The Paradox of Customer Convenience AI... Declining Net Favorability of Bank Call Centers [Bbaengbbaengi AI Call Center]⑨

Data & Research Request, Sentiment Analysis on Call Centers of 5 Major Banks
Only Shinhan Bank Shows Upward Trend Since 2020-2021... Others Remain Flat

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 process and time experienced by financial consumers have only been delayed. This irony arose as banks, card companies, and other financial institutions replaced human call center agents with AI consultation services. Accordingly, Asia Economy aims to look into the inside story of financial company call centers from various perspectives, including financial consumers and workers.

Although the financial sector is actively introducing AI consultation services in call centers, the irony that financial consumers' satisfaction is not high is also revealed through sentiment analysis targeting social networking services (SNS). AI chatbots and voice bots are being actively introduced for the sake of 'customer convenience,' but financial consumers' reactions differ from the intended purpose.

On the 8th, Asia Economy commissioned Data & Research (DNR Big Data Analysis Team), a big data analysis agency, to conduct sentiment analysis by keywords related to financial companies on social networking services (SNS) over the past five years (June 2019 to May 2024). The results showed that among the five major commercial banks (KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, NH Nonghyup), four banks experienced a decline in net favorability.

This survey was conducted on social networking services (SNS) such as domestic news, communities, blogs, cafes, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, KakaoStory, Naver Knowledge iN, as well as companies, organizations, government, and public sectors. It analyzed positive and negative sentiments and corresponding net favorability related to four keywords: '○○ Bank call center,' '○○ Bank agent connection,' '○○ Bank agent,' and '○○ Bank AI consultation.'

As a result, the net favorability of the five major commercial banks showed a declining trend except for Shinhan Bank. Net favorability is calculated by subtracting the negative rate (negative information volume relative to total information volume) from the positive rate (positive information volume relative to total information volume). Looking at Hana Bank's net favorability, it rose from 58.6% in 2019-2020 to 69.8% in 2022-2023 but dropped by 8.7 percentage points to 61.1% in 2023-2024.

Woori Bank also increased from 61.9% in 2019-2020 to 67.8% in 2022-2023 but then plummeted to 47.0% in 2023-2024. NH Nonghyup Bank's net favorability rose from 64.9% in 2019-2020 to 72.0% in 2021-2022 but declined for two consecutive years, falling to 63.3% in 2023-2024.

Among the major commercial banks, Shinhan Bank was the only one with a consistently upward net favorability trend. Although Shinhan Bank experienced fluctuations, it recorded its lowest point at 40.5% in 2020-2021 and then showed a rising trend for three consecutive years, reaching 71.9% in 2023-2024, the highest among major banks. While the positive rate fluctuated, the negative rate steadily declined from 12.95% in 2020-2021 to 4.37% in 2023-2024.

The largest drop was seen in KB Kookmin Bank. KB Kookmin Bank's net favorability has been declining since recording 48.6% in 2019-2020. It briefly rebounded to 39.2% in 2021-2022 but then sharply fell to 36.0% in 2022-2023 and -50.8% in 2023-2024. This was due to the positive rate, which had maintained around 40-50%, dropping to 17.2%, and the negative rate, which had hovered around 10-14%, rising to 68.1%.

The pronounced decline in KB Kookmin Bank in 2023-2024 is attributed to the controversy over call center agent layoffs at the end of last year. At that time, KB Kookmin Bank decided to reduce the number of call center outsourcing companies from six to four, resulting in the planned dismissal of about 240 call center employees, sparking controversy. KB Kookmin Bank eventually promised to rehire all affected employees amid internal and external backlash, resolving the situation for the time being.

Additionally, the impact of adverse factors such as the large-scale loss incident involving Hong Kong H-Share Index (Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, HSCEI) based equity-linked securities (ELS) is also considered to have influenced the situation. KB Kookmin Bank is the largest seller of ELS based on the Hong Kong H-Share Index. A DNR Big Data Analysis Team official explained, “KB Kookmin Bank’s call center-related information volume totaled about 18,000 cases over five years, with about 4,700 negative information cases occurring during the period of the layoff controversy.”