Case Study: WaFd Bank achieves 90% faster balance checks with Talkdesk Financial Services Experience Cloud

WaFd Bank delivers a frictionless customer experience

WaFd Bank, a century-old Seattle-based bank with more than 200 branches and $20 billion in assets, set out to become a digital-first institution via its Pike Street Labs technology team. The bank’s legacy IVR-based contact center created friction for clients and agents—identity verification and basic inquiries could take up to 4.5 minutes—so WaFd needed a modern, secure way to meet customers digitally and reduce fraud risk.

Working with StrataCore, WaFd implemented Talkdesk Financial Services Experience Cloud with Talkdesk Identity (voice biometrics) and Amazon Lex, integrated with the bank’s APIs to power conversational voice and chat. The solution cut balance-check time from 4.5 minutes to 28 seconds (nearly 90% faster), reduced handle time for common inquiries by about 90%, improved fraud protection, enabled seamless AI-to-agent handoffs with account context, and boosted agent productivity while enabling further innovations like video support and expanded voice-based authentication.

WaFd Bank

Dustin Hubbard

Chief Technology Officer