Revolut rolls out Rita the chatbot greeter
Rita… Revolut’s Intelligent Troubleshooting Assistant
UK-based payments start-up Revolut has unveiled its “human-like” chatbot, Rita, to answer customer queries.
Rita – which stands for “Revolut’s Intelligent Troubleshooting Assistant” – is accessible via the mobile app’s messenger support service. Customers can open the app, send Rita a message and get an instant reply.
During the pilot scheme, Rita resolved 20% of 7,500 customer queries per day and received a customer satisfaction score of 4.3/5. Did Rita get asked out on any dates? We don’t know. Revolut didn’t say.
Nikolay Storonsky, founder and CEO of Revolut, says: “In a world where you can order a taxi to your door in seconds or a takeaway from your favourite restaurant in a tap – it’s insane that my bank still puts me on hold for 20 minutes to answer simple questions about my account. Asking for information about your finances should be as easy as sending a text. And, the reply should be instant.”
At the moment Rita can resolve “common questions” such as “how can I unblock my PIN?” and “what are your current exchange rates?”.
Over the next year, Revolut says it will be expanding Rita’s capabilities. For example, customers will be able to ask questions like: “How much do I spend on Uber?” and “have I spent more or less on transport this month?”. Or, if a user is speeding through their monthly spending limit they set for their RevolutCard – Rita could prevent overspending by sending an update on their remaining budget for the month.
Rita is programmed to learn from its mistakes and its answers will become more accurate overtime. It can also either respond to a customer’s query “in seconds” or pass them over to a live agent. Stick around humans. You’re not extinct yet.
UPDATE 9 February 2017
Soon after the chatbot news, Revolut revealed it now lets customers from 42 European countries open a free current account from their smartphone in three minutes, without a proof of address or credit check.
The new feature enables users to receive a personal account number and sort code; accept payments including a salary into their Revolut account; and transfer money to any UK bank.
