Amee Mitchell is a Senior Customer Engagement Consultant at Bankwest, chatting with customers when they need support with their banking, a role that requires fast responses, agility, and accuracy. Banking conversations in a digital channel may sound dry, but customers don’t miss out on Amee’s warm and personal support, thanks to a new Microsoft technology-powered teammate.
“I’ve been assisting Bankwest customers for 15 years and a lot has changed in that time. Expectations around digital experiences are changing in every customer service industry, not just banking, but while seamless automations make life easier, personal human support is still critical when help is needed,” Amee said.
Bankwest colleagues know a thing or two about supporting customers in a digital world, with the organisation transforming into a digital bank to meet growing customer preferences for online experiences.
Using Microsoft technology, Bankwest is focused on embedding innovative technology solutions into its customer contact centre with a focus on enhancing two parts of the customer experience with its AI chat assistant, Bee and real-time technology-enabled assistance for its customer facing colleagues.
First, Bee is built to respond basic queries, like ‘how to reset a password’ or ‘lock a stolen card’ using natural language conversation cues to deliver instant answers, improving self-service without human intervention.
If Bee can’t resolve an issue or detects a need for human assistance, the second part kicks in.
Built with AI technology as part of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Centre, it can transfer the conversation with full context and a summary to the Bankwest colleague and even gauge customer sentiment via an inbuilt feature, freeing Amee and her peers to be fully present with the customer.
Customers can engage asynchronously, sending messages and returning to other tasks while they wait for a response. A record of interactions is maintained while the chat is open, while lengthy threads are condensed into concise, actionable summaries for quick follow-up.
“It empowers us to deliver faster, more informed support, ensuring customers feel genuinely heard and understood,” said Amee.
Ty Luong, a Home Lending Specialist at Bankwest, says the solution has transformed his day-to-day, which is typically spent guiding customers through mortgage queries where clarity matters most.
“Sometimes it can be hard to put things into simple language for someone unfamiliar with financial terminology,” Luong explains. “Access to Copilot helps by drafting responses that are more simplified or more structured. It’s really uplifted our conversation quality.”
If a customer types, for example, “I don’t understand what offset interest means,” Luong can ask for a plain-language explanation ready to send, which he can then personalise. This not only saves time but also ensures the information is consistent across the team and easy to digest for the customer.
Luong also finds the sentiment feature useful as a real-time tool, where it provides a live sentiment read out in the form of a small emoji.
“The customer sentiment icon gives me a visual cue on how the interaction is going. If I see it turn neutral or negative, my focus is then on adjusting my tone or leaning into empathy so I can return it to a smile by the end of the chat,” said Luong.
Crucially, Bee keeps improving. As the bank’s team learns from previous interactions, Bee’s prompts and responses are updated to build its capability to contain basic enquiries. This means the benefits are compounding: the more the tools are used, the smarter and more helpful colleagues can make them.
This was not a typical off the shelf technology purchase; it was a co-creation effort between Bankwest and Microsoft from the ground up.
“We’d been seeking an out of the box tool with the aim of creating world class experiences in our in-app digital chat channel,” says Luke Robinson, Bankwest General Manager Customer Engagement. “We are working closely with Microsoft engineers to influence how it can meet changing customer needs.”
Bankwest’s employees fed more than 30 innovation ideas that helped shape the platform’s features.
“Among dozens of iterative transformations suggested by our team were simplifications like push notifications that take customers directly to the open chat, and security features like data masking rules for Australian tax file numbers,” said Robinson. “It’s a big learning curve for everyone, but we’re proud to be collaborating with a global software leader on an emerging platform that allows us to continuously innovate the experience as our customers’ needs and expectations evolve.”
Bankwest’s goal is to be Australia’s favourite digital bank, and that means meeting customers where they are, offering instant service paired with a personal touch. With their Microsoft technology-supported customer engagement centre, Bankwest is combining speed with empathy for a better customer experience.
Digital chat now accounts for the majority of customer interactions at Bankwest, and the green shoots are evident in positive customer feedback. Colleagues are also responding positively to the opportunity to become familiar with innovative new technology tools, helping them develop future-ready skills. Their journey has been shaped by careful change management that involved Bankwest colleagues in the design process and made the role of innovative new technologies transparent.
Bankwest’s customer engagement centre is not only smarter and more human today; it’s on a trajectory to keep improving, supported by a clever blend of human ingenuity and machine intelligence.
“Our people are still at the heart of every interaction,” Robinson says. “A continued focus on innovation simply makes their jobs easier and customers happier.”
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