Throwback Thursday: Leading Telecommunication Company Praising noHold.

Happy Throwback Thursday!
For this weeks throwback, I found a customer satisfaction letter back from 2003 that I wanted to share with you. This particular letter is from the world's leading provider of broadband satellite services, products, and managed network solutions.
After launching their Virtual Assistant, "ask ERICA", this fortune 500 company experienced astonishing results. They reached a 300% increase in sessions since inception, estimating about 10,000 end user interactions per month. Also, in a period of only a few months, the solutions provided by the Virtual Assistant had grown by 500%, with a first contact resolution rate of 82%. This company was able to provide their consumers with world-class customer support, while keeping their expenses to a minimum.
This company really utilized the metrics component of the Virtual Assistant allowing the Virtual Assistant to continually grow its knowledge base and that is why they were able to reach such a high first contact resolution rate. They could spot which questions were being asked that did not yield an answer and they could then add the solution to the Virtual Assistant.
noHold is continuously satisfying customers by providing them with five star customer support tools, along with many other products that increase satisfaction, while decreasing costs.Even today, companies using Virtual Assistants powered by noHold report impressive statistics. To check out some of the evidence supporting our products go to http://www.nohold2.com/products.html and click on any product to see how beneficial it can be.
Have a great week! Cheers. 

Throwback Thursday: Call Center App, Then and Now.

Happy Throwback Thursday!
We all know Virtual Assistants (VAs) are great tools used by consumers on the web, but they can also be great resources for agents in the contact center. Some people would rather call support to get an answer to their problem than look online for the solution, so call center agents are necessary. But the cost for an agent to just pick up a phone call is pricey. To get the most bang for your buck, you want to make sure your call center agents are responding efficiently, making sure every customer is hanging up the phone fully satisfied.

Back in July of 2012, noHold and Dave Brown, the Founder and President of Support Center University and BolderView Systems, came together to present a webinar discussing how reducing the average handle time (AHT) by 80 seconds can equate to millions of dollars in savings . A business case was shared during the webinar describing how one noHold customer implemented a VA in the call center. The results yielded savings in the millions. About 70% of agents said they found the information they were looking for through the Virtual Assistant and reduced AHT by 80 seconds. Providing a Virtual Assistant as a call center tool reduces AHT, increases Customer Satisfaction all while reducing support costs.

Webinar aht minus 80 seconds equals savings in the millions call center 101 with support_centeru from noHold, Inc.

Since then, the Call Center App has still been yielding incredible results. A Security Software and Services company launched the Call Center App and it exceeded their expectations by 10%, reducing Tier 1 escalation by 45%.

Just another way Virtual Assistants provide value across the enterprise. Cheers!

Virtual Assistants Aiding Lottery Officials!

Recently, the Powerball jackpot was at its highest in history at an estimated 590.5 million dollars. One lucky person from Florida won it all a few weeks ago, but before there was a winner, people from all over the country ( even outside the United States) were going crazy to win this huge jackpot. “When pots reach record levels, says lottery officials, phone calls start coming in from all around the world to Powerball’s Iowa headquarters. ‘ We start getting inquires from Canada and Europe from people wanting to know if they can buy a ticket,’ Neubauer told ABC News. ‘They ask if they can FedEx us the money.’ The answer is: ‘Sorry, no. You have to buy a ticket in a member state from a licensed retail location.’” (http://gma.yahoo.com/no-powerball-winner-means-jackpot-swells-475m-105638577--abc-news-topstories.html) 

Here’s some food for thought… Utilizing a Virtual Assistant to manage the flow of calls would create less chaos in an already chaotic situation. Having a Virtual Assistant embedded on the Powerball’s official website will decrease the amount of calls to the call center because people will be able to find out the answers to their questions immediately and on their own (not to mention 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which helps the people calling from different time zones). Implementing a Virtual Assistant in the call center of the Powerball’s Iowa headquarters would allow Powerball players to get their frequently asked questions answered by an Artificial Intelligence, freeing up the lottery officials’ time and decreasing the cost of answering these phone calls. Having a Virtual Assistant online and in the contact center will help tremendously with the overflow of calls/questions about how to win that money!

 Many people think Virtual Assistants are only used for technology companies that need online support for their products, but as you can see in the example, Powerball’s headquarters can benefit greatly from a Virtual Assistant…especially when the jackpot reaches record highs!

Have a great weekend!

BolderView Opens for Business in Australia and Becomes Value Added Reseller of noHold Virtual Assistants

Milpitas, CA, and Melbourne, Australia, June 14, 2013 – BolderView today announced that it has opened its doors in Australia and has become a Value Added Reseller (VAR) of Virtual Assistants powered by noHold. 

noHold is the developer of the most interactive and diagnostic Virtual Assistant technology and Knowledge Management solutions. With successful Virtual Assistant implementations across multiple industries and on a global scale, noHold has realized the importance of providing a physical office in Australia and New Zealand. Specifically in Australia, one of the largest investor services companies as well as a popular online retailer have used noHold Virtual Assistants to increase First Contact Resolution (FCR) while reducing support costs and increasing customer satisfaction.

Virtual Assistants are the future of web and mobile customer interaction. Global technology market research companies are calling Virtual Assistants (VA) the wave of the future and they are predicting that more than 50% of online transactions will be handled by VAs in the near future.  To date, Australian companies have not kept pace with those predictions. None of the leading providers of Virtual Assistant technology have offices in Australia/New Zealand.  With no local marketing and sales presence, many ANZ companies are simply not aware of the benefits that Virtual Assistants provide.

BolderView’s founder recognised the opportunity and launched Australia’s first and only company focused exclusively on deploying Virtual Assistant solutions.  Opening BolderView’s office in Melbourne means Australian & New Zealand companies have a local source for the world’s leading technologies and reselling noHold Virtual Assistants is a key component of that strategy.

“An existing successful relationship with BolderView’s founder, multiple happy customers and a market propensity to use Virtual Assistants made it very easy for us to decide to expand in Australia. We are happy to work with BolderView and looking forward to our continued partnership,” said Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold. 

Dave Brown, Founder and Managing Director of BolderView said, “Companies in North America and Europe have been adopting Virtual Agent technology at an amazing pace. Australian companies are behind the curve – primarily because there’s been no local presence by any of the leading providers.  BolderView is changing that.  We represent the world’s most advanced Virtual Agent technology and we are very proud for noHold be part of our solutions.”

About BolderView Systems Pty Ltd 

BolderView is an Australian company founded in 2012 with head offices in Melbourne, Australia.  The company’s mission is to provide innovative and comprehensive self-service solutions to forward-thinking businesses, education institutions, and government entities. Utilising ‘Virtual Agent’ technology, BolderView’s value proposition is to enhance the customer experience and enable a variety of self-service channels – including web-based and mobile applications – while lowering the overall cost of service by deflecting calls, emails, and live chats.  BolderView provides a complete (turn-key) solution; utilising the most advanced technology from the world’s leading providers.

About noHold, Inc.

noHold is a privately held company established in 1999 and is headquartered in Milpitas, CA, USA (Silicon Valley). noHold is the acknowledged leader in Virtual Assistant solutions with a mission to deliver real answers to real questions - real fast. Simple to use, easy to implement and as close to human as you can get, noHold turns automated customer support into cognitive customer interaction. noHold customers include Cisco, Lenovo, McAfee and a host of industry leaders. For more information please visit www.nohold.com.

Press Contact:

Sarah Ramoz

(408) 946-9200 ex. 305

sramoz@nohold.com

Throwback Thursday: Virtual Assistants That Keep Learning

     In light of Throwback Thursday, we wanted to share with you an article written about a noHold Virtual Assistant, Penny, in Money Management Executive. This article was written back in February of 2011 by a well know tech writer, Tom Steinert-Threlkeld. Click here for the full story. A subscription is required or you can opt for a free trial subscription as well. 

     I'm wanted to bring up one of noHold's customer's, 24/7 virtual employee, Penny because it is amazing the progress and knowledge she has accumulated since she was first implemented to their web presence. She began as EZintel (a product powered by noHold which is able to collect customer metrics), only being able to "answer one in four or one in five questions, correctly." Since she started off as EZintel she was essentially an empty Virtual Assistant. Penny started as an edit field that preempted the contact us page and simply asked "how can I help you." She started off with zero answers, just captured free form intelligence from the audience. They analyzed what kind of questions/comments customers were asking and updated Penny's knowledge accordingly. The more people that engaged with Penny, the smarter she got. EZintel allows your company to collect actionable consumer behavior metrics making it easier to give the consumers what they really want.

     Today, Penny is still reducing support costs as a fully fledged Virtual Assistant, able to answer questions from a wide array of topics that consumers are looking for. She has now expanded internationally on this particular customer's site as well as their customer's sites. To try out Penny for yourself, click here.

Cheers!

Leader in Security Software Launches Virtual Assistants in Multiple Languages!

     Here is a quick news announcement. noHold is very excited to share with you that a company that delivers security solutions and services for systems, networks, and mobile devices around the world has just launched 44 new Virtual Assistant options to their partners in 11 different regions; all implemented by our fabulous noHold team. These Virtual Assistants provide support for this security software company's resellers, distributors, OEMs, and MSP partners.
     We are thrilled about implementing our first Russian Virtual Assistant for this company with Natural Language Processor. In addition to Russian, we provided this company support with an avatar in multiple other languages such as French, German, Spanish (Latin America and Europe) Portuguese, Dutch, and Italian. Another interesting feature this leading security software company has is browse only options that are provided in Korean, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese.
     Here at noHold we pride ourselves on being able to provide our services worldwide. We are very proud of our whole team for contributing to this success and we look forward to what the future holds! Have a great week!
     Cheers.

Throwback Thursday: E-Commerce: Past, Present, and Future.

     We are back for another Throwback Thursday, hope everyone is having a great week so far! 

     From mail order catalogs and brick & mortar to digital commerce, shopping has made its way to technology. This week I found inspiration from an article on TechCrunch, "eBay To Make True Window Shopping a Reality With New NYC Virtual Retail Stores." Coming this summer, eBay is developing a giant touchscreen which will be presented as a window display and pedestrians will be able to literally window shop.
     When I first read this it reminded me instantly of shopping through the paper catalogs that get sent to your home, and it is very similiar, the only difference is this is virtualized. We have certainly come along way from paper catalogs, E-commerce is actually becoming more and more popular as technology continues to advance. In 2012, 8% of total retail sales in the US were online purchases and this number is only expected to continue growing. Online sales is expected to generate 262 billion dollars in 2013, a huge jump from the 231 billion dollars made last year. (source: Experience Advertising infographic)

     With all the online consumers it is important to have  good online customer support for pre- and post sales questions. This eBay virtual store made me think of how great SalesAdvisor would be for it. SalesAdvisor is a noHold product developed to educate, advise, and cross-sell to consumers about their company's products. Not only does this Virtual Assistant improve customer satisfaction, it also up sells which generates more profit from Internet sales in the end. eBay would benefit from implementing this Virtual Assistant to their "shoppable window" for customers to be able to have their questions or concerns answered immediately. Also, the Virtual Assistant can suggest different products based on what you are purchasing.
     The big E-commerce boom has only begun since the advancement of smartphones and tablets. Now everyone is finding it more convenient to purchase things in the palm of their hands. But to be successful in the online marketplace, you still have to maintain a relationship with the customers and make sure their needs are still being met via the web.