Chatbots.org Business News

Websites have become the service channel of choice for an increasing number of customers and citizens. Studies show that people prefer to visit websites when they need to solve an issue, gather information or make a purchasing decision. Yet, what’s missing from the online experience is the personal service that differentiates the web experience and guides the visitor to the information or solution that they are looking for. Industry analysts have identified that a new generation of Virtual Assistants (intelligent website avatars)  can offer this personal touch.

noHold, Inc., developer of the most interactive and diagnostic Virtual Assistant technology and Confederated Knowledge™, has teamed up with Motorola Mobility, Inc (NYSE: MMI) to develop the Motorola Modem Virtual Assistant which is available to Comcast subscribers now.  noHold and Motorola are providing an integrated and effective first-line-of-support to respond to customer inquiries, which allows service providers to improve customer satisfaction and reduce support costs.

Online Virtual Assistants are becoming more widespread and consumer appetite for them is growing, as highlighted by an independent survey of 1,500 consumers across Europe.

Results showed that 81% of people said they would be more likely to engage with an online Virtual Assistant if it improved their online experience, 72% welcomed them becoming part of every website and a similar number said they would spend longer on a website that had one.

Virtual assistants can take on multiple roles on a website, such as answering customer questions, performing various helpful tasks and connecting to enterprise systems when needed. Their intelligence allows them to remember facts, learn from their conversations and maintain a two-way dialogue with visitors but what other characteristics should they have?

Next IT, a leading provider of intelligent virtual assistants for business, announced that it has reaced a multi-year deal with United Airlines. Next IT will provide a natural, or every-day, language solution to create an exceptional customer experience for travelers using united.com.

The virtual assistant is planned to function much like ‘Alex,’ who was implemented by Continental Airlines in 2009 and has answered over 20 million questions for customers on Continental.com.

Creative Virtual Ltd has taken web self-service to the next level for two more customers with their recent integration of Google search functionality with the V-Person™ (virtual agent)  solutions deployed on the Milton Keynes Council and Renault UK websites.

Milton Keynes Council’s) online virtual assistant Shak now has the added power of Google search. When a user asks a question or enters a keyword, Shak searches both the V-Person knowledgebase and the Milton Keynes Council website for matches. Results of the site search are displayed in the ‘Google Search Results’ tab and, when no matches are found in the virtual assistant knowledgebase, in a page loaded in the background. This integration means that visitors to the Council’s website are now able to find the answers to all their queries with the ease of one user friendly interface.

Learn more about Milton Keynes Council’s most recent updates to ‘Ask Shak’

Creative Virtual Ltd is seeking Development and Support Technicians to join our expanding London, UK and Stamford, CT, USA-based teams.

As a Development Technician you will be responsible for creating and updating rich user interfaces, helping to ensure smooth integration of our conversational systems with our clients’ websites. The position involves a combination of front and back-end work (approximately 70/30).

This aspect of the role gives you the opportunity for your work to be visible on some of the most highly trafficked websites in the world, with high-profile clients ranging from leading financial institutions to social networking sites.

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.

On Tuesday, September 13 at 1pm ET, virtual agent developer Next IT will host Conquer Customer Login Issues, a complimentary, educational webinar exploring online account creation and login issues, their effect on the customer experience, and ways that organizations are using technology to empower users to stay connected to their online accounts.

Do you dream about conversational virtual assistants that recognize your voice? First try to talk to your search engine. Your voice will be recorded, transcribed subsequently by the speech server, and then sent back as text. With Google Voice Recognition application users can talk to the computer through a microphone and search for results by speaking, as presented on the video below.

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.