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Press Release

WaFd banks on Talkdesk to transform customer experiences


Delivers secure, friction-free modern banking that ‘wows’ customers with every interaction

SAN FRANCISCO — Oct. 19, 2022 — Talkdesk®, Inc., a global contact center leader for customer-obsessed companies, and WaFd Bank (NASDAQ: WAFD), a full-service commercial U.S. bank, are working together to lead faster innovation and better service for banking clients by leveraging the Talkdesk Financial Services Experience Cloud™ for Banking, a purpose-built customer experience (CX) platform for industry-specific needs.

A regional bank with next-door-neighbor appeal, WaFd encompasses more than 200 locations across eight Western states, manages $20 billion in assets, and offers a full range of banking services. A century-old establishment, much of WaFd’s staying power can be credited to its commitment to customer service, including the adoption of new technology to infuse every client experience with the elusive “wow” factor. 

In recent years, WaFd has been on a digital transformation journey, which called for an overhaul of its contact center platform. The company’s legacy system was disparate, outdated, and lacking in features, functionality, and reporting. In the search for a new solution, WaFd required use with Amazon Lex, a fully-managed artificial intelligence (AI) service with advanced natural language models, to support voice and chat functionality for login, account lookup, and internal transfers. Through a long-standing relationship with AWS and the open platform design of Financial Services Experience Cloud, Talkdesk allowed WaFd to maximize its Amazon Lex investment and accelerate CX transformation.  

Talkdesk added further unique value to WaFd by helping operationalize its Amazon Lex investment, enabling intelligent orchestration of all customer engagement channels. Self-service via Amazon Lex voice and chatbots can also be seamlessly elevated to live agent assistance. Another key feature of the solution is Talkdesk Identity™, which provides fraud protection through self-service authentication using voice biometrics. This new capability has already resulted in a 90% reduction in the time it takes WaFd customers to make an account balance inquiry. 

Longer term, WaFd expects the combined Talkdesk and Amazon Lex solution to save costs, decrease voicemail volumes and call abandonment rates, and increase customer satisfaction by providing fast resolutions for many common banking transactions via self-service. The solution is easy for clients to use and contact center agents and bank executives can effortlessly navigate its features with minimal training. Financial Services Experience Cloud also integrates with Fiserv DNA, the WaFd core banking platform. This allows aggregation of client data to further drive self-service and gives agents a complete, 360-view of the client relationship during live interactions. 

“WaFd is creating a digital-first banking experience with advanced capabilities like AI and voice authentication to address key friction points in the customer journey and offer simple-to-use options for service and support across any channel or device,” said Dustin Hubbard, chief technology officer, WaFd. “With Financial Services Experience Cloud and Amazon Lex together, WaFd is primed to meet our clients’ expectations today through intelligent, connected, and secure interactions while having a foundation in place for tomorrow’s CX challenges.” 

“In a fiercely competitive industry, financial services organizations must constantly innovate to attract and retain customers,” said Andy Flynn, senior vice president, industries strategy, Talkdesk. “WaFd’s longevity is built on exceptional service and the ability to continuously reinvent new and better ways of doing business. Talkdesk looks forward to working with WaFd and AWS to raise the bar for banking experiences ever higher.

“More and more financial services organizations are leaning on AWS’s scale, performance, and breadth of AI capabilities to drive innovation and customer success,” said Vasi Philomin, vice president of AI Services, Amazon Web Services. “Establishing highly efficient contact centers requires significant automation, the ability to scale, and a mechanism for active learning through customer feedback. By using Amazon Lex, in collaboration with Talkdesk, WaFd has built a strong foundation of providing excellent customer service by helping them respond to customers faster, resolve requests more easily, and improve overall customer experiences.”

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About Talkdesk

Talkdesk® is a global cloud contact center leader for customer-obsessed companies. Our automation-first customer experience solutions optimize our customers’ most critical customer service processes. Our speed of innovation, vertical expertise, and global footprint reflect our commitment to ensuring that businesses can deliver better experiences across any industry and through any channel, resulting in higher customer satisfaction and accelerated business outcomes. 

Talkdesk is a registered trademark of Talkdesk, Inc. All product and company names are trademarks™ or registered® trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.  

Media Contact: 

Talkdesk Public Relations

[email protected]