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.

Interview: Customer Service Experts- In Depth Look on How Customer Service Leaders Manage Critical Events

Read the Interviews: Expert opinions on weathering the storm during high customer traffic, the biggest support related challenges, and advice from service and support veterans with over 20 years of experience. View the interviews now from Dave Hare, SVP of Customer Success; Garry Schultz, Customer Success Executive; and Bill Rose, Founder of the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) and Bill Rose, Inc.  David Hare, is currently SVP Customer Success at OoYala. He has over 30 years of experience building, designing, and managing world-class service delivery organizations. Garry Schultz is a Customer Success Executive of 20+ years, focused in the international B2C and B2B software market. He has moved the bar forward with AVG Technologies, Blackberry, and Intuit.  Bill Rose has 40 years in the technology services industry, having held every position from field service rep to software support engineer to service management and finally service executive. He founded the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA), which is now Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA), and is the founder of Bill Rose, Inc. If you missed our last editions, you can still read How Stand Out Brand Weather the Storm During Critical Spikes in Customer Traffic, as well as the Infographic: Insider Metrics on how Virtual Assistants help manage customer traffic peaks.

Dave Hare, Senior Vice President of Customer Success at OoYala. Garry Schultz, Customer Success Executive with 20+ years of experience. Bill Rose, Service Executive, Founder of the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) and Bill Rose, Inc.

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

National Small Business Week: Top 3 Benefits of Self-Service for the Small Business Owner

Photo Credit: auditionsfree.com

"Every year since 1963, the President of the United States has issued a proclamation announcing National Small Business Week, which recognizes the critical contributions of America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners" (sba.gov). This year, May 4th through the 8th is the week dedicated to honoring small businesses in the US. As a small business our self, noHold appreciates the value our solution brings within enterprises, but also recognizes the benefits that it can produce for small businesses. Here are the top 3 advantages to making a Virtual Assistant apart of your small business team.

1. Implementing a Virtual Assistant is cost effective. As a small business, saving money where you can is important. By offer your customers with a web based self service solution to cater to their support needs, you empower them to find the answers to their own questions 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week, thus reducing support costs.  

Photo Credit: ncsbc.net

2. The Virtual Assistant reduces the volume of calls/emails to contact centers, decreasing the load that a live agent would need to tend to. 

3. The Virtual Assistant is designed to be easily maintained making it convenient for small businesses who do not have a lot of man power. 

Photo Credit: dekalbchamber.org

Those are just a few of the advantages that come from a Virtual Assistant for your small business. While most of our clientele are enterprise companies, we have successful implemented a number of Virtual Assistants for smaller companies and they have seen great results.    

In similar news, noHold was recognized by Gartner as a 'cool vendor' in business process services for 2015. These 'cool vendor' titles are specifically designed to recognize the innovations of small and medium sized businesses that normally would not be able to compete with large enterprises. To read the press release and find out more about Gartner's 'cool vendor' series, click here. 

www.nohold.com 

Self-Service Solution Offer Support in Multiple Languages

Photo Credit: dayinterpreters.com

Becoming a globally recognized brand takes more than having an awesome product/ service, the company needs to provide exceptional customer support to all their consumers as well. This might come as a challenge when you have consumers all over the world who speak different languages. Hiring agents that can speak different languages can get costly, and frankly, its not practical.

One way to break down language barriers between you and your consumers is by implementing a Virtual Assistant. One of the many unique features of Virtual Assistants is the capability to support almost any language (single- or double-byte languages). We have talked about the importance of being able to communicate to your customers in their native language in the past and as a company, noHold is always trying to expand our capabilities. We are excited to announce that we  now support Virtual Assistants in two new languages: Polish and Turkish. (In addition to our already live Virtual Agents in Italian, Russian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, French, traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Dutch.)

Do you think having a multilingual support strategy is important? Why or why not? If yes, what is it for your company? 
www.nohold.com

The Evolution of Virtual Customer Assistants

A look back at the advances Virtual Agents have made in the past 20 years.

Photo Credit: dailygalaxy.com

Virtual Agents have become a part of the mainstream culture now. Just take a look at Siri, Google Now, Cortana, and many other large brands are starting to follow suit and acquire Artificial Intelligence companies. As a company with over 15 years of experience working within the Virtual Agent space, noHold has constantly been advancing our technology to fit with the times. Here is a brief recap to show you how far Virtual Agents have evolved since their inception:

1. A Virtual Agent (VA) can get data only from its own database

2. VA can leverage content from other databases

3. VA can integrate with back office systems

4. VA can connect to external devices

5. VA leverages context intelligently by being super connected

As you can see, Virtual Agents have advanced tremendously.Going from only being able to retrieve data from their own database, to leveraging information intelligently from multiple sources is incredible. [Click here to read how noHold helped a global giant move from traditional support to leveraging a Virtual Agent for more complex issues.]

What do you think the next step will be in the evolution of Virtual Assistants? Is your company noticing the upward trend in Artificial Intelligence use and what are they doing about it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. 

Cheers!

www.nohold.com

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

Virtual Customer Assistants Advancing in 2015 to Solve Complex Problems

Virtual Personal Assistants (VPAs) have become a household name; something we use daily without thinking twice about it. Things such as Siri, 'Okay Google', Cortana, etc. have been integrated into our lives, it has become second nature to communicate with Artificial Intelligence. Most people actually prefer it to get quick and easy answers to their needs: getting directions, scheduling an appointment, calling a friend, etc. 

Virtual Customer Assistants (VCAs) have been used to streamline customer support questions long before VPAs became popular. VCAs have advanced greatly since their inception, though. Now, VCA's are not just used to answer simple support questions, they have the capacity to integrate with back end systems to understand more complex problems and connect with more sophisticated devices. Stay tuned for next weeks announcement on a project noHold and one of the largest networking companies in the world have been working on. 
Cheers! 
www.nohold.com

Cisco Small Business Adopts Mobile Support By Providing Customers with a Mobile-Friendly Virtual Customer Assistant

Milpitas California, November 6, 2014  – noHold, Inc. is pleased to formally announce Cisco Small Business’ first mobile-friendly Virtual Customer Assistant. This mobile Virtual Assistant was launched in December of 2013 and has received positive feedback ever since.

Cisco Small Business (SB) is an extension of Cisco, providing small businesses with trusted Cisco products and services. Cisco has been a longtime customer of noHold, circa 2006, working collaboratively to bring innovation and smarter self-service together. noHold provides Cisco SB with the self-service support option appropriately named ‘Guide Me.’ Since its implementation, Guide Me has produced great results for Cisco SB. With the success of their web-based Virtual Assistant, noHold suggested developing a mobile-friendly version of Guide Me, to make support accessible for users on any device. 

“As of 2013, worldwide mobile phone internet user penetration was 73.4 percent. In 2017, figures suggest that more than 90 percent of internet users will access online content through their phones.” (Statistics and Facts on Mobile Internet Usage). Smartphones and mobile devices (i.e. tablets, wearable devices, etc.) are becoming users’ preferred mode of staying connected. For Cisco SB, it is important to make self-support available across all devices because most of Cisco SB’s customers are not always near a desktop when they need support resolving an issue. Becoming mobile-friendly is proving to be the most efficient way for Cisco SB to provide the answer their users need, while on the go.

Shawn Price, Sr. Manager of End-User & Collaboration Applications at Cisco says, “Our Virtual Agent helps us in two very important ways: One, it helps achieve our goal to make self-support easier for our customers to discover exactly what they need as quickly and easily as possible; and two, our Virtual Agent also gives all of our customers the opportunity to give us critical feedback on our content with every article.  Having the voice of our customers helps us improve our content, which is a tremendous value to us all.” As an acknowledged leader in providing excellent web support for their customers, Cisco prides themselves on giving great customer service. Cisco has won multiple awards for excellence in web-based self-service for the support site. Now, Cisco is carrying on the experience of outstanding web-based support, and using it to revolutionize support for the mobile generation.

“Making the Virtual Assistant work on a mobile device is important, but detecting in real time that a query is coming from a mobile device, so that the content can be automatically rendered to fit that type of environment is imperative and makes the solution very scalable, “ said Diego Ventura, Founder and CEO of noHold.

About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. For ongoing news, please go to http://thenetwork.cisco.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 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 interaction. noHold customers include Toshiba, Lenovo, Cisco and a host of industry leaders. More information can be found at www.nohold.com.

Press Contacts
Sarah Ramoz
Marketing Operations Manager
sramoz@nohold.com
408.946.9200 ext. 305

Veronica Cech
Social Media Assistant
vcech@nohold.com
408.946.9200 ext. 356

How to Increase Revenue With Support Services

In a customer-centric world, creating an excellent customer experience is key to making your brand stand out from the rest. Statistics show that improving the customer experience is actually cost effective; “A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10%” (15 Statistics That Should Change the Business World- But Haven’t). One noHold customer discovered how an existing Virtual Assistant could help generate revenue by promoting new products/services in the right context. Here’s the story…

• The brand in reference is in the consumer electronics industry.
• The company implemented a Virtual Assistant that primarily answers post-sales questions about products.
• On average, the Virtual Assistant handles 75,000 interactions per month, while significantly decreasing support costs.
• The company began promoting a new service on the web site, a Premium Support Service.
• They used typical marketing strategies: banners, colorful buttons, etc. Very little leads came from this type of advertising, though. 
• noHold proposed to let the Virtual Assistant offer the Premium Service in the right context. For example, when an end user describes a problem, the Virtual Assistant provides an answer, but if appropriate, it also suggests to sign up for the Premium Service. No flashy buttons or gimmicks, just let the Virtual Assistant play the role of an expert advisor. 
• It worked! Of the 75,000 interactions per month, 10,000 resulted in leads, and 1,200 converted into sales. After doing the calculations (each sale being about $110), this company was generating an average of $132,000 per month via the new revenue stream.

From this, we learned a couple invaluable lessons. First being, the Virtual Assistant is a great resource to generate leads that might have been lost otherwise. The same service that was not getting attention while flashing in the middle of the Website, is now reaching record sales due to the Virtual Assistant’s ability to understand the context of the conversation and present an offer only when it makes sense. 

Secondly, the Virtual Assistant is able to provide a better customer experience than most other solutions. Take this as an example; a customer is lamenting that the battery life on his or her laptop is degrading. The Virtual Assistant can provide both simple suggestions to increase battery life, and present a one-click link to buy a new battery. In the end, the customer receives excellent customer service and the company effectively cross-sells in the appropriate context. 

“In today’s society, humans are programmed to reject typical forms of advertisements, but everyone still appreciates a helping hand when they are trying to solve a problem.” –Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold. 

 

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

Throwback Thursday: Insider Interview with VP of Worldwide Customer Advocacy

Circa 2010, noHold had the privilege to get an exclusive interview about noHold Connect (formerly known as Confederated Knowledge) with Cisco's VP of Worldwide Customer Advocacy, D. Jay Pederson. Here is a snippet from the interview.  

"How do your customers feel about your support initiatives? 

According to our online survey, more customers perceive our online support initiatives very positively and are satisfied with the support options available to them online. 

Where do you see the industry heading, both in general, and specifically as it relates to support? 

Several industry indicators lead us to believe that there are more collaborative support efforts among key industry players, in areas such as inter-operability where support boundaries begin to blur. Also more companies have support presence in new social media channels such as Twitter, and Facebook, which are out of those companies’ domain. Social media dictates a new engagement model with customers and has a significant impact on brand image and equity."

To read the full document, please click here.  

Fast forward to today, I'm curious to see how these answers might have changed? Where do YOU see the industry heading, both in general, and specifically as it relates to support? 

www.nohold.com 

Creating an Excellent Customer Experience with Virtual Reality Technology

There has been a lot of talk circulating the media about Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus VR, the company that developed the virtual reality headset called Oculus Rift. Most people consider virtual reality technology to be specifically for gamers only, so there is a lot of confusion as to why Facebook wanted to invest into this company. According to an article from nojitter.com, Oculus Rift: The Future of Customer Experience, “The clues to why Facebook made this investment lie in what else Zuckerberg had to say in his announcement. Virtual reality was once the dream of science fiction. But the Internet was also once a dream, and so were computers and smartphones. Is this what the acquisition was all about--chasing a dream? Is it possible that this $2 billion bet is not about ‘science fiction,’ but will instead be part of bringing the ‘future to the world, and to unlock new worlds for all of us,’ as Zuckerberg concluded?”

It is apparent that as time progresses we are adopting new, more immersive technologies every day. For example, holographic images are becoming more wide spread. Holographic avatars are used as “greeters” in airports or retail stores, providing individuals with a warm welcome and pertinent information to their visit. Holographic keyboards for your smartphone are also gaining popularity. We can bet it is not going to stop there, though; Facebook, along with trusted analysts, envision a future that completely immerses reality with virtual reality. Here is a video from CORNING, the world leader in specialty glass and ceramics, demonstrating what such a world would look like.

This idea posed in the video above of an interactive world does not seem too far off. In fact, for many years companies have already been using “virtual” technology to enhance their customer’s experiences. Virtual Agents(VA's) are a great example of such technologies that provide the desired interaction the consumer wants, while keeping costs down, and increasing satisfaction. Not only do VA’s offer exceptional customer support, but they are also used to augment ecommerce sales. For more information on Virtual Agents for Sales, please click here.

Our reality is continually being enhanced with technology. Do you think Facebook has validity in investing in what is considered to be a “niche” market? How do you feel about blurring the lines between virtual reality and actuality? 

Throwback Thursday: According to a Leading Analyst Firm, 50% of Online Self-Service Will be Via a Virtual Assistant

     In the early days of the Internet, CallCenter.com published an article, "What’s in a Name? noHold Rebrands Self-Help Software." This article was written back in October of 2001 (just about 13 year ago) sharing the multiple benefits of using a Virtual Agent. One of the paragraphs cites compelling predictions about on-line service for 2005....

“If cost savings aren't enough to sell you on the product, consider also that, according to Jupiter Media Metrix, the number of individuals seeking on-line service will jump to 67 million in 2005, up from 33 million this year.”

     When looking at the numbers of people seeking online service today, this prediction has been far surpassed. Billions of people are connected to the Internet and web-based customer support is quickly becoming the preferred channel for customer support. 

     The future of Virtual Agents is predicted to keep growing. According to a leading analyst firm, “By 2015, 50% of online customer self-service search activities will be via a virtual assistant for at least 1500 large enterprises” (Intelligent Virtual Agents for SMBs, smbnow.com) Looking at the pattern from 2001 up to today, it is apparent that continuously more and more people are interested in web self-service. What will the future of Virtual Agents/web self-service look like in 10 more years? Will the current predictions be surpassed yet again?

Enhance Your Social Media Platform by Adding a Virtual Agent

Social media is a great way to connect with your consumers and hear what they have to say about your products or services. Here is a video explaining how social media to enhance your business.

With nearly one in four people around the world connected to social media today (eMarketer), your company’s social channels are where a lot of people refer to when faced with support questions or to talk about a complaint. To handle some of the questions, companies opt to implement a Virtual Agent on their social sites (e.g. Facebook), so customers have the option to answer their own questions, on their own time. Companies are still engaging the customer via social media, but doing so in a more time efficient manner.

Throwback Thursday: Best Practices for Troubleshooting

Happy Throwback Thursday!

A recent deployment of a Virtual Agent integrating with a troubleshooter got me thinking about the progression of troubleshooting and how it has enhanced over the years.

Circa 2010, noHold created a modem troubleshooting Virtual Agent that  incorporated the knowledge from top modem providers...a sort of all in one Virtual Agent. It would be a place for consumers to go to find problems with any of their devices. This product was directed toward telecommunication companies by providing them with a way to support their consumers know matter what company their modem is from. For example, if someone is having a problem with their modem, they can type to the Virtual Agent, "I am having problems with my modem," and the Virtual Agent would respond with a list of modem brands for you to pick the correct model. This Modem Troubleshooter was made possible by Confederated Knowledge. Here is a screenshot of the modem troubleshooter powered by noHold.

In today's market, a global leader providing digital products, services and solutions, including industry-leading laptops, tablets, HDTVs, Blu-ray Disc™ and media streaming products and much more integrated Virtual Agent technology with their troubleshooting solution.  

The Challenge: The company built a flash troubleshooting solution, but noticed many users abandoned the tool, and they did not know why.

The Answer:  A Virtual Agent!  They added an “Other” option to the flash troubleshooter where end users can type in the issue in their own terms.  This launches the virtual agent, which can report on the user queries AND provide solutions.

Here's a sample of how the troubleshooter offers the Virtual Agent as an option.

Whether a Virtual Agent is being used as a troubleshooter or a compliment to leverage troubleshooting, it is a great asset to any company's customer support program. 

Cheers!

Throwback Thursday: SalesAdvisor

Happy Throwback Thursday!
For this weeks throwback Thursday I wanted to share with you the first SalesAdvisor Virtual Agent launched by noHold, Ask Roxanne from a leading company in digital media software and services. They utilized their Virtual Agent not only for customer support, but also for sales. 

Lately, e-commerce has been booming, Google has even joined the e-commerce bandwagon with Google Shopping Express. This is a website where you can purchase virtually anything you need from featured stores such as Target, NobHill, Whole Foods, ect... and it all ships to your home on the same day. A business like that would benefit greatly from implementing SalesAdvisor because it can help customers with any questions they have, and also personalize their experience by suggesting items that go well with what they have already selected.   

It is fairly well known that self-service is effective for support, but it is also effective for sales! Creating a great customer experience online can be tricky. It is hard to demonstrate great customer service and personalization through the Internet. But the use of a Virtual Agent for support AND sales will complete the full customer journey circle; while creating loyal customers and increasing conversion rates.

SalesAdvisor has been around since 2005, but has been evolving ever since, too. Check out this slideshare presentation to find out what the future of shopping will look like.
Learn how a simple QR code on product packaging can trigger a Virtual sales rep that follows your customer throughout the journey from attract, convert, fulfill to support. 

Throwback Thursday: How Window Shopping Has Changed In the 21st Century.

Happy Throwback Thursday!

In recent years, window shopping has taken on a new meaning. It no longer means that you physical need to be at the store to find out what the great deals are. You can virtually be there and find the best prices without having to travel from shop to shop, which takes hours! 
Have you ever gone shopping for something and used your Smartphone as a tool to help you find the best deals? I know I have. Just recently, I was shopping for a TV; I started at Costco and examined their prices, and then, as I was casually walking around, I was looking online at Best Buy's company website seeing what kind of deals I can get over there. Unfortunately for Costco, I ended up doing my business with Best Buy because I found a better deal for what I was looking for with my Smartphone.

I’m bringing this up because I came across an article that actually gave a name to what I (and many other Americas) do instead of the traditional window shopping. They call it showrooming, being in a store and looking at their competitors’ website on your Smartphone, shopping for better deals. To me, this concept is genius. I mean we are in the era of technology, so why not use it to conveniently save some money? 

Companies are becoming very upset when they find out that they are losing business to a competitor because their consumers were able to hop on their phones and quickly compare prices. Stores are trying to figure out ways to combat showrooming. In the 1to1 Media article linked above, they mention stores charging fees for people who come into there stores "just to look."                                

To say the least, people were not thrilled with these signs at all. In my opinion, this store will probably lose more customers because of these signs, than because of showrooming. 

Instead of coming up with ridiculous ways to stop people from showrooming, experts suggest companies to embrace this phenomenon and use it as incentive to work a little harder to make sure consumers make purchases and also, come back to their store. Providing EXCEPTIONAL customer service is a great way to keep customers from leaving your store to go to another. Whether we like to believe it or not, people base a majority of their decision on emotion. They remember the experience they had and the feeling they got when shopping in a store and will likely come back if these feelings were positive. 

Another way, is to get showroomers to leave the store they are at and come to yours by having an attractive AND effective website. Seth Godin wrote a blog called “Q&A: What Works for Websites Today?” He shared a list of questions that should be addressed when creating a good website. He stated, “But I stand with a series of questions that will expose the challenges of any website (and the problems of the organization that built it):

• Who is this site for?
• How did they find out about it?
• What does the design remind them of?
• What do you want them to do when they get here?
• How will they decide to do that, and what promises do you make to cause that action?

The only reason to build a website is to change someone. If you can't tell me the change and you can't tell me the someone, then you're wasting your time.” Create a website that works for your business...it is one of your biggest resources for gaining customers and increasing customer loyalty. 

How do Virtual Agents (VA's) fit into this equation? Simple. SalesAdvisor™ , a VA can give your company one up on the competition. Having SalesAdvisor™ implemented on your company website can help customers find what they are looking for easily and answer any questions they may have about your products, all while cross-selling. Since people are using their phones to access your website, it is a great idea to have someone/thing on their assisting the customer. SalesAdvisor™ can also be used as a tool for employees to provide even better customer service. Maybe implementing the VA on a company tablet? 

How to Increase Sales by Tracking Four Specific Problems - by noHold Inc. from noHold, Inc.

The term “window shopping” has changed throughout the 21^st century because of the convenience of mini-computers in the palm of our hand, 24/7. Point being, we should embrace what technology brings to us, not fight it. Challenge ourselves to adapt to the times and continue innovation. 

Cheers.