NatWest: Personalizing customer experience with Amazon Connect & AI/ML (FSI316)

Here is a detailed summary of the video transcription in markdown format, broken down into sections for better readability:

Introduction

  • The presenters, Chris, Jill, and Steven, discuss how NatWest, a leading UK bank, has personalized customer experience using Amazon Connect and AI/ML.
  • NatWest is a FTSE 100 UK bank supporting 19 million customers across retail, commercial, and affluent business segments.
  • NatWest has 9 contact centers handling 25 million calls annually, supported by 9,000 agents.

NatWest's Journey to Amazon Connect

  • NatWest started its journey to Amazon Connect in 2019, initially piloting in their credit card center.
  • After a lengthy business case approval process, NatWest formally stood up the program in January 2023 and migrated 66% of their agents by the end of that year.
  • By October 2024, all 9,700 agents were on Amazon Connect, completing the migration in 1 year and 10 months across 22 migration events.
  • Key benefits of Amazon Connect include access to rich data, speed of delivery, and the "pay-as-you-go" model enabling optimization.

Architecture and Migration Approach

  • NatWest's architecture includes both PSTN and VoIP (from their mobile app) ingress routes into Amazon Connect.
  • They use natural language understanding (NLU) to steer customers to the right journey, with over 1,700 intents defined.
  • Identity and verification are handled through voice biometrics and call line identification.
  • Data is enriched and stored in DynamoDB, with call details surfaced to agents through the Contact Control Panel (CCP).
  • To enable a safe and reliable migration, NatWest leveraged the Telco provider's number translation capabilities to cut over on a number-by-number basis.
  • They prioritized migration over optimization, first gathering data on the new platform before making improvements.

Data-Driven Insights and Optimization

  • NatWest now has access to 25 million data points annually, including call transcripts and agent data.
  • They use this data for sentiment analysis, identifying and reducing hang-ups, and supporting vulnerable customers.
  • Sentiment analysis allowed them to drive up customer and agent sentiment through targeted data-led coaching.
  • Analyzing hang-up data revealed many customers were getting stuck in the IVR, leading to improvements in their natural language understanding.
  • Identifying vulnerable customers enabled proactive support and addressing agent abuse.

Leveraging AI with Amazon Lex and Connect

  • NatWest experimented with Amazon Lex to provide real-time agent guidance, but initial results were mixed due to the complexity of their knowledge base.
  • They refined their approach, reducing the number of articles and structuring the content to better align with Lex's language model.
  • Upcoming AI initiatives include call summarization to save agent time and agent evaluation to ensure compliance and quality at scale.

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