Dubai, United Arab Emirates – June 17, 2020 – Customers of Mashreq, one of the leading financial institutions in the UAE, are now being served by the region’s first digital engagement banking bot, giving them access to powerful self-service capabilities that result in instantaneous service delivery and shorter times to resolution.
When calling Mashreq support, the solution, provided by Avaya Holdings Corp. (NYSE: AVYA) and Koopid, an AI-based customer service and messaging solutions provider and an Avaya alliance partner, enables customers to seamlessly transition to a browser-based chat session with the new virtual agent. The system securely authenticates customers, uses native-language processing to correctly interpret their enquiries, interfaces with the bank’s back-end systems, and presents relevant details in an appealing visual format.
“We’re seeing a clear shift in how customers prefer to interact with our bank. After moving away from physically visiting our branches, they are now increasingly engaging with us through the multitude of digital channels that we offer. This latest deployment follows the digital-first approach that Mashreq has pioneered in the region,” said Ellis Wang, Group Head of Technology, Transformation and Information at Mashreq.
The chatbot has successfully managed end-to-end resolution of customer requests. Furthermore, if during the chat, the support of a human agent is required or requested, the system seamlessly transfers the case to an agent while providing the agent with full details of the enquiry up to that point.
Describing how Avaya and Koopid worked with Mashreq to optimize the efficiency of the banking bot, Ram Kashi, Co-Founder & Head of Business Development at Koopid, said, “Together, we identified the main reasons customers call the bank’s contact center, and closely examined their service journeys. We then mapped these to the bot’s workflows so that the AI-powered agent can provide the most fluid and intuitive self-service experiences.”
Fadi Hani, Vice President, Avaya Middle East, Africa and Turkey, added: “This implementation is yet another demonstration of Mashreq's commitment to being an early adopter of new technologies that elevate digital experiences to new heights. This AI engine will also serve as a platform to intelligently automate operations for the bank’s customers and employees, paving the way for ongoing service enhancements and increased efficiency across departments. We look forward to enabling Mashreq and its customers with even more innovation in the future.”
Simultaneously, Avaya’s flexible contact center solutions have enabled Mashreq to transition its entire contact center workforce to a work-from-anywhere arrangement while helping to ensure that they maintain secure access to the tools and services they require. This initiative, borne out of a long relationship between Avaya and Mashreq, has safeguarded the delivery of high-quality customer experiences while balancing an increased number of service enquiries with an increasingly distributed workforce.
“Avaya was extremely supportive and gave us the flexibility to convert to remote agent licenses. This has meant that our customer support teams are empowered, efficient and productive as they work from anywhere, thereby maintaining the extremely high-levels of services our customers have come to expect and appreciate,” said Wang.
About Mashreq Bank
One of the UAE’s best performing banks for five decades, Mashreq is a leading financial institution with an expanding footprint across the Middle East. We have international offices across Europe, Asia, Africa and the US, and a strong presence in all the financial capitals of the world.
As the oldest bank in the UAE, our 51-year old journey can be traced back to humble beginnings in 1967, followed by periods of rapid growth and strategic expansion. Throughout our history, Mashreq has differentiated itself by pioneering new-to-market concepts and launching unique products and services.
Our innovative approach sets us truly apart. It also continues to win us numerous awards and accolades in all the fields of banking we operate in – Digital, Corporate, Retail, International, Treasury and Islamic, and across the multiple banking channels we deploy – mobile, digital, online, traditional and telephony.
Mashreq is proud to be the only institution in the UAE to be awarded the Gallup Great Workplace Award for six consecutive years from 2014 to 2019.
About Koopid
Today’s enterprises are continually challenged to be responsive to rapidly changing circumstances, customer needs and competitive pressures. AI and machine learning technologies promise new and adaptive customer engagement strategies. Koopid brings that promise to life, enabling enterprises to leverage data and institutional knowledge to deliver smart and intuitive experiences at scale. Koopid’s Multimode Virtual Assistant enables dynamic self-service journeys that incorporate natural language and visually rich user interactions, leveraging the full spectrum of today’s smartphone and web interfaces. Using Koopid’s xDesigner, a drag and drop service creation tool, an AI-powered customer self-service journey template can be created in minutes with no programming required. These journeys can be invoked from a number of channels: voice, web, mobile app, SMS, email or consumer messaging. A customer may even start the journey on one channel (such as IVR), transition to a different channel (such as mobile web browser) and simply continue the journey. At the core of Koopid is a powerful data platform that continuously analyzes interaction context and conversation data. As a result, customer journeys are optimized in-real time using AI algorithms, delivering highly personalized experiences.
