noHold created a new connector that integrates with Lithium Communities to simplify the customer support experience. With a similar goal to optimize efficiency for end users to find support solutions, the connector uses noHold’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Lithium’s search to find answers in the discussion boards hosted within a Lithium Community, and returns the results within the noHold Virtual Assistant window. Through the open API connector, companies can leverage a Virtual Assistant that also works in parallel with multiple knowledge sources such as Lithium, Google, Bing, Salesforce, and more; all from one place, Single Point of Search.

One of the largest PC manufacturers in the world is already utilizing this technology to make their support options more dynamic. For example, if a user is inquiring about a battery issue for their laptop, the user can type ‘battery’ into the search bar. The expert system will bring up noHold’s Virtual Assistant, as well as pull in a library of knowledge and relevant discussion threads from the company’s Lithium-powered community. The technology is designed to help customers find solutions on their own terms, for any type of user. They can use the Virtual Assistant for a more diagnostic and interactive experience, or use the search function to get to a relevant list of articles in the forum.

The advantages to deploying a Virtual Assistant with such a connector include:
- Single Point of Search – having one place for customers to search multiple repositories of information simultaneously.- Ease of implementation – within a matter of days the Virtual Assistant can go live.
- Low customer effort – users do not have to jump from different channels (phone, web, email, etc.) to find solutions.

“Communities are a powerful way to generate trusted content that solves customer problems. But like any content, community content is most powerful when you deliver it to the right person at the right time,” said Joe Cothrel, Chief Community Officer at Lithium Technologies. “This integration between noHold and Lithium empowers companies to harness the power of community in new ways.”

“Virtual Assistants have gone through an impressive evolution in the past few years. First, leveraging content from their own knowledge base only and now reaching out and connecting to content found in Communities,” said Diego Ventura, CEO and founder of noHold. “Our connector to one of the most sophisticated platforms in the field, Lithium, makes our Virtual Assistant even more in tune with what the audience is interested in because the content is created by the audience itself.  We look forward to this next stage of evolution.”