ImaginBank, the CaixaBank mobile-only bank, has launched the Spanish banking industry’s first ever chatbot, offering special promotions to users on Facebook Messenger.
The bot offers users an extensive discounts programme on shopping and culture across Spain, including exclusive offers for restaurants, leisure activities, travel, hotels, cultural events, training, fashion, beauty, cinema, music and shows. There are currently more than 100 offers available.
Customers can directly ask the chatbot what offers are available in a given category or near a specific location, via written messages or by voice. The chatbot can also be customised to send daily or weekly notifications to the customer’s mobile device, with new offers sorted into categories.
Launched in January 2016, imaginBank currently serves 90,000 customers.
The bank pioneered the use of bots in the financial sector, employing these tools via Twitter to field simple questions from users, although it says the technological limitations of the platform prevent full conversations being held.
At present the Twitter bot helps clients to locate CaixaBank branches near specific places and offer up-to-date information on the bank’s stock price. There is also a bot to help imaginBank clients locate their nearest ATM.
CaixaBank has also developed a consultancy service in foreign trade, using IBM Watson cognitive technology. The system has been trained to hold conversations with the bank’s specialist managers, and to help them resolve any technical questions that clients might have regarding the enormous body of trade legislature, regulations specific to certain countries, internal rules, and so on.