affected and calling through at the same time,” Challoner-Miles said. “We can now use our data analytics to identify the individuals we know have the best possibility of qualifying for and getting benefits from the grant and then channel them in such a way that they just have to fill in a couple of questions digitally through Ceba and we can process the rest in the background. It creates a high level of efficiency for our customers and the bank.”
Challoner-Miles said technology behind Ceba meant it wasn’t just a traditional chatbot, but rather a true virtual assistant for the bank’s customers.
“A chatbot is given a generic question and delivers a generic answer,” he said. “Ceba can actually help customers instantly with their unique needs because it understands who customers are. It has context from the customer analytics data we have. And if it can’t help a customer it will put them through to a human who can.”
Meanwhile, CBA’s customer engagement engine allows the bank to communicate with customers in a relevant manner across all of its channels – be it in branch, via its call centres, or across its digital channels, Malady said.
“Our customer engagement engine has helped us to reach more than 1.6 million flood-affected customers and businesses in Queensland and New South Wales recently to offer support,” he said. “The technology also enabled us to proactively communicate with approximately 3,500 immediately eligible business loan customers to let them know about the option to defer their loan repayments.”
Malady said the bank’s customer engagement engine was also used to proactively engage with large numbers of Australians who were potentially impacted by the various COVID restrictions and inform them about specific government grants and rebates they might be entitled to.
Customers could then access and apply for these grants and rebates through CommBank’s digital feature Benefits finder, which since its launch in September 2019 has helped CBA customers save in excess of $500 million.
Throughout FY21, the use of AI and the Benefits finder feature has enabled CBA to alert 4.7 million customers to the various government benefits and rebates they could be eligible for based on their personal situation and finances.
Most recently, a dedicated Benefits finder for business dashboard was launched to help small business owners access applicable government grants and rebates.
