Wednesday, July 16, 2014

How to Increase Support and Service Revenue with a Virtual Agent

Has your company ever offered a new service, but it wasn't getting much attention? Service revenue generation is a common challenge that many companies face. One of noHold's clients leveraged a Virtual Agent to help get their customers the service they need, while increasing revenue for the company. Here is a short story and some 'lessons learned.'
  • The company is in the consumer electronics space.
  • They implemented a Virtual Agent (VA) that can answer primarily post-sales questions about their products. 
  • The VA handles over 70K interactions per month, decreasing support cost significantly.
  • The company decided to promote a Premium Support Service on its website.
  • They used the typical approach: banners, colorful buttons, etc.
  • Very little leads came from this type of advertisement.
  • noHold proposed to let the VA offer the upgraded Service in the right context. No flashy buttons or gimmicks, just let the VA play the role of an expert advisor.
  • When an end user describes a problem, the VA provides an answer, but if appropriate, it also suggests to sign up for the Premium Service.
  • It worked! The VA is generating an average monthly stream of more than $130,00. 
Lessons learned:
The Virtual Agent was able to create leads that otherwise would have been lost, because it can propose a new service or product within the right context.

The same button that nobody was clicking on while flashing in the middle of the website, is now scoring record sales. This happens because the VA is capable of understanding the context of the conversation and presents an offer only when it makes sense.

Humans are programmed to reject typical forms of advertisement, but everybody still appreciates a helping hand when they are trying to solve a problem. 

Does your company leverage self-service to generate revenue? How do you offer the right services at the right time? 

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