‘Dot the Bot’ offers market leading service to first direct customers 24/7/365
Following the successful launch of Mobile Chat in 2020, first direct’s chatbot – ‘Dot the Bot’ – has rapidly caught up with its human co-workers in terms of positive customer feedback.
fd’s Mobile Chat is available to customers once they’re signed into the banking app. It enables people to start, pause, and resume a text conversation with fd without needing to wait for a live connection.
And with 1:4 Mobile Chat queries now answered solely by Dot, it’s been much appreciated by customers – earning an approval rating of 92%, which places it on a par with its human counterparts on the phones.
Chris Pitt, CEO of first direct, said: “Dot is a way for us to provide the amazing service we deliver on the phone via our digital channels. We see this becoming a major channel for us and our customers in the future as it enables us to have personalised, meaningful, and relevant dialogues with customers on our digital channels.
“It’s proving a great way to support customers who are ‘time poor’ or multi-tasking, or who’d just prefer not so speak to someone directly. Dot is already one of the hardest working members of the team; it never goes to bed, it’s never not there for you, and it’ll never ghost you!”
Crucially, the service is supported by real people in first direct 24/7/365 so there is no drop off in service whatever time customers ask a question.
first direct remains committed to having real people, ready to answer questions over the phone or through the app and empowered to treat customers as individuals 24/7/365
The future of conversational banking
Chris Pitt added: “Dot can currently answer a wide range of general customer queries, while our people will handle all the account related enquiries. Our intention is to ‘train’ Dot to do a lot more, including performing services on behalf of the customer, as soon as we’re confident we can maintain the same level of customer service fd is known for.”
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For further information please email Ben Marquand at ben.marquand@firstdirect.com or call 0113 2766700.
Notes to Editors:
- Mobile Chat is available on Android and iOS
- The name Dot was chosen as first direct’s branding contains lots of dots and circles, and also because it rhymes with bot!
- first direct is currently rated #1 for customer service by The Institute of Customer Service
About first direct
first direct provides mobile banking, online and telephone services to its 1.5m customers and offers a full range of personal banking products including its multi-award winning current account and mortgages. It’s been recognised as being a pioneer of amazing customer service by numerous independent third parties including The Competition and Markets Authority, Which?, Moneywise, Moneyfacts and Moneysavingexpert.com. As well as its Facebook page, first direct uses social media to engage with customers through LinkedIn Opens an overlay [Will show a security message first], Instagram, and Twitter.
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