A Look Back at noHold's Top Stories of the Week: August 25th-31st +Intern Update!

Let's take a look at this week's exciting stories.

1. Trusted Brands Use Quick Videos to Introduce Virtual Agents to Call Center Agents, Employees, and Consumers. 

Here is an example of a demonstration video for Albert, noHold's Help Desk Virtual Agent. Utilizing short 'training' videos is a beneficial way to introduce Virtual Agents to Call Center agents, employees, and consumers alike. 

2. Virtual Agent Tips and Tricks: What are the Components That Create a Stellar Self-Service Experience.

Based on our experience, we outlined 10 different features that work together to create an effective Virtual Agent.

• Natural Language Processor (NLP)
• Reporting Metrics
• Diagnostic and Interactive  

Click on the title above to find out what the other features make up a stellar self-service experience. 

3. The Leading Manufacturer and Provider of Visual Technology Celebrates Grand Opening

Kudos again ViewSonic on your grand opening of the new headquarters. It was a pleasure to attend the event!

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony in Brea, CA

4. Throwback Thursday: Apple's New Release vs. Apple Five Years Ago
With the release of the iPhone 6 coming out, Apple is continually expanding their brand. Check out how they have changed in the past 5 years. 

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As we've mentioned before, our Interns were working hard creating their own Virtual Agent. On Wednesday, they gave a great presentation demonstrating what they came up with. So, before we head out the office for a long three day weekend, I wanted to share with you a brief description about their project...

As a team, they came up with the concept of a Virtual Agent that will aid individuals/ small businesses that are trying to build their brand on social media. In essence, it is an artificial social media expert! Here's an example of when it can be used. Say there is a star college football player that is trying to create his own brand. With little experience with social media, he decides to enlist in the help of "Mara." Mara is able to suggest if something is beneficial to post based on an analysis of up-to-date social media trends. Similarly, a small business with limited marketing budget may need assistance in setting up social media, connecting various channels, and advice on what to post and when. Mara can be updated automatically, pulling new software updates, changes, and information from the most popular social media channels - Thus, empowering a small business to stay on top of its social media game. 

They each contributed to a different aspect of the project, and ultimately came together to make this innovative idea come to life. Eleonora designed the avatar and the look and feel, Stefano took care of the content, Asraful was responsible for the technical and engineering part, and Victor came up with marketing strategies. They've worked extremely hard over the last month and we were very pleased with what they accomplished in such a short amount of time. We are sad to see them go, but know they will accomplish great things in life.    

I'll leave you with this picture of Stefano, Eleonora, Victor, and Asraful; and the avatar for their VA, Mara. 

2014 noHold Interns giving presentation on their Virtual Agent, Mara

Please have a safe and relaxing Labor Day weekend! Cheers!

www.nohold.com

A Look Back at noHold's Top Stories of the Week

Happy Friday all, hope you had a great work week, and have an even better weekend! But before you rush out of the office, take a look back at some of our top posts of the week. 

1. Cruise: A start-up company markets the first version of their highway autopilot system. What does this mean for Google's self-driving car? 

2.  4/5 Users Prefer Using a Virtual Agent to Traditional Support Options 

This week, after completing multiple A/B test sessions, we have found that 4 out of 5 people who tried both, the current support options of 'Brand X' and a Virtual Agent of 'Brand X', preferred using the VA to guide them to what they were looking for. For a description of the A/B testing done, check out the blog, Majority of Users Preferred Interacting with a Virtual Agent as a First Line of Support. 

3. Throwback Thursday: Evolving from computer bots to humanoids

What is your opinion on robots that look exactly like humans? If you have used a Virtual Agent for Customer Support, Care, or sales questions, do you prefer to know that it is an automated solution before interacting?    
                                                                                                                   
Cheers!
www.nohold.com

How Will Amazon's Fire Phone Compare to the Rest? Should "MayDay" Evolve into a Virtual Assistant?

A couple weeks ago, Amazon unveiled their latest device to hit the market soon, the Fire Phone. As noted in the video, it has the look of standard smartphones, but inhabits a couple new features unique to the Fire Phone. For example, Dynamic Perspective takes 3D display technology to a whole new level. "The display is meant to give viewers a sense of looking deeper into the screen (technically called positive parallax) rather than creating images that "jump out" (negative parallax)." (How 'Dynamic Perspective' Brings 3D to the Amazon Fire Phone). 

With innovative components such as Dynamic Perspective and Firefly (a universal product scanner that allows you to identify and buy objects, in real time), you would think Amazon has a chance to compete with the top brands in the smartphone space (e.g. Samsung, Apple, and more). But with all these new features, a lot of technical support questions will follow. Similar to Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX, the Fire Phone will have a MayDay button to provide 24/7, live support via video chat. Using this as a first line of defense for support can quickly become expensive and time consuming. According to an analyst, Dan Miller, at Opus Research, "If the MayDay 'rep' continues to be a live agent, it will be a matter of training, workforce optimization and knowledge management. Yet I still maintain that, for MayDay to be done right, it is just a matter of time before it turns into a fully automated intelligent assistant, in which case it will depend on advances in life-like automated speech, natural language processing (NLP), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML)." (Amazon's "Fire" Phone and MayDay Will Redefine "Mobile Assistance"). 

With the increasing volume of MayDay users approaching, do you agree that Amazon will need to turn MayDay into a Virtual Assistant? What about  the absence of a 'butler-style' Virtual Assistant (i.e. Siri, Google Now, Cortana, etc.). Will this effect sales and/or user satisfaction? Leave a comment and let us know what you think. 

www.nohold.com