CEO's Corner: Service Leaders in Web Support.

I like market reviews, where a number of vendors are compared to one another and the best is selected for a specific category.  I like them even better when I respect the people involved in the reviewing process.  This is the case with the Service Leaders leader board published by CRM Magazine in March 2013.(article) The categories are well structured, the scoring mechanism well defined and some of the reviewers include: Esteban Kolsky, Principal and Founder of ThinkJar; Michael Moaz, VP and Distinguished Analyst with Gartner and John Ragsdale, VP of Technology Research with TSIA. All people I know personally and respect.  I paid particular attention to the Web Support piece.  Right from the get go Judith Aquino, Associate Editor with CRM Magazine reported three prominent aspects of Web Support:

• The need to deliver support across multiple channels and devices.

• The importance of deploying a platform that doesn’t require customers to repeat themselves.

•   The expectation that voice enabled virtual agents will become a major aspect of Web Support.

The last point resonates with me since noHold has been creating Virtual Agents for the last decade for some of the biggest companies in the world.  I must admit that up until a few years ago I was skeptical of the quality of Voice Recognition Technology, but the vendors in this space have made dramatic breakthroughs.  In fact, I think that the technologies are coming together to create real world applications 

1. The pervasive distribution of mobile devices. 
2.   The availability of Virtual Agents that not only include a Natural Language Processor (NLP), but also an Inference Engine (IE) that can mimic human interaction. 
3. The availability of Speech Recognition Technology that is both speaker independent and can handle continuous speech.

It is at the intersection of these three technologies that we will see the birth of new voice enabled virtual agents.  All I hope for is that they will be able to understand my thick Italian accent, because now, every time I ask Siri to schedule an appointment, she asks me if I want to know where the closest Starbucks is. 

Diego Ventura, CEO, noHold, Inc.

Customer Feedback Fridays - Be Proactive.

When you walk into a brick and mortar business, and the company is known for providing excellent service, what does that mean to you? For me, a store providing great service does a few of the following:

1) The clerk smiles at me and says hello when I enter
2) After saying hello, the clerk does not "pounce" on me, he/she allows me to browse, and confronts me to provide help after giving me some time to look.
3) When it's time to approach me, and I tell the clerk I'm just looking, he/she will simply say "OK, if you need any help my name is Martha and I will be happy to assist you."

Three simple steps. Being too intrusive makes me feel rushed and overwhelmed. By offering help only if I need it, I am happy. I trust that the store cares about my business and wants me to be comfortable.

On the web, don't we all want the same thing? Invite me into your site with a welcome message. Make it easy for me to navigate, so I can find what I'm looking for. Offer to help, but don't push me away. Most companies will say that they strive to re-create the brick and mortar experience for online shoppers.

Proactive chat is a good way to provide guidance through all steps of the sales cycle. Beginning with educate, advise, and up-sell to fulfill, support and maintaining a happy customer.

One noHold customer has recently transformed the traditional Virtual Agent experience into a proactive 'guided' conversation. The proactive agent comes in two forms:
1) A proactive pop-up will appear after 3 seconds on the page.
2) On another page, a proactive pop-up will appear the 3rd time you visit the page (click a link, then click back to see it in action).  In this version, you can type in a question to start the virtual chat interaction.

The beauty of this experience is that the Virtual Agent will present itself, but the end user can decide to say yes or no, or simply close the window. The pop-up is a small window that does not intrude on the visitors navigation or block the view of the page.

What's that you say? Pop-ups have a bad wrap? It's true, but keep in mind that if it's done the right way most users prefer proactive chat. In fact, a leading analyst firm says,  "Implementing proactive chat can be a complex process that requires aligning multiple business areas. However, a successful proactive chat implementation doesn't end with a check mark next to the word "done"; savvy eBusiness professionals understand that proactive chat success requires ongoing refinement of the business rules that will trigger chat invitations, staffing, and customer experience." Forrester, 2010, Diane Clarkson.

And with any business, online or brick and mortar, your customers and prospects are going to have questions. Choosing the tried and true method of the most successful retail stores in the nation, and recreating that experience online is what we all aim for. If you want to learn more about proactive chat and how leading brands do it today, my name is Sarah, and I will be right here if you need my assistance.

Cheers to the weekend!

Customer Feedback Fridays

Another great quote from a noHold customer. We are often asked the question, "What percentage of end users actually use the Virtual Assistant (Virtual Agent)?" This feedback provides a perfect response to Virtual Assistant adoption - Give your customers the option, and let them decide.

Enjoy your weekend.

“There is no one size fits all when it comes to [online support], and you must know your audience... You have to give them options...We never try to force or make a decision on behalf of the customer as to which tool will help them the most. We leave that to them.” -Cisco

Customer Feedback Fridays

We are excited to share another customer feedback from noHold customer, Webroot. Specifically, Webroot has shared their experience in introducing a Virtual Assistant (Virtual Agent)in English, and in Japanese. noHold customers have deployed Virtual Assistants in multiple languages, for example: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Dutch, German, Chinese, and Japanese.

Happy Friday!

"The noHold Virtual Agent has allowed Webroot to expand its support offerings in the Japanese market. With a small team in Japan, we are committed to continuously identifying ways to improve our customer’s experience while managing our support costs. In just the past few months since implementing our Japanese Virtual Agent we have already seen a significant return on our investment and improved customer satisfaction. Our customers expect only the best service from Webroot and we have an obligation to deliver nothing but the best possible experience to our customers. The noHold Virtual Agent is an integral part of our support operations and key to helping us uphold this standard of excellence." - Michael Davies, Manager Technical Support Operations at Webroot.