A Customer Success Story: Virtual Assistant Thrives in Educational Institution

Preface: Back in 2018, noHold announced one of our customer in the education market started utilizing a Virtual Assistant to help with their expanding training platform. Here is a follow up on how the Virtual Assistant is performing.

A company that serves 7,500 educational institutions has created a platform. The platform is meant to teach skills in Networking, Programming, Cybersecurity and IoT. The platform provides faculty with a course layout and instructions to manage class logistics, while giving students a way to participate in the course. In the United States, over 7,500 institutions, 3,200 instructors and 135,000 students utilize the platform to date.

The popularity of the learning platform has grown tremendously in the last 5 years. Translating into an increase in support tickets to the Contact Center. To manage the increase in traffic the Networking Company has increased spending.

In an effort to better manage support tickets, reduce contact center spending and support a growing academy they looked to a Virtual Assistant to help students and instructors help themselves. The Virtual Assistant was designed with a persona, as well as, positioned as a first line of contact on the platform and website to encourage usage. The Virtual Assistant took 2 weeks to launch with the help of two engineers, a web master and one content specialist.

The Results

The Virtual Assistant went live in the first quarter of 2018 with an immediate 27% reduction in support tickets. As the year continues, each quarter has resulted in about a 46% reduction in Contact Center tickets. The reduction in tickets has resulted in a 70% ROI. The Virtual Assistant and persona associated with it have received an overwhelmingly positive review from students and faculty.

For more information on a Virtual Assistant's role in higher education, please feel free to contact noHold.

The Next Web Interviews noHold's CEO for Insider Knowledge on What's Going on in the World of AI

Article of the week: The Next Web's Josiah Motley wrote an article about how AI is transforming customer service. He asked Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold, to share a few of his thoughts on the topic. He goes into the increase in consumer interaction with AI (whether we know it or not), and, the question that gets asked all the time, what does that mean for our jobs. 

"I see Virtual Assistants [VAs]  for one, as a way to primarily improve the customer experience and, two, augmenting the capabilities of existing employees – rather than simply taking their jobs. VAs help users find information more easily. Most of the VA users are people who were going to the Web to self-serve anyway, we are just making it easier for them to find what they are looking for and yes, prevent escalations to the call center."

Read the full article here: https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2017/06/07/ai-transforming-customer-service/#.tnw_TwuTok8B

noHold’s AI Continues to Improve Efficiency in the Call Center

SICURA QuickStart™ is making it easier than ever for Call Centers to adopt bots

April 27, 2017, MILPITAS, CA – Since the launch of SICURA QuickStart, users have shared multiple ways they are using Albert (the bot created from existing documents). One use case that adds significant value to businesses is leveraging Albert in the Call Center. Recently, a globally recognized conference brand based in Long Beach, CA, created an Albert designed specifically to help Call Center Agents become proficient quickly, and compliant when answering customer questions.

This Call Center is responsible for providing technical support and customer care to people in multiple countries 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year round. After trying different methods and resources to help Agents, the Call Center Manager turned to noHold for help.

In the past, noHold has worked with large enterprises to implement Virtual Assistants in the Call Center, proving Artificial Intelligence works as a great resource not only for customers, but also Agents. According to a recent blog by Cisco, bots are included in the top ten technologies to consider for contact centers in 2017 (Cisco).  

Now, with SICURA QuickStart, the same concept can be applied using Albert, except no programming skills are required to create Albert and the implementation time is much quicker. The Call Center Manager was able to input all the content Agents needed to know about into one Word document, upload it to the QuickStart platform, and within minutes a bot was created. Agents are able to use Albert while replying to customers’ emails, and also while on the phone.  Specifically, the Call Center Manager achieved the following objectives: 

• They reduced the time to get an agent up to speed from one month to one week.
•  Agents were excited to get a tool that made their job easier and more fun, which decreased churn significantly.
• Since Albert delivers information to the agents’ fingertips in real time, AHT dropped by 12 points.
• Consistency and compliance of the information delivered by the agents improved significantly because agents were all leveraging one single source of information.
• Albert provides specific reporting on how many questions agents ask every day and what most of the questions are about. This helps the Call Center Manager make sure that the company is always ahead of what is needed to make the agents successful. 

In summary, Albert took less than an hour to set up and it paid for itself upon launch. Most of all, Albert helped the Call Center Manager with the constant challenge of onboarding and training new agents necessary to keep the Call Center fully staffed.

Diego Ventura, CEO and Founder of noHold says, “We believe that Albert is taking the Consumerization of IT one step further, empowering agents with the same sophisticated tools, such as bots, that people are starting to use in their daily lives.”

To learn more about how businesses can leverage Albert to improve Call Center efficiency, you can find more information here.

How Stand-out Brands Weather the Storm during Critical Spikes in Customer Traffic

Photo Credit: business2community.com

What do the Pacquiao vs. Mayweather fight, back-to-school, severe weather and the holidays have in common? Urgency. And when there is a sense of panic or urgency, spikes in customer contact occur. Read how a leading brand weathered the storm during a major call center outage. Learn how the company was still able to manage over 500,000 customer conversations despite the 5 day power loss. 

Then, stay tuned in the coming weeks for our next edition to get: 

• Real metrics on the impact of customer contacts during outages, major holidays, and peaks in volume. 
• Advice from industry experts Bill Rose from Bill Rose, Inc. and David Hare, SVP of Customer Success, as both offer their own take on the biggest support related challenges, and recalling how each weathered the storm during critical events.  

Read now: How stand-out brands weather the storm during critical spikes in customer traffic

Virtual Customer Assistants and Self-Service Used to Enhance CRM Platforms

Photo Credit: vocalcom.com

Last week, ComputerWorld published an article on Microsoft’s newest CRM suite, fully equipped with their Personal Virtual Assistant, Cortana. “Tasks available via Cortana voice commands will include setting up meetings and reminders, searching for contacts, accounts and activities, calling up customer lists and creating new records” (Cortana to Give Voice and Ears to Dynamics CRM).

It seems like Microsoft is making the right moves, at the right time by enhancing their Dynamics CRM platform. Research from trusted analyst firms in the industry are advocating for a shift to omni-channel CRM systems; that is, moving from a Contact Center to a Customer Engagement Center (CEC). According to one of the leading analyst firms, it is imperative for companies to include multiple business applications and technologies that will coexist and work cohesively. Some examples of functions that incorporate to create the full CEC ecosystem are: knowledge management solutions, social media channels for customer to receive support (including blogs, communities, and forums), providing mobile support options, and more.

Other CRM vendors are further validating the need for omni-channel CRM platforms. Recently, the customer service and engagement vendor, [24]7, acquired Virtual Assistant company, Intelliresponse. Another example is Nuance’s acquisition of VirtuOz a while back. These CRM vendors are realizing the value of adding Virtual Customer Assistants as another channel to enhance their CECs. Since self-service is becoming one of the most preferred means for communicating with a company, it is going to be key for CRM vendors to incorporate a way for customers to self-serve if they are on the web, social media, forums, mobile, or at kiosks.  

Do you think other vendors will follow suit with Microsoft? How do you think these acquisitions of Virtual Assistant companies will change the way we use CRM?      

www.nohold.com

The Benefits of a Virtual Agent for BPOs

Photo Credit: mycustomer.com

Outsourcing is not a new paradigm; in fact, many well-known and trusted brands leverage BPO vendors to successfully manage customer support, service, sales and more. 

In order to drive productivity and efficiency, companies turn to BPOs. According to the infographic from INFINIT-O on the left, companies are increasing the amount they spend on outsourcing, while in-house spending is remaining relatively constant. 

Leading analyst firms agree that Virtual Agents play an important role in a successful customer interaction, which bleeds into integration in the services that BPOs provide. Automation, profitability, and scalability are just a few of the challenges that Business Process Outsourcers face. And in a new era of smart machines, Virtual Agents offer a competitive advantage. 

Here are just a few use cases for adding a Virtual Agent to the BPO's existing portfolio of services:

1. Increase revenue by adding disruptive new offerings. 
BPO companies can offer their customers the Virtual Agent to provide a scalable solution that will continue to work as the company grows. The Virtual Agent can also be used to increase conversion rates and generate more leads by suggesting products or services in the appropriate context. BPO companies can also offer the Virtual Agent during peak seasons such as seasonal demand, new product offerings, or even natural calamities. 
By offering the Virtual Agent, BPO companies increase revenue, while providing their customers with the best services for their needs, when they need it.     

2. Increase efficiency at Call Center (lower AHT and training time).
By implementing a Virtual Agent, Contact Center Agents can ask the VA questions while on the phone with customers, follow business guidelines and procedures easily, and can rely on a single repository of information for correct and consistent answers.

3. Provide a competitive strategic advantage.
Leading analyst firm predicts that BPOs must adopt 'automation' to achieve non-linear growth. 

Whether a company adds a Virtual Agent to the existing in-house Contact Center, positions it on the Website as a self-service option, or your BPO vendor provides one for Contact Center Agents, it is a a cost-effective way to provide the end user with the new standard for customer service. 

What do you think about the future of the Contact Center? Do you see Virtual Agents empowering the Contact Center (either outsourced or in-house)?
www.nohold.com

Virtual Agent Tips and Tricks: Leading Analyst Predicts Top Customer Service Trends for 2014

A few months back, Kate Leggett (Principal Analyst at Forrester) wrote a blog titled “Forrester’s Top Trends for Customer Service In 2014.” She suggested 12 new developments to adopt this year to keep customers satisfied and coming back to your business for more. Here are just a few of her tips that really hone in on how to provide over the top customer service.

“Trend 1: Customers Demand Omnichannel Services”
noHold's opinion:
People like to have multiple options when it comes to customer service. Although voice is still the most used channel of communication, it is still important to offer other preferred channels, such as self-service, to balance out the company’s support ecosystem.

“Trend 6: Knowledge Will Evolve from Purely Reactive to Giving Advice”
noHold's opinion:
It is going to be crucial for your company to invest in a knowledge management solution this year. “67% of consumers use web self-service to find answers to their questions” (Forrester's Top Trends for Customer Service in 2014). Since customers prefer self-service, it is important to have the company’s knowledge easily organized, shared, and analyzed so people can find the right solutions on their own time, quickly. Analysts foresee an increased use in Virtual Agents to support a more natural conversation. This will help create an enjoyable experience for the customer, instead of sending lengthy, irrelevant documents.

“Trend 7: Decisioning Will Power Offers, Actions and Connections”
noHold's opinion:
Predictive analytics is a growing trend this year. Brands are analyzing what you look at and your past purchases to try and predict what it is that you would want/ need. Predictive analytics is a great resource for cross-selling/ up-selling. For example, if someone buys something online and encounters  a problem, they can pull up the Virtual Agent, get the answer they need and the Virtual Agent will be able to provide them with the right content personalized for them.

“Trend 10: The Agent Experience is No Longer an Afterthought”
noHold's opinion:
Another top trend for this year is to increase Contact Center agent efficiency by simplifying their work space. One way to accomplish this is by implementing a Virtual Agent into the Contact Center directly. By doing this, your company will improve the Average Handle Time (AHT) per phone call, increase consistency, improve churn, and even new trainees can effectively give solutions to customers with the help of the Virtual Agent.

These are just a few of the top trends talked about in this article; there are many more predictions that can help your company exceed your customers expectations. To read the full blog, click here.  

How do you plan to keep customers satisfied and increase loyalty? 

Cheers!
www.nohold.com 

A Trusted Telecommunications Company Positions a Virtual Agent to Reduce Support Incidents Rate without Sacrificing CSAT

Above is a visual representation of how a leading provider of Home Phone, High Speed Internet, and Wireless Digital TV services positioned a Virtual Agent to preempt the "Contact Us" page. By doing this, the volume of calls, emails, and chats into the Contact Center were cut in HALF!

Here are some keys to success that work for trusted brands:

• Select a Virtual Agent that is Interactive and Diagnostic to have the best chance at increasing First Contact Resolution (FCR). 
• Position the Virtual Agent so that it pre-empts the Contact Us page and other channels.
• If you are not sure what people may ask, deploy an empty Virtual Agent to find out.

Virtual Agents Can Reduce Volume at the Contact Center by 50%

Seth Godin says “80% of your inbound calls are about the same ten things.” (Your Call is Very Important to Us, 2013) Virtual Agents have proven to reduce incidents by 50% in some cases. Here is a video explaining how a Virtual Agent can help reduce the volume of emails and phone calls to your contact center by providing answers to FAQs. 

Cheers!