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.

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 

Curated Marketplace for Sustainable Fashion Creates Chatbot for Support Using Albert

The creation of Alberts are well underway. Publications such as Forbes, PCWorld, TheNextWeb, and Business Insider have all recognized SICURA QuickStart as a powerful platform for non programmers to build their own chatbot, opening up the world of AI to so many more people. 

Filosano, marketplace for eco-friendly clothing and accessories,  was one of the first small businesses to try Albert. With little technical background, they have already created and positioned an Albert on their website for their customers to get help on their own terms, 24/7. Check out this video to see how they are embracing this technology. 

Want to create your own chatbot? Sign up for Albert here to create an account.

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 Assistant Placement Adjustments

Placement and positioning play a critical role in how end users interact with a Virtual Assistant. If an end user finds the Virtual Assistant on a product page the assumption is that the Virtual Assistant can answer questions about that product. To enhance the customer experience it is important to take this thought process into consideration. Most clients, when starting out, have a specific placement in mind. Typically, this results in the Virtual Assistant being positioned on one page of the company website. But in a recent review of Virtual Assistant interactions, usage of Virtual Assistants doubled when added to two specific types of pages: Product pages and Support pages. 

Although this worked for these companies, it is important to consider the content your Virtual Assistant contains to increase usage. Does it make sense for the Virtual Assistant to be there? Some may find that having a Virtual Assistant link consistently in the header will better provide service to their customers, while others will limit access to support or product pages. 

www.nohold.com

noHold A.I. Enables PC Industry Leaders to Transform Issues into Opportunities

June 30, 2015, MILPITAS, CA – Within the past 12 months, noHold Virtual Assistants have handled over 25 million conversations. During these interactions with the Virtual Assistant, actionable metrics were captured regarding end user behavior. noHold was able to turn these metrics into valuable insight not only for the support organization, but also for product marketing, engineering, sales, and more.

In working with the leaders in the PC and related industries, noHold has identified the top 10 most frequently used solutions from support questions in this space. The top issues include: downloads and drivers (39%), system restore (18%), wireless issues (10%), Windows issues (6%), webcam issues (5%) , no boot/no power (5%), touchpad issues (5%), monitor issues (4%), audio issues (4%), and owner manuals/guides (4%).

It is important to target your organization’s top issues and leverage those issues to create opportunities to better serve your customers. In fact, a noHold client used the information collected through the Virtual Assistant to redesign the support site and simplify customer engagement. Here are a few tips on how you can turn insight from the customer into opportunities:

•   Create a seamless customer journey for end users – integrate CRM, live chat, social media, and mobile.
•   Be prepared – make self-service front and center throughout all support mediums. Be ready to answer questions related to new products or services. For example, there will be a lot of questions surrounding Windows 10.
•   Incorporate up-sell opportunities – if the battery is not holding a charge, maybe it’s time for a new one. Provide direct links to order pages, or co-browsing functionality to make it an easy process.
•   Offer premium support when necessary – research shows that a large portion of users will pay for enhanced support, and VIP treatment.

For more information on tips and best practices, please follow this link: http://www.nohold.com/assets/best-practices-web-print.pdf

“There are many tools on the market that can collect metrics in a quantitative manner,” said Diego Ventura, CEO and founder of noHold. “In addition to quantitative metrics, the advantage to our tool is that the Virtual Assistant is also able to provide qualitative insight on customer intent. With that kind of information, organizations are better equipped to make decisions that will enhance their customers’ experience.” 

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 interactions. noHold customers include Toshiba, 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

All other product and service names are the property of their respective owners.

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 

Artificial Intelligence and Social Media: Integration of Virtual Assistants on Forums

Photo Credit: hrzone.com

It is nothing new that social media sites are one of the most popular platforms for customers to complain, praise, or seek customer support. Once companies began to realize this trend, "adoption of social customer care programs increased fivefold from 12% in 2010 to 59% in 2013." (Aberdeen Group). 

With so many different channels that people look to for support, it is important to offer self-service solutions for people that want to find answers on their own terms, 24/7. Integrating Virtual Assistants with online communities, including social media and forums, is an effective way to increase customer satisfaction and decrease support costs. 

A Virtual Assistant and social media can work together to provide the best possible support for customers that prefer these channels. The Virtual Assistant can be embedded on a companies Facebook page, automated on community forums to answer questions if it has a high degree of certainty, or leveraged as a tool that could be used prior to posting a question to the community.

How is your company adapting to the social age? Does your customer support strategy involve social media? To learn more about the integration of Virtual Assistants and communities, please visit our website: www.nohold.com 

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

"Big Hero 6": Predicting the Future of Robots as Healthcare Professionals

Photo Credit: Disney

Just a few weeks ago, Disney released their newest movie, "Big Hero 6." Just as you would expect from a Disney movie, it is full of laughter, action, and a heart-warming plot, but instead of the typical princess movie, it is about a robotics prodigy, Hiro, and his best friend Baymax, a robot designed to help people.  As the plot thickens, Hiro, Baymax, and friends band together to become a group of high-tech superheroes. 

To make the personal health care robot as accurate as possible, creators of "Big Hero 6" went straight to the experts themselves to do research, including a professor at the Robotics Institute and Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, Chris Atkeson. The concept of a 'soft' robot came from Atkeson and his colleagues. Disney was intrigued by this type of robot because it is one that most people have never seen before in a movie. It is distinct from the rigid transformer-looking robots, and the soft edges give Baymax more of a warm, caring appearance. 

In an recent interview with Atkeson, he stated that he doesn't think this sort of technology (personal health care robots) is too far off. "I think it's very soon. We haven't gone for a complete system. But we have gone for parts of it. The design that we could do very soon, like a carbon fiber skeleton and pneumatic actuators internally, is possible. It's not clear, though, that making a big balloon and putting stuff inside of it is the right way to go. Do you know what water wings are? They're like a sleeve. That's probably a much better way to do the inflatable part –essentially putting sleeves on all the limbs and torsos. Space suits are already inflatable robots, so the armored Baymax exists. The space suits rely on the human inside to actually guide it. They have to deal with micrometeorite damage and things like that, so these are serious, robust systems." 

Here is a short clip of the inflatable arm that inspired the design of Baymax.

We are already seeing artificial intelligence/robots become more accepted in the medical field. For example, earlier this year, industry analysts talked about the day if/when computers will replace doctor. They found that the majority of people actually preferred interacting with the artificial intelligence compared to a human doctor. Similarly, kiosks are making their way to more and more doctor's offices; used as a Virtual nurse for patients to get quick answers to non-emergency questions. 

Another example is a company in the medical industry using Virtual Customer Assistants(VCAs) to provide their partners with a quick and easy way to answer questions about products and solutions. View the slideshare below to learn more about how they offered their VCA to their Partners.

   

We've posed this question at the beginning of the year, but it would be interesting to see how opinions might have changed in the span of a year. Where do you think the future of medicine and technology will take us? Will robots replace nurses and doctors? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below. 

www.nohold.com

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

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: Making Adjustments to Your Virtual Agent and Self-Service Over Time

One of the biggest questions companies need to ask themselves is, "Do our support options still work best for our customers?" It is important to take some time to re-evaluate implementations, technologies and strategies to make sure what was working then, is still working now. 

In parallel with the customer journey on the website, noHold customers are always looking for ways to further enhance the Virtual Agent and self-service experience. For example, one noHold customer has opted to update the Virtual Agent's User Interface (UI) while asking end users to select his/her specific product before beginning a conversation. This updated experience with the Virtual Agent will streamline the interaction and guide the end user to best solutions related to his or her specific product. 

Keeping up with customer demand, and modernizing support is a major contributor to revolutionizing the customer experience. Virtual Agents can be updated quickly, can automatically capture the voice of the customer, and can be positioned across channels. 

How often do you evaluate and modernize the customer experience? In your opinion, what are the best ways to retrofit self-service without compromising customer satisfaction? 

www.nohold.com

Top Reasons to Show Virtual Agents Some Love: #VirtualAgentLove

A support site without a Virtual Agent (VA) is like going to Disneyland and not seeing Mickey Mouse; the two simply go hand-in-hand. VA’s are gaining popularity in the market, and in light of Valentine’s Day, I wanted to share with you a few reasons why you should show VA’s some love this year. 

1. Virtual Agents reduce support costs

• In many cases, the use of a VA has cut incident rates in half, thus saving companies hundreds of thousands of dollars per month. 

2. Predictions are positive for Virtual Agents to be the next big technology trend

• According to a top analyst firm, the future for IT organization’s strategies includes VA’s. Staying ahead of the curve is going to save companies money and give them the edge to surpass their competitors. Fortune 500 companies are agreeing with this trend. Microsoft is expected to launch Windows Phone 8.1 with a personal Virtual Assistant programmed into it (Meet Microsoft’s Virtual Personal Assistant) and IBM has invested over $1B on a new business unit for the super computer, Watson (IBM to invest $1 Billion to Create New Business Unit for Watson). 

3. Virtual Agents eliminate long “hold” times for customers

• Consumers expect a speedy response to their problems. VA’s give the power to the consumer to find the answer to their problem on their own time. Call Center agents can also utilize a VA to reduce Average Handle Time and get to more customers, faster. 

4. Virtual Agents make for happier customers

• All companies rely on happy customers to make a profit. Implementing a VA has been proven to put brands at the top of their industry in customer satisfaction. 

5. Virtual Agents have the ability to be a butler or central hub for multiple Virtual Agents to connect to one another

• The Internet of Everything is coming to fruition. Applications are being used to control smart machines connected to the Internet. But what happens when you have too many devices/applications to manage? It is hard to take full advantage of what each device has to offer if you don’t know what to do. Leveraging a VA as a “butler”, where you can control all your connected devices from a single user interface (UI) will help simplify your future. Find out more about noHold Connect by clicking here. 

There is an endless list of reasons to fall in love with them. VA’s continue to impress me with all their features and how they progressively enhance over time. Be sure to share with us all the reasons you love Virtual Agents! I hope everyone has a great Valentine’s Day, as well as a great weekend.

Cheers! 

Business Case: One of the Top 3 Security Software Vendors Increases First Contact Resolution (FCR) in the Contact Center with the Help of a Virtual Agent.

One of the world leaders in security software has experienced major success by empowering call center staff with a Virtual Agent. The initial goal was to reduce Tier 1 escalation by 35%. After implementing a Virtual Agent, the average FCR rate is currently estimated at 50% across all products, exceeding their goal by 15% . This Virtual Agent is being used as the primary tool for resolving customer issues by an entry level support team. By utilizing the Virtual Agent in the Call Center the company has benefited by

1. Reducing average handle time (AHT)
2. Reducing training time for agents working in the Call Center
3.  Improving consistency all around

This proves that having an interactive and diagnostic Virtual Agent  that can be accessible by entry level Call Center agents will decrease the time to resolution in the call center, while reducing costs. It also provides a better experience for the customer because of the fast and consistent interactions. I think we can all agree that in a customer-centric world, it is important to provide the end user with a memorable and pleasant encounter to keep them coming back for more.

Cheers! 

Throwback Thursday: How noHold Virtual Agents Were Born

This week I wanted to share a story about how noHold Virtual Agents were born...

Before noHold, the CEO founded another start-up company called STEFRA(TM), which helped create the concept for noHold. STEFRA(TM) was working with multiple consumer electronic companies, including the leading provider of personal computer and tablet accessories. (Remember the golf ball webcam?) STEFRA provided software included in these products. They began to receive lots of calls/emails regarding frequently asked support questions. The wheels started turning and that is where Diego Ventura thought of the idea for automating online customer support. Developing something similar to live chat, but instead customers interact with Artificial Intelligence. With this idea, STEFRA(TM) was able to start providing Virtual Agent technology for video software. Below is a picture of the first STEFRA(TM), prototype Virtual Agent.

Today, Virtual Agents have gained major popularity with consumers. Online self-service is what people demand and they are feeling more comfortable interacting with Virtual Assistants. Think about Siri or IBM's Watson...in this era people are interacting with Artificial Intelligence daily!

Happy Throwback Thursday!

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

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!