Virtual Assistant Best Practices: Insight into Enhancing End User Experiences

As an acknowledged leader in the Knowledge Management and Virtual Assistant space, with over 15 years of experience under our belt, noHold is continually developing and adapting a list of best practices, so companies can get the most out of their Virtual Assistant. Below is an infographic created to help companies find out how to enhance end user experiences with the use of our Virtual Assistant technology. 

**I apologize for the small font, please click on the image for an amplified version.

To print a copy of this infographic, please click here.
Cheers!
www.nohold.com

Virtual Agents Get Praise Directly from End Users

We love hearing positive comments back from our clients about their success stories with our Virtual Agents. It is also rewarding on a different level to hear from the end users directly (our clients’ customers). Having people who actually interact with the Virtual Agent say great things about their experience further validates the benefits of a Virtual Agent.  

Here is a quote that we found on a community forum page coming straight from someone who used the Virtual Agent:

“Wow, that’s a pretty great innovation. Nice job Alienware!”

–User of Computer Hardware Virtual Assistant.

Receiving praise is always good, but getting feedback from Virtual Agent users is invaluable. Who knows better than the user if the VA is meeting their needs. In one instance we asked a user of a computer software Virtual Agent how we can improve this tool:

"I like the instant answers. After I got used to it, I considered it a very useful troubleshooting tool (in some regards better than live chat)."

To view more testimonials about noHold's Virtual Agents please follow this link. 

http://www.nohold.com/kudos.html 

Virtual Agent Tips and Tricks: Using a Virtual Agent to Enhance Your Product’s User Manual

User manuals tend to have a love/hate effect on consumers. They are full of useful information and insider knowledge about the products, but it can be a headache having to read through it all to try and find one piece of information.  An example of a cumbersome user manual is for vehicles; hundreds of pages that are filled with so many terms, it is hard to find the information you are looking for. Cars are getting more advanced in today’s technology driven world, too, adding more capabilities to your car than ever before. But to figure out how to utilize these special features you have to find it in the manual and in some cases, go to a support site if you are having problems. 

Compared to car guides, phone manuals have continuously gotten shorter and shorter, with mostly the “common” features provided on a small flip book. Even though the physical user manuals have been cut down, the online versions of the user guides can exceed hundreds of pages, with no interactive and diagnostic features to aid your experience.

While these manuals don’t provide the most intuitive responses, a Virtual Agent can help enhance them to be more user friendly. Instead of handing consumers a huge book, a link to the Virtual Agent can empower users to to simply type in a question such as, “How do I connect my phone to my car?” and get an immediate solution without having to sift through many pages of information.  

Another example of how a Virtual Agent can be used is for registering a product. Typically, when a customer purchases software or any other computer related devices, the manufacturer encourages registration. That process tends to be tedious, informing you to do this and then click that. With a Virtual Agent, registering a product can be streamlined making the experience more interesting and interactive. Doing this provides consumers with that personal, interactive element they are expecting when seeking online assistance, while increasing the chances of repeat visits to the Virtual Agent in the future.

Would customer feedback surveys get better responses if they were part of a Virtual Agent interaction? Would you be more inclined to complete a credit card application through a Virtual Agent than through multiple screens of questions?  What are some other scenarios where an interactive conversation would improve a cumbersome experience? 

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Customer Feedback Fridays - Be Proactive.

When you walk into a brick and mortar business, and the company is known for providing excellent service, what does that mean to you? For me, a store providing great service does a few of the following:

1) The clerk smiles at me and says hello when I enter
2) After saying hello, the clerk does not "pounce" on me, he/she allows me to browse, and confronts me to provide help after giving me some time to look.
3) When it's time to approach me, and I tell the clerk I'm just looking, he/she will simply say "OK, if you need any help my name is Martha and I will be happy to assist you."

Three simple steps. Being too intrusive makes me feel rushed and overwhelmed. By offering help only if I need it, I am happy. I trust that the store cares about my business and wants me to be comfortable.

On the web, don't we all want the same thing? Invite me into your site with a welcome message. Make it easy for me to navigate, so I can find what I'm looking for. Offer to help, but don't push me away. Most companies will say that they strive to re-create the brick and mortar experience for online shoppers.

Proactive chat is a good way to provide guidance through all steps of the sales cycle. Beginning with educate, advise, and up-sell to fulfill, support and maintaining a happy customer.

One noHold customer has recently transformed the traditional Virtual Agent experience into a proactive 'guided' conversation. The proactive agent comes in two forms:
1) A proactive pop-up will appear after 3 seconds on the page.
2) On another page, a proactive pop-up will appear the 3rd time you visit the page (click a link, then click back to see it in action).  In this version, you can type in a question to start the virtual chat interaction.

The beauty of this experience is that the Virtual Agent will present itself, but the end user can decide to say yes or no, or simply close the window. The pop-up is a small window that does not intrude on the visitors navigation or block the view of the page.

What's that you say? Pop-ups have a bad wrap? It's true, but keep in mind that if it's done the right way most users prefer proactive chat. In fact, a leading analyst firm says,  "Implementing proactive chat can be a complex process that requires aligning multiple business areas. However, a successful proactive chat implementation doesn't end with a check mark next to the word "done"; savvy eBusiness professionals understand that proactive chat success requires ongoing refinement of the business rules that will trigger chat invitations, staffing, and customer experience." Forrester, 2010, Diane Clarkson.

And with any business, online or brick and mortar, your customers and prospects are going to have questions. Choosing the tried and true method of the most successful retail stores in the nation, and recreating that experience online is what we all aim for. If you want to learn more about proactive chat and how leading brands do it today, my name is Sarah, and I will be right here if you need my assistance.

Cheers to the weekend!