BANKING ON THE BOTS: A STUDY ON WHATSAPP CHATBOTS ADOPTION BY INDIAN PRIVATE BANKS

Author Name: 1. Mr. Sunil Barsaiyan 2. Dr. Charu Sijoria

Volume/Issue: 03/05

Country: India

DOI NO.: 08.2020-25662434 DOI Link: https://www.doi-ds.org/doilink/11.2022-52139992/UIJIR

Affiliation:

1. Research Scholar, Jaypee Business School, Noida, India
2. Assistant Professor, Jaypee Business School, Noida, India

ABSTRACT

In the last few years, the adoption and usage of chatbots have grown significantly and as a result, chatbots have found their utility across the industries (eCommerce, Education, Hospitality, Medical, Community Services and many others). In the industry spectrum, the process of customer service management (CSM) has been deeply impacted using chatbots both in terms of quality of service and quantity of user requests. Due to its higher efficiency and 24x7 availability, chatbots, in many cases have replaced human based chat process. Websites, Social media and mobile apps hosts interactive chatbots. WhatsApp, the most popular communication tool, also allows the integration of chatbots and enables API based response. In this study, the authors have explored the adoption of WhatsApp based chatbots by the 05 largest private banks in India using the S-A-T model proposed by Abdulquadri et al. (2021). The study has analysed the WhatsApp chatbot based banking offered by each of the banks both in terms of breadth and depth of the services. Results demonstrate WhatsApp banking subscription process employed by the banks along with the variety of the services. The outcomes of the study provide unique insights to bank marketers and practitioners about the optimum use of WhatsApp chatbots for effective customer service management.

Key words: Chatbots, WhatsApp, Banks, India, Customer Service Management