The Power of Voice (original) (raw)

Dave Michels and Virginie Nowak

Dave Michels

Dave Michels

Enterprise Communications Analyst | Protagonist | Specializing in Storytelling & Reputation Management for good brands.

Published Jun 12, 2024

As communications professionals, we know digital channels have many benefits over voice. They enable superior contextual awareness, improved authentication methods, and are more flexible to use. Consumers prefer digital channels as they require less focus and seem faster. Contact center providers prefer them as they offer more scalability and simultaneous processing. Providers and customers agree on prioritizing the digitalization of the contact center.

But there are use cases where they are not suitable. I wanted to share an eye-opening conversation I had with Virginie Nowak of Access Bank. I met Virginie Nowak at the Avaya Engage conference in Denver last month. She heads up customer experience at Access Bank PLC.

Founded in Nigeria, Access Bank is a multinational commercial bank with a rich history in corporate banking. In 2012, the bank expanded services to include personal and business banking, and became one of Africa's largest retail banks. Virginie Nowak stated Access is the third-largest bank in the world in terms of transactions and the leading bank of Nigeria.

Virginie Nowak says Access Bank's move toward digital channels isn’t particularly appropriate. That’s because Nigeria has low literacy rates coupled with weak internet infrastructure. Those unusual considerations make CX more difficult. Voice has to be the primary channel, but that’s complicated, too. Nowak taught me a new word: Hausa.

Nowak said that Hausa is the most widely spoken local language in Nigeria, and is spoken by about 70 million people. That’s a lot of people, but not enough to attract the attention of many conversational AI providers. She believes that 80% of Access Bank’s customer service interactions are voice-based. So, how does one automate and scale voice?

Virginie Nowak is turning to the Avaya Experience Platform (AXP), and is training it to understand Hausa. Access Bank plans to build a new chatbot with 14 self-service workflows on AXP. Virginie Nowak’s goal is to use conversational AI to automate and streamline customer service at Access Bank.

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