It will be possible to deposit, withdraw, and manage assets through a contact center (so-called call center) without having to visit banks. This contact center eliminates ARS sound that reach 7 to 8 stages and converts history of consultations with customers into texts and stores it into Big Data. This will open up a ‘digital offer’ generation that allows banks to offer services to customers first. Contact center will also eliminate telemarketing groups.
According to IT and financial industries, KB Financial Group has established world’s firs digital contact center called ‘Star Link’ that includes such functions and it will commercialize it in next month.
Star Link is KB Finance’s innovative contact center project. It innovates complicated ARS system and consultation groups. It is an example that rearranges a role of a contact center that takes care of various civil complaints and post-tasks.
According to KB Financial Group’s plan on Star Link obtained by The Electronic Times, KB Financial Group is going to eliminate all simple functions of a contact center. It moved a consultation group from department 1 to department 2 of headquarters 1 and it moved about 110 employees from its headquarters to a consultation team of Star Link. These 110 employees had gone through education courses for about 6 months.
As a result, one advisor is able to manage every service from online finance, deposit, loan, and telemarketing. This will eliminate telemarketing group that receives many complaints.
Digital contact center will eliminate complicated and inconvenient ARS system all together. Top customers will be connected to advisors immediately without having to input ARS buttons while general customers will be connected to advisors in less than 6 seconds.
Breakdown of every consultation with customers is converted to texts through real-time voice recognition system and is stored as Big Data. Although this system is already introduced by other banks, KB is going to link this system to a next-generation system called ‘The K Project’ to enhance Big Data function of its digital contact center. KB Financial Group has included digital contact center enhancement project to Bank’s 14 major projects that involve about $267 million (300 billion KRW) of its budget. It is planning to send RFP (Request for Proposal) soon.
“We have established digital infrastructures such as intelligent calling connection, transmission of contents, and new consultation management system.” said Department Head Byun Ki-ho of KB Bank’s Smart Customer Headquarters. “By converting consultations with customers into Big Data and linking them to a next-generation system, we are planning to utilize them as meaningful data mining tool by working with Data Strategy Headquarters.”
For example, a 60 year old woman calls a contact center and asks if it is okay to break her savings account because her daughter is getting married next year. Star Link then converts breakdown of consultation into texts and draws information about this woman. It draws number of her bank visits, breakdown of her assets, mortgage loan for her daughter’s wedding, and necessary financial services through AI (Artificial Intelligence) and shares this information with branches that she visits often. Corresponding branches then offer financial services to her whenever she visits these branches or process services that are necessary for right time and right place without any lengthy consultation. KB has also introduced chatbot to provide even more efficient digital consultation system.
KB Financial Group is going to enhance its digital contact center as a major non-face-to-face business channel and establish a control tower for contact centers of its subsdiaries.
KB Financial Group’s Star Link adopts a slogan of ‘warm innovation’ that provides same benefits to customers on other lines as banks.
This project is meaningful from the fact that it redefines analog and digital contact centers. It innovates ARS system according to customers’ convenience and reprocesses back data. This is part of Chairman Yoon Chong-kyu’s digitalization strategy.
“Star Link is the first example that combines digital and analog ways by solving digital contact center’s coldness and insecurity through analog ways and converting old methods into digital ways.” said Department Head Byun.
Staff Reporter Gil, Jaeshik | osolgil@etnews.com