Southern Cross Credit Union puts AI on account balance calls
The credit union says its Nova assistant handles 7% of calls, with plans to add answers to general enquiries.
By Quang Dinh
Customers calling Southern Cross Credit Union for their account balances can now speak with Nova, an AI assistant developed using Salesforce technology. A case study says the agent accounts for seven per cent of calls.
The credit union worked with Salesforce’s forward deployed engineers to build and deploy Nova over six weeks. It gained access to the engineers through the Agentforce Voice pilot program, Salesforce platform manager Melissa Marsh said.
Marsh said customer identification and verification take place through the credit union’s Salesforce platform. Nova also links to its core banking system to retrieve balances in real time.
Chief customer officer Jessica Jackson said average phone waits had stretched from under two minutes to nearly eight minutes when Nova was introduced, with some waits much longer. She said customer feedback on the assistant’s handling of balance enquiries had been positive.
The case study says the credit union plans a website chat agent for questions such as branch hours, drawing answers from knowledge articles through Salesforce Data 360. Similar functions are also planned for Nova’s voice service.
The credit union mainly serves NSW’s Northern Rivers region and South East Queensland.
