Customer experience is at the heart of every bank’s success. As Brazil’s second-largest private bank, Bradesco is no exception. Yet its success isn’t defined by just having large volumes of customer accounts. Sustained growth is dependent on evolving to keep up with customer demands while increasing account activity. This reality inspired Bradesco to develop Next – a forward-thinking, mobile-centric brand designed to meet the needs of today’s digitally focused consumers.

The Rise of Digital Customer Journeys
Hyperconnected individuals, especially those between the ages of 18 and 35, are less likely to visit bank branches. Instead, they want to engage with their bank using a mobile device. Bradesco launched Next to enable its clients to call, send an email, access chat or even use WhatsApp messaging when they need banking services.

For Next, Bradesco thought beyond the standard bank product design. In contrast, it focused on the customer journey; the goal was to make every journey 100% digital—from the opening of an account to ongoing engagement.

“At Next, everything is part of a journey,” said Eder Gonzaga, Head of Customer Experience, Next/Bradesco. “A person does not wake up in the morning with the desire to ask for credit. They wake up with the desire to acquire something. We thought, how can we do something that will make us part of their daily lives. We want Next to be a gateway by which we can help them in these journeys to get their dreams, have an aim—just like Next needs partners.”

Bradesco reached out to Genesys to help make Next 100% digital and to enable self-service journeys, powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and natural speech recognition. Through research gathered from surveys and the work of a digital anthropologist, Bradesco confirmed that Next clients didn’t mind speaking to a machine. They just wanted their queries dealt with fast and efficiently. This led to the implementation of IBM Watson to speak the language of Next clients—but that meant teaching the system the language of millennials.

 “It was a big project, but we didn’t find it difficult to build Watson, the knowledge base or to integrate with Genesys,” said Eder. “When I got the team working on it and showed them the size of the project, and the results it could bring, it was fine. It moved, and it moved fast. It even happened faster than the deadline. We were able to deliver early on this.”

Still a Need for the Human Touch
Over the past year, Next has grown the knowledge base of Watson to more than 75,000 questions and intended questions covering a broad range of situations. Currently, Watson answers 85% of queries. The language speaks to Next clients in a way that’s humanized, easy-going and unique to the brand.

However, there are times when clients want to switch from talking with Watson to engaging with an agent. With the Genesys omnichannel platform, the transition is seamless. Next agents receive the complete history of every interaction, so the client doesn’t have to repeat everything. All actions are grouped together for humans, machines or both. The result is that clients can talk to the bank anytime, anywhere.

Continuing to Reinvent and Redesign
Next continues to evolve as a brand, bringing new things to its clients. And Genesys is guiding this evolution as a technology partner.

“What I think is coming are new points of contact, new ways of communicating,” added Eder. “Whatever way people end up communicating, we have a partner that sees the solution together with us and, together with the service platform, we can service and keep servicing the client. We seek, every day, to plan new journeys and be ready for the market and meet 100% of the clients’ needs.”

An Omnichannel Success Story
Not only has Bradesco Next gained the appreciation of its increasingly digitally focused customers, but it has also received accolades from industry leaders, peers, and analysts. This includes being named a 2018 Genesys Customer Innovation Awards winner, standing out as a leader in exceptional customer experience, customer service innovation, and transformation. Watch the customer story video and learn more about digital and self-service customer experience.