Interactive communications tool built for BBVA customers with GMV voice recognition

Founded in 2011, Grupo Mensajes de Voz (GMV) is a family business led by call centre veteran and CEO Jorge Corchuelo. With the help of his two sons Jorge Andres and Juan Camilo – who have specialisms in law and business entertainment respectively – the trio combined their knowledge to develop a service that provides enhanced customer relationship management and communications for customers of companies across industries using automation.

Through automation, GMV’s tools deliver cross-platform communications via messages and voice. Faster speed and tighter security were key objectives in developing the service, and the financial space was the first sector that GMV targeted before extending into others such as commercial and industrial. This focus presented a synergy between the business and BBVA Colombia, which led to a proof-of-concept being developed.

Commenting on how the pair joined forces, Jorge Corchuelo recalled: “GMV was invited to participate in the fast track process by the Open Innovation area because they detected an opportunity to generate a positive impact on sales management and increase effectiveness.”

The opportunity was embedded into GMV’s technology, which makes use of bots in order to connect to customers by phone and text. “This method increases the speed of contact for large volumes of leads, maintaining the quality and service standards of the companies and reducing the average operating costs in the medium term,” explained Corchuelo. Over the course of a one-week workshop at BBVA, GMV worked alongside all the departments involved with retail, which included business, finance, legal and procurement. During this period, the businesses outlined the objectives and strategy through which they would be implemented.

The proof-of-concept began in July 2019, with Open Innovation supporting the process to construct the framework and scope of the pilot. “The challenge of the project was to generate an increase in the effectiveness of pre-approved and other sales campaigns, as well as an increase in customer contact ratio, with the implementation of a new communication channel that uses automation and voice recognition technology to generate massive contact,” Corchuelo said.

GMV set out to tackle the challenge by contacting customers with pre-approved offers in a timely fashion. The goal for the business was to offer customers efficiency and take them on a journey to generate both effective sales and customer loyalty for the business. “We take advantage of the contact capacity of the technology offered by the GMV Group to reach the client base efficiently and quickly, avoiding the erosion of the database due to the deterioration of the credit score,” detailed Corchuelo.

At the end of Q4 2019, the results were evaluated and said to have “far exceeded the expectations defined for the proof-of-concept,” according to Corchuelo. But what impact can a solution like this have for banks and consumers? “For BBVA, and specifically for the area of Private Customer Business, the value we find with this solution is to maximise the conversion potential of pre-approved customer databases and other mass campaigns,” he said.

The ultimate goal is to connect bank deals with customers in a unique fashion, with offers sent to them when they need it, thereby increasing the efficiency for all involved and improving the conversion of the databases. “Customers receive the offer in a fast, effective and unique way, which results not only in a better experience, but also an increased use of offers,” Corchuelo noted. As a result, there’s a lower probability that inaccurate information will be pushed to customers and this in turn should generate fewer complaints.

GMV currently operates in 12 countries including its native Colombia, as well as Mexico, Peru and Brazil, with language support for Spanish, English and Portuguese, and has revenue of $1.5m. Working with a large corporate like BBVA, has been a great success for Corchuelo and his company. “It made it easier for us to properly understand the needs of global bank BBVA, and allowed us to test our solution,” he opined. “Likewise, knowing and interacting with those directly responsible for the business allowed the creation and implementation of this solution to be in accordance and to fit perfectly with their requirement.”

Isabel Ávila, retail associate at Client Solutions in BBVA Colombia, explained why it’s equally as powerful for a bank to work with startups. “BBVA has development teams that are changing the way we help our customers,” she began. “However, it is very important to create business links with disruptive companies using powerful technologies. It gives us speed of implementation, time to market and allows us to grow together.”

On the subject of mutual growth, both BBVA and GMV will continue their partnership in the future, continuing to benefit and understand from one another. “GMV has been an efficient solution to the problems that the bank had in the sale of pre-approved and in the contactability of offers in general,” said Ávila. “We are working as allies, learning from each case of use and defining the business plan depending on the nature.” She added that there’s scope to manage other product channels with GMV technology, noting that the plan is to continue using the company’s service for sales and communications. Echoing Ávila’s thoughts, Corchuelo also believes there is a great long-term opportunity ahead to develop and reach customers at speed without losing the standard of communication.