[Experience] "Even a reporter in their 20s couldn't find the call center agent connection button and was at a loss" [Bbaengbbaengi AI Call Center]⑦

8 Card Companies and 5 Banks Call Centers 'Simple Inquiries' Tried Directly

Editor's Note“It’s a ‘person,’ not AI, dear customer. How can I assist you?”
Call centers, which everyone has used at least once, have transformed from places where agents kindly answered calls and resolved issues into inconvenient spots for financial consumers. The incomplete ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI) consultation service’ has emerged, but ironically, the problem-solving procedures and time experienced by financial consumers have only been delayed. This irony arose as banks, card companies, and other financial institutions replaced human agents in call centers with AI consultation services. Accordingly, Asia Economy aims to look into the inside story of financial company call centers from various perspectives, including those of financial consumers and workers.

“Please say the service you want, like ‘card issuance.’”

“Card cancellation!”

“Please say that again.”

“Card cancellation!”

“Please say that again.”

“Connect to an agent!”

“If you are an individual member, say ‘individual’; if a corporate member, say ‘corporate’...”

“Individual!”

7 minutes and 22 seconds. This was the time it took on the afternoon of the 25th of last month to connect to a human agent after calling a card company’s call center. Although the task was as simple as ‘card cancellation,’ the main call center number’s visible and audible automated response system (ARS) did not have the relevant option anywhere. The AI consultation attempt was equally inconvenient. Eventually, after about 7 minutes of waiting, the voice of a human agent who could solve the problem was heard.

Asia Economy simultaneously called the call centers of seven major domestic card companies (Shinhan, Hyundai, KB Kookmin, Samsung, Lotte, Hana, Woori) from 2:30 PM on the 25th of last month to inquire about the simple task of card cancellation. Except for a few companies, almost none connected directly to a human agent. Seven reporters in their 20s to 40s participated in this experiment.

Most card companies operated their call centers by distinguishing customer inquiries through ‘visible ARS’ where customers touch the screen on their mobile phones or digital ARS, connecting to a human agent depending on the situation. Although the connection methods varied by card company, even for the simple cancellation task, the time taken to connect to a human agent ranged from about 2 minutes at the fastest, 4 to 5 minutes for most, and up to 7 minutes at the slowest.

Woori Card digital ARS screen image. The direct connection button to a representative is not visible.

Even young reporters in their 20s had difficulty connecting to human agents. In the case of Woori Card, it was not easy to find the path to a human agent connection in the digital ARS. Although they entered the digital ARS screen sent via text message, the link to connect to a human agent was not immediately visible. After several attempts, only after touching the ‘plus (+)’ button at the bottom did the agent connection link appear. This suggests that digitally vulnerable groups, such as the elderly who are not familiar with mobile environments, would likely face difficulties from the start.

AI voice bots or ARS services based on voice recognition were also relatively ineffective. In the case of Shinhan Card, the AI agent could not perform the card cancellation task, requiring an automatic transfer to a human agent. For Lotte Card, even after selecting the voice ARS and shouting ‘card cancellation,’ it was not recognized, and only after answering again whether the caller was an ‘individual member’ or ‘corporate member’?an initial choice at the start of the call center phone?could the process proceed normally.

Compared to card companies, commercial banks were relatively smoother in connecting to agents, but except for Woori Bank, most required going through AI agents. On the same day from 3 PM, Asia Economy requested consultations related to relatively simple tasks such as loan repayment, subscription savings account cancellation, and account opening at five major commercial banks (KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori, Hana, NH Nonghyup). The average time taken to connect to a human agent was 129 seconds. This showed a significant difference (92.1 seconds) compared to the 36.9 seconds average waiting time to connect to a bank phone agent in 2021 (according to the Ministry of Science and ICT).