Industry Stats that Every Business Leader Needs to Know

For a while, Virtual Assistants have been making a significant impact on business strategy. The role they are playing has expanded beyond the typical customer support paradigm, and moved into many different business units. Analyst firms and publications are agreeing that business leaders need to have a strategy for incorporating Virtual Assistants, whether it be for support, pre- and post-sales, internally, customer experience, etc. 

One of the benefits of deploying a Virtual Assistant is the decrease in call center interactions. “Organizations report a reduction of up to 70 percent in call, chat and/or email inquiries after implementing a VCA, according to Gartner research. They also report increased customer satisfaction and a 33 percent saving per voice engagement.” (Gartner) noHold has also looked at similar analytics from a Telco customer of ours. Before the Virtual Assistant was implemented 65% of people who went to the 'contact us' page ended up calling the company. After the Virtual Assistant, that percentage went down to 30%. Over half the calls were handled by the Virtual Assistant, and at a fraction of the cost. 

Gartner has made some positive predictions for the future of AI as well:

• According to Gartner, "25% of customer service and support operations will integrate virtual customer assistant (VCA) or chatbot technology across engagement channels by 2020."
• "By 2020, 30 percent of all B2B companies will employ AI to augment at least one of their primary sales processes."

Source: https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3858564

Interested in learning more about Virtual Assistant technology? Feel free to send an email through our contact page and I would be happy to help you out. 

Cheers!

www.nohold.com 

Andy Paul invites CEO of noHold to discuss Virtual Assistants from a Sales Perspective

Recently, Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold, was asked to guest star on the top-rated podcast, Accelerate!, hosted by Andy Paul. Andy is known as the go-to resource for the best sales advice online. Diego's 20+ years of experience in the AI space, gave him a unique perspective on sales. 

You can listen to the podcast at www.andypaul.com.

Some key takeaways include: 

• Diego says the single biggest challenge facing sales reps today is getting introductions to the right people (decision-makers). It is hard to do with email.
• Diego explains how a virtual agent or assistant differs from a knowledge base. A virtual assistant helps the user get to the most specific solution as quickly as possible within the framework of a dialog rather than a search.
• NoHold is partnering with companies like Google and Amazon to accomplish voice recognition and speech synthesis with natural language processing (NLP).
• Diego points out potential applications for online sales. Besides speech technology, it requires NLP-to-SQL (Structured Query Language) technology. This may be ready on some sites for 2017 Christmas shopping!
• Diego mentions two current noHold projects: a customer-facing application (the Sales Advisor), and an agent-facing application. Diego covers the details of the Sales Advisor and gives examples.
• Diego discusses levels of AI in virtual assistants. He gives examples of chatbots built from user documents, including executive orders from four U.S. presidents.
• Diego address the future of AI in sales and its impact. It is an excellent tool to augment sales capabilities. Diego gives an example for the enterprise, the Marketing Advisor, for augmented selling in groups of 500 SDRs.

noHold builds a Connector Enabling SICURA QuickStart™ to Integrate with Salesforce

July 31, 2017, MILPITAS, CA –noHold has designed Albert to be accessible through multiple channels, without the need to make a new bot for each of them. This is one of the unique features of creating a Virtual Assistant with SICURA™ QuickStart. In the past, noHold has announced various connectors that enable Albert to live on different platforms such as Spark, Facebook, Alexa, and more. noHold has officially added Salesforce to that list.

noHold’s Salesforce connector enables Sales Mangers to easily empower their sales teams with knowledge about products, procedures, company policies, or any content needed for a specific team. Since the content is managed through a Word document, it can be easily created and updated. Using Albert on Salesforce allows individuals to find answers to questions on their own terms, 24/7. For example, if a sales person needed to know when a lead should be converted into a contact, they could click on the Albert tab that knows about specific company procedures. Another example could be how to handle certain tasks, or looking up specific product features. The possibilities are endless.

Users can easily add Albert as a tab in the toolbar, and interact with Albert directly from within Salesforce. The process to add Albert does not require programming skills or extensive knowledge of Salesforce. Simply login to Salesforce and click the ‘+’ in the toolbar to open the ‘all tabs’ page. Select customize my tabs. In the left menu, click on create to expand, and then click tabs. Under web tabs, click new, then fill in the blanks as prompted. After saving, Albert will appear immediately in the toolbar. To watch a visual step by step tutorial for more details, click here.

Diego Ventura, Founder and CEO of noHold, adds, “The effectiveness of a sales team is directly correlated to its ability to generate revenue from new and existing customers. Providing the team with easy and direct access to Albert’s knowledge right from within Salesforce is strategic to obtaining this goal.”

noHold’s A.I. Platform Expands Virtual Assistants to Every Organization within a Company

Including HR, IT, Legal, Marketing, Sales and Support

April 28, 2016, MILPITAS, CA – noHold, the acknowledged leader in web based self service solutions, expands its Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) platform to include Virtual Assistants that benefit all organizations within a company.

noHold’s flagship product, Support Advisor, typically answers support and customer care type questions. With the help of its customers, and recognizing the growth within the A.I. space, noHold has developed Virtual Assistants with the entire business in mind. Now, Virtual Assistants have graduated beyond solely being a part of support organizations. Recently, the expansion of the A.I. platform has grown to include Virtual Assistants such as:

• HR Advisor- allows employees to help themselves
• IT Advisor- for the enterprise help desk
• Legal Advisor- to enforce compliance
• Marketing Advisor- to prequalify sales opportunities
• Sales Advisor- to increase conversion rates
• Support Advisor- to reduce support costs

The diversity of applications really demonstrates the flexibility of noHold’s platform and the ease of multi-use implementations. "If you look at every technological advance," said [Phil] Libin [Managing Director at General Catalyst and founder of Evernote], "the big jumps forward were when something becomes easier, has less friction, becomes more natural than whatever it replaced - so email from normal mail, chat from email, smartphone apps from desktop apps, I think bots are the next evolution of making something more natural." (Marketplace)

Virtual Assistants are imperative for enterprises managing moving parts. noHold is looking forward to providing more and more clients with a full circle approach to a Virtual Assistant.

According to Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold, “When creating a Virtual Assistant for a specific organization within the enterprise, you must take into consideration the different features needed by those particular business units that will optimize the Virtual Assistant. For example, we discovered that when a Call Center Agent is on the phone with a customer, they need to have a sense of the questions they will be asking and why. In these situations, the Virtual Assistant cannot always ask questions serially, so we implemented the ‘Look Ahead’ feature, designed to show the Agent why the Virtual Assistant would be asking those questions. Having this ability to provide department-specific Virtual Assistants proves the flexibility of our technology.”

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 Cisco, Dell, Intel and a host of industry leaders. More information can be found at www.nohold.com or subscribe to noHold’s vlog to hear more from CEO, Diego Ventura.

Press Contact

Veronica Cech

Marketing Associate

vcech@nohold.com

408.946.9200 ext. 356

Virtual Agent Tips and Tricks: Implementing a 'Care' Virtual Agent

Excellent customer care is a key factor in satisfying your audience and encouraging them to remain loyal. When they have a question about shipping information, it is important to be able to find a solution as quickly as possible, on their own terms. With the increasing demand for self-service, having an effective strategy for customer care questions, is equally as important as having one for support questions.

Here is an example of a noHold customer recognizing this need for customer care support. Later this week, a leader in the PC and consumer electronics industry is launching a customer care Virtual Agent. This VA is designed to answer questions regarding shipment/purchase information, account access, and more. Having both a support and customer care Virtual Agent allows users 24x7 access to get answers to all types of questions. Companies can position the Virtual Agents together (as one) within the typical support web page, or encourage consumer use by promoting an individual URL as the first line of defense for customer care issues, specifically.  

Customers want to know that the company they purchase from is there to help every step of the way: before, during, and after the purchase. From a customer experience stand point, nurturing the relationship is imperative to keeping current customers and gaining new ones. A Virtual Agent can help through all aspects of the customer journey, coming full circle to create loyal customers by…

• Engaging prospective customers through personalized marketing
• Guiding them along the sales process by educating and up-selling
• Providing excellent customer care
• Supporting them as they maintain a valued customer

How does your company handle customer care questions? Do you see Virtual Agents as being a link between the various stages of the customer journey?

www.nohold.com

Virtual Agent Tips and Tricks: Near Field Communication, Digital Payments, and Virtual Agents in Your Favorite Store?

New technologies are developing to create unique experiences for customers; Near Field Communication (NFC) is one of those technologies. NFC allows companies to know when you are in the store and monitor your interactions with different products. These “sensors” give companies the ability to provide you with a personalized experience. Here is an example from an article written by David Marcus, President of PayPal, about Near Field Communication and wearable devices…

“For example, we have a pilot running in our on-campus Starbucks that combines Beacon, with an app built for the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2, and Gear Fit devices. Walk into the area covered by the Beacon, your watch notifies you you've checked-in, the barista, greets you by name because your photo shows up on the point-of-sale system, and when she rings you up, you get another push notification. Tap on the watch to confirm the payment, and go. This is one of the most transformative payments experience I've had. No wallet. The phone never leaves my pocket. And I'm in control” (Three Trends that MightTransform the Retail Payments Experience).

This example combined NFC and wearable technology to create a completely personalized shopping experience. In the future, Virtual Agents will be incorporated into virtual retail experiences - For example, if you are interested in buying a router, you can scan the box and a Virtual Agent will pop up on your phone to tell you everything you need to know about that product, acting as a personal “shopping advisor”. While this is happening, your data (interactions with different products) are being sent to a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for sales associates to interpret your history and cater promotions or messaging specifically to your interests/needs. 

There is a lot of controversy surrounding NFC, specifically related to security issues. What is your opinion on NFC? Would you opt to share your 'in-store' activity resulting in a more personalized experience? 

www.nohold.com

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. 

Virtual Agents Becoming a Household Name!

Photo Credit: http://www.post-gazette.com

Virtual Agents have been getting quite a lot of press lately. From Siri to Watson, and all of their competitors, Virtual Agents are becoming a household name. Outside the typical support and sales use, Virtual Agents can be advantageous anywhere!

Just a short while ago I wrote a blog about the many benefits of a Virtual Agent implementation at the Powerball Headquarters in Iowa. Click here for the full blog to “Virtual Assistants Aiding Lottery Officials.” It got me thinking of all the other ways Virtual Agents can be used, more than just for online customer support and/or sales. 

One of my colleagues shared with me an article from engadget.com called “Negobot: a Virtual Chat Agent Engineered to Trap Pedophiles.” In short, engineers from the University of Deusto created a Virtual Agent that replicates a child’s profile and interacts with people to try and identify pedophiles. The Virtual Agent starts with a neutral stance and depending on the interest shown by the individual on the other end, Negobot (the virtual chatbot) will enhance its neutral stance to trap the pedophile into giving himself/herself up. They are still working out the linguistic capabilities but once this virtual chat agent is perfected, I’m sure many agencies will be utilizing this tool to hone in on pedophiles. Who would have thought a Virtual Agent could turn into a private investigator. You never know, maybe the next place of employment for Virtual Agents is in the FBI. 

Another way to utilize a Virtual Agent is at the DMV. Waiting in line for sometimes hours, just to find out an answer to a quick question can be frustrating.  Or waiting all that time to find out you are missing one piece of paper and are not able to do what you came to do. A self-service kiosk for FAQ’s and simple actions such as renewing your license could cut the wait down at the DMV significantly. Even having a Virtual Agent implemented on the DMV’s website could help people prepare for what to bring with them, so they don’t waste their time waiting in line just to find out they forgot to bring proof of insurance.  

An additional use of a Virtual Agent can be in the self-driving Google cars. The technology has already been developed that allows cars to virtually drive themselves. Google is mastering this craft, and a Virtual Agent would be valuable to implement in these cars because the car will be able to, not only drive itself, but interact with the passengers as well.  Does anyone remember the TV series or movie, Knight Rider? KITT was a highly advanced artificial intelligence that was installed into an automobile. KITT is basically like a Virtual Agent that also utilizes speech recognition software. All you have to do is ask a question and KITT would come back with an answer to that question. Imagine Apple’s Siri but instead of talking to your phone you talk to your car. I found this really great video giving an example of a KITT replica. Click here to watch it. 

KITT is a fictional character made up for entertainment purposes in the 80’s, but they hit on something big. Now that technology has matured, artificial intelligence and voice recognition software have advanced so much that soon, it will become the norm to have self-driving cars that have advanced technology embedded to answer your every question and/or command.  

I previously talked about Virtual Agents invading the video game world as well. Click here to view the blog “Throwback Thursday: Virtual Agents integrating with Video Games?” Currently, video games are utilizing the presence of an Artificial Intelligence to accomplish multiple tasks. A.I.’s are there for people to have someone to play with when they are by themselves (virtual buddy) and even to gather knowledge to become smarter (as do our Virtual Agents, the more they are used, the smarter they get).  Now imagine a Virtual Agent always present in a video game; gamers would be able to have conversations or get help to achieve that next level they've been trying so hard to get to. 

These are just a few examples of alternative ways Virtual Agents can be used outside of the typical support or sales scenarios. Although Virtual Agents are great for support and sales. One day, Virtual Agents will be implemented everywhere, helping consumers one question at a time.

Have a great week!