Chatbots, Intelligent Assistants, Virtual Agents...But Which Term is Correct?

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Artificial intelligence (A.I.) and automated self-service solutions have gained major traction within the past few years. With big name brands turning to A.I. (Google, Microsoft, etc.), consumers have become more comfortable having a conversation with technology (Artificial Intelligence). Virtual Agents are one of those technologies that have become familiar, and demanded by consumers. In short, a Virtual Agent is an intelligent web-based self-service tool used to support customers and employees throughout many processes. Similar to live chat, but end users interact and get answers from an A.I.

As a company with over 15 years of experience creating Virtual Assistants for trusted brands around the globe, we are always excited to see a continual increase in the adoption of these self-service practices. Over the years, we have witnessed many different companies and analyst firms try to coin different terms to describe these diagnostic and interactive self-service tools. Here is a list of some of the terms we see floating around our space the most: 

• Avatars
• Chatbots
• Enterprise Virtual Assistants
• Intelligent Assistants
• Intelligent Personal Assistants
• Intelligent Virtual Assistants
• Interactive Artificial Intelligence Assistant
• Virtual Agents (VAs)
• Virtual Assistants
• Virtual Customer Assistants
• Virtual Customer Care Expert
• Virtual Personal Assistants

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Now, the million dollar question...which term is correct? The truth is, they all are. Which ever term you want to use, in the grand scheme of things, they all refer to the same thing. Understandably, it can get confusing with all these different variations of the same word, but we hope shedding some light to this debated topic will eliminate some of that confusion. As we like to say, tomayto/tomahto.
Cheers!
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The Evolution of Virtual Customer Assistants

A look back at the advances Virtual Agents have made in the past 20 years.

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Virtual Agents have become a part of the mainstream culture now. Just take a look at Siri, Google Now, Cortana, and many other large brands are starting to follow suit and acquire Artificial Intelligence companies. As a company with over 15 years of experience working within the Virtual Agent space, noHold has constantly been advancing our technology to fit with the times. Here is a brief recap to show you how far Virtual Agents have evolved since their inception:

1. A Virtual Agent (VA) can get data only from its own database

2. VA can leverage content from other databases

3. VA can integrate with back office systems

4. VA can connect to external devices

5. VA leverages context intelligently by being super connected

As you can see, Virtual Agents have advanced tremendously.Going from only being able to retrieve data from their own database, to leveraging information intelligently from multiple sources is incredible. [Click here to read how noHold helped a global giant move from traditional support to leveraging a Virtual Agent for more complex issues.]

What do you think the next step will be in the evolution of Virtual Assistants? Is your company noticing the upward trend in Artificial Intelligence use and what are they doing about it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. 

Cheers!

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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! 
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Happy Holidays from noHold

As the year is coming to an end, everyone here at noHold wishes you and your family Season's Greetings and a prosperous New Year. Cheers!

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How Self-Service Can Increase Revenue and Customer Satisfaction this Holiday Season

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While the holidays are a time filled with love and joy, they can also be one of the most hectic times of the year. Yes, I am talking about the infamous holiday shopping experiences. No parking, long lines, and crazy crowds are something everyone can agree does not put cheer into the holiday season.

While shopping for consumers is hectic on its own, the companies are feeling the holiday pressure as well. Large and small businesses alike must strengthen customer service options to prepare for the increased volume of sales. Not just for the initial sale, but also for the customer service, care, support and overall customer engagement that follows.

According to an article from salesforce.com, one tip for your company’s customer service to conquer the holiday rush is to “improve self-service support.” Since companies can already predict the high volume of customer interactions (and the short fuses they have by the end of a long day), implementing a web-based, Virtual Customer Assistant (VCA) for consumers to find the answers to questions on their own terms will take some of the load off, while making consumers happy they didn't have to spend even more time waiting on hold or getting passed around to different representatives.

VCA’s aren't just useful for support questions though. For example, many electronics require product registration. The VCA can quickly offer guidance through the process, while answering any questions that may arise, and/or cross-sell other products/services when appropriate.

Mobile shopping is another major factor effecting companies this year. “If it wasn't official last year, it will be this year – holiday shoppers are eager to shop online for gifts and other needs. According to a survey, 56 percent plan to shop online, up from 51.5 percent last year and the most in the survey’s 13- year history. Additionally, the average person plans to do 44.4 percent of their shopping online, the most since NRF first asked to 2006.” (National Retail Federation) Providing customers with the tools they need to make the holiday shopping experience easier is key to increasing sales, but moreover, increasing loyalty.

How is your company enhancing self-service and engagement options this year? Does your strategy incorporate usability for mobile shoppers?

We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving weekend. Enjoy!

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Virtual Customer Assistants and Self-Service Used to Enhance CRM Platforms

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Last week, ComputerWorld published an article on Microsoft’s newest CRM suite, fully equipped with their Personal Virtual Assistant, Cortana. “Tasks available via Cortana voice commands will include setting up meetings and reminders, searching for contacts, accounts and activities, calling up customer lists and creating new records” (Cortana to Give Voice and Ears to Dynamics CRM).

It seems like Microsoft is making the right moves, at the right time by enhancing their Dynamics CRM platform. Research from trusted analyst firms in the industry are advocating for a shift to omni-channel CRM systems; that is, moving from a Contact Center to a Customer Engagement Center (CEC). According to one of the leading analyst firms, it is imperative for companies to include multiple business applications and technologies that will coexist and work cohesively. Some examples of functions that incorporate to create the full CEC ecosystem are: knowledge management solutions, social media channels for customer to receive support (including blogs, communities, and forums), providing mobile support options, and more.

Other CRM vendors are further validating the need for omni-channel CRM platforms. Recently, the customer service and engagement vendor, [24]7, acquired Virtual Assistant company, Intelliresponse. Another example is Nuance’s acquisition of VirtuOz a while back. These CRM vendors are realizing the value of adding Virtual Customer Assistants as another channel to enhance their CECs. Since self-service is becoming one of the most preferred means for communicating with a company, it is going to be key for CRM vendors to incorporate a way for customers to self-serve if they are on the web, social media, forums, mobile, or at kiosks.  

Do you think other vendors will follow suit with Microsoft? How do you think these acquisitions of Virtual Assistant companies will change the way we use CRM?      

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Cisco Small Business Adopts Mobile Support By Providing Customers with a Mobile-Friendly Virtual Customer Assistant

Milpitas California, November 6, 2014  – noHold, Inc. is pleased to formally announce Cisco Small Business’ first mobile-friendly Virtual Customer Assistant. This mobile Virtual Assistant was launched in December of 2013 and has received positive feedback ever since.

Cisco Small Business (SB) is an extension of Cisco, providing small businesses with trusted Cisco products and services. Cisco has been a longtime customer of noHold, circa 2006, working collaboratively to bring innovation and smarter self-service together. noHold provides Cisco SB with the self-service support option appropriately named ‘Guide Me.’ Since its implementation, Guide Me has produced great results for Cisco SB. With the success of their web-based Virtual Assistant, noHold suggested developing a mobile-friendly version of Guide Me, to make support accessible for users on any device. 

“As of 2013, worldwide mobile phone internet user penetration was 73.4 percent. In 2017, figures suggest that more than 90 percent of internet users will access online content through their phones.” (Statistics and Facts on Mobile Internet Usage). Smartphones and mobile devices (i.e. tablets, wearable devices, etc.) are becoming users’ preferred mode of staying connected. For Cisco SB, it is important to make self-support available across all devices because most of Cisco SB’s customers are not always near a desktop when they need support resolving an issue. Becoming mobile-friendly is proving to be the most efficient way for Cisco SB to provide the answer their users need, while on the go.

Shawn Price, Sr. Manager of End-User & Collaboration Applications at Cisco says, “Our Virtual Agent helps us in two very important ways: One, it helps achieve our goal to make self-support easier for our customers to discover exactly what they need as quickly and easily as possible; and two, our Virtual Agent also gives all of our customers the opportunity to give us critical feedback on our content with every article.  Having the voice of our customers helps us improve our content, which is a tremendous value to us all.” As an acknowledged leader in providing excellent web support for their customers, Cisco prides themselves on giving great customer service. Cisco has won multiple awards for excellence in web-based self-service for the support site. Now, Cisco is carrying on the experience of outstanding web-based support, and using it to revolutionize support for the mobile generation.

“Making the Virtual Assistant work on a mobile device is important, but detecting in real time that a query is coming from a mobile device, so that the content can be automatically rendered to fit that type of environment is imperative and makes the solution very scalable, “ said Diego Ventura, Founder and CEO of noHold.

About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. For ongoing news, please go to http://thenetwork.cisco.com.

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 Toshiba, Lenovo, Cisco and a host of industry leaders. More information can be found at www.nohold.com.

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The Most Disruptive Technology Trend in IT History... The Smart Machine Era

Earlier in the month, one of the top analyst firms in the industry posted their predictions of the top 10 strategic technology trends for the coming year. For example, being able to compute everywhere on mobile devices, embracing the Internet of Things, and 3D printing are just a few of the kinds of disruptive technologies we will be further immersed in as 2015 approaches. 

The smart machine era is another trend that is considered to be the most disruptive in IT history thus far. In this era of smart machines, they now have the capability to analyze the environment around them, learn from it, and make educated decisions on their own. Leading analysts agree that prototype self-driving cars, intelligent robots, and Virtual Personal Assistants (VPAs) will continue to develop at a fast pace. 

Similarly, Virtual Customer Assistants (VCA) are evolving rapidly. Using this type of disruptive technology will not only decrease support costs, but also improve the customer experience and increase revenue. According to a distinguished magazine publication, when consumers start a support interaction, they are 4x more likely to leave that interaction unsatisfied and stop shopping with your brand. The presence of a VCA allows users to find the answers to their own questions, on their own time – quickly.    

Companies that want to stay competitive need to start thinking about incorporating these strategic trends into their organization. Is your company already adopting some of these trends? If so, which ones and how? Does your eServices strategy emphasize the importance of self-service?     
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3 Reasons Why Smartphone Brands Need a Virtual Customer Assistant (like Siri) for Customer Support

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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. 

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#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. 
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