Chatbot is coming

Since May 2020, our customers have had the option of contacting our contact centre via live chat. This way, we meet customers and their needs right where they are.
Now we go one step further and are available 24/7. From November 16, 2020, a chatbot will provide answers to around 6,500 simple but everyday questions -
freeing our employees for more complex concerns.

What is a Chatbot?

Put simply; chatbots are computer programs that automate dialogue-intensive customer contacts. They work 365 days a year, around the clock. And are continuously trained and improved by a content team. In addition, the use of natural language conveys closeness and comfort to the user.

Our chatbot is based on open source technologies and can identify business units and recognize customer requests. He uses natural language processing techniques and accesses post-specific language resources such as synonyms and stop words. It was designed and trained by Swiss Post employees and customer advisors. The chatbot's knowledge database was expanded to 6500 questions from 80 subject areas through various analyses of customer inquiries and in comparison with compliance and data protection requirements. The chatbot will initially be launched in German, with French and Italian to follow later. Pascal Bürgisser, content manager and jointly responsible for expanding the chatbot's knowledge, says: «I find it interesting to see what is going on in the background.

A large number of example sentences are required for the chatbot to give the correct answer to a customer query autonomously. Because every customer makes the same request a little differently. I am pleased to be part of the project team.»

A relief for the employees - always available for our customers

With the introduction of the chatbot, our customers can also contact us at weekends and at night and thus receive a direct solution to their concerns. Only inquiries that the chatbot cannot answer on its own are forwarded to the contact centre. On the one hand, this relieves the employees in the contact centre, and they can turn to more complex cases. But, on the other hand, this increases the quality of the advice. Two birds with one stone, as the saying goes.

Try it out for yourself and see for yourself!

For more detailed information about the Swiss Post chatbot, visit the "Human-to-Machine-Chat" project page.