Postbank introduces the Postbank Buddy for Windows Live Messenger (earlier MSN Messenger). With this the Postbank customer can check his or her own balance and recent account activities, and the buddy also answers questions to the customer service department like it is completely normal.After several other banks, among others ABN Amro (Saldo-bot) and Rabobank (Yvette), and an earlier pilot by Postbank for students, Postbank now also has a real Buddy. This buddy however is much more intelligent then earlier buddy's from its competitors. If you are a Postbank client, you add "postbankbuddy@postbank.nl" to your Messenger friends list, and you activate the buddy in your mijnpostbank.nl (the personal Postbank surroundings), you can directly chat with the buddy. You can check your balance, see the latest activities on your account, and ask questions to the customer service department. In a normal dialogue. Some examples:
If you ask ‘What is my balance?’, you will get to see the balance. And if you ask: ‘What is in my account?’, you will also get an answer. If you say ‘statements’, you will get an overview of the latest account activities. Sometimes Postbank buddy is lost. Then he (or she?) says: ‘Postbank Buddy can’t answer this question. Do you want Postbank Buddy to ask Postbank.nl?’ If you then answer ‘yes’, you will get a list of all possible questions you might have asked. You can choose from this list by typing a number, and then you get your answer.
Of course there is always room for improvement. Like I would expect the buddy to have an appearance and a name. ‘Postbank Buddy’ sounds pretty distant for a friend who helps you so well. Also, it is interesting that the bot speaks in the third person: ‘Postbank Buddy has found the following’, instead of: ‘I found for you’. Besides, one would like the Postbank.nl answers to be shown in the right panel (the activity window). This way you just stay in your Messenger surroundings. And if your question still hasn’t been answered, you would expect the question: ‘Do you want me to connect you with customer service?’, after which a voice connection is set up. Probably a matter of time. And of course you also want to be able to say: ‘Transfer 25 dollars to account 123’. And then you would get a text message with a code you need to continue the transaction. Now the buddy still says ‘Click here (https://mijn.postbank.nl) to make a transfer through Mijnpostbank.nl, but that is also a matter of time.
This way, brands slowly but surely really start (automatized) dialogues with their customers. This way brands learn to speak our language. This way brands learn to listen to their customers. Now through the PC (and with mobile Messenger also through the mobile phone!), later through every possible display. Now through text, later through speech and image. It is all a matter of time. Brands have had hundreds of years to learn how to professionally and automatized send their messages, now it is time to automatized listen to those millions of individual customers. Then and only then, they will build an understanding for the individual. And then beautiful things can start to happen. This is a great step in that direction.
Thanks for the tip from Edwin van Asch from imbot.web-log.nl.