It’s a consumer’s worst nightmare—credit card fraud. And as cashless transactions become more common and e-commerce sales grow, it’s more prevalent than ever. In fact, 2020 saw a 44% rise in credit card fraud over the previous year, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Due in part to the global pandemic, as well as changing consumer preferences for online shopping channels, cyber criminals have capitalized on this shift. While fraud activities vary, some of the most often cited include:

Unauthorized charges for subscription services—such as Netflix, Spotify and Hulu—begin appearing on a credit card statement and go unnoticed for months. Identity theft occurs when a credit card account is opened in someone’s name with false or stolen documents, or criminals take control of an existing account. Skimming via ATM machines, gas station kiosks or other processing devices results in the theft of credit card information during legitimate transactions. An official-sounding person contacts a credit card holder, requests information to resolve a legal matter and then uses that information to make fraudulent transactions. Regardless of the criminals’ preferred method, the stress that results for consumers is real, which is why 67% of Americans fear becoming the victim of identity theft as a result of credit card fraud. At the same time, the increase in credit card fraud coincides with a decline in overall satisfaction with credit card issuers, according to the J.D. Power 2021 US Credit Card Satisfaction Study℠. For issuers, this can create a perfect storm that ends in the loss of customers.

67% of Americans fear becoming the victim of identity theft as a result of credit card fraud. Source: Anton P, 47% of Americans Find Identity Theft Worse than Murder, New Report Shows, Atlas VPN, March 2020.

Improving the fraud-reporting customer experience

As high-profile breaches regularly appear in news headlines, credit card companies have an opportunity to take a negative and anxiety-inducing interaction and turn it into a positive, efficient and empathetic customer experience. But this requires the ability to quickly and effectively resolve customer issues—something that has become increasingly difficult as contact center attrition and the cost of hiring and training agents escalates.

So, how can you balance the need to provide a positive experience during a time of customer stress and anxiety with business requirements to manage the costs associated with staffing the contact center?

Virtual agents offer a solution. In addition to relieving contact center staffing constraints and costs, virtual agents can also provide a fast, always accessible service experience for credit card customers.

Credit card companies have an opportunity to take a negative and anxiety-inducing interaction and turn it into a positive, efficient and empathetic customer experience.

Automate credit card fraud call handling with the Grace virtual agent

The Gridspace Grace virtual agent enables credit card issuers to more efficiently and cost effectively improve customer interactions that result from credit card fraud. As the most advanced, natural-sounding virtual agent, Grace is a task-specific, next-generation conversational voice bot that can handle customer interactions in a natural and friendly manner, giving customers a convenient and easy way to engage with credit card issuers when reporting fraud.

Experience how Grace scales voice bots to complete customer fraud reporting calls in a timely manner and create seamless handoffs when escalation is needed. Listen to Grace here and discover how Gridspace is pioneering real-time speech infrastructure for financial services.

In addition to relieving the staffing constraints and costs for the contact center, virtual agents can also provide a fast, always accessible service experience.