The story of BKR

The Bureau of Credit Registration (BKR) is an independent credit authority and has contributed to a financially healthy society for over 50 years. BKR manages the credit data of millions of Dutch citizens as the legal facilitator of credit registration. The organisation gets hundreds of questions from consumers every day, naturally wanting to answer them as completely and correctly as possible. Until recently, consumers with questions landed on the FAQ page at www.bkr.nl. Considering how different and specific each person’s questions are, it was difficult to find a definitive answer and understand what this meant for each personal situation. Change was needed. BKR has been using a Watermelon chatbot since May 2018 on their website to support customers in getting their questions answered.

Digitization in customer service

Koen: “We could provide and manage digital contact with our customers, still staying personal and acting as consultants. That’s exactly what we wanted.”

Collaboration and implementation

BKR and Watermelon started working together in February 2018. Maureen: “We did a pilot and determined that Watermelon is the right partner. It was a discovery process for both of us to design the best solution. The process was straightforward and the chatbot was delivered by the agreed upon deadline. The process was new to us of course, but Watermelon is always available and supports us where we need help. We have one point of contact who’s easy to reach and who always has our best interests in mind. That was very helpful during the implementation process.”

Before finding out about Watermelon, finding ways to improve the digital customer experience was difficult. Koen: “Convincing colleagues of the benefits of a chatbot isn’t always easy. You can’t expect that chatbot to work optimally at full power on day one. The time we spent to set up the chatbot with Watermelon was worth it.”

Going live!

The chatbot went live in May 2018 – and there wasn’t a moment to lose. “Over the first weekend, the chatbot successfully completed over 1600 conversations. With the chatbot, the BKR team is available 24/7. This is already far better service”, says Maureen.

Results

The chatbot has an average of 300 conversations every day. At the end of the conversation, the visitor is asked to rate his or her satisfaction with the chatbot. 75% of customers provide feedback. “We see a rise in the number of conversations with ‘customer service’ since we launched the chatbot. We can’t tell if all of these people would have otherwise contacted us by phone, but it’s instantly clear that we’ve helped a lot of people with the chatbot”, says Koen.

A helping hand

The chatbot is set up to help consumers find what they’re looking for on the BKR website. The visitor is helped much more quickly than when he calls the customer service team. “With minimal effort, each customer is helped simply and quickly, but the BKR site is better maintained now that the chatbot is effective. We’ve already optimised a number of pages on our website. The chatbot helps our customer service be more effective”, says Maureen.

Helping customers is more fun

It’s not only the BKR customers who are satisfied with the chatbot – the employees in BKR’s Customer Contact Center also are having more fun at work. According to Maureen, 60% of calls are about content, and 40% is simple provision of information. “The employees have more time to spend on the more complex questions. It’s important to them that we still have personal contact with consumers.”

Koen says that he’s seeing fewer customer service centers where only telephone contact is possible: “Consumers expect to approach a business 24/7 with question. We can still provide personal contact, except we’re using Livechat instead of the phone. It is 2018, after all.”

BKR’s takeaways

The chatbot has an average of 300 conversations every day. At the end of the conversation, the visitor is asked to rate his or her satisfaction with the chatbot. 75% of customers provide feedback. “We see a rise in the number of conversations with ‘customer service’ since we launched the chatbot. We can’t tell if all of these people would have otherwise contacted us by phone, but it’s instantly clear that we’ve helped a lot of people with the chatbot”, says Koen.

Maureen: “We want to further automate parts of how we provide customer service, and professionalize how we use the knowledge of our employees.”