Throwback Thursday: Then and Now: Lenovo's eLounge vs. Disney's "Avatar Land"

Some might say I am a Disney fanatic, so I am really excited to share some interesting news… Walt Disney World in Florida is working on a new land to add to the Animal Kingdom called Pandora. It is a replica of the world of Pandora from the 2009 movie Avatar. They are creating this "Avatar Land" to be as interactive as possible, just like being inside a virtual world. It is as though the land is a living organism that responds to contact.  

With an abundant supply of technology and resources, I am sure the creators of Avatar and Disney are going to work together and create a memorable, interactive experience that their guest will be amazed by.

In 2009, Lenovo thought of a concept similar to the avatar land which they named eLounge. This eLounge allows you to create your personal 3-D shopping experience online. You can create your own personal avatar, browse and interact with there virtual products, walk around and share your experience with customers from around the globe, and get support from virtual product specialists. Since eCommerce has sky rocketed in the past few years, having a virtual world that is interactive and collaborative will help complete the circle of the customer experience journey.

What I found interesting was the virtual avatar product specialist that is placed in the virtual shop. Implementing a virtual agent as a product specialist, will eliminate the need for human specialists to respond to every question. After all, a virtual world should have virtual agents, right?

Do you like the idea of online shopping, simulating an actual store? Would you like to communicate with other shoppers for advice and support? 

Happy Throwback Thursday!

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: AOL Instant Messaging Opened Doors for Live Chat Vendors

Photo credit: drjays.com

Happy Throwback Thursday!

Who remembers the little guy in the picture to the left? This is the icon for AOL Instant Messaging, or AIM. I remember this software as the "must-have" to stay connected with friends in that late 90's to the early 2000's. If you didn't have AIM, you weren't in the loop. AIM was, in a way, the Facebook of that time. 

Instant Messenger came out in 1997 and was one of the first of its kind to successfully allow users to communicate via the Internet in real time. In the eCommerce and Support industries, Live chat has come a long way since AIM. Below to the right is a screenshot of an AIM chat window. It was as simple to use as typing what you wanted to say, pressing enter, and the person on the other end of the computer screen would receive it...instantly! Another cool feature of AIM is having the ability to pick an avatar that would symbolize yourself. A lot like what we do with our Virtual Agents. We often include a face/avatar to the Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) to add personality. AIM also utilized A.I.'s for people's entertainment, questions, etc. Just sending a message to the specific screen name of the A.I. (which can be found by looking on the web) and you get a response back from a robot, just like our Virtual Agents!

Photo credit: Franklypenn.com

Instant messaging has matured since AIM of course. Now, there is chat on Facebook and other social networking sites, Skype, and a plethora of software that makes it easier to connect with people in real time. 

In today's era of technology, trusted brands use live chat for web customer support. When people have a question or concern, they can typically find support on a company's web page in the form of live chat. Click on the hyperlink to view our blog post, "Live Chat MVPs: An Insiders Look at the Top Live Chat Vendors and Best Practices." This link will provide you access to our document about key features to look for when selecting a live chat vendor and also a PowerPoint presentation titled, "Best Practices for Complementing Live Chat with a Virtual Agent." 

Whether live chat is being used from a support or sales stand point on a website, in the call center, or even at the Help Desk (Albert!), the benefits surpass the value of just staying connected with friends. Integrating live chat with a Virtual Agent provides a cost effective way for companies to establish and/or maintain relationships with consumers without seeing them face to face. InstantSupport(TM), like instant messaging, gives consumers answers to the questions they have instantly, and on their own terms. Thanks to AIM and other early live chat providers, the doors for web customer service opened, leading to one of the top resources people use when looking for online support.

Ever wonder how Virtual Assistants (think Watson, Siri, noHold) are built?

Want to know how a Virtual Agent is built? noHold is the acknowledged leader in Virtual Agent 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 service into customer interaction. Click the link below to find out just how we do it. 

Virtual Agent Infographic

Customer Feedback Fridays - Avatars

With the excitement and buzz of Artificial Intelligence in business as well as digital personal assistant Siri, and IBM's super computer Watson, (not to forget the movie titled "Avatar") I thought it was a fitting time to resurrect the discussion about Avatars. What's an avatar you ask? It's one word used to describe a digital representation of a human, or a 3D cartoon. Sometimes it moves, responds based on sentiment, and sometimes it just smiles and stares.

Some of our customers have elected to use an avatar (in one form or another) as the 'face' of their Virtual Agent. In fact, noHold's technology is flexible enough to accommodate multiple options on the User Interface - for example: images (logos, pictures...); multiple panes (for promos, videos, etc.); 2D/3D avatar and more. In my blog post about flexibility, I mentioned that one customer has used the APIs to create their own UI. If you want to see some sample UI's, please visit www.nohold.com and type "Sample UI" into Ask Holmes - He will show you some great examples.

In 2011, we polled our customers and asked how they felt about Avatars. We received some great responses, and today since it's Customer Feedback Friday, I will share a feedback directly from one of noHold's customers about their take on Avatars.

Remember, the key is to take a look at your business (industry, target audience, key metrics..) and decide what experience will be the best for your customer, and use the metrics to make the best decision for your brand. In either case, we are happy to accommodate.

Happy Friday!

“Prior to a commitment to a 3D avatar we would likely A/B test with the standard avatar to understand the impact if any of using a 2D vs 3D representation. In the mindset of the customer they are more interested in a easy to use clean interface with rapid and relevant response/resolution. If a 3D vs 2D avatar were to prove more efficient in customer engagement with the virtual agent tool then it would likely take preference for the representation of the tool to the customer. However with that said more focus would likely be given to ensuring appropriate content is delivered to the customers query than whether the customer sees a 2D or 3D skinning of the tool.”