Industry Stats that Every Business Leader Needs to Know

For a while, Virtual Assistants have been making a significant impact on business strategy. The role they are playing has expanded beyond the typical customer support paradigm, and moved into many different business units. Analyst firms and publications are agreeing that business leaders need to have a strategy for incorporating Virtual Assistants, whether it be for support, pre- and post-sales, internally, customer experience, etc. 

One of the benefits of deploying a Virtual Assistant is the decrease in call center interactions. “Organizations report a reduction of up to 70 percent in call, chat and/or email inquiries after implementing a VCA, according to Gartner research. They also report increased customer satisfaction and a 33 percent saving per voice engagement.” (Gartner) noHold has also looked at similar analytics from a Telco customer of ours. Before the Virtual Assistant was implemented 65% of people who went to the 'contact us' page ended up calling the company. After the Virtual Assistant, that percentage went down to 30%. Over half the calls were handled by the Virtual Assistant, and at a fraction of the cost. 

Gartner has made some positive predictions for the future of AI as well:

• According to Gartner, "25% of customer service and support operations will integrate virtual customer assistant (VCA) or chatbot technology across engagement channels by 2020."
• "By 2020, 30 percent of all B2B companies will employ AI to augment at least one of their primary sales processes."

Source: https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3858564

Interested in learning more about Virtual Assistant technology? Feel free to send an email through our contact page and I would be happy to help you out. 

Cheers!

www.nohold.com 

noHold Virtual Assistants Integrate with Oracle Knowledge Base

Enhancing the Customer Experience for a Leading Security Software Company

May 26, 2016, MILPITAS, CA –noHold developed a connector that allows a Virtual Assistant to leverage content that is stored in Oracle's knowledge base.

One of the world’s largest dedicated security technology companies, and long-standing customer of noHold, has implemented this type of connector to continue to provide their customers with a world-class customer support experience, without having to transfer existing content to a new knowledge platform.

This security software company needed a way to keep their content in its current location (Oracle), improve the quality of the Virtual Assistant's solutions (embedding the solutions within one interface), and still maintain the diagnostic and intuitive aspect that the Virtual Assistant is known for. Before the connector was in place, the Virtual Assistant answered users’ questions with links directing out to relevant articles hosted on Oracle's site. Now, with the connector, the Virtual Assistant can pull content from Oracle's knowledge base, and display it directly on the Virtual Assistant interface.

  

This integration has proven beneficial for multiple reasons:

• Avoid content duplication - eliminates the need to maintain same content in different repositories.
• Ability to track performance metrics - Metrics captured with the Virtual Assistant can be used to improve content quality in Oracle's knowledge base.
• Single Point of Search - provides a seamless experience for users.

“Single Point of Search is strategic to providing a consistent end user experience even if content resides in different repositories. In the future, Virtual Assistants will be connected with almost anything we can think of, from repositories of information, to multiple devices, to other Virtual Assistants.” -Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold.

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 Web based Self-service 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 interactions. noHold customers include Cisco, Dell and a host of industry leaders. More information can be found at http://www.nohold.com or click here to subscribe to Diego’s vlog.

Press Contact

Veronica Cech

Marketing Associate

vcech@nohold.com   

408.946.9200 ext. 356

All other product and service names are the property of their respective owners.

Black Friday: 4 Tips to Avoiding a Customer Service Nightmare this Holiday Season

Ready or not, the 2015 holiday season is among us! While it may be the happiest time of the year for some, it can quickly turn into a nightmare for customer service professionals if the right measures aren't taken to ensure smooth sailing through the season. 

Some companies have been preparing for this rush since the end of summer, and rightfully so. 2015 is expected to be the "most connected holiday shopping season - ever. Almost half of holiday shopping occured online" (thinkwithgoogle.com). "In 2014, Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday set new (online) sales records with 1.33 billion and $2.4 billion spent. This number is only expected to rise for 2015" (shortstack.com) We can't forget about the growing trend of Cyber Monday either. Check out the infogrpahic below sharing 2014 Cyber Monday results.

Photo Credit: pfsweb.com

These couple months are the biggest time of year for businesses to see growth in every aspect of their company. "Ad impressions get a 50 percent boost, [Click-through rates] CTRs skyrocket 100 percent, direct traffic grows 150 percent, average order values rise 30 percent and conversion rates increase 60 percent" (Entrepreneur).

With the expected spike in traffic during this season, consumers already anticipate long wait times and rude people; and companies witness customer satisfaction scores drop. But what if there was a way to keep up with the increase in demand AND maintain customer satisfaction, though? World-class brands have accomplished it, and with the right recipe so can you. Here are some tips to help your company continue to hit top sales all season, while (doing the most important thing) keeping customers happy. 

Tip #1 Planning ahead- As mentioned earlier, it is always helpful to get a head start so you aren't frantically trying to get everything set up in a short amount of time.

Photo Credit: capitolmediasolutions.com

Tip #2 Hiring enough help- Making sure you are not under staff during the rush season has a few positive affects. (a) customers don't have to wait for busy agents, and (b) agents don't feel rushed and can help customers completely through their issues. It's a win-win situation. Happy employees = happy customers. 

Tip #3 Providing helpful resources-  With the influx in contact volume coupled with the increase in seasonal agents, proper tools and resources should be made available to agents. One resource many call centers are equipping their agents with is a Virtual Assistant, promoting efficiency and consistency to new and seasoned agents. 

Tip #4 Self-Service- As a common theme throughout this blog, mobile and eCommerce are playing a huge role in the way people are interacting with your company. Online support holds true as well. Intuitive/ diagnostic self-service options should be readily available and easily accessible to consumers via the web.

Example of Interactive self-service solution (Virtual Assistant)

How is your company preparing for the holidays? Are you taking a different approach this year to account for the web? 

For more information on how Virtual Assistants help to alleviate some of the stress during peak seasons, please read "How Stand Out Brands Weather the Storm During Critical Spikes in Traffic." 
www.nohold.com

Customer Journey Mapping Toolkit: noHold's Experience

To wrap up our final post to the Customer Journey Mapping series, I wanted to share with you the experience a few of us here at noHold had doing the Customer Journey exercise using the "Jake" story. 

A few of us gathered in the board room to complete the customer journey map. It was helpful to have a group of people to bounce ideas back and forth, and get different perspectives.

Together, we went through the 11 steps to creating a successful Journey Mapping experience. Here are some photos sharing our experience: 

Step 4: Writing down the emotions the customer (Jake) might feel during each phase of his journey.

 Step 5: Vote for the moment that you feel is the most impactful, both negative and positive.

 Step 8: Write out the wins or needs of the customer during that specific, impact moment

Step 9/10: Determining the desired experience and ideas of how to achieve that desired experience.

After going through the steps, we concluded with step 11, proposing a new experience in a statement."This experience will address customers feeling frustrated waiting for live chat. We can accomplish this through improving agent resources, implementing a customer facing Virtual Agent, and scheduling a call back time. These changes will reduce wait times by 20% and increase customer satisfaction."

It was a great process to go through as a team to better understand what Customer Journey Mapping really is and how it enables us to better understand our customers. Let us know how your experience went in the comments below. What conclusions did you come up with? Did you face any challenges? 

For more information regarding customer journey mapping/customer care, please contact us. 

Customer Journey Mapping Toolkit: Do It Yourself Exercise

A couple weeks ago, we shared with you the scoop on a popular customer experience trend, Customer Journey Mapping. We went over what it is, why its important, and how to do it yourself. Click here to get a reminder of the information that was presented in that blog. 

To complete the customer journey mapping toolkit, we want to provide you with a sample story to test out your new journey mapping skills. The story we used is based on a company in the consumer electronics space, but once you get the hang of the exercise you can apply the skills you've learned to any industry. 

Take a moment to go over the 'how-to' presentation to re-fresh your memory on the 11 step process. 

Once you feel comfortable, print out the story presentation below and discuss with colleagues/peers what pain points you see as major issues and how you can improve the customer experience. Remember: the main goal of any customer journey map is to identify key touch points a customer has with a company and how they were feeling at those specific moments.  

 

 

If you have any questions or comments, please let us know in the comments below. Or for more information follow the link to the website and contact us via the contact us form. Feel free to share your experience designing your own map and what ideas you have come up with to better the customer experience.

Cheers!

www.nohold.com 

Customer Journey Mapping Toolkit: How to Create Your Own

Photo Credit: q4dm.com

“Customers are the greatest advocates of a brand or specific product or service: they tell stories and they make recommendations. They have the power to infect others with their enthusiasm for adoption, and therefore have to be seen as a core element of long term strategic growth.” (B2BInternational) Knowing this, companies need to start making positive customer experiences a top priority before they get left behind. “By 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.” (Customers 2020 Report) One way that has assisted many companies take their brand to the next level is a trending topic called Customer Journey Mapping, an exercise used to better understand how to improve the customer experience.

What Is It?

Customer Journey Maps are a diagram that takes you on a detailed story of your customers’ experience, starting from the research stage all the way to support. Each map can be structured differently (as they do not all look identical), but all journey maps should identify key touch points a customer has with a company and how they were feeling during these interactions. According to Joanna Lord, former CMO at BigDoor, customer journey mapping is “a framework that maps out the stages of your customers lifecycle. It enables you to improve your customers experience through helping you best understand how customers are interacting with you now and what areas to invest in moving forward.”

Photo Credit: imagestack.co

Why Do It?

Customer Journey Mapping is a hot topic right now, and an effective way for companies to identify areas of improvement. As mentioned earlier, becoming a customer centric brand is important to the success of a company. Getting to that place can be challenging, but leaders are finding that journey mapping is one of the best options to better understand your customers’ entire experience. In fact, “Executive dashboards and customer journey mapping are the 2 customer experience activities that had the largest increase in focus since last year.” (Temkin Group) It is an active way to identify key pain points within the customers’ journey, and also leverage the entire company’s assets to work in unison; evolving the company to work like a well-oiled machine, producing a positive experience for every customer. Marketing can help the support team, support can assist the engineering department.

How to Do It?

We have produced a simple presentation that goes over the basic guidelines of how to create a Customer Journey Map for your company. Follow these 11 steps to get a better understanding of what your customer journey really looks like. 

Stay tuned next week as we take you through each step of the process within an example for the Consumer Electronics industry. Also, we will complete our Customer Journey Mapping toolkit with a blank template for you to draw out your own journey map.  

www.nohold.com

6 Tips to Help Reimagine the Customer Support Experience for Your Audience

A couple weeks ago we mentioned the ongoing trend multiple companies are following of 'reimagining' products and services. While the product is an important component to the customer experience, it is not the only component that needs attention. Think about brand names such as Disney, Apple, Sony, and Amazon. When you hear these names you don't just think about their products...you typically associate them with exceptional customer service. To achieve global success, your customer service and customer support need to match this product evolution. 

Here are 6 tips to help 'reimagine' the customer support experience:     

Photo Source: wearesocial.sg

• Embrace Social Media - Social media is not a new concept, but the necessity for companies to connect with their audience through these channels (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc.) is now a must. In a survey, "42% of consumers complaining in social media expect 60 minute response times," and "24% expect a reply within 30 minutes, regardless of when the contact was made." (Convince & Convert) Support vendors are making this transition easier with interactive technology that can be deployed directly on their social channels. 

• Leverage the Internet of Everything (IoE) - As we've heard previously, the number of connected devices is expected to reach 50 billion by the year 2020. Thanks to the IoE "companies are starting to use support automation to preemptively diagnose and fix issues with minimal human intervention." (Forrester) "The real value in IoT [IoE] is not just connecting devices to their users, but to deliver an integrated management platform, driven by big data to centralize customer service." (CSMWire)
• Clear Website Design - People typically visit a company website first when looking for support. It is crucial to have a clear, flowing website layout for customers to easily find the information they need.  
• Understand Customer Wants/Needs - The Voice of the Customer (VOC) is powerful data to incorporate into the development of any company. Leading brands have implemented self-service marketing tools that collect metrics/qualitative insight directly from the customers themselves. In one particular case, using an empty Virtual Agent (EZIntel), a leader in computer hardware manufacturing was able to use the knowledge they gained from their customers to make adjustments to their web design to better fit their audience. Learn more about collecting actionable customer intelligence here: http://www.nohold.com/assets/ezintel_brochure-(1).pdf

Photo Credit: ideastogo.com

• Improve Self-Service Technology - "In a survey Forrester recently found that web self service was the most widely used communication channel for customer service, surpassing use of the voice channel for the first time." (Forbes) It is not just enough to have sub par self-service options though. Customers are demanding a more interactive, personalized way for self-service interactions to flow.  
• Single Point of Search - Providing customers with the convenience of having one place to search and find answers to their problems. For example, users can ask a question in the text field, and solutions will come up from multiple knowledge sources. (i.e. internal knowledge base, Google, CRM systems, etc.) Click the infographic below for an enlarged visual representation of this concept.                                            

Please share in the comments below some of the ways your company is 'reimagining' the support ecosystem. For more information on any of the tips mentioned above, please contact noHold.

New noHold A.I. Connector Integrates with Lithium Communities

Allowing Users to Leverage Multiple Knowledge Sources from a Single Point of Search

Photo Credit: jdesbonnet.blogspot.com

July 16, 2015, MILPITAS, CA – noHold created a new connector that integrates with Lithium Communities to simplify the customer support experience. With a similar goal to optimize efficiency for end users to find support solutions, the connector uses noHold’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Lithium’s search to find answers in the discussion boards hosted within a Lithium Community, and returns the results within the noHold Virtual Assistant window. Through the open API connector, companies can leverage a Virtual Assistant that also works in parallel with multiple knowledge sources such as Lithium, Google, Bing, Salesforce, and more; all from one place, Single Point of Search.

One of the largest PC manufacturers in the world is already utilizing this technology to make their support options more dynamic. For example, if a user is inquiring about a battery issue for their laptop, the user can type ‘battery’ into the search bar. The expert system will bring up noHold’s Virtual Assistant, as well as pull in a library of knowledge and relevant discussion threads from the company’s Lithium-powered community. The technology is designed to help customers find solutions on their own terms, for any type of user. They can use the Virtual Assistant for a more diagnostic and interactive experience, or use the search function to get to a relevant list of articles in the forum.

The advantages to deploying a Virtual Assistant with such a connector include:

• Single Point of Search – having one place for customers to search multiple repositories of information simultaneously.
• Ease of implementation – within a matter of days the Virtual Assistant can go live.
• Low customer effort – users do not have to jump from different channels (phone, web, email, etc.) to find solutions.

“Communities are a powerful way to generate trusted content that solves customer problems. But like any content, community content is most powerful when you deliver it to the right person at the right time,” said Joe Cothrel, Chief Community Officer at Lithium Technologies. “This integration between noHold and Lithium empowers companies to harness the power of community in new ways.”

“Virtual Assistants have gone through an impressive evolution in the past few years. First, leveraging content from their own knowledge base only and now reaching out and connecting to content found in Communities,” said Diego Ventura, CEO and founder of noHold. “Our connector to one of the most sophisticated platforms in the field, Lithium, makes our Virtual Assistant even more in tune with what the audience is interested in because the content is created by the audience itself.  We look forward to this next stage of evolution.”

Contact noHold to learn more about Single Point of Search, and the benefits of an integrated customer experience.

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 Web based Self-service 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 interactions. noHold customers include Toshiba, Cisco and a host of industry leaders. More information can be found at www.nohold.com.

Press Contact

Veronica Cech

Marketing Associate

vcech@nohold.com

408.946.9200 ext. 356

All other product and service names are the property of their respective owners.

How to Reimagine the Customer Experience

2015 has been a big year for service/product evolution in customer-centric companies. With technology dominating the market, and consumers demanding the latest and greatest, big brand players are definitely delivering. 

Photo Credit: news.mattel.com

For example, Mattel, the worldwide leader in the design, manufacture, and marketing of toys and family products, announced at the beginning of the year their latest collaboration with Google to revamp one of their most iconic toys, the View-Master. With the help of Google, Mattel was able to transform a classic toy and turn it into an 'immersive digital experience for kids.' Experts are referring to this sort of evolution as "reimagining the customer experience." Alongside Mattel, Cablevision is also working towards adapting to modern customer needs. When announcing the addition of a free digital antenna and digital Wi-Fi phone service to their broadband package, the Chief Operating Officer, Kristin Dolan, went on to say, "As a connectivity company, Cablevision is reimagining its relationship with its customers. Our new 'cord-cutter' packages take a modern approach to traditional triple-product bundles and provide real alternatives that fit new consumer lifestyles."

With technology at the forefront of almost everything, this is a critical time for companies to stay relevant and up to date so they don't get pushed out by the competition, and 'reimagining' the customer experience is a great way to accomplish that. What some companies turn a blind eye to is as your products and services progress, so should your customer support initiatives. It is import to recognize the need to reimagine all aspects of the customer experiences, including pre- and post- sale interactions. Traditional FAQs are not going to be enough anymore, and live agents can get costly. Experience shows that providing consumers with a dynamic and interactive self-service tool, such as a Virtual Assistant (VA), increases customer satisfaction because it gives users the freedom to find their own answers, on their own time.

Just as goods have been evolving with the times, VAs are progressing with the age of technology as well. At the beginning, VAs simply automated FAQs leveraging content from its own knowledgebase to answer questions. Now, VAs are more dynamic and interactive than ever before, integrating to back-office systems (CRM, existing Knowledge Management solutions, etc.) and connecting to various software platforms (live chat, social media, communities, etc.).

How is your company reimagining the customer experience? 
For more information on how VAs can help your company revolutionize the way you connect with your customer, please visit our website: www.nohold.com

Photo Credit: loyalty360.org

ViewSonic Leverages noHold A.I. for Next Generation Customer Service

The company continues its 13 year relationship with noHold

MILPITAS, CA, February 19, 2015 - noHold, Inc. is excited to share that ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual solution products, has decided to continue its relationship with noHold. ViewSonic and noHold are dedicated to being innovators and share a passion for creating a cutting-edge customer support experience.

Before Virtual Customer Assistants (also known as Virtual Agents) became popular, customer-centric brands like ViewSonic, were already seeing the need for 24x7 interactive web support. The company launched its first Virtual Assistant on its support site in 2002. Although this form of self-service technology was new to the market, ViewSonic was already seeing the benefits:

•     reduction of calls in their call center
•     ability to launch new products without the need to increase support headcount
•     increased overall customer satisfaction.

Today, the ViewSonic Virtual Assistant answers questions and offers troubleshooting about the company’s innovative display and cloud products, while capturing actionable metrics related to customer behavior.

“We value our partnership with noHold and will continue to collaborate with them to meet and exceed our customer service needs. Based on our data, a segment of our customers rely on the convenience of virtual agent tools and has trended upward over the last 10 years. InstantSupport has been instrumental in our efficiency to provide that instantaneous solution to our savvy users,” said Michelle Toda, Customer Care Manager of ViewSonic Corp.

“Artificial Intelligence is becoming more and more part of our daily life and ViewSonic is leveraging this trend to continuously improve customer satisfaction. noHold will continue to provide the technology that empowers ViewSonic to engage its customers effectively and on their own terms,” said Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold.

About ViewSonic

Founded in California in 1987, ViewSonic is a world leading visual solutions provider.  As an innovator and visionary, ViewSonic keeps the world connected with a portfolio of professional level visual solutions that enhance the way we compute, collaborate, communicate and connect. Our products include LED monitors, interactive commercial displays, touch displays, projectors, thin client, zero client and smart displays. To find out more about ViewSonic, visit viewsonic.com.      

  

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 Web based self-service solutions with a mission to deliver real answer 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 Toshiba, Lenovo, Cisco and a host of industry leaders. More information can be found at www.nohold.com.

Press Contact:

Veronica Cech

Marketing Associate

vcech@nohold.com     

408.946.9200 ext. 356

3 Reasons Why Smartphone Brands Need a Virtual Customer Assistant (like Siri) for Customer Support

Photo Credit: richardrshapiro.com

Happy Wednesday all! I wanted to first start off with a side note. noHold has decided to write a weekly blog (as opposed to daily), to make sure we are providing our audience with the most relevant and compelling content. Thanks for your continued support! 

In light of customer service week, I wanted to share some thoughts on why one of the World's most recognized consumer electronics companies, Apple, and brands alike, could benefit from having a Virtual Customer Assistant (VCA) for support. 

Siri, Google Now, and Cortana are some of the most well known Virtual Personal Assistants (VPA) used today. Smartphone users typically ask their VPA for directions, reviews, funny questions, and a host of other things. While these companies utilizes VPAs for users to answer personal questions, it's about time they used a VCA (similar to Siri or Cortana) for customer support. Here are three reasons why.  

#1: Apple's melt down after the release of their first update to iOS 8 is not a secret. According to an article from Computer World, "Apple today [Sept. 24] released, then quickly pulled, its first update for iOS 8 after customers flooded its support forum with reports that their iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Smartphones could no longer connect to a cellular network." Increase in customer support and service questions surrounding new software updates, and new versions are a common challenge for many companies. While it may not have been able to fix the problem in this instance, it would be able to give assurance to users that the problem is being addressed and maybe even offer some sort of condolence for the inconvenience, such as a coupon, or free song download. This way, customer satisfaction is never compromised, even in the face of technical difficulties. 

Photo Credit: themacwire.com

#2: What about the U2 debacle that occurred at the end of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus announcement? Many iPhone users were upset that the U2 album automatically downloaded into their iTunes, and wanted to figure out how to delete it. With the bad backlash from their marketing tactic, a VCA could have provided a solution to tens of thousands of users without costing the company big bucks to answer the phones/ emails. 

#3: Lastly, one of the leading analyst firms is predicting that companies need to start leveraging digital technologies to create a more engaging customer experience. They believe that more enterprises are exploring self-service through a VCA to reduce the volume of calls to the contact center, thus reducing support costs. Not only will a VCA reduce support costs, it can also help improve customer satisfaction in the process. 

In this age of technology, it is apparent that self-service is quickly becoming the users' preferred channel for support. Top brands, and small businesses alike need to adapt their strategies accordingly before they get left behind. 

How are you celebrating your customers this week...and daily? Is your company using digital technology to improve the customer experience? Do you agree that Smartphone vendors should leverage a VCA for customer support? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. 
www.nohold.com

A Look Back at noHold's Top Stories of the Week: September 22nd-26th

1. Virtual Agents Help Fight the Flu Season 
Here is a video with some do's and don'ts for the coming flu season. 

During peak seasons, such as these, a Virtual Agent can help relieve some of the congestion in the call centers. Click on the blog above to find out how. 

2. Virtual Agent Tips and Tricks: Virtual Agent for our Company's Community Forum

This week's Tuesday tip: Virtual Agents are a great asset to social media pages, community forums, or blogs. 

3. noHold CEO Travels to San Francisco for the Intelligent Virtual Assistants Conference Presented by Opus Research












"The time to differentiate is now," explains Dan Miller, lead analyst and founder of Opus Research. "Coke, Domino's and Hyatt are part of a leading-edge group of firms that employ human-like assistants for sales, customer care, technical support and answering questions. Within a few years, they will be virtually ubiquitous." (Opus Research's Intelligent Assistant Awards (IAAs) Recognize Hyatt, Domino's and the US Army for Human-Like Automated Assistance).

4. Throwback Thursday: Virtual Agents for Wearable Devices

When asking the community what they think about wearable devices, there has been an overwhelming lack of consensus on this technology. People have mixed feelings whether to embrace this disruptive tech, or reject it completely. With the announcement of the Apple Watch to come out in 2015, we'll see if wearable devices will gain a little more traction than before...

Please click on the link above to read the full  blog. 
________________________________________________________________
www.nohold.com

noHold Participates in a Case Study with Partner, Rackspace

Here at noHold, we love getting feedback from our customers. It is a great way to find out if we are providing the best products/ services possible, what ways we can improve, and how we can customize products to better fit the needs of our audience. Just recently, Dario De Santis, our Product and Engineering Manager, participated in a case study for one of our partners, Rackspace. They are a well-known managed cloud computing company based in Texas. Here is a brief video of Dario explaining how our involvement with Rackspace and their services is truly essential to providing our customers with the best foundation possible for their products.

There is also an article explaining a little more in depth why Rackspace works so well for noHold. To read the full document, please click here. 

Is customer feedback a key performance indicator for your company? Why or why not?  

www.nohold.com

Virtual Agent Tips and Tricks: What Are the Components That Create a Stellar Self-Service Experience?

Within the past couple of years, Personal Virtual Assistants have become household names (Siri, Watson, GoogleNow, Cortana, etc.). Although they are gaining popularity with the public now, noHold has been developing sophisticated Virtual Agents (VA) for over a decade. Based on our experience, and the satisfaction of our customers, these are just a few of the key features one should take into consideration when implementing a Virtual Agent: 

1. Natural Language Processor (NLP). The NLP gives the VA the intelligence to provide the right answer to a question, even if questions are phrased differently, or if there is misspelled or morphed words. For example, "Show me a neworking sample" and "What is a network?" Due to the NLP, even though the questions are different and there is a misspelled word in one of the phrases, the VA will still provide me with the same answer. 
2.  Multilingual Capability. Having a multilingual Virtual Agent is one of the differences between  becoming a global success and staying a local commodity.  Global support options should speak the language of your audience. 
3. Reporting metrics. This feature allows you to listen to the Voice of the Customer (VoC), and gives the customer an opportunity to share how he/she feels about the experience. Flexible reporting options empower trusted brands to not only listen to the VoC, but also to customize the reporting they capture from each interaction. 
4. An effective VA should be able to provide multimedia options within the solutions. For example, including images for visual learners, or embedding an instructional video to demonstrate how to fix the audio sound on your PC. Most people prefer watch a clip to see how something is done, instead of reading a long list of directions that can often be confusing. 
5. Ease of implementation and ease of maintaining is another feature to look out for when learning about Virtual Agents. A short implementation process and easy administrative tools allow entry level associates (or even interns) to build and maintain a Virtual Agent. Some noHold customers utilize short overview videos to introduce groups a Virtual Agent to call center agents, employees, consumers and more. 
6.  Another important feature that a Virtual Agent should have, is the ability to ask confirming questions. In a natural conversation with your peers, the listener often confirms he/she understands your request before responding or taking action. For example: "Where is the light?" Before answering, the other party might ask "Are you asking me where is the light in the kitchen?" By implementing this type of feature, you keep the conversation as close to a human interaction as possible, while avoiding a false positive response. 
7. Clarifying Questions. The end user should be able to ask clarifying questions without confusing the VA. For example: During a natural conversation, I might use a term that my audience is not familiar with. In this case, my peer or audience should be able to stop me and ask "Before you proceed, please tell me what a Virtual Assistant is?" The ability to ask clarifying questions is imperative for the end user to have a successful dialog, and a smart self-service application should be able to mimic that dialog. Clarifying questions during a VA conversation empowers the end user to understand a term, and then continue naturally with the remainder of the conversation without a hiccup. 
8. Change of subject. The end user should be able to abruptly change subject during the interaction without confusing the VA. Giving consumers the freedom to control which direction the conversation goes in is an important aspect to increasing Customer Satisfaction. 
9. Integration with the customer experience ecosystem. A Virtual Agent can live within your existing call center, integrate with live chat, and/or other applications. Having open APIs gives companies the flexibility to create a custom Virtual Agent that is specific to the needs of the brand. In addition, seamless customer experiences increase customer loyalty and satisfaction, and have proven to reduce costs. 
10. One of the most important features that a Virtual Agent should have is the ability to be diagnostic and interactive. Sometimes, users need help diagnosing or figuring out what the problem is. When there is an 'error' message, the customer may not understand how to troubleshoot the problem. With the diagnostic element, a Virtual Agent can help troubleshoot the problem and give interactive instructions to solving the issue. A Virtual Agent makes sure it understands you and you understand it, every step of the way.    

These are just some of the most popular best practices that have worked for our customers. The light-weight, flexibility of a Virtual Agent gives companies the power they need to create a stellar customer experience, from the beginning of the relationship all the way to supporting that relationship.  

What are the features that make your customer experience stellar? Does your company offer self-service options for pre-sales, customer service/care, and support? What is your strategy to creating a unified customer journey for end-users?

www.nohold.com 

noHold Joins the LANDESK One Partner Program to Create the Next Generation Help Desk

"MILPITAS, CA, (July 24, 2014) — noHold, Inc. announced today that they have joined the LANDESK One technology partner program to provide employees with the next generation, self-service help desk solution. LANDESK One is designed to provide opportunities for ISVs to create innovative and complementary technology on the LANDESK platforms. The program advances LANDESK’s user-oriented IT vision by enabling ISV partners to amplify the complete LANDESK portfolio to create customized, user-focused solutions. noHold and LANDESK are coming together to support the need of interactive technology for internal customers (employees). 

noHold Virtual Agents are used by leading brands to revolutionize their customers’ experience. Albert is an extension of noHold’s flagship product, InstantSupport™, but instead designed for employees to find answers to their problems, on their own terms. Albert can be customized with company-specific information or pre-packaged with answers to top questions about Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), Windows and Apple Operating Systems, and more."

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Please click here to continue reading the full press release. 

www.nohold.com

Virtual Agent Tips and Tricks: Sharing Coupons, Promotions, and Hot Offers for Virtual Agent Users

We’ve mentioned before how Virtual Agents can educate, provide advice and offer opportunities to purchase complimentary products and services (cross-sell). Empowering your audience with self-service via a conversational Virtual Agent has proven to increase sales in stores, online, and in the Call Center.

Other benefits include:

   

Throughout the years, we have learned best practices to get the most out of your Virtual Agent. One of those best practices is to share coupons, promotions, or ‘hot offers’ through your Virtual Agent. The Virtual Agent uses logical reasoning and determines the appropriate promotion or coupon to encourage users to buy the product. Using limited-time coupons entices people to make the purchase right then and there as opposed to waiting for a better deal. This way, the company wins by locking in the sale, and the customer is happy from their great experience.

Here is an example of the Virtual Agent encouraging the user to buy the product with a coupon:

   

If you were on the fence about a product, would offering a limited time coupon sway you to buy it? What other self-service methods encourage online shoppers to make a purchase, instead of abandoning cart?

www.nohold.com