What the DKV's phonebots offer in practice

Since the summer of 2020, DKV customers have been greeted by a friendly robotic voice over the phone. Since the end of March 2021 a second DKV phonebot gives callers the preferred way to submit their documents. Both bots are integrated into the DKV phone system. How satisfied are customers, and what further development steps are planned in 2022? We asked these questions.

“Hello, you are talking to the DKV's voice assistant”: Since the summer of 2020, DKV customers have been greeted by a friendly robotic voice over the phone. “We have now named our phonebot 'William‘,” reports DKV employee Rene Köllen.

“William” has already had almost 85,000 conversationsin 2021, averaging an additional 360 or so every day. Sebastian Groth, Product Owner in the Voice & Conversation unit, explains why his department as well as the ERGO Voice Team is so proud of their virtual colleague: “William was our first bot to provide fully automatic processing status information – and so was a real pioneer for the entire ERGO Group, and also for the bots that have now been rolled out internationally.”

William has had a partner since the end of March 2021: Kate. This second DKV phonebot gives callers the preferred way to submit their documents – either the appropriate e-mail address or postal address – and she also refers customers to the DKV app and the online service “My Insurance”. Finally, the new bot directs customers to the Customer section of the DKV website where they can find further useful information. An average of 51 callers made use of this service every day in 2021.

Both bots are integrated into the DKV phone system and can access relevant systems to provide customers with the information they need on the processing status of the documents they have submitted. Like all ERGO Group phonebots, customers are not coerced into using them; instead they offer customers an additional service. For instance, "William" hands callers over to human colleagues for quality-based consultations, should there be difficulties in understanding, or generally at the request of the customer.

Recently, the virtual colleague has also been telling customers when their claim will be processed. Customers can now also listen to this information about historical claims – rather like in a mailbox.

“We are continuously training the phonebots to convince even more customers about our new service,” explains Sebastian Groth. For instance, customers were actively involved in designing the ideal message by taking part in a research survey at the end of their dialogue with “William”. “The analysis showed that our customers would like to receive information on other issues beyond simply the processing status. We then arrange that immediately and specify the target date. And we can also take basic findings from 'William' into consideration when further developing 'Kate',” announces Groth.

Text: Ingo Schenk