Chatbots.org Business News

Automation technologies like natural language interaction and IVR have revolutionized the way customers interact with the customer service function.

There is little doubt that the mobile revolution has changed consumer expectations. According to a recent study by Clickfox on mobile customer service, over 78% of consumers use mobile apps for customer service purposes such as billing, account status/updates and interactive chat. And the estimated 8 billion handheld devices in use over the next few years is nothing short of a clarion call for financial services, telecommunications, and other companies to stake their mobile CRM claim. That means that to stay on top, enterprises need to provide personalisation, accessibility, and superior service both on and offline to create a meaningful and cohesive customer experience.

VirtuOz, Inc., the leading provider of intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) for online marketing, sales and support, today announced availability of a packaged integration with Moxie Software’s Chat Spaces™, for both sales and services.  The integrated solution delivers a next generation customer experience that meets the needs of today’s digital-savvy customers, who increasingly dictate when, where and how they want to engage with a company.

Online Virtual AssistantsVirtual Assistants increasingly becoming the first point of contact for users who need help from customer service. However, sometimes it is inevitable that a real customer service agent steps in and deals with the customer query. And here comes the twist; to whom does the service agent turn to when he or she needs help in resolving a question? To a virtual assistant of course!

VirtuOz, Inc., the leading provider of intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) for online support, today announced the availability of its marketing and sales IVAs.  Already a leader in virtual agents for support with the largest number of live enterprise intelligent virtual agents for the Global 2000, VirtuOz now offers a full suite of enterprise-class IVAs, enabling companies to create digital customer relationships and to engage with today’s online consumer across all transactions. 

In addition, VirtuOz revealed Chloe, the company’s new virtual agent for online marketing.  Using VirtuOz’ cloud-based solution and best practices, Chloe not only answers questions about the virtual agent market, the company, its products, services, and customers, she also represents VirtuOz’ unique brand.  She is designed to address the needs of prospective customers, partners, investors, and even job applicants and will serve as a showcase for virtual agent best practices as she continues to learn. 

VirtuOz, Inc., the leading provider of intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) for online marketing, sales, and support, today announced the company has partnered with Moxie Software. The partnership brings together the leaders in virtual agents and Web customer support to deliver a next generation customer experience solution.

VirtuOz, the leading provider of intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) for online customer service, today announced that Numericable, a major cable and high speed Internet provider in France, debuted Emilie, an intelligent virtual agent powered by VirtuOz, as a new and contemporary online support channel. Available on Numericable’s website support page, Emilie provides a high quality support experience 24/7 to Numericable’s subscribers while also freeing their live agents to focus on higher value support and service activities.

VirtuOz, the leading provider of intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) for online customer service, today announced that virtual assistants were a key criterion for determining for CRM Web Customer Service. In addition, the report ranks “new and additional customer access channels” as the number one business case driver for WCS deployments.

Artificial Solutions announced today that one of its Teneo Virtual Assistants has been shortlisted as a 2011 finalist in the Best Use of Technology category, in the prestigious European Call Centre and Customer Service Awards. Emma, Telenor Sweden’s busiest customer service agent, answers nearly five thousand questions everyday on Telenor’s website.

Developed in response to Telenor’s rapidly growing network, a Scandinavian wide price war and a need to provide 24/7 online support, Emma answers all kinds of questions from mobile services to troubleshooting SIM card issues. As a Teneo Virtual Assistant, Emma uses the world’s most robust natural language interaction (NLI) engine that enables her to reason like a human using advanced linguistic and business rules to decide how best to respond a customer’s request. With each interaction Emma dynamically re-assesses content to understand what has changed and give the right answers.

Companies today are searching for ways to save money while providing optimal customer experiences. As a result, an increasing number of organizations are turning to live chat and virtual assistants.
With such benefits as contact center deflections, increases in agent productivity, and gains in customer satisfaction, chat makes sound fiscal sense while serving as a tool to enhance the customer experience. In fact, a recent Forrester Research study estimated the average ROI for proactive chat is105 percent.

Jeff Brown, executive vice president of sales at Next IT, says that more and more companies are buying in to the concept of chat and virtual assistants after finding that static FAQs and video tutorials aren’t always tailored to customers’ individual questions and needs, thus failing to offer a deeply engaging experience. As a result, the thinking is now, ” ‘How do I extend my brand reach out to where I can engage clients and have a dialogue with them?’” Brown says.

That focus on customer experience is a primary reason companies are now evolving their use of chat from a reactive tool that helps online customers with questions or moves them through the checkout process when they get stuck, to a more proactive approach that entails making customers aware about individually tailored products, services, or discounts when they first land on a site. “People don’t want to just be cross-sold to; they want to be aware of the value-add,” Brown says.

Two companies in very different industries, Aetna and HauteLook, demonstrate that the value of virtual assistants and live chat reaches far beyond helping with navigational issues. They’ve become valuable proactive communication tools to help improve the customer experience.