Chatbots – an integral part of CRM. Pavel Chishko of Ukrgasbank for AI Conference Kyiv
Chatbots – an integral part of CRM. Pavel Chishko of Ukrgasbank for AI Conference Kyiv

What are the advantages of chatbots for business? What tasks do they solve? The main chatbot builder of Ukrgasbank commercial bank answered these questions. In the interview to AI Conference Kyiv, the expert told what projects he worked on lately and what Ukrainian chatbots impressed him.

Previously, Pavel Chishko led the Technologies of Remote Customer Consulting at PrivatBank. In his career, he has developed more than 200 chatbots. The specialist develops virtual assistants for Viber, Telegram, and Facebook Messenger.

Interviewer: AI Conference (AIC).

Speaker: Pavel Chishko (P.C.).


AIC: Earlier you were the main chatbot builder at PrivatBank. How did you join Ukrgasbank and what is your area of responsibilities there?

P.C.: That is not a military secret. At PrivatBank, I dealt with chatbots and automation of the contact center. Ukrgasbank wants to automate all at once. The area of expertise is wider than bots alone, so that is why I came here.

AIC: What interesting projects have you participated in lately?

P.C.: Projects that I was involved in at PrivatBank, as I just started working at Ukrgasbank. For now, new projects have not been presented to the public, but I hope that it will happen soon. So, the important projects that I can mention are developments for PrivatBank: chatbots for Viber, Telegram, and customer support bots.

AIC: What was your collaboration with Poltavaoblenergo about?

P.C.: It was about an invoice bot that allows issuing invoices for all customers of PrivatBank knowing only their phone numbers. If the customer is signed up with Viber or Telegram chatbot, the invoice will arrive to one of these messengers. If the customer is not signed up with Privat24 mobile app, the notification will arrive there.

Customer will just have to choose the card to pay the invoice. Poltavaoblenergo became one of the first large companies that started mailing out such invoices to customers. In other words, once per month users receive invoices to Privat24 and can choose the card and make the payment straightaway.

AIC: What tasks do chatbots help to solve businesses?

P.C.: Logically, that is the automation of answers, meaning saving funds on customer support. A very important point is the possibility to make payments using the bots. Besides, a chatbot is an integral part of CRM that helps businesses to communicate with customers.

AIC: Where to start if you can code and want to write your own chatbot?

P.C.: Frankly speaking, programmers are not scarce now and many of them write chatbots. I think the most important thing is the desire. And, of course, an interesting and promising project that is likely to skyrocket in the future. If such a project exists, programmers will be found, it is vital to develop and market the product afterwards.

AIC: What types of chatbots exist? What are the differences between them?

P.C.: Here is my personal classification:

  • consultancy chatbot that provides consultations;
  • information bot that deals with newsletters;
  • functional chatbot that fulfills a specific function;
  • payment bot.

AIC: Which examples of Ukrainian chatbots can you name?

P.C.: I can name one that I liked in terms of the simplicity of work. I have never used someone’s chatbots, only mine. But when I had to move to Kyiv and find a flat, this chatbot helped me a lot. At first I spent around 5 hours sitting in the café and looking for realtors with the help of rental offices.

Then I was shown the chatbot of LUN and it was the solution of my problem – I could do my errands and looked through offerings sent by the chatbot. Using it, I found the realtor that found a flat for me. The chatbot impressed me with simplicity and the fact that it provided relevant offerings that did not repeat.

We developed a chatbot for one of PrivatBank’s partners – Alaska, purchase of water using Viber. In the nearest time, a chatbot for Megasport will be launched – a clothes catalog in Viber and Telegram.

AIC: What advantages does a chatbot has for money transfers when compared to a mobile bank app?

P.C.: Let’s start from the simplest thing. To make something with a mobile app, one should install it. Find and spend time on the installment process. Chatbots are very popular and used by many people, because applications that use these chatbots are already present on mobile phones of most of people.

You just receive a link to the chatbot and you are there, can make payments and transfers. This is much simpler than downloading a separate app. A modern man saves time and efforts and that is why chatbots are more convenient – they automate and speed up the process.

AIC: What will you be speaking about during your speech at AI Conference Kyiv?

P.C.: Artur Slusar of Softensy and I are still thinking over and discussing the topic of our presentation but, for sure, we will be talking about something new and more interesting than payment bots.

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