Dell Recognized as Top Player in Web & Social Support by LAPTOP Magazine

Photo Credit: https://www.tanet.com/

It's about that time of year when LAPTOP Magazine releases its Tech Support Showdown article, 2015. Overall, it was interesting to see how this years showdown had a major shift in focus toward the importance of excellent online support. "This year, we noted a general trend toward online-only or online-focused support and away from traditional phone service. In fact, in some cases, the only way to get an answer (or, in some cases, a correct answer) to a question was to go online." (Tech Support Showdown 2015: Who Wins, Who Loses)

One company that should receive recognition for its high score in online and social support is Dell. Through the year, Dell has made significant efforts to try and make its support site easier to navigate, and with a score of 53.25 out of 60 (the second highest score for web support), it is fair to say its efforts have paid off.

According to the review, "the Interactive Support Agent (the Ask a Question button) proved very useful." As leading analyst firms are suggesting, Virtual Assistant technology (self-service) is quickly becoming the preferred channel for consumers. Dell has embraced this trend, and implemented its Virtual Assistant so users can utilize an intuitive self-service option that guides them to the answers they need, in the easiest way possible.  This experience is starting to take the place of static FAQ's and never ending lists of 'relevant' articles from basic search. The Virtual Assistant provides a diagnostic and interactive experience that is as close to human as possible, without the actual need for human intervention. A win-win for both end users and the company.

Photo Credit: laptopmag.com

Also within the article, LAPTOP Magazine mentions

• The ease of the 'Hot Topics' list - conveniently located list of topics that consumers have found most helpful. Includes trending topics such as Cortana, Windows 10, etc.
• Embedded media - Users have found embedded media (i.e. photos, videos, etc) to be very helpful when understanding a solution. 
• Completeness - The Virtual Assistant lead the user to the correct answer they needed, with bonus information as well. 

Photo Credit: laptopmag.com

Kudos to Dell for understanding what its customers want, and executing the support site in a way that consumers find helpful!

www.nohold.com  

And the Oscar Goes to...Artificial Intelligence!

...Spike Jonze, the screenwriter of the film "Her", a film based around a man (Joaquin Phoenix) that falls in love with his Operating System (Scarlett Johansson). Congratulations to Jonze and all the individuals who worked so hard on the film. This movie has really opened people's eyes to a world of advanced technology; a world integrated with Artificial Intelligence. An A.I. movie winning an Oscar is validation that people are more comfortable with the evolution of A.I. and the reality that it will become apart of our daily lives.

Similar to the Oscars, some of our clients win prestigious awards for improved Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and great Customer Experience, augmented by self-service technologies such as a Virtual Agent (i.e. Artificial Intelligence). Fortune 500 companies utilizing Virtual Agents as a primary resource for online support are winning award titles such as TSIA's STAR Award for "Best Online Support" and "Excellence in Online Support." This just further solidifies the success and consumer demand for this technology. 

Have a great week! 

Throwback Thursday: The Future of Search is...a Virtual Agent?

With the recent announcements of Google's Hummingbird as well as Facebook's Graph Search, it seems fitting to discuss the new role of Search. According to an article,  Amit Singhal, Google's VP of Search said, "Remember what it was like to search in 1998? You'd sit down and boot up your bulky computer, dial up on your squawky modem, type in some keywords, and get 10 blue links to websites that had those words, the world has changed so much since then: billions of people have come online, the Web has grown exponentially, and now you can ask any question on the powerful little device in your pocket."

Wikipedia states, "To celebrate their 15th birthday, Google launched a new 'Hummingbird' algorithm, claiming that Google search can be a more human way to interact with users and provide a more direct answer."

Since the role of a Virtual Agent is to create a more 'human way of interacting with users,' let's discuss Virtual Agents that have the added benefit of searching across clouds. For this weeks Throwback Thursday I want to re-introduce Search ++, code named 'Smart Search.' This series of algorithms was introduced to the world only a year ago in 2012, making it still fairly new. Search ++ is an enhancement to search engines and works collaboratively with Virtual Agents to provide more accurate rank results. 

One interesting component of Search ++ is the Federated Search ++ feature. This component allows results from multiple data sources to be pulled into the Virtual Agent and delivered to the end users. The latest version of Federated Search ++ not only pulls results from various data sources, but it can rank all results as a whole instead of separately ranking from each data source. 

Another advantage to Search ++ is its ability to preempt end users to find solutions before submitting a support case to any given business. Sometimes consumers have a hard time finding the solution to their problem and submitting an email or case to the vendor seems like the easiest way to get answers. This is not true though. Submitting cases can be time consuming, you might have to wait hours before getting in contact with a support agent. With Search ++ preemption forms, before you submit your question, Search ++ technology will analyze what you have written in the case form and supply you with relevant articles that could lead you to immediate solutions. This decreases the amount of emails or cases submitted to your company's contact center and in turn, increases ROI and customer satisfaction. 

As search engines aim to be more 'human-like', and our Smartphones come prepackaged with Virtual Assistants (equipped with personalities and names), what do you think about the future of search? Will we use Virtual Assistants for virtually everything? Do the lines between search and Virtual Assistants continue to blur?

Happy #TBT

Throwback Thursday: AOL Instant Messaging Opened Doors for Live Chat Vendors

Photo credit: drjays.com

Happy Throwback Thursday!

Who remembers the little guy in the picture to the left? This is the icon for AOL Instant Messaging, or AIM. I remember this software as the "must-have" to stay connected with friends in that late 90's to the early 2000's. If you didn't have AIM, you weren't in the loop. AIM was, in a way, the Facebook of that time. 

Instant Messenger came out in 1997 and was one of the first of its kind to successfully allow users to communicate via the Internet in real time. In the eCommerce and Support industries, Live chat has come a long way since AIM. Below to the right is a screenshot of an AIM chat window. It was as simple to use as typing what you wanted to say, pressing enter, and the person on the other end of the computer screen would receive it...instantly! Another cool feature of AIM is having the ability to pick an avatar that would symbolize yourself. A lot like what we do with our Virtual Agents. We often include a face/avatar to the Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) to add personality. AIM also utilized A.I.'s for people's entertainment, questions, etc. Just sending a message to the specific screen name of the A.I. (which can be found by looking on the web) and you get a response back from a robot, just like our Virtual Agents!

Photo credit: Franklypenn.com

Instant messaging has matured since AIM of course. Now, there is chat on Facebook and other social networking sites, Skype, and a plethora of software that makes it easier to connect with people in real time. 

In today's era of technology, trusted brands use live chat for web customer support. When people have a question or concern, they can typically find support on a company's web page in the form of live chat. Click on the hyperlink to view our blog post, "Live Chat MVPs: An Insiders Look at the Top Live Chat Vendors and Best Practices." This link will provide you access to our document about key features to look for when selecting a live chat vendor and also a PowerPoint presentation titled, "Best Practices for Complementing Live Chat with a Virtual Agent." 

Whether live chat is being used from a support or sales stand point on a website, in the call center, or even at the Help Desk (Albert!), the benefits surpass the value of just staying connected with friends. Integrating live chat with a Virtual Agent provides a cost effective way for companies to establish and/or maintain relationships with consumers without seeing them face to face. InstantSupport(TM), like instant messaging, gives consumers answers to the questions they have instantly, and on their own terms. Thanks to AIM and other early live chat providers, the doors for web customer service opened, leading to one of the top resources people use when looking for online support.

How to Increase Sales by Tracking Four Specific Problems

No matter which organization or department you belong to, increasing revenue is at the top of your to do list. Whether it's empowering partners to KNOW your products, increasing up-sell opportunities in the call center or understanding cart abandonment, selling products and services is at the heart of everything. 

Take a few minutes to see how customer-centric brands deploy Virtual Agents (VAs) to bridge the gap between product specs and customer perception. View examples of leveraging VAs on partner websites, and even as a resource in brick-and-mortar stores. Learn how to empower call center agents with the perfect up-sell script, and get answers about cart abandonment. 

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

 

ClickHere for a link to the Slideshare presentation.
 
P.S.  Did you know? There are 148 days until Christmas and 154 until the end of the year. 

Virtual Assistants Aiding Lottery Officials!

Recently, the Powerball jackpot was at its highest in history at an estimated 590.5 million dollars. One lucky person from Florida won it all a few weeks ago, but before there was a winner, people from all over the country ( even outside the United States) were going crazy to win this huge jackpot. “When pots reach record levels, says lottery officials, phone calls start coming in from all around the world to Powerball’s Iowa headquarters. ‘ We start getting inquires from Canada and Europe from people wanting to know if they can buy a ticket,’ Neubauer told ABC News. ‘They ask if they can FedEx us the money.’ The answer is: ‘Sorry, no. You have to buy a ticket in a member state from a licensed retail location.’” (http://gma.yahoo.com/no-powerball-winner-means-jackpot-swells-475m-105638577--abc-news-topstories.html) 

Here’s some food for thought… Utilizing a Virtual Assistant to manage the flow of calls would create less chaos in an already chaotic situation. Having a Virtual Assistant embedded on the Powerball’s official website will decrease the amount of calls to the call center because people will be able to find out the answers to their questions immediately and on their own (not to mention 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which helps the people calling from different time zones). Implementing a Virtual Assistant in the call center of the Powerball’s Iowa headquarters would allow Powerball players to get their frequently asked questions answered by an Artificial Intelligence, freeing up the lottery officials’ time and decreasing the cost of answering these phone calls. Having a Virtual Assistant online and in the contact center will help tremendously with the overflow of calls/questions about how to win that money!

 Many people think Virtual Assistants are only used for technology companies that need online support for their products, but as you can see in the example, Powerball’s headquarters can benefit greatly from a Virtual Assistant…especially when the jackpot reaches record highs!

Have a great weekend!

Leader in Security Software Launches Virtual Assistants in Multiple Languages!

     Here is a quick news announcement. noHold is very excited to share with you that a company that delivers security solutions and services for systems, networks, and mobile devices around the world has just launched 44 new Virtual Assistant options to their partners in 11 different regions; all implemented by our fabulous noHold team. These Virtual Assistants provide support for this security software company's resellers, distributors, OEMs, and MSP partners.
     We are thrilled about implementing our first Russian Virtual Assistant for this company with Natural Language Processor. In addition to Russian, we provided this company support with an avatar in multiple other languages such as French, German, Spanish (Latin America and Europe) Portuguese, Dutch, and Italian. Another interesting feature this leading security software company has is browse only options that are provided in Korean, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese.
     Here at noHold we pride ourselves on being able to provide our services worldwide. We are very proud of our whole team for contributing to this success and we look forward to what the future holds! Have a great week!
     Cheers.

Laptop Magazine Tech Support Review

     The web is becoming one of the most popular channels for consumers to find answers to support questions about a product they just purchased. Over half of consumers will make their first attempt to solving their problems by looking online. “75% of surveyed consumers said they would prefer to use online support if it were reliable and provided accurate and complete information; 91% say they would use an online knowledgebase if it were available and tailored to their needs.” (http://www.customerthink.com/blog/12_take_note_online_customer_service_statistics_for_2012) Customers are expecting immediate answers to the questions they need answered. Laptop Magazine conducted a survey on many companies’ customer support methods and gave them a grade based on these surveys/tests. Virtual Agents are becoming more popular and more of the norm now because of their efficient capabilities to lead you to your solution, quickly.

Virtual Agent powered by noHold

     Laptop Magazine surveyed a large PC manufacturer that utilizes a Virtual Agent powered by noHold. This method of customer support helped this company receive such a high grade for web support.

     There are a variety of different strategies when it comes to customer support, especially on the web, but Virtual Agents are becoming the most effective channel for customer satisfaction and reduction of costs. Virtual Agents can provide answers within a few clicks. When end users are in need of fast answers, sometimes there is a ‘hold time’ associated with other channels. In the laptop review, Virtual Agents for customer support require ‘no hold’ (pun intended) and had the quickest and most accurate response. 

To read the whole article and find out how other companies did check out the Tech Support Showdown 2012