noHold, Inc. Launches NLP2X™, a New Way to Add a Conversational Interface to any Repository of Information

July 31, 2018, MILPITAS, CA – noHold is excited to introduce NLP2X, a new module of its AI platform, SICURA®. NLP2X converts end users natural language queries into database commands. This includes SQL databases, excel spreadsheets, or any other proprietary data repository with an API. NLP2X is often used with a Virtual Assistant that interfaces directly with the end user.

Here is an example of how NLP2X can work. Imagine shopping for a new computer online. There are so many options to choose from, and searching for specific features on a computer through a database can be cumbersome. Leveraging NLP2X, end users can ask a Virtual Assistant to only display computers that match specific criteria. For example, an end user can say, "Show me all laptops that are between $1000 and $1300, with 4 GB of memory or more and a 2.80 Ghz clock." In seconds, the Virtual Assistant will pull up only the laptops that match that criteria.

NLP2X is able to recognize Intents, Named Entities and Operators from end user queries. An Intent is the action the end user wants the Virtual Assistant to execute. Referencing the example above, the Intent would be “show me.”  A Named Entity is a value that is significant to the query, for example “4 GB of memory.” An Operator is the word/s typically associated with a Named Entity, such as “between” in the phrase “between $1000 and $1300."

Parsing end users queries is not trivial because end users can express themselves on their own terms. For example, you cannot expect end users to always specify the dollar sign “$” when referring to a price. Also, individuals may refer to “price” instead of “cost”, or even misspell terms. NLP2X has been trained to take care of all of this.

noHold's CEO and Founder, Diego Ventura, adds, “NLP2X is designed to help non-programmers query repositories of information without having to know reporting tools or special languages like SQL. Managers and Executives will be able to get to the information they are interested in without the help of specialized IT personnel.”

noHold Becomes Silver Sponsor for AVIOS' Conversation Interactions 2019 Conference

For the past 2 years, noHold has been invited to attend AVIOS' Conversational Interactions conference, here in San Jose, CA. Diego Ventura, noHold's Founder and CEO has presented each time, sharing his knowledge on AI that he has acquired from 20+ years of experience in the space. 

This year we are doing something special. The upcoming Conversational Interactions conference, noHold is excited to announce we have partnered with AVIOS to become a Silver Sponsor for the event! 

On the website you can find various articles regarding what is going on in the industry, included a few news pieces from noHold: http://www.conversationalinteraction.com/news

We are happy to be part of this growing conference located close to our home base in San Jose, CA. If you are interested in more information or would like to register to attend, please go to www.conversationalinteractions.com

Stay tuned for more news as the conference approaches closer in March 2019. 

noHold Announces Five New Features to Augment AI Platform, SICURA

June 28, 2016, MILPITAS, CA – As the acknowledged leader in web based self-service solutions; innovation is a top priority for noHold. Recently, five new features have been added to noHold’s AI platform (SICURA) to enrich the end user experience, as well as simplify administrative tasks in the back end. These new features include:

1)    Sentiment Analysis- a Natural Language Processing (NLP) task that measures user sentiments during an interaction with a Virtual Assistant. The Virtual Assistant scores the dialog as positive, negative or neutral and acts accordingly.  If the end user sounds frustrated, the Virtual Assistant can quickly provide access to a different channel and pass on the conversation log.

2)    Customer Behavior Reports- specific reports that look at multiple interactions to pinpoint where end users are most frequently getting stuck, abandoning the conversation, etc. These reports allow administrators to quickly and easily improve the Virtual Assistant.  

3)    Context Retention- allows the Virtual Assistant to retain context among different phrases within a conversation. For example, if the end user asks about the availability of a “flight to Paris” first, and then continues in a separate phrase with, “How much does it cost?” The Virtual Assistant understands that “it” refers to the “flight to Paris.”

4)    Offline Workflow- this feature provides administrative users the ability to edit published solutions without revealing the work in progress to the public. Once the content is ready, administrators can bring the offline instance, online, replacing the existing live content.

5)    KIC 846- enables a Virtual Assistant to intelligently parse users’ queries to extract all relevant information necessary to direct users to the correct solution. If only partial information is given, the Virtual Assistant proactively asks for the remainder of the information needed for that interaction. To keep with the traveling example, Joe tells the Virtual Assistant he needs a flight to Paris on Monday around noon. After analyzing Joe’s query, the Virtual Assistant knows to ask for the rest of the information needed to effectively provide the best results. (I.e. from what airport he will be leaving, and when he needs to return.)

According to a Bank of America report citing IDC Research, AI is “an industry that will grow to $70 billion by 2020 from just $8.2 billion in 2013.” (Fortune.com) Recognizing this rapid growth, CEO and Founder of noHold, Diego Ventura goes on to say, “noHold is focused on continuing to provide an innovative and reliable platform for companies who want to leverage the many aspects of Artificial Intelligence that can help resolve real business problems. We do it in a practical manner where results are easily measurable and can be achieved quickly.”

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, Intel and a host of industry leaders. More information can be found at http://www.nohold.com or subscribe to noHold’s vlog to hear more from CEO, Diego Ventura. 

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

Interview with Manager of Consumer Electronics Virtual Assistant

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Judy is the sole manager of the Virtual Assistant used by a large corporation. Since the initial implementation of the Virtual Assistant, Judy has worked with noHold to create an awarded customer service tool. noHold asked to interview Judy to get a better understanding of how she has managed to maintain excellent customer service with the Virtual Assistant.

What do you think the key has been to your success?
Continuous review of customer queries to identify knowledge gaps and issues with Natural Language Processor (NLP) – primarily synonyms. 

What is your process?
I basically have a 2 step process.
First, I review all queries where the Virtual Agent (also known as Virtual Assistant) was unable to provide a response and determine if we actually have a solution within the Virtual Agent. If we do, then I work with Tom (noHold Knowledge Portal Specialist) to make improvements in the NLP, so these queries are directed to the correct solution. If there is no solution within the Virtual Agent, I try to determine if there is enough traffic to warrant creating a new solution.
The Second step is to review the top 50 keywords from our internal site search and see how the Virtual Agent responds to these keywords; making changes, if required. 

How often do you update the Virtual Assistant? 
Updates to the Virtual Assistant are pretty much made constantly between me and Tom reviewing the interactions. As far as adding content, we add new content as needed; probably, averaging 3-4 solutions a month. 

What content does the Virtual Assistant focus on?
Mostly technical support, but we are also adding in solutions about customer care.

How large is your team?
As far as managing the Virtual Assistant – just me. 

How much time do you devote to the Virtual Assistant?
Between 6-8 Hours a week. I would like to spend more time, but other responsibilities prevent me from doing so at this time.

What reports do you find helpful?
The monthly report card - that is very helpful in identifying some solutions that are under performing. I also use the “Phrase Report” under Maintenance as well as the “Search by Keyword” report. 

How do you use the voice of the customer?
I use Voice of the Customer to improve the website and content from site search. I share the information with content managers at the company, so that they can make changes as needed. It is great to be able to see how customers express issues in their own words. It gives you a perspective into how we could rephrase or adjust messaging to help better support our customers.   

Is data collect from the Virtual Assistant used in other departments? 
Absolutely! I use this to make some improvements in our site search as well as providing this information to our content team for use in creating Knowledge Base documents.

What feature or features are critical for making a world class Virtual Assistant? 
I think NLP, Procedure Guidance, and Synonyms are critical along with continual monitoring of the Virtual Agent.

--It was great to get some insider knowledge on the different elements it takes to maintain a Virtual Assistant for an award winning support team. For more information, or if you have specific questions, please contact noHold.
www.nohold.com

Trusted Retailers Innovate the Traditional Customer Service Approach by Adding Robots as Staff

Photo Credit: newsroom.cisco.com

Over the past few years, online sales have increased tremendously and are expected to continue to rise to 10% of all US retail sales (Fitting Room Robots and Smart Mirrors: Can Retail Tech Save Stores?) Brick and mortar stores are trying to pull shoppers into the store, and are using advanced technologies to entice them to do so. 

As everyone is in the middle of holiday shopping, companies have been incorporating new technologies to accommodate the increased volume of shoppers, while still being able to provide excellent customer service. Orchard Supply Hardware is one of the companies focusing on customer service and innovation, and plans to appeal to customers by integrating OSHbots with staff. OSHbots are robotic customer assistants that help customers locate products in the store and provide them with information on the product and current promotions. Not only can they find products, but they can connect with employees from other Orchard stores when human intervention is needed. Check out this video to see OSHbots in action: 

Amazon is also utilizing robots to make sure packages get delivered on time this holiday season. Kiva's [company Amazon purchased in 2012] robots bring shelves of goods out of storage and carry them to employees, allowing Amazon to retrieve more items for more customers simultaneously. Amazon began using these robots in July of this year, and there are now more than 15,000 of them in 10 of the company's warehouses." (Robots Shipping Your Order this Holiday Season)

Artificial Intelligence and robotics are working together to revolutionize how we look at customer service. Do you think other retailers are going to adopt robotic sales associates? If so, how do you think customers will react?
www.nohold.com

Throwback Thursday: The Truth About Virtual Agents

Last year, (October 9, 2013 to be exact) "X" company posted a blog with the opinion that self-service technology is declining. Essentially, the blog post aimed to challenge Virtual Agent (VA) vendors with a list of reasons why VAs are not the future of customer service. If these statements hold true, the following companies are wrong: Leading analyst firms, the top device manufacturers (Apple, Google, etc.), IBM and its Watson division, and more.

Let's take a look at the list of reasons why said company disagrees with Virtual Agent technology, and set the record straight.

Claim 1: Virtual Agent setup takes months since questions and answers are manually added, managed and incorporated into scripts.

Truth: Training a Virtual Agent to represent your brand takes care. A true Virtual Agent does not require 'scripting.' Natural Language Processing (NLP) coupled with an Inference Engine allows the Virtual Agent to drive the conversation. It's not necessary to write up every single possible phrase that the end user will ask your company. Patented technology takes the scripting out of VA creation. Further, a typical VA can be ready to go in 6-8 weeks.

Claim 2: The accuracy rate is not as high, the tool does not learn anything automatically, etc.

Truth: Traditional Artificial Intelligence (AI) learns on its own. AI is at the core of a true VA. The reason why customers do not opt for automatic learning is the same reason why you wouldn't let call center agent learn on his own. Similar to your best agents, VAs require care, and training. For example: A company in the PC industry uses a VA to solve issues related to BSOD or Blue Screen of Death. The root of this problem can be related to multiple options. Is it a driver? Is it a new installed software? Is there a single solution that can be learned on a whim? Tools exist in the back end to 'turn on' automatic learning. Rote memory watches end user behavior, and provides the most relevant solution based on its confidence level. In addition, accuracy results are based on statistical analysis. The reporting is conservative and based solely on votes from the end customer. Virtual Agents prove their success by deflecting up to 50% of calls when positioned
correctly and achieve (on average) 85% success rate.

Claim 3: The cost to create and manage answers is high(er) and could be up to $1 per contact because of the amount of manual work needed.

Truth: noHold reports on this metric for many of its customers. Specifically, a Fortune 500 company in the networking industry reported that the cost per contact is less than the price of a gumball for each session or conversation with the VA. Another company in the PC industry was within the same range.

Claim 4: Conversations, questions, and answers must be pre-written, pre-programmed according to a certain predicted script.

Truth: As mentioned in claim 1, there is no scripting.

Claim 5: VAs do not support automatic translation.

Truth: Yes, they do. The reason most VA vendors do not typically offer 'automatic translation' is for this reason: Global languages are structured differently. Automatic translation is great, and easy to do however, lacks accuracy and does not take the NLP into account. A true NLP looks at the roots of words and how groups of words are related. In order to translate in this environment, tokenization and lemmentization are key. According to online resources, tokenization is useful both in linguistics (where it is a form of text segmentation), and in computer science, where it forms part of a lexical analysis. In response to Lemmatization: In many languages, words appear in several inflected forms. For example, in English, the verb 'to walk' may appear as 'walk', 'walked', 'walks', 'walking'. The base form, 'walk', that one might look up in a dictionary, is called the lemma for the word. The combination of the base form with the part of speech is often called the lexeme of the word. Lemmatisation is closely related to stemming. The difference is that a stemmer operates on a single word without knowledge of the context, and therefore cannot discriminate between words which have different meanings depending on part of speech. However, stemmers are typically easier to implement and run faster, and the reduced accuracy may not matter for some applications.(wikipedia.com, 2014)

Claim 6: VAs are usually placed on the home page or certain landing pages as it is too complex to create different conversation scripts for each page. As a result, VAs are used mostly for lead generation or routing.

Truth: Virtual Agents are light weight, and again do not require scripting. A single Virtual Agent can be diagnostic and interactive (offer troubleshooting) for complex issues, and at the same time, be conversational. Many trusted brands position the same VA on a Facebook site and community forums that they use on support pages and contact us pages.

In summary: According to respected analyst firms, as well as trusted brands, the Virtual Assistant market is expected to grow exponentially. Whether for customer service, technical support, or as a butler for your device, adoption is undeniable. A true Virtual Agent uses NLP, and can troubleshoot issues just as well as it can answer conversational questions. Powerful reporting tools empower award winning brands to listen to the voice of the customer while providing a snapshot that can be shared company-wide.

Happy Thursday!

The Future of Self-Service in the Financial Industry

Self-service is all around us. From the self checkout kiosks in the grocery store, to the self check-in terminals at the airport; even restaurants are turning to tablets for order fulfillment. The truth is, consumers prefer self service. According to NCR, which makes self-service technology, 85% of consumers prefer brands that offer several forms of self-service: online, at kiosks and via mobiles, etc. (www.economist.com, 2009). When it comes to the web, leading analyst firm Gartner predicted that in 2012, “By 2014, 50% of online customer self-service search activities will be via a Virtual Assistant (VA) for at least 1,500 large enterprises.” (Source: Gartner Predicts 2012: CRM Customer Service and Support Staggers in the Posthuman Age, Jacobs, J.)

One Fortune 500 organization reports that more than 70% or customers stated that the support site is their first stop, before other support channels such as phone support. More customers engage with online support offerings and spend more time navigating through support pages with a greater success rate in finding what they are looking for.

Statistics gathered by Gartner, in August 2013 are shown in the graph below. The data represents bank channel usage by country and preferred channel. To get direct insight into consumer behaviors and attitudes around financial services, Gartner conducted consumer research in 9 countries. Visits to banking channels via PC represent the most popular channel for accessing accounts. “Despite this higher level of branch use in emerging markets, the pattern across all countries surveyed is consistent, with a substantial drop-off in branch frequency compared with digital channels for routine banking activities (such as checking a bank balance, initiating a bank transfer or obtaining the answer to a query). Adjusting to this shift effectively is critical for retail banking organizations and the IT teams that support them.” (Source: Gartner: Bank Customers Still Love Branches, but Just Don't Use Them as Much. David Schehr, August 2013.)

Accessing accounts online via PC represents the most popular interaction channel. Responding to queries online (via self-service) should be a high priority for financial institutions.

Source: Gartner (August 2013)

Virtual Personal Assistants Shine a Spotlight on Virtual Agents


According to a blog shared by Kate Leggett, Forrester Research, "Customers today are trained to go online to get answers to their questions by navigating a company’s FAQ list, or by typing in keywords to surface the right piece of content. In fact, 66% of customers use this channel. But at 51%, the satisfaction ratings for this channel are the lowest of all the communication channels that Forrester tracks. It's because keeping content in line with customer demand and making it easily accessible to customers is very hard to do. Enter the world of virtual agents. These solutions use natural language processing and artificial intelligence to greet a customer and to serve up the right answer to their question, which is asked using a customer's natural speech pattern, not just keywords. These answers could be a straightforward response, knowledge base content, data (like ‘Did my check clear?’), or the result of a transaction (like ‘Book me on the next flight home out of San Francisco’). With the right tuning and integration to back-end systems, virtual agents are able to personalize and contextualize customer interactions.” Gartner predicts that "Virtual personal assistant usage in business will grow more quickly in 2017 and 2018 than iPad usage did in 2010 and 2011." (Gartner Predicts 2014) Google™’s recent announcement of Hummingbird further augments these predictions – As stated by Google’s VP of Search, the goal was to create a more humanlike experience. Accompanied by Siri, Sherpa, Google Now, and other Personal Virtual Assistants, the future of interaction is self-service with enhanced humanlike capabilities.

We Live in a Mobile-Enabled World

In addition to these humanlike, self-service developments, the consumer demand for mobile devices has transformed the World Wide Web into the mobile web. In a recent Gartner survey (Source: Gartner: Survey Analysis: E-Commerce Customers Look to Cloud, Mobile and Transformational Change, July 2013, Fletcher, C., Alvarez G., et al.), “more than 48% of respondents plan to integrate mobile applications with their e-commerce storefronts, and more than 36% plan integrations for personalization.” Search is the top feature integrated into e-commerce platforms – more than 85% of respondents have integrated or have plans to integrate search capabilities; the top two focuses for future integration are mobile (48%) and personalization (36%).

Virtual Agents are designed to be light-weight applications that live in the cloud. They are easily optimized for mobile interaction, and can be accessed from a mobile phone application, mobile website, or even activated through scanning a QR code. They are also multi-channel, which means the technology can be leveraged across multiple channels such as: social media, in the call center, in stores or branches, as well as the web (internally for employees/externally for end customers) and mobile environments.

One of the challenges for organizations is creating a customer service experience that does not function in the same manner across all channels. In “Six Best Practices for CRM Web Customer Service Deployments” Gartner validates these points by stating “The biggest problem with most self-service solutions is when the transactional self-service solution (e.g., online ticket booking, online banking, etc.) does not have an equivalent supporting channel. If the customer needs assistance, then he or she often has to use the phone channel. This approach increases the number of calls into the call center, as opposed to reducing the number of calls, thus negating the potential savings from a reduction in incoming telephone calls.” (Source: Gartner: Six Best Practices for CRM Web Customer Service Deployments, 2012, Johan Jacobs).

A best practice for mobile strategy is to provide a customer service channel that complements the light-weight, easy to use, mobile format of the most popular devices. Similarly, create an optimized experience across various channels; for example: web, call center, social media, etc. Virtual Agents are not only ideal for these environments, but they are a part of a preferred multichannel customer experience.

Evidence in the Financial Industry

Computershare, a transfer agent that operates customer service centers for shareholder servicing for public companies and closed-end mutual fund companies, implemented a Virtual Agent in its Investor Centre in October of 2010. Brian Heffernan, Product Manager at Computershare said, “Whether it’s through Penny, the virtual agent, or her living kin conducting live chats, the overall effort is to eliminate or reduce electronic mail. We don’t want e-mails because, as any transfer agent will tell you, responding to an e-mail are the most costly method with which you could interface with a customer.” Heffernan continues by noting, “That’s because email does not generate its own responses. That requires not just a human, but a human skilled enough at responding properly—in a manner that not only fulfills the customer’s need, but also will stand up under scrutiny in a compliance review. Beyond that, responding by e-mail tends to invite … yet another e-mail from the customer. The multiple contacts ratchet up costs, dramatically. “Once it gets to the e-mail stage, it gets very expensive.”

Companies in various industries realize the importance of self-service, and not simple self-service; smarter self-service. Similar brands have also noted that a simple search would not be effective in the financial industry. There is definitely a need for enhanced and more humanlike conversation that one receives when interacting with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) that uses a Natural Language Processor (NLP) and Inference Engine (IE). Mr. Heffernan acknowledges, “This can get tricky. A person whose company offers a Dividend Reinvestment Plan might simply refer to it as a Drip, when typing out one of its widely used acronyms. The system has to know that the person is referring to a DRiP. And the system has to know that companies use different acronyms for the same thing. Like DRP. Or even DSPP (Direct Stock Purchase Plan).The ins-and-outs of complex subjects, like cost-basis accounting, have to be grouped and weighted, to help create more precise responses, automatically. Over time, the tool [Virtual Agent] gains experience and gets better.” (Source: 2011 Money Management Executive, By Tom Steinert- relkeld)

The Future

In the past, the standard for web self service was based on a simple search – for example: Google site search, basic Knowledge Management (KM) search, etc. The standard for websites has been based on pushing information to the public in a format that resembles an electronic brochure. The popularity of mobile devices, along with the shift of preferred customer service channels indicates that the future is Natural Language Processing and 2 way interaction channels. Based on much research and forward looking statements from leading analyst firms and experts, self-service projects achieve the highest Return On Investment (ROI) when leveraged across all channels and optimized for the right channel experience. Virtual Agents are a key component in a successful Web Customer Service strategy, as validated by industry experts.

References:

"The Recession Spurs Self Service: Help yourself" Economist, 2009. Retrieved October 2013

Gartner Research. (2012). Gartner Predicts 2012: CRM Customer Service and Support Staggers in the Posthuman Age. [Press Release] Retrieved from http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/1929014

Gartner Research "Bank Customers Still Love Branches, but Just Don't Use Them as Much" David Schehr, August 2013."

Gartner Research. (2013). Gartner Reveals Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users for 2014 and Beyond. [Press Release] Retrieved from http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2603215

Gartner Research "Gartner: Survey Analysis: E-Commerce Customers Look to Cloud, Mobile and Transformational Change" Fletcher C., Alvarez G., et al. July 2013.

Gartner Research "Gartner: Six Best Practices for CRM Web Customer Service Deployments" Jacobs, J. 2013.

"A Penny Learned: How a Virtual Agent Gets Job Done." Money Management Executive, Tom Steinert-relkeld, 2011.

© Copyright noHold Inc. 2013 All other product and service names are the property of their respective owners.