Mizuho Bank, Ltd. sought to drive highly effective customer interactions by injecting intelligence and voice recognition capability directly into the conversation to dynamically guide the flow.

The customer conversation can be analyzed in real-time using cloud-based natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to instantly formulate the best question path for the agent to follow.

Mizuho Bank needed to improve the effectiveness of its contact center agents. The key underlying challenge was the complexity of the information agents needed to navigate to guide customers through an inbound call session. Although the most veteran and experienced agents had the familiarity necessary to quickly “read” customer needs from the exchange, the majority of agents—and especially new trainees—didn’t.

At the core, the bank wanted to bolster agent performance by adding a layer of automation and intelligence that would perform the logical associations that agents were required to make effectively during the call. Instead of relying on agent experience, which can vary considerably, the bank wanted to identify and analyze contextual clues during the course of the conversation and use the insights to guide agent discussions in real time.

The solution reduces the average duration of customer interactions by more than 6 percent by enabling contact center agents to more efficiently sense and respond to customer needs. By delivering a more satisfying and personalized experience, the solution increases customer retention.

The solution also significantly reduces contact center training requirements by using real-time content analytics to augment employee knowledge.
 

Based in Tokyo, Mizuho Bank Ltd. (link resides outside ibm.com) is the integrated retail and corporate banking unit of Mizuho Financial Group, one of the largest financial services company in Japan. With more than 500 branches, Mizuho Bank is the only bank to have branches in every prefecture in Japan.