Episode 52: HSBC's chatbot walkthrough

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the screenshot walkthrough of HSBC UK's app, their chatbot. I'm doing this because I've had a lot of feedback from those who have been watching and reading the Lloyds chatbot walkthrough, their virtual assistant and also the NatWest and the Lloyds

[00:00:19] NatWest head-to-head. It was very good having your feedback because one of the key questions was what do their S look like? Show me the others. So here we go. So thank you for your great feedback. Last night I sat down and went through HSBC's app,

[00:00:32] their chatbot. And same question again guys on the replacement card. So here we go. Let's get into it. I'm in the HSBC app last night under support, a key, one of the bottom functions

[00:00:44] there on the menu items chat with us. So let me click in there and we're straight in straight into the chatbot. There's no unlike similar to Lloyds but NatWest they have a page beforehand just introducing the concept. Lloyds also had a page, if you remember

[00:01:03] the Lloyds one where they're saying please keep your question under 15 words. So HSBC is not bothering with that. They're straight in, straight in. Hello, please enter your message and we will be with you shortly. Now that I worried when I saw this because

[00:01:16] I thought oh we'll be with you shortly. Isn't this a chatbot? No, no, no, we'll be with you implies humans I think it's fair to say but anyway this is the chatbot so bear

[00:01:29] with me let's go. There's my question how do I get replacement card? Okay, straight in there. Now interestingly can you see some text? Last time with Lloyds they were telling me that their mobile and the digital banking was going to be down. Why do I care about

[00:01:44] that right now? But here what HSBC have done is their first bit of text while I'm waiting. So I've asked my question, hi thanks for using chat. Our chatbot MOBA will be happy

[00:01:58] to help you. So where did MOBA come from? So that I think that's a bit of a surprise to me what is MOBA as the brand name or is that what you're calling it? NatWest

[00:02:08] very clear it's Cora before you go in here I've had to discover MOBA. Okay fine. I just thought I'll go and have a look on the website on HSBC UK where's MOBA? I couldn't see anything. I mean maybe I missed it but I couldn't see anything about MOBA.

[00:02:23] Then I thought well I'll Google it. I put HSBC UK MOBA and I'm logged in on this search so it's customized to me but nothing. MOBA is so not known as a thing by Google it

[00:02:39] says show results with MOBA here because there's nothing. I then said yes show me results with nothing. Nothing. Then I did another just to be clear HSBC UK MOBA nothing apart from some customers someone has said what an appalling service on the chat MOBA

[00:02:58] I want to talk to an agent and it won't let me a terrible system there you go so that was eight years ago right so kudos to HSBC they've had this capability for eight years one

[00:03:09] of the best I've ever seen. I don't know if it's the same tech it might be I don't know I don't know is it the same tech they've had for eight years come with me in the journey

[00:03:19] it may well be but let's so forget MOBA let's just keep going then right so it says okay so I can get you to the right information please select the type of card now let me

[00:03:28] just stop you there MOBA I don't want the right information I want it done okay that's my expectation but anyway so I'm gonna say debit card okay because that's what I've been doing with everybody else but there are quite a lot of queries

[00:03:42] like so what's wrong with your debit card it said I'll say okay like I'm gonna say my card is damaged right okay so I typed my card is damaged great okay and it's responding now I'm going to provide you with a link where you

[00:03:57] report a card issue okay once you have selected the link please choose the relevant option okay so this is not meeting my expectations okay it's okay this is how HSB's hand BC is handling it I would like this to work very

[00:04:11] differently I think I do wonder is this eight years old okay because I don't really want information from you I want action but it's let's let's play the game okay so right now it's asking me what kind of card are you looking to

[00:04:25] manage now if you remember I've already said so so I thought oh that is strange okay so basically this looks like a tree system let me once again say debit card okay right okay which HSBC account are you looking to manage today

[00:04:41] right so I've blocked out my my account number there just so we're good for my compliance standpoint but it is good that the system has been able to look into court and say there's his account great that that is that is that is good

[00:04:55] okay and I have I have selected yes it is that account I now I've got my managed card cards link okay very similar to what we saw with Lloyd's okay so it looks like an embedded link so let me press on that okay and now I'm in the

[00:05:11] app so I was already in the app but it's now taking me to the managed cards page okay so this is helpful and also useless so helpful in that has taken me to a page okay so this is better than it was promising me information so this is

[00:05:26] better right taking me to a page where I can report a card issue now this is how HSBC are defining it right reporting an issue so let me click on that okay and now we're going through this is not the chatbot this is the app okay so

[00:05:40] the chatbot finished no let me I'll just go through that that's fine this is good this is there you select reason yes that's fine review so I'm you know I've gone through the process but just to be clear this is not the bot this

[00:05:52] is the app right fine now now let me go back to the app I didn't press you continue because my again my HSBC card is fine I didn't want to stress them and waste money here by them sending me another card right so back into the chatbot

[00:06:06] yeah there's my managed cards okay now very interestingly do you see it then says once ready please select continue why what was this once ready about okay and I am filled with disappointment at this at this yeah impending

[00:06:25] disappointment so that way what why okay all right yeah here's why right did that link work for you now HSBC right one of the largest institutions in United Kingdom globally right did that link work for you do you not know why do you not

[00:06:42] know is it because your tech is eight years old I don't know I maybe it's older than that right this I don't think is good enough I really don't like the fact you're having to ask me did it work same as Lloyd's same as Lloyd's right

[00:06:56] you know did that work for you come on come on so okay let's play the game did that link work for you I'll say yes it did okay right before asking for the replacement card did you have your card stored in your digital wallet yes

[00:07:10] as an apple Apple pay for example whilst you wait for your new debit card to arrive you can continue to use your digital wallet to make purchases that's useful right it's just letting you know that that still works okay your

[00:07:22] new new card is will update in your digital wallet once you have used a physical card fine eagle-eyed will notice there's an extra space between will and update that just annoys me it's okay it's okay all right okay have I

[00:07:36] resolved your query here we are I'm gonna say no I need more help because I want to see I want to see if this is circular see how it works how can I

[00:07:45] help you further just so you know if you choose to chat with our team it'll take up to 10 minutes for us to get back to you okay well that's good for sending my expectations did I chat the team now no I just said end conversation it's okay

[00:07:56] I just wanted to see if it would go it would start from the beginning but that they're their response here is if it didn't work send them the chat to human human chat fair enough fair enough okay all right thanks for

[00:08:09] contacting us today I'm always here if you need me okay it's quite you know who's I'm I'm always right so look if you're gonna do I'm always and I think you should be a lot more personable hi I'm mobile hello how you doing right I'm

[00:08:22] going to send your short survey right so just it feels a little bit disconnected here right if you're going to do the I'm right virtual assistant at your Nat West Cora right so I'm a personality of sorts I think

[00:08:33] you should be really really direct with this right from the start hello I'm mobile how can I help you right some reflections then I think there's a lot to do here I think this is good because fundamentally I achieved what I

[00:08:48] set out to do with the chatbot right it took me to the right place I could have ordered the card I do think this is backward I don't think this is good enough for to be considered best practice now look I I have been

[00:09:01] complimentary on Lloyd's and that West and therefore I must with with HSBC it is fantastic they have got this capability I would like it to be even better there's a nice way of saying it right I think there's a lot more that

[00:09:14] this technology could be doing I wonder if it's been architected simply as just information essentially information because that's what was it doing there where is it integrated right basically it was just a deep link it was able to

[00:09:28] give me over to the chatbot right so over to the mobile app right within the mobile app that's okay I I was left wanting though that's simply from a bleeding-edge standpoint I think more institutions should be using this

[00:09:42] technology to to really orchestrate and do do the work okay so what I mean is you've gone through you've qualified me yes I want to replace my card this is why it's damaged etc etc just do it do it take the request have the chatbot

[00:09:57] take the request and execute it right and if your technology can't do this dump it right because there's so much other technology out there that can right now this is not a message for HSBC directly it's a message for the

[00:10:10] industry here right if your technology doesn't do this there are many many providers right that do this boost for example right I do a lot of work with boost this other other providers are available boost you know some of their

[00:10:24] customers I know for a fact right there their chatbot technologies in conversational I should say is integrated with 65 70 different systems right in a bank so I'd like to see more of these these installations such as HSBC I'm sure maybe the priorities are different right but there is

[00:10:43] so much they can be doing to make that chat capability that bit better and more effective right because other institutions globally I'm reviewing them I'm looking at them I'm seeing this in a regular basis other institutions are doing phenomenal work right this is it's something like 90

[00:11:04] odd percent in some cases plus 90% resolution in some of these chat capability and these chat functions right so for for that route you just saw me take right there there is no need for me to be messing around you know

[00:11:18] playing with your mobile app I've just said can you do this thank you done right and your your system should reach into your APIs that you already have right because the chatbot is calling something the chatbot the mobile app is

[00:11:31] calling these different APIs and interfacing with these systems already right this is often the tension we do see there is a tension between you know the mobile app team and the chatbot team and often the chatbot team is the

[00:11:44] the poor brother and sister right because the mobile app person doesn't want doesn't want to be overshadowed by them the the this conversationally I I think that's a shame because in many cases I just want

[00:11:58] the thing done and some cases quicker to type right that's why you have search capability in mobile apps and so on I just I can't and I'm not going hunting for it right just just let me just do it anyway nice work HSBC it was good

[00:12:11] to see I completed my task I think there's more to do they could be even better but yeah thanks for your attention thanks for playing along and I'll be back with another conversationally I overview walk through shortly