HSBC Bank USA announced today that customers can now text with bank employees on Apple devices with “Apple Business Chat.” The new customer service solution adds another channel to HSBC’s conversational banking efforts, which already see about 150,000 contacts every month. 

“It is like having a banker in your pocket,” said Katie Jenkins, head of direct banking at HSBC. “This is not a niche servicing channel for our customers. For the customer experience, we’re getting really good early feedback on how easy this is for people to use, particularly in an environment where clients can’t easily get to a branch.” 

According to HSBC, technology from New York-based LivePerson was used to develop Apple Business Chat, creating a seamless experience so customers don’t have to download an additional app to message a banker.   

With the new solution, consumers who click on a linked HSBC customer service phone number have the option to text a bank employee instead of placing a call. The bank texts a one-time passcode to customers before the interaction to verify customers’ identity. HSBC clients can move money, manage their checking and savings accounts, and oversee credit card transactions. Apple Business Chat builds on HSBC’s existing in-app messaging function. 

Customers using Apple Business Chat interact with a live person, not a chatbot, and bankers servicing the channel work exclusively on the Apple chat function and the in-app messaging function. The bankers are currently working remotely around the world, with a large hub based in Buffalo, N.Y., Jenkins said. HSBC did a soft rollout of Apple Business Chat in April and will now start promoting the tool more broadly to customers. 

The human-digital customer service approach is a growing trend in financial services. Portland-based Umpqua Bank, for example, offers an app called “Go-To” that allows customers to choose a banker based on their bio, picture, location, interests and expertise. Customers can then use the app to message, call or video chat their banker. According to the bank, Go-To volume has spiked since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

“We never imagined a crisis of this nature, of course, but Go-To has proven to be a uniquely powerful tool as people are facing an unprecedented disruption to all facets of life,” Brian Read, Umpqua’s head of retail and small business banking, recently told Bank Innovation. “They’re looking for help and to communicate with a real person they know and trust. An anonymous customer service loop or a chatbot isn’t going to cut it.”  

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HSBC Bank USA is a subsidiary of the London-based HSBC, which has over $2.9 trillion in assets. Earlier this year, the bank said it would focus more on digital delivery in the U.S. as it reduces its branch presence.  

Bob Meara, a senior analyst at Celent, previously told Bank Innovation that text is a good way for bankers to simultaneously serve multiple customers. “Text conversations are asynchronous,” Meara said. “A banker could be engaging more than one member at the same time. You can’t do that with video.”