Banco Solidario's Digital Transformation: Tripling Resolved Inquiries with Conversational AI

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Banco Solidario, a leading microfinance bank in Ecuador, was facing challenges in keeping up with the evolving demands of its customers. Until 2019, the bank's call center relied on in-house technology, which was increasingly difficult to maintain and upgrade to meet new customer service expectations. The bank's focus on serving microenterprises, a segment often overlooked by traditional banking, required innovative solutions to enhance customer service. The bank needed a solution that could provide an omnichannel experience and modernize their customer service operations.

Banco Solidario is one of Ecuador's most significant microfinance banks, born out of a merger with UniBanco in 2013. The bank has been providing loans to economically vulnerable individuals for nearly two decades, focusing on serving microenterprises, a segment often ignored by traditional banking. Banco Solidario was the first bank in Latin America to specialize in microcredit with 100% private capital. Throughout its journey, the bank has received $650 million in foreign investment and granted more than $11,456 million in microloans and microcredits, supporting the growth of over half a million startups.

In response to these challenges, Banco Solidario partnered with Genesys and Aivo to implement a conversational AI solution. The implementation process was divided into two phases. The first phase involved activating the bot and building a knowledge base, which took six weeks. The strategy was to collect frequently asked questions from the call center. The second phase involved integrating the bot to answer transactional questions on the web and WhatsApp. This led to the creation of Marisol, Banco Solidario's banking assistant, capable of answering questions about customer service hours, loan requirements, savings account balance, payments due, and more. Marisol was integrated with Genesys, allowing conversations with the bot to be automatically transferred to a human agent within the same chat window. The bank also ensured a secure experience by encrypting information during transfer and storage, displaying sensitive data on concealed screens, and implementing two-step authentication.

• The implementation of the conversational AI solution significantly improved Banco Solidario's customer service operations. The integration of Marisol with Genesys allowed for seamless transition from bot to human agent, enhancing the customer experience. The bank was also able to manage growing interactions on mobile digital channels, providing customers with the same personalized treatment they would receive at physical branches. The bank's proactive approach to digital transformation ensured business continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic, with Marisol handling a significantly increased volume of inquiries. The bank's commitment to privacy and security was also reflected in the bot strategy, ensuring the protection of user data.

• Marisol’s transfers to contact center operators dropped from 35% to 14% after improving integrations and refining the knowledge base.

• Marisol’s daily inquiry volume tripled compared to the days before the pandemic.

• The bot achieved 90% retention and 86% effectiveness.