Tessa Davel
Absa Abby
Abby is the chatbot within the Absa Banking App.
PRODUCT IN A NUTSHELL
Abby is a virtual banking assistant designed to simplify digital banking for customers using the Absa Banking App.
Abby lives in the top right corner of the app to be more visible, so customers know where to find help with one tap. Ask Abby anything, 24/7!
CLIENT CHALLENGE
Banking Apps contain a large amount of information which can frustrate users when they're looking for something specific and can't find it in a few steps, resulting in:
1. High customer support call centre volumes for common enquiries. The more calls that go through the call centre, the higher the cost for the bank.
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2. A negative perception of the Absa Banking App as information is seen as "hidden".
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RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
Customers want a quick and easy way to get answers to their banking questions.
They don’t want:
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1. To sift through information on search engines.
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2. To spend their money or waste their time waiting on hold for a call centre agent to answer their call.
THE SOLUTION
We created Abby, the chatbot in the Absa Banking App that gives customers the answers they’re looking for in just a few taps.
Most of the answers in Abby contain deep links so customers can navigate straight to the page they need once they’ve read the information and steps. They can complete their banking tasks seamlessly and securely as they’re already logged in.
Abby continues to be used by more and more Absa Banking App customers every month, with a 6% increase in new users adopting Abby as their preferred self-service portal. Abby handled over 6.9 million requests from July to December 2024.
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MY ROLE
As Lead UX Writer on the project, I wrote the intents for all the products throughout the bank that are to be featured in Abby (which is 95% of them).
I conducted user research and usability testing, held workshops with stakeholders, chased product information, created a template screen layout for consistency and readability, helped with the design-thinking, and iterated multiple times after feedback from the various product owners. I also created an Abby style and tone of voice guide to help other writers in the bank write for chatbots as Abby was the first chatbot launched.
Team: Design Director, Design Project Lead, UX Designer, UI Designer, Process Engineer, Service-Delivery Designer, Scrum Master, Product Manager, Business Analyst.