LSB finds financial services chatbots do not meet customer needs

The LSB has published new research which found significant inconsistencies with customers’ experiences with financial services provider ‘webchat’ services, including considerably differences in functions supported by AI and those managed by humans.

The survey was conducted via 190 mystery shopping customers who used webchat services of ten financial services firms, ranging from large high street banks to online lenders.

59% of customers who communicated through an AI-driven chatbot found the interaction unhelpful or very unhelpful, and 49% of these customers said they were not confident in the next steps or support available to them. In comparison, 82% of those using a ‘live’ agent webchat service said they felt confident following their interaction, with 77% describing the experience is helpful or very helpful.

Similarly, where 74% of live chat users felt their circumstances had been understood, only 35% of chatbot users felt the same, and while 50% of live chat users felt that indicators of vulnerability were addressed, this was only 31% of chatbot users.

A key indicator of customer outcome was flexibility in communication: 89% of mystery shopping experiences rated excellent were linked to a webchat which allowed free-flowing dialogue, while 74% of poor experiences were linked with fully templated AI chatbot interactions.

The LSB outlined the following six features driving effective webchat communication:

• Customers value flexible communication with “free flow” webchats performing much better than those relying on templated answers;
• Customers want to be understood and for the webchat to pick up on what they need;
• Customers want prompt access to the right help;
• Customers want to know what to expect from webchat interactions, so they don’t spend time trying to use something that can’t help them;
• Customers need the right support regardless of their circumstances so webchats must be able to pick up on the nuances of the situations customers find themselves in; and
• Customers want services which are easy to find –  just under 90% of experiences rated “good” or “excellent” involved a webchat that could be found in one or two clicks.