How WorldRemit Automated 60% of Live Chats using a Chatbot
AI Digital Assistant Helps Thousands of Remittance Customers
WorldRemit is a leading digital international remittance provider, enabling expatriates to transfer funds to family and friends in a secure and low-cost way. As the COVID-19 pandemic hit and money transfer premises closed, customers needed to switch to a digital means of sending money home. As a result, World Remit’s customer support team witnessed increased customer requests, just as agents were adjusting to working remotely. In response, they saw the need for a digital AI assistant solution that could resolve common customer queries at scale, alleviating pressure on live chat agents.
“Because of the sheer volume of calls we were receiving during the lockdown, we needed to move away from having an agent on the phone with a customer talking them through the process, especially when they were repeatedly answering the same questions. We needed to find a different method.”
Justin Sebok, WorldRemit, Senior Product Manager
Selecting ServisBOT for a Fast Rollout
As the pandemic gripped the international community, WorldRemit was under pressure to find a solution that could be rapidly implemented and serve thousands of customers. They began looking for an AI-powered chatbot solution that could engage with customers and resolve common queries at scale. They selected conversational AI platform provider, ServisBOT, to help them get a digital customer service assistant in place as quickly as possible and have it focus on resolving simple queries on both the website and its mobile app.
“The ServisBOT platform met our criteria. We started with a simple bot with menu-based guidance, that allowed customers to select the questions they wanted to ask from the main menu. We were able to automate answers to these questions in front of our live chat functionality, resulting in a lower percentage of queries needing to be handled by live agents.”
Hello Digital Assistant!
The first version of the WorldRemit AI digital assistant was up and running within two weeks. The chatbot was designed with menu-based guidance, that allowed customers to select the questions they wanted to ask from the main menu. The bot automates answers to these questions in front of our live chat functionality, resulting in a lower percentage of queries needing to be handled by live agents.
“We needed a service which could be adapted over time to answer different queries and facilitate various business processes.”
A Path to Automating 60% of Live Chats
The purpose of the digital assistant is to help people to resolve their queries satisfactorily, rather than simply diverting them from contacting customer service agents. When customers are directed to upload a document or complete a specific task, they report a higher level of satisfaction than if they are simply directed to the FAQ page, where they have to search through lots of information to answer their query.
The first version of the WorldRemit AI digital assistant was up and running within 2 weeks. Since then the team has worked on a number of improvements. Key learnings are implemented throughout the product development process, to address any recurring issues that drive customers to seek support. WorldRemit routinely studies chat transcripts to discover what customers ask, providing insight into how queries could be automated on the front end.
“ServisBOT provided a lot of suggestions about what was possible. They were very responsive when we requested changes and catered to our needs to ensure that we built something that really worked and got the results we needed.“
Measuring Success
Channeling 60% of inquiries to self-service has dramatically reduced service costs for WorldRemit, improved customer satisfaction, and reduced the pressure on customer service staff as thousands of more customers used digital money transfer services for the first-time during the lockdown.
“Customer service agents previously had zero downtime between calls. Now, we’ve given them time to breathe, which has been much appreciated.“
Justin Sebok, Senior Product Manager, WorldRemit