Throwback Thursday: SalesAdvisor

Happy Throwback Thursday!
For this weeks throwback Thursday I wanted to share with you the first SalesAdvisor Virtual Agent launched by noHold, Ask Roxanne from a leading company in digital media software and services. They utilized their Virtual Agent not only for customer support, but also for sales. 

Lately, e-commerce has been booming, Google has even joined the e-commerce bandwagon with Google Shopping Express. This is a website where you can purchase virtually anything you need from featured stores such as Target, NobHill, Whole Foods, ect... and it all ships to your home on the same day. A business like that would benefit greatly from implementing SalesAdvisor because it can help customers with any questions they have, and also personalize their experience by suggesting items that go well with what they have already selected.   

It is fairly well known that self-service is effective for support, but it is also effective for sales! Creating a great customer experience online can be tricky. It is hard to demonstrate great customer service and personalization through the Internet. But the use of a Virtual Agent for support AND sales will complete the full customer journey circle; while creating loyal customers and increasing conversion rates.

SalesAdvisor has been around since 2005, but has been evolving ever since, too. Check out this slideshare presentation to find out what the future of shopping will look like.
Learn how a simple QR code on product packaging can trigger a Virtual sales rep that follows your customer throughout the journey from attract, convert, fulfill to support. 

How to Increase Sales by Providing a Great Customer Experience That is Easy to Socialize

The true customer journey encompasses attract, convert, fulfill and support.  Each of these milestones are chances for your brand to be present and make a difference. Mobile devices are becoming the new customer journey 'buddies'. When a prospective client walks into a store (or an online store), he or she is already checking reviews, asking friends on Facebook for advice, and doing his or her due diligence in order to make an informed purchase. When it's time to setup, get training, or support, your audience picks up the device and expects self service or another preferred channel. And during the entire process, social media is the sounding board to share a great find or write a customer satisfaction report that blasts the news feeds of close connections. 

Take a few minutes to see how Virtual Agent technology in the hands of your consumer can be a brand differentiator.  Learn how a simple QR code on product packaging can trigger a Virtual sales rep that follows your customer throughout the journey from attract, convert, fulfill to support. See how smarter self service yields increased conversion, increased customer loyalty, and takes your brand viral. 

View the SlideShare Presentation: How to Increase Sales by Providing a Great Customer Experience that is Easy to Socialize. 

 

P.S.  The holidays are approaching, and the support rush will follow closely behind. 89 days until Christmas day.    

The Confidential, Top Secret Interview: How to build a Virtual Agent

noHold, Inc. took some time this week to sit down with one of our very own Knowledge Platform Specialist, Tom Newby. He is part of a team here at noHold, who actually creates Virtual Agents for our customers. Check out the interview to gain insight to how Virtual Agents, like Siri or IBM's Watson are built. 

Preface: Today I’m speaking with Tom Newby, Knowledge Platform Specialist at noHold. With a title like that, there’s definitely a need to break it down. Tom, please tell me what does that mean? Are you like the “Dr. Frankenstein” of Virtual Agents?   
Q: What does the title mean? 
A: Being a KPS requires me to know my subject matter (which can come from multiple sources) and     intended audience pretty well so I can bring the two together with a single unified tool, a Virtual Agent.  So I'm more like a Cupid of Virtual Agents.

Q: I understand that we are under Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with our customers, so we cannot share specific company names however, can you tell me about some of your customers? What are they looking for when you ‘create’ a Virtual Agent that knows all about their products? 
A: Most of my customers want a virtual agent that shortens the amount of time it takes a user to get help.  Our goal is to take some of the load off their traditional help options, such as email, phone and live chat assistance.  You can only have so many human operators. We usually have to wait in a queue for the next available person to help.  But with a Virtual Agent, the connection is nearly instant, and the number of simultaneous connections is only limited by the amount of bandwidth the servers can handle.

One customer placed a Virtual Agent on the same screen as their live chat agent.  While waiting for the live operator to get to them (because their call is important to them), users are given an opportunity to try the Virtual Agent.  This resulted in a 13% drop in chat volume because users were able to find their answers on the Virtual Agent instead of waiting for the live operator.
 
Q: Over the years, you have learned tricks of the trade. Can you tell us about your ‘secret weapon’ for maintaining a ‘well behaved’ Virtual Agent?  
A: People are different, and many have different ways of describing the same thing.  Knowing the "slang" or alternate terms for things gives us "synonyms" that expand the agent's vocabulary.  It can be a "Monitor" to one person, a "screen" to another.  Then you have "Display", "Picture" and "that big square lit-up thing."

Logical organization of the content is also important so users can navigate easily. It’s a balance to cater to the hardcore computer expert who knows exactly what they need and the casual computer user who might be having a monitor problem.

Q: All the media talk about Virtual Assistants like Siri has made an impact on the population. People are wondering how they are built? How does a Virtual Agent answer a question, and then take an action?  
A: First you have to anticipate their questions, and then have the answers ready.  This is critical; you must have content that covers all aspects of the subject.  This can include content for troubleshooting, how-to's, and even glossary definitions.   Any virtual agent could answer Samuel L. Jackson's question about gazpacho as long as the agent wrangler puts in the question and answer(s).  Those answers can be a recipe, a link to a YouTube video, a picture, or anything else you want associated with gazpacho.  I had to look it up.  It’s a cold tomato soup.

Q: Just the other day, I told an acquaintance about noHold. With eyes enlarged, she said “Robots scare me!” Then she proceeded to tell me she asked her phone’s Virtual Assistant if her questions are being recorded. Do Virtual Agents for the Enterprise record our conversations? And … do you think your phone’s Virtual Assistant records your questions? Haha.  
A: Be afraid.  Be very afraid.  Seriously, robots are here to help, and they can't do anything we don't tell them how to do, and virtual agents don’t have robotic murder claws.

Customer sessions are recorded strictly for research (non-NSA!) purposes.  Just like a casino pit boss watching over the blackjack dealers, surveying customer experiences tell us if the Virtual Agent is doing its job.

Q: I’d love to know how you give a Virtual Agent a personality. Tell me some of the steps you take to name, choose face and colors, as well as personalize a Virtual Agent? 
A: Virtual Agent names and personality are mostly chosen at the customer level.  These are usually used to set the tone and expectation for the Virtual Agent.  For example, a Virtual Agent for a bank might want to be softer, more instructive to relate to customers:

“How can I help you today?”

A Virtual Agent for gaming computers might want a more "direct-and-to-the-point" experience, because gamers might be savvier and just want their answers without a lot of fluff, because they want to get back to blasting aliens:

“Select your option below:”

Notice how the two very different tones can be applied to the same Virtual Agent, but the content and intended audience should dictate which one is applied.

Q: Since noHold creates Virtual Agents, tell our audience about the company’s environment. That is, do we work in a laboratory or a clean room? How are Virtual Agents created? What tools do we use? 
A: Here at noHold the Virtual Agents are grown fresh on the vine, nurtured with care using only the finest natural ingredients.  No, wait, that's cranberry juice. 

We use SICURA™, a proprietary tool to build and maintain our Virtual Agents.  It provides us with tools for creating and storing content, as well as metrics reporting. We don't need a clean room, but I would love one of those foil clean suits. I would wear mine every day.

Q: Since you have access to reporting on interactions, can you think of a crazy question someone asked the VA?  
A: Our VA's have been asked out on dates and even gotten marriage proposals.  I like to have responses to questions like these just so we have an answer, and we can let them down easy.  I don't know how serious they were, but I like to think our Virtual Agents are that attractive. But if you must send flowers, please address them to me. I’ll see that the Virtual Agent get them.

Q: What is the most important “metric” to most companies? 
A: Bottom line, I think a return on investment is the most important metric to customers. Virtual Agents take some of the workload off live operators, frees up resources and saves everyone time. Some Virtual Agents also collect surveys of the user’s experiences, so of course we all like getting positive feedback.


Q: Can you give the audience a typical step by step guide to creating the best VA? 
A: In the beginning the Virtual Agent works through "growing pains".  But even as content becomes more and more complete, we still watch user experiences.  Are questions being answered correctly?  Are they getting that answer quick enough?  Are they getting enough information?  Are they happy with the Virtual Agent experience?

A Virtual Agent should be a living, growing, evolving entity.  Robot or not, an Agent's job is to assist people, save time and save our customers money.

World domination comes later.






Thanks so much for your time, Tom. If our audience has questions about building a Virtual Agent, please leave a comment below and we will respond within 24 hours.

Throwback Thursday: E-commerce Vendors Incorporating WCS Components into Their Strategy

Happy Throwback Thursday!

Lately, we have been hearing so many remarkable stories about e-commerce, online shopping, innovative QR code ideas, and more. Companies are really pushing the limits on what technology can do in the hands of the consumer. I thought it would be interesting to write a throwback on the first e-commerce software. 

Intershop Communications, founded in 1992, was the leader in e-commerce solutions. Once the World Wide Web became more common, they created the first German, web-based store in 1995. A year later, Intershop Communications was able to market “Intershop Online” to the U.S. This became the first e-commerce software in America. 

Today, e-commerce is such a huge space for businesses to generate more revenue. With the Internet at the palm of the consumers’ hand every day, it is critical for companies to have a smart e-commerce strategy. Leading analysts are now saying it is not enough to just have e-commerce software implemented on your website. It is imperative to construct a strategy that will create a full 360 experience for the customer; and that can be achieved by combining web customer service (WCS) components into your company’s existing e-commerce suites. One way analysts are predicting the vamp up on e-commerce is by e-commerce suite vendors partnering with Virtual Agent (VA) vendors to produce a greater overall experience for the consumer.

Here is an example of a leading security software company that utilizes a Virtual Agent not only for technical support, but also for sales. Since the implementation of the Virtual Agent, they have seen increases in sales by offering options to upgrade, purchase additional licenses, and buy premier support. Based on Virtual Agent metrics, 10% of the Virtual Agent interactions result in eStore referrals each month, averaging 1% “buy now” clicks, and 10% “more info” clicks per month.

Eventually, e-commerce, CRM, and web support will all work together to fulfill that 360 experience for the customer. And as noted above, the ROI for having a blended e-commerce and WCS strategy will be advantageous for your company.

Cheers

Throwback Thursday: "The Internet Commerce Directory and Buyer's Guide" of 1998

I came across an interesting version of an Internet directory that was published in 1998. The Internet Commerce Directory and Buyer's Guide (like the Internet phone book of 98') was a way for people to look up company profiles to find out their telephone numbers, website address, key executives, etc. When the Internet was still a new concept to the world, this directory was a great resource to find out about company profiles, industry articles, contact names, and financial data.

Today, this information and much more can be found online. There is no need for a printed directory, just type a company name in Google (or really any search engine), and out pops hundreds of links pertaining to that company; home webpages, articles, data, reviews, etc. 
It's fascinating to find pieces of technology history and think about the way things were, as opposed to how things are done now. 

Does anyone else remember using this directory to find contacts and information?
Happy Throwback Thursday!