example of a definitive industry guide

DIGITAL SELF-SERVICE

The Definitive Guide for Serving the Modern Consumer

A Message from David Lloyd, IntelliResponse CEO 4How to Read this eBook 5 Section 1: Key Drivers of Digital Self-Service 6Meet the New Digital Consumer 6 Today’s Consumers Are Always Connected 7 Digital Self-Service: Why Should Businesses Care? 9

Section 2: How to Deliver Optimal Digital Self-Service 12Intent Recognition: The Foundation of Modern Digital Self-Service 12 Intent Recognition vs. Status Quo 13 Virtual Agents: The Optimal Digital Self-Service Solution 14 Virtual Agent Technology: Important Features 15 How Virtual Agents Provide an Effortless Customer Experience 16 Virtual Agent Success Story: High-Growth Airline Reduces Customer Effort 17 How Virtual Agents Reduce Costs 18 How Virtual Agents Drive Additional Revenues 23 How Virtual Agents Help You Better Understand Customers 26 Voice of the Customer Insight: Use Case Examples 27

Section 3: Importance of Multiple Channels 32Ensuring Consistent, Accurate Answers Across All Channels 32 The Mobile Channel 33 The Social Channel 36

Section 4 : The Live Support Channel 37The Vicious Cycle in the Live Support Channel 38 How Virtual Agents Add Value in the Live Support Channel 39 What Kind of Results are Reasonable to Expect? 40 AHT Reductions and FTE Equivalent Savings 41

Section 5: Deployment 43Best Practices & Tips for Deploying Virtual Agents 43

Section 6: 9 Key Takeaways 49

A Message from David Lloyd, IntelliResponse CEODear Reader,The way in which organizations interact with customers has been forever transformed. The high expectations of today’s consumers means organizations have no choice but to continuously add efficiency and value to the customer service experience, or face losing customers to competitors. What’s more, the customer service experience is now primarily, and often exclusively, digital in nature. Customers largely prefer to manage their relationships with organizations digitally and in a self-service manner. Ultimately, this means reducing customer effort in your digital service channels. Many organizations have been slow to understand exactly what this means, and how to do it. That’s why we’ve put together this eBook. Digital Self-Service – The Definitive Guide for Serving the Modern Consumer. In assembling this eBook for you, we’ve taken over a decade of our own experience in digital self-service and virtual agent technology and distilled it into the most up-to-the-minute, comprehensive reference guide for reducing customer effort in your digital service channels. This book will give you the edge you need when it comes to digital self-service. You’ll know why it’s important for your organization, what makes for a world-class virtual agent deployment and even how to project ROI in various scenarios. We’re sharing with you the insight that we’ve accumulated through more than 450 live customer-facing implementations of our virtual agent technology. IntelliResponse is the gold standard in first line customer experience management, and I’m pleased to be sharing our knowledge and best practices with you in Digital Self-Service – The Definitive Guide for Serving the Modern Consumer.

Sincerely,David Lloyd CEO, IntelliResponse Twitter: @1RA

©2014IntelliResponseSystemsInc. DigitalSelf-Service:TheDefinitiveGuideforServingtheModernConsumer|4

HOW TO READ THIS EBook This schematic provides a map of important concepts covered throughout this eBook. As you read through the eBook, we’ll return to this schematic and add commentary to each section.


Two key drivers are fueling the rise of digital self-service. Customers are demanding:

To optimize the value of digital self-service, you deploy three key components . . .

AND flip four key “switches”

1

2

3

OFF OFF OFF OFF

Let’s begin the progress through this schematic with Section 1: Key Drivers of Digital Self-Service.

WEB MOBILE SOCIAL AGENT

DIGITAL ACCESS TO ANSWERS

INSTANT EFFORTLESS

SERVICE

INSTANT, ACCURATE ANSWERS

TARGETED MARKETING

OFFERS

VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER

INSIGHT

Section 1: Key Drivers of Digital Self-Service


MEET THE NEW DIGITAL CONSUMERConsumers today have specific requirements and high expectations when interacting with companies online...

1) Forrester Research, Inc., 2,3) The Self Service Economy, Steven Van Belleghem

Understanding the Digital ConsumerToday’s customers have extremely high expectations of how their experience should unfold when interacting with companies online. Most believe that their problems should be resolved in a single interaction. Customer service today is about catering to a sea of digital consumers who are impatient, self-reliant and intolerant of being let down. This is the profile of the modern customer. Considering their penchant for self-service and unforgiving attitude toward service missteps, getting your digital self-service strategy right is now mission-critical.

72% of US online consumers preferto get answers via a company’swebsite versus telephone or email1

Up to 89% of consumers worldwideexpect an efficient self-serviceapplication on company websites2

88% of consumers want theirproblem resolved in ONE interaction3

72

89

88


Today’s Consumers Are Always ConnectedAnother factor that goes hand-in-hand with the modern consumer’s preference for serving themselves today is the fact that they are connected around-the-clock. Even when using laptop and desktop computer, mobile devices are within reach. The following chart is a great illustration of just how much of life has become ‘digital’ – and how smartphones, tablets and internet connectivity have become central to the typical day.

7 AM Wake upSmartphone: emails

7 AM BreakfastTablet: News & emails

7:45 AM CommuteSmartphone: News & emails

9 AM WorkingSmartphone & desktop

11 AM CoffeeSmartphone: browsing,

texting

11:15 AM WorkingSmartphone & desktop

12:30 - 2 PM WorkingSmartphone: peak mobile

internet usage

2 PM WorkingSmartphone & desktop

6 PM CommuteSmartphone: News,

emails, browsing

7:30 - 9 PM WorkingTablet: peak tablet usage,

second screen & purchases

10:30 – 11 PM HomeSmartphone: News & emails


What is Digital Self-Service?

In recent years, customer experience professionals, contact center managers, ecommerce professionals and marketing leaders have all turned their attention to digital self-service.

Digital self-service allows consumers to visit an organization’s web, mobile or social channels and be automatically guided toward the answers and information they require. Taking the form of a helpful online concierge, these solutions provide a digital road map that reduces customer effort and empowers consumers to be self-sufficient when looking for answers and information online.

A complete digital self-service technology solution achieves three things:

1) allows customers to enter a digital channel and ask a question using natural language and get the one right answer, instantly and effortlessly,

2) delivers additional relevant information to the customer, such as follow-up questions and targeted marketing offers that match the intent of the original question, and

3) tracks and structures the millions of incoming customer queries from these digital interactions into useable, actionable ‘voice of the customer’ data for the organization.

An organization can achieve these outcomes by deploying Virtual Agent technology in their customer-facing digital channels, including the web, mobile and social channels.

We take a detailed look at Virtual Agents in section two of this ebook.

An illustrative example of a Virtual Agent prominently greeting customers on a website home page.


Why Should Businesses Care?Countless studies in recent years illustrate that consumers have very clear preferences when interacting with companies in the digital age. Our own research into customer behavior added clarity to these preferences by asking consumers two specific questions:What kind of relationship do you want with companies?Where is the first place you go when looking for information regarding a product or service?Business leaders who want to win and retain more customers need to pay attention to the answers to these questions, as they provide a clear description of the kind of digital interaction experiences that customers want.

Consumers Want Digital Access to AnswersWith the ubiquity of digital devices, and the ‘always connected’ nature of modern life, it should come as no surprise that today’s customers prefer to head straight for digital channels when seeking answers and information about products and services. Our own survey data illustrates that most customers are inclined to visit a company website first:

This illustrates the importance of making answers to commonly-sought information easily and readily accessible in all digital channels, including the mobile and social web.

Question: Where is the first place you go when looking for information regarding a product or service?

10 % Social media

10 % Store or branch

4 % Mobile app

6 % Phone

68% COMPANY WEBSITE


59% want EFFICIENT TRANSACTIONAL

service

3.2% actually LOOK FORWARD to interacting

24.2% want PERSONALIZED service

11% want to “BUY AND SAY GOODBYE”

Question: What kind of relationship do you WANT with companies?

Customers Want Instant, Effortless ServiceThere’s a lot of talk in organizations and among industry pundits on the importance of personalized service. But the data from our own consumer survey indicates that consumers actually prefer efficient, transactional service that’s accessible from company websites. This clearly illustrates just how much consumers value an effortless experience when it comes to getting answers and information online.

The clear preference for efficient, transactional service among today’s consumer means customer service professionals everywhere need to make reducing customer effort a top priority. As we explain in detail throughout this eBook, digital channels represent the pinnacle of this kind of efficiency, as they enable organizations to deliver automated answers to millions of low-complexity questions in a way that’s automated and scalable.

WHERE ARE WE SO FAR? In Section 1, we identified that the shift toward digital self-service is largely driven by two

key factors: customer demand for digital access to answers and instant, effortless service. In Section 2, we’ll cover how Virtual Agent technology excels at meeting the demands of customers, while reducing costs.




1

2

WebeginthenextsectionofthiseBookbytakingacloselookatthefirstofthree keycomponentsofanydigitalself-servicestrategy.Inordertorealizeoptimalbenefitsof

digitalself-service,forbothyourcustomersandyourorganization, youneedallthreecomponentsinplace.

Asyou’reabouttosee,thisiswhereVirtualAgenttechnologycomesinandforms thecornerstoneofyourdigitalself-serviceoffering.


TARGETED MARKETING

OFFERS


INSIGHT


INSTANT EFFORTLESS

SERVICE

Section 2: How to Deliver Optimal Digital Self-Service


Intent Recognition: The Foundation of Modern Digital Self-ServiceOnline self-service is not about simple keyword recognition that is the backbone of traditional site search, nor is it about categorizing help content via a list of static FAQs. These traditional forms of online help are antiquated because they typically present customers with a large number (often hundreds or thousands) of possible answers to their query. Today’s consumers are looking for specific, instant and singular answers to their customer service queries. They want to ask a question and get an answer. Period.

This simply requires a digital self-service solution that can:1) Understand the intent behind a customer’s question, and2) continuously ‘learn’ from each question asked across the entire customer base

The combination of these two capabilities (intent recognition and machine learning over time) results in the ability to deliver the one right answer to customer questions, regardless of the many ways those questions might be asked. An optimal digital self-service solution therefore recognizes that the three questions:

• “How do I stop a payment?”• “How do I cancel a check?”• “Help, the gym is taking money out of my account”

all have the same intent and are therefore the same question. As such, each question requires the same answer. Intent recognition technology utilizes a knowledge-matching process, where incoming natural language questions are matched to the single right answer that a customer needs. This approach provides a mechanism that allows the development of question-specific criteria. The criteria can then link to the appropriate answers even if they do not specifically contain complete occurrences of the search terms provided by the customer.

Why Intent Recognition MattersWith intent recognition, companies can now truly understand the reasoning behind their stakeholders’ questions, meaning they can deliver the accurate answer instantly, reliably and consistently across channels. This has benefits not only from a customer satisfaction perspective but also in the areas of monetization as well as harnessing voice of the customer insights – both of which we explore later is this book.

Traditional Site Search1. User types question.2. Algorithm selects keywords from

question, ignoring words like “how,” “when,”“where” and “why.”

3. Algorithm indexes content based on itsrelevancy to keywords entered andreturns list of potential options.

4. User must browse forcorrect content.

Less than 50% of traditional site

searches return expected results

Intent Recognition Technology 1. User types question.2. Algorithm parses question using

machine learning and natural languageprocessing to determine its INTENT.

3. The one right answer is delivered.

Intent Recognition Technology returns the one right answer

80% - 90% of the time

50

90


Intent Recognition vs. Status Quo How does intent recognition technology compare to the status quo of traditional site search in the arena of online self-service? Traditional website search algorithms are not optimized to interpret questions. As a result, less than 50% of traditional website searches actually return expected results. When results are delivered, they number in the hundreds or thousands which forces the customer to parse through a list of potential options that may contain the information they requested. It’s a terrible user experience, which falls far short of the service expectations that today’s customer brings to the digital channel.

WHY INTENT RECOGNITION WINS In customer self-service environments, task-oriented customers want the one right answer to their question. This requires specialized search methodology. Intent recognition uses a combination of machine learning technology and Natural Language Processing to match the intent within a question to a specific answer. As a result, the ONE right answer (as opposed to hundreds or thousands of search results) is consistently delivered an unbeatable 80% to 90% of the time.


INTENT RECOGNITION WITH VIRTUAL AGENTS

Virtual Agents: The Optimal Digital Self-Service Solution Virtual Agents are software services that utilize intent recognition technology to engage in automated conversations with customers in self-service environments.

Virtual Agents empower customers on their journey for answers and task completion by simplifying the process of information delivery in multiple channels, including the corporate web, mobile, social and agent environments.

Virtual Agents are often the first point of contact between a customer and an organization, and excel in guiding customers toward the information they need in a way that is fast, efficient and enjoyable. Virtual Agents do all of this at a fraction of the cost of human-assisted service, and they deliver a combination of benefits that you just can’t get from live support channels, including:

1) 24 x 7 service, via a Virtual Agent that works every weekend, never gets sick,and needs no vacation

2) a highly effective method of giving customers more of what they WANT – theability to serve themselves in your digital channels, and

3) sustainable improvements in online CSAT metrics, brought about by thelowering of customer effort

An illustrative example of a Virtual Agent prominently greeting customers on a website home page.


NATURAL LANGUAGE INTERPRETER This feature “cleans up” customer questions by normalizing data, correcting spelling and data input errors and understanding question fragments and word forms for enhanced accuracy.

Virtual Agent Technology – Key Features

INTENT RECOGNITION derives the intent of the customer question and delivers the one right answer and/or asks for clarification in order to match the question to the right answer.

+ 20% ACCURACY BOOST

i.Match

ENHANCED PREDICTIVE SEARCH

streamlines the user experience and minimizes customer effort (keystrokes and time. i.Suggest goes far beyond “predictive search” by recognizing the intent behind every question.

+ 20% ACCURACY BOOST

Related Questions are intelligently linked to the answer, helping to answer the customer’s most likely next question.

In the agent channel, 22% of repeat calls involve downstream issues related to the original question. Related Questions help minimize these repeat calls.

RELATED QUESTIONS

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with available features, but the path to ROI becomes clear when you know what features directly impact the ACCURACY of the delivered answer. Without these key features, your virtual agent will be far less effective in actually resolving customer issues, causing calls to escalate to live channels, and squandering the opportunity for cost savings.

For each feature, we show the extent to which they improve accuracy, which directly influences resolution.

WHAT FEATURES DIRECLTY IMPACT ROI?

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR DIGITAL SELF SERVICE: CALL & EMAIL DEFLECTION | 5 © 2013 IntelliResponse Systems Inc.

i.Suggest

ACCURACY BOOST

+ 20%

NATURAL LANGUAGE INTERPRETERThis feature “cleans up” customer questions by normalizing data, correcting spelling and data

input errors and understanding question fragments and word forms for enhanced accuracy.

INTENT RECOGNITIONi.Match derives the intent of the customer question and delivers the one right answer and/orasks for clarification in order to match the question to the right answer.

ENHANCED PREDICTIVE SEARCH

i.Suggest streamlines the userexperience and minimizescustomer effort (keystrokes andtime. i.Suggest goes far beyond“predictive search” byrecognizing the intent behind

every question.

RELATED QUESTIONSRelated Questions are intelligentlylinked to the answer, helping toanswer the customer’s most likelynext question.

In the agent channel, 22% ofrepeat calls involve downstreamissues related to the originalquestion. Related Questions helpminimize these repeat calls.

ACCURACY BOOST

+ 20%

Virtual Agent Technology: Important Features It is important to spend some time outlining the key features of leading virtual agent technology that make all the difference in terms of efficiency and accuracy – two areas that are vitally important to your customers in the self-service environment.

Without these key features, your virtual agent will be far less effective in actually resolving customer issues, causing calls to escalate to live channels, and squandering the opportunity for cost savings. For each feature, we show the extent to which they improve accuracy, which directly influences resolution.

This feature “cleans up” customer questions by normalizing data, correcting spelling and data input errors and understanding question fragments and word forms for enhanced accuracy

Derives the intent of the customer question and delivers the one right answer and/or asks for clarification in order to match the question to the right answer.

Streamlines the user experience and minimizes customer effort (keystrokes and time. i.Suggest goes far beyond “predictive search” by recognizing the intent behind every question.

Related Questions are intelligently linked to the answer, helping to answer the customer’s most likely next question.

In the agent channel, 22% of repeat calls involve downstream issues related to the original question. Related Questions help minimize these repeat calls.

Escalation options are easy to find.

The Virtual Agent delivers the SINGLE right answer, rather than pages of search results. This means higher FCR, call and email deflection of up to 50%, and significant cost savings that result from this new efficiency.

Intent recognition enables the Virtual Agent to provide links to highly RELEVANT info that the customer is likely to be interested in next, further helping to reduce the need for escalation.

AVirtualAgentdeliversthesinglecorrectanswertocustomerquestions.

How Virtual Agents Provide an Effortless Customer Service ExperienceLeading Virtual Agents equip your customer interaction channels with the ability to answer customer questions by intelligently recognizing the intent behind each question. In this way, a Virtual Agent can deliver the single accurate answer to a question regardless of the hundreds of ways a question can be phrased. This gives customers the efficiency they desire and provides organizations with the automated ‘closed-loop’ resolution of low-complexity questions with no need for human interaction. Below is an example of a virtual agent deployment in action, and all the ways in which it meets the customer’s needs for complete, accurate, expedient resolutions.

Got Questions? Just ask!



Copa Airlines ‘Ask Ana’ greets online customers and encourages them to ask questions.

Within 6 months of implementing ‘Ask Ana’ Copa saw online queries jump to 42%, then 50%, of ALL customer service channel interactions. At the same time, their call and chat volumes have

Fastest-Growing Airline Deploys Virtual Agent VIRTUAL AGENT SUCCESS STORY

Copa Airlines is Latin America’s fastest-growing airline. In an industry historically bemoaned for poor and antiquated customer service, Copa Airlines set out to do things better.

Seeing how important the online customer experience has become, and what a a critical role it will play in any airline’s ability to stay competitive in the future, Copa established a clear vision: turn the web channel (including mobile) into the NUMBER ONE source of answers and information for COPA customers. Copa deployed ASK ANA, a virtual agent, on their customer-facing web site, Facebook page and mobile site. As Copa’s highly-mobile, time-pressed customer base adopted this solution with fervor, Copa saw immediate and sustainable drops in customer phone calls, emails, chats and - of course - a reduction in the costs associated with these human-assisted support channels.

of all customer service interactions with Copa

are handled by the ‘Ask Ana’ virtual agent

50%

CUSTOMER SERVICE SHOULD NEVER SLOW YOU DOWN | 5

its customer facing web site, FaceBook page and mobile site. As

Within 6 months of implementing ‘Ask Ana,’ Copa saw online queries jump to 42%, then 50%, of ALL customer service interactions.

At the same time, its call and chat volumes have steadily declined.

Copa Airlines is Latin America’s fastest-growing airline. In an industry historically bemoaned for poor and antiquated customer service, Copa Airlines set out to reduce customer effort by making answers and information easily available from their customer-facing digital channels. Their goal was to turn the web channel (including mobile) into the NUMBER ONE source of answers for Copa customers.Copa deployed ‘Ask Ana’, a virtual agent, on their customer facing website, Facebook page and mobile site. ‘Ask Ana’ was an immediate hit with Copa’s customer base of highly mobile, time-pressed travelers. As a result, Copa saw immediate and sustainable drops in customer phone calls, emails, chats and a reduction in the costs associated with these human-assisted support channels


Virtual Agent Success Story: High-Growth Airline Reduces Customer Effort


How Virtual Agents Reduce CostsThe first thing to understand when it comes to the discussion on reducing support costs is that customers will always encounter problems and expect organizations to solve them…A study conducted by Customer Care Measurement & Consulting paints a shocking picture of the degree to which today’s consumers have become ‘problem-sensitive.’ In 1976, just 32% of consumers reported experiencing a problem with products or services they had purchased during the previous year. By 2013, that figure had soared to 50%.Whether this reflects a jump in actual problems or perceived problems, or some combination of the two, is irrelevant. The takeaway for organizations is that today’s customers are hypersensitive to problems, meaning companies need a scalable system in place for delivering resolutions online.If not, the cost for dropping the ball is high. One way or another, your organization is going to feel the impact. Every time a customer goes online in search of information from your organization and doesn’t find the answers he or she is looking for, you can bet he or she will take actions that cost your organization dearly.This data from Forrester Research shows us exactly how customers react when they fail in their attempt to get answers from your website…

With 75% of disappointed customers escalating to your higher cost support channels, like phone, email and chat, every online interaction that ends in disappointment gets costly fast.

25% ABANDON OR DEFECT75% ESCALATE TO YOUR HIGHER COST

SUPPORT CHANNELS

What Customers Do When They Can’t Find Answers On Your Website


It’s no secret that the cost to deliver live support becomes astronomical as your customer base grows. And in a very recent survey of customer experience executives, IntelliResponse found that most executives view call and email deflection as their top goal when it comes to a digital self-service deployment.

This, of course, means empowering customers with the ability to self-serve online for answers to their questions, with no need for human assistance. Some companies go to extreme measures in this regard, making it very difficult to even locate live support phone numbers and email addresses on their website.

The plain economics of offering live support compared to digital self-service make it a rather cut-and-dry discussion. The high cost of phone and email support simply makes it cost prohibitive to deliver exceptional, live support for low-complexity, everyday customer service questions:

The good news, of course, for organizations is that moving to digital self-service is not only cost effective, but, as we have already seen, digital self-service is fully in alignment with the demands of today’s consumer. It’s a true win-win situation, where the company and the customers benefit.

Deflect calls and emails from

the contact center

Lower the level of customer

effort required

Make live agents more

effective

Increase CSAT

Reduce website

abandonment

61% 55% 49% 31% 16%

Channel CostPerTransaction

Phone $6.00

Email $4.00

Chat $4.00

DigitalSelf-Service $0.10 Self-servicecostsareastaggering60TIMES morecosteffectivethanlivephonesupport


Total Calls

Info Calls % Percentage of calls from customers seeking low-complexity information or instructional / how-to procedures. Info Calls 225,000

Deflection Est. 20%

Deflected Calls 45,000 Cost Per Call

Calls Not Deflected 180,000 Improvement in FCR 10% Calls Avoided 18,000 Cost Per Call

Deflection Value $ 270,000 Call Avoidance Value $ 108,000

Total Deflection Value $ 378,000 Total Deflected Calls 63,000 Est. Questions/Answers to Achieve Deflection

189,000

45%

500,000 Total annual call volume.

ROI FROM DIGITAL DEFLECTIONS ROI FROM FCR IMPROVEMENT

$ 6.00 $ 6.00

CALCULATING ROI FROM CALL DEFLECTIONS

The first-level of ROI offered by virtual agents comes from two points in the service delivery channel: 1)  Digital Deflections – whereby the virtual agent enables customers to resolve low-complexity queries in a

self-serve manner on the web, including in your social and mobile channels. As a result, these resolved queries are ‘deflected’ from higher-cost human assisted channels like call and email.

2)  FCR Improvement (Agent-Level Deflections) – Calls and emails not deflected from digital channels, which

then route to live CSR agents, become candidates for deflection at the agent level. When CSRs in your contact center use the same virtual agent technology to consistently retrieve answers faster, and with a higher degree of accuracy, a measurable improvement in FCR is achieved.

In the example below, we use sample data to calculate ROI from call deflections and email deflections separately. The call and email volume values used are only a percentage of the total calls that many organizations receive on an annual basis. Savings potential at your organization may be much larger.


Foundational ROI Calculations

consistently to retrieve answers faster, and with a

The first-level of ROI offered by virtual agents comes from two points in the service delivery channel: 1) Digital Deflections – whereby the virtual agent enables customers to resolve low-complexity queries in a self-serve manner on the web, including in your social and mobile channels. As a result, these resolved queries are ‘deflected’ from higher-cost human assisted channels like call and email. 2) FCR Improvement (Agent-Level Deflections) – Calls and emails not deflected from digital channels, which then route to live CSR agents, become candidates for deflection at the agent level. When CSRs in your contact center use the same virtual agent technology to consistently retrieve answers faster, and with a higher degree of accuracy, a measurable improvement in FCR is achieved. In the example below, we use sample data to calculate ROI from call deflections and email deflections separately. The call and email volume values used are only a percentage of the total calls that many organizations receive on an annual basis. Savings potential at your organization may be much larger.

Foundational ROI Calculations


Total Emails

Info Emails % Info Emails 45,000

Deflection Est. 50%

Deflected Emails 22,500 Cost Per Email

Emails Not Deflected 22,500 Improvement in FCR 5% Emails Avoided 1,125 Cost Per Email

Deflection Value $ 90,000 Email Avoidance Value $ 4,500

Total Deflection Value $ 94,500 Total Deflected Emails 23,625 Est. Questions/Answers to Achieve Deflection

70,785

45%

100,000 Total annual email volume.

ROI FROM WEBSITE DEFLECTIONS ROI FROM FCR IMPROVEMENT

$ 4.00 $ 4.00

CALCULATING ROI FROM EMAIL DEFLECTIONS

TOTAL VALUE FROM CALL AND EMAIL DEFLECTIONS

Total Value from Calls Deflection $ 378,000 Total Value from Emails Deflection $ 94,500 Total Savings – Deflections and FCR $ 472,500


Deflected Calls Deflected Emails Total Deflections

63,000 23,625 86,625

259,875 Projected Annual Questions and Answers

Compliments of IntelliResponse

Contact IntelliResponse for Pricing Details and a Free, No Obligation ROI Analysis

Percentage of emails from customers seeking low-complexity information or instructional / how-to procedures.

WHERE ARE WE SO FAR? Here in the opening part of Section 2, we explained how Virtual Agents excel at meeting the needs of today’s modern customer by delivering instant, accurate answers to his/her questions in digital channels.




1

2

NowthatyouclearlyunderstandhowVirtualAgentsdeliverinstant,accurateanswers,we’ll lookcloselyatthesecondkeycomponenttheyoffer,whichistheabilitytodriveadditionalrevenuesbydeliveringrelevantmarketingoffersinrealtime.Theabilitytodeliverrelevantmarketingoffers,rightalongsidethedeliveredanswer,allowsmarketerstoincreaserevenueandconversionsinwaystheyneverthoughtpossible,andby a factor of 10X or more.


TARGETED MARKETING

OFFERS


INSIGHT


INSTANT EFFORTLESS

SERVICE


The Next Level: More ROI from More Conversions

RELEVANT OFFERS BOOST CONVERSION The best virtual agents deliver relevant marketing offers to customers right alongside the answer to their question. This boost TOP-LINE revenue by leading customers toward the purchase path, when they would have otherwise ‘left’ the conversation after finding the answer to their question. One IntelliResponse client, a major North American bank, measured a 10X conversion improvement after introducing relevant marketing offers like this to their virtual agent solution.

Today, the ROI discussion is no longer limited to cost savings from call and email volume reduction. Leading virtual agent solutions now drive ongoing TOP-LINE value, month after month, with highly-relevant marketing offers that precisely match the top-of-mind, in-the-moment concerns of your customers. Below we show what your customers would see when your virtual agent is configured to leverage intent recognition into high-converting marketing offers.

INTENT RECOGNITION POWERS RELEVANT MARKETING OFFERS

10X CONVERSION

IMPROVEMENT

derives the intent of the customer question and delivers the one right answer and/or asks for clarification in order to match the question to the right answer.

INTENT RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY i.Match

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR DIGITAL SELF SERVICE: TOP-LINE REVENUE | 3 © 2014 IntelliResponse Systems Inc.

LEADING VIRTUAL AGENTS DELIVER MARKETING OFFERS

More ROI through More Conversions

This books TOP-LINE revenue by

to its virtual agent solution.

The best virtual agents deliver relevant marketing offers to customers right alongside the answer to their question. This boosts TOP-LINE revenue by leading customers toward the purchase path, when they would have otherwise ‘left’ the conversation after finding the answer to their question.

One IntelliResponse client, a major North American bank, measured a 10X conversion improvement after introducing relevant marketing offers like this to their virtual agent solution.

How Virtual Agents Drive Additional RevenuesToday, the ROI discussion is no longer limited to cost savings from call and email volume reduction. Leading virtual agent solutions now drive ongoing TOP-LINE value, month after month, with highly-relevant marketing offers that precisely match the top-of-mind, in-the-moment concerns of your customers. Below we show what your customers would see when your virtual agent is configured to leverage intent recognition into high-converting marketing offers.

INTENT RECOGNITION POWERSi.Match by IntelliResponse derives the intent of the customer question and delivers the one right answer and/or asks for clarification in order to match the question to the right answer.

The Next Level: More ROI from More Conversions

RELEVANT OFFERS BOOST CONVERSION The best virtual agents deliver relevant marketing offers to customers right alongside the answer to their question. This boost TOP-LINE revenue by leading customers toward the purchase path, when they would have otherwise ‘left’ the conversation after finding the answer to their question. One IntelliResponse client, a major North American bank, measured a 10X conversion improvement after introducing relevant marketing offers like this to their virtual agent solution.

Today, the ROI discussion is no longer limited to cost savings from call and email volume reduction. Leading virtual agent solutions now drive ongoing TOP-LINE value, month after month, with highly-relevant marketing offers that precisely match the top-of-mind, in-the-moment concerns of your customers. Below we show what your customers would see when your virtual agent is configured to leverage intent recognition into high-converting marketing offers.

INTENT RECOGNITION POWERS RELEVANT MARKETING OFFERS

10X CONVERSION

IMPROVEMENT

derives the intent of the customer question and delivers the one right answer and/or asks for clarification in order to match the question to the right answer.

INTENT RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY i.Match

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR DIGITAL SELF SERVICE: TOP-LINE REVENUE | 3 © 2014 IntelliResponse Systems Inc.

INTENT RECOGNITION DELIVERS ACCURATE ANSWERS

Monthly Virtual Agent Engagements

Percentage of Answers with Offers Marketing offers delivered by Virtual Agent.

Number of Offers 400,000

Click Rate

$ 76,000

40%

1,000,000 Number of engagements in digital channels.

MONTHLY AND ANNUAL REVENUE UPLIFT CALCULATION

By delivering targeted marketing offers, today’s leading virtual agents help companies achieve something they have struggled with for years: harnessing traffic from online customer service queries, engaging this traffic in automated sales conversations, and converting a reliable percentage of this traffic to sales in real time. Below, we calculate monthly and annual revenue uplift using sample percentages of marketing offers served, clicks and conversions across digital channels. The numbers used here are conservative and are shown for the purpose of illustrating the calculation.

Number of Clicks on Offer 20,000

Conversion Rate Number of Converted Sales 800

Average Basket Size

Monthly Uplift in Revenue

Uplift in Revenue from Online Self-Service

$ 912,000 Annual Uplift in Revenue

Top-Line Revenue Uplift from Relevant Marketing Offers CALCULATING MONTHLY AND ANNUAL REVENUES FROM OFFERS

5%

4%

$ 95

© 2014 IntelliResponse Systems Inc. THE BUSINESS CASE FOR DIGITAL SELF SERVICE: TOP-LINE REVENUE | 5

Getting Perspective on Opportunity Cost : UNDERSTANDING REVENUE LEAKAGE FROM FAILED WEBSITE VISITS

Total Calls

Unresolved Failed at Site 57,000

Customers Who Left Your Website for a Competitor 12,920

Calls Not Deflected 16,425 Improvement in FCR 10% Number of Calls Avoided 1,643

57% of inbound calls come from customers who tried to resolve their issues online, but couldn’t. Such is the pervasiveness of online self-service inefficiencies today. (Matt Dixon, Corporate Executive Board) Most companies don’t look any further to see what this really means. These 57,000 calls only represent the population of web visitors who couldn’t find the answer they wanted AND escalated to higher cost channels. However, according to Forrester Research, this escalation action is taken by only 75% of your site visitors. In other words, if 57,000 represents 75% of the total number of ‘disgruntled’ web visitors, then the TOTAL population of web visitors who did not find answers is actually 76,000. And here’s how the full population responds: •  75% escalate to higher cost channels = 57,000 •  17% defect to competitors = 12,920 •  11% abandon altogether = 8,360

57%

100,000

8,360 Total Calls 100,000

Customers Who Left Your Website Unsatisfied

Most companies, unaware of the statistics, don’t ‘follow the trail’ to get a glimpse of the staggering lost revenue potential.

In the chart below, we show you how to use a metric you measure all the time (your monthly call volume) to “follow the trail” back to uncovering lost revenue opportunities that originate on your website. The calculations here use widely-accepted industry averages based on leading customer experience research.

Based on the calculations in the chart above, for every 100,000 calls in your call center, you can assume there were 21,280 customers or prospects on your website that willingly tried to engage in customer service with your company, but could not. And the majority of these consumers went immediately to a competitor. Simply multiply your total annual call volume by 21% to get an idea of how many web visitors left your website disappointed. What would be the revenue upside of deploying a virtual agent in your digital channels to not only satisfy the majority of these visitors with instant accurate answers, but also convert a portion of them into online sales using highly relevant marketing offers?

21,280 Total Dissatisfied Customers

CALCULATING DISSATISFIED WEB CUSTOMERS USING MONTHLY CALL VOLUME

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR DIGITAL SELF SERVICE: TOP-LINE REVENUE | 4 © 2014 IntelliResponse Systems Inc. ©2014IntelliResponseSystemsInc. DigitalSelf-Service:TheDefinitiveGuideforServingtheModernConsumer|24

Top-Line Revenue Uplift from Relevant Marketing Offers

By delivering targeted marketing offers, today’s leading virtual agents help companies achieve something they have struggled with for years: harnessing traffic from online customer service queries, engaging this traffic in automated sales conversations, and converting a reliable percentage of this traffic to sales in real time. Below, we calculate monthly and annual revenue uplift using sample percentages of marketing offers served, clicks and conversions across digital channels.The numbers used here are conservative and are shown for the purpose of illustrating the calculation.




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Next,we’lllookatthethirdkeycomponentofVirtualAgents—theabilityto deliverdeepvoiceofthecustomerinsightinrealtime.

HavingaVirtualAgentdeployedinyourdigitalchannelislikehaving a24x7marketresearchagentcollectingkeycustomerinsightinthepurevoiceofthe

customer.Thenextsectionshowsyouhowthatdataisautomaticallystructured soitcanbeunderstoodandacteduponquickly.

WHERE ARE WE SO FAR? We’ve covered off how today’s leading Virtual Agents deliver relevant marketing offers in real time, to boost revenue and conversion in digital channels.


TARGETED MARKETING

OFFERS


INSIGHT


INSTANT EFFORTLESS

SERVICE

Virtual Agents: 24x7 Digital Market Research

When consumers enter questions via the Virtual Agent, in any digital channel, all entered data is then automatically structured into intelligently-organized themes which marketers can explore, drill down and compare, right to the level of the individual question. This is like having a 24x7 market research agent interacting DIRECTLY with your customers so that a clearer and clearer picture of your customer profile emerges AUTOMATICALLY over time. As you’ll see in the examples in this guide, there is literally no limit to the ways in which this rich insight can be used and monetized in the form of new products and services and optimized marketing campaigns.

ACTIONABLE CUSTOMER INSIGHT DATA

The above image shows a sample ‘Base View’ from the IntelliResponse Voice of the Customer solution. Users see a visual ‘map’ of themes, with words that purely represent natural language used by the customer when posing queries to the Virtual Agent. In addition, intuitive visual queues helps the viewer prioritize areas of interest. For example, circle sizes indicate the proportionate volume of customer queries for each particular theme over a specified date range.

Voice of the Customer Insight: ‘Base’ View Data from thousands of customer queries in every digital channel are intelligently-organized into themes.

© 2014 IntelliResponse Systems Inc. THE BUSINESS CASE FOR DIGITAL SELF SERVICE: VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER INSIGHT | 3 ©2014IntelliResponseSystemsInc. DigitalSelf-Service:TheDefinitiveGuideforServingtheModernConsumer|26

How Virtual Agents Help You Better Understand Customers

that marketers can explore, drill down andWhen consumers enter questions via the Virtual Agent, in any digital channel, all entered data is then automatically structured into intelligently-organized themes which marketers can explore, drill down and compare, right to the level of the individual question. This is like having a 24 x 7 market research agent interacting DIRECTLY with your customers so that a clearer and clearer picture of your customer profile emerges AUTOMATICALLY over time. As you’ll see in the examples in this guide, there is literally no limit to the ways in which this rich insight can be used and monetized in the form of new products and services and optimized marketing campaigns.

The above image shows a sample ‘Base View’ from the IntelliResponse Voice of the Customer solution. Users see a visual ‘map’ of themes, with words that purely represent natural language used by the customer when posing queries to the Virtual Agent. In addition, intuitive visual queues helps the viewer prioritize areas of interest. For example, circle sizes indicate the proportionate volume of customer queries for each particular theme over a specified date range.

In the ‘Compare View’ shown below, any two date ranges can be specified and compared, which makes it easy to spot the emergence of new themes, any drop offs of specific themes, as well as themes of increasing and decreasing importance. These classifications are all color-coded for instant identification.

Voice of the Customer Insight: ‘Compare’ View Customer insight can be compared across any date ranges. Color coding provides rich information in a single view.

Virtual Agents: 24x7 Digital Market Research ACTIONABLE CUSTOMER INSIGHT DATA

© 2014 IntelliResponse Systems Inc. THE BUSINESS CASE FOR DIGITAL SELF SERVICE: VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER INSIGHT | 4

Use Case ExamplesIn the following pages, we share three examples of leading organizations that employ IntelliResponse Virtual Agent technology in their digital channels to collect and structure rich, visual maps representing up-to-the-minute consumer trends and insights.Any element of these maps can literally be ‘double-clicked’ to drill down into the deeper ‘story’ behind consumer interactions.In each scenario, we demonstrate the insight and the action opportunity this opens up for each organization.Every case provides an opportunity to drive ROI, either through service delivery improvement and reduction of support costs, or new marketing opportunities that emerge from the real-time consumer insight.


In the ‘Compare View’ shown below, any two date ranges can be specified and compared, which makes it easy to spot the emergence of new themes, any drop offs of specific themes, as well as themes of increasing and decreasing importance. These classifications are all color-coded for instant identification.

Use Case 1: Communications Company

VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER INSIGHT: Consumer data collected from Virtual Agent interactions with this wireless provider showed customers were experiencing numerous problems trying to unlock iPhones. The company was able to respond with more clearly written Help and FAQ documentation in the customer support section of their website, thus helping to minimize the need for customers to seek out support.

ACTION TAKEN:

Virtual Agent Reveals Problems with iPhone Unlocking Clicking on ‘Unlock Phone’ reveals a deficiency in this wireless carrier’s instructions for unlocking iPhones.


Use Case 1: Communications Company


its website, thus helping to minimize the need for customers to seek out support.

VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER INSIGHT: Consumer data collected from Virtual Agent interactions with this wireless provider showed customers were experiencing numerous problems trying to unlock iPhones.

ACTION TAKEN: The company was able to respond with more clearly written Help and FAQ documentation in the customer support section of their website, thus helping to minimize the need for customers to seek out support.

Use Case 4: Global Bank

VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER INSIGHT: This global bank announced a major new program to allow their customers to consolidate all mortgages, loans and lines of credit into a single credit program. Customer questions about the program provided valuable insights into how well the program was being communicated, accepted and understood. The questions give the bank’s marketing team a crystal-clear vision into which aspects of the program resonate with consumers, and where points of confusion exist. This in turn provides a much clearer map of required messaging in marketing and promotions, paving the way for a more successful launch.

ACTION TAKEN:

Virtual Agent Itemizes Customer’s Questions About a New Program Clicking on ‘HPP Application’ clearly details the types of questions bank customers have about this new program.


Use Case 2: Global Bank


its customers to consolidate all mortgages,

This, in turn, provides a much clearer map of

VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER INSIGHT: This global bank announced a major new program to allow their customers to consolidate all mortgages, loans and lines of credit into a single credit program. Customer questions about the program provided valuable insights into how well the program was being communicated, accepted and understood.

ACTION TAKEN: The questions give the bank’s marketing team a crystal-clear vision into which aspects of the program resonate with consumers, and where points of confusion exist. This in turn provides a much clearer map of required messaging in marketing and promotions, paving the way for a more successful launch.

Use Case 5: Debit Card Provider ACTIONABLE CUSTOMER INSIGHT DATA

VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER INSIGHT: The debit card provider noticed a spike in customers inquiries on the subject of transferring their entire bank account balances to their debit cards. This insight reveals a possible new service option to bring to market as well as an opportunity to gain additional fees through larger balances to transact.

ACTION TAKEN:

Virtual Agent Reveals an Opportunity for a New Product Clicking on ‘Transfer Funds Savings’ reveals a demand for a new service option from the customer base.


Use Case 3: Debit Card Provider ACTIONABLE CUSTOMER INSIGHT DATA


VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER INSIGHT: The debit card provider noticed a spike in customer inquiries on the subject of transferring their entire bank account balances to their debit cards.

ACTION TAKEN: This insight reveals a possible new service option to bring to market as well as an opportunity to gain additional fees through larger balances to transact.




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WHERE ARE WE SO FAR? In Section 2, we explained the three ways in which Virtual Agents optimize any digital self-service employment. Specifically, by delivering instant accurate answers, relevant marketing offers and actionable voice of the customer insight in the natural language of customers.


TARGETED MARKETING

OFFERS


INSIGHT




INSTANT EFFORTLESS

SERVICE

ON ON ON ON

Nextwe’lllookatthefourkey‘switches’thatyouneedtoturnoninordertoensureyou’redelivering thebestpossibledigitalself-serviceexperienceineverychannel.

Section 3: Importance of Multiple Channels

Ensuring Consistent, Accurate Answers Across All ChannelsThe examples shown in the eBook thus far are examples of virtual agents that are uniquely designed for deployment on an organization’s main customer-facing website. But that’s only part of the story. As we mentioned earlier, the ‘always on / always connected’ nature of today’s consumer means they always have a mobile device within reach. The popularity of social media virtually guarantees that most of your customers are active in social channels, meaning your web self-service deployment should be there, too. And what about those customers who do choose to contact your live support agents? Shouldn’t you have a solution in place that ensures they get the same consistent, approved answer as they would find online?Virtual Agents offer a single solution for delivering accurate, consistent answers in multiple channels. Next we’ll take a look at how the very same self-service experience that can be offered on your customer-facing website can be extended to the mobile, social and live agent channels.


1) AVAYA

60 percent of consumers say they will change how they contact an organization, depending on where they are and what they are doing.1 This underlines the importance of establishing consistent service experiences in every channel.

The Mobile Channel In the life of today’s digital consumer, who has a mobile device close by during every waking hour, how important is the ‘mobile customer experience’? According to Gartner Research, vitally important:

“A positive customer experience is critical... continual focus on the customer experience will drive mobile adoption... and will help

maximize return on mobile investment(s).”

And the data below from a research study by Google shows that customer experience on the mobile site drives decisions on loyalty and future purchases.

72% of smartphone owners want sites optimized for their smaller phone screens and are inclined to abandon the mobile sites that don’t comply1

When the website is mobile friendly, 74% say they’re more likely to return to that site in the future2

67% are more likely to buy a product or service from mobile-friendly sites3

If the website is not mobile friendly, 50% of customers will use the business less -- even if they like the company!4

72

74

67

50


1-4) Source: Mobile-Friendly Sites Turn Visitors Into Customers, Google Inc.

What customer experience leaders need to know: what kind of experience are mobile customers looking for in the mobile channel, when it comes to service?

The answer is simply this:

Customers do not downwardly adjust their expectation for a quality self-service experience in the mobile channel

In other words, customers want exactly the same instant access to accurate answers when interacting with your company from a mobile device.

An optimal experience in the mobile channel means no searching or scrolling through pages of text – the common experience offered by site search and FAQ pages today. The examples below show an engaging Virtual Agent self-service experience that is properly sized to the form factor and provides easy to use, easy to swipe screens.

In this example, customers of CIBC, a major global bank, enter their question in natural language into the virtual agent. The one right answer is then instantly provided. There is no scrolling or searching required.



The days of forcing your customers to hunt through FAQ pages or site search results to find answers and information are over. Customers no longer tolerate this kind of experience on desktop devices anymore, let alone on smaller smartphone and tablet screens. Not surprisingly, customers have strong expectations and preferences when it comes to their mobile experience. Consider the data:

In the first screen, the customer enters a question in natural language, or simply touches one of the most popular questions. The one right answer is instantly provided on the next screen. And with a simple swipe (scroll), the next screen presents options that customers are most likely to want to select next.

75% of customers believecompanies should make answers toall their common questions availablevia smartphones1

50% of smartphone users would preferto use a mobile customer service appvs. calling a contact center2

1) Synthetix 2) Echo Research

75

50


The Social ChannelToday’s customers want official answers from organizations to be easily accessible from social channels. Social sites like FaceBook become such an entrenched part of life; it’s no wonder consumers expect to be able to use these channels for their customer service needs.

For organizations, one of the first concerns this brings up is cost; namely, the issue of having to staff the channel in order to handle a large volume of customer service queries at scale. The truth is, however, that cost is almost a non-issue. Today’s digital self-service technologies enable a fully automatic, highly accurate self-service experience – right in the social channel – with no need for agent staffing at all.

One way companies can handle customer service queries in social media channels at scale is with a Virtual Agent like this example from Copa Airlines. Customers who visit Copa’s FaceBook page can now enjoy the same Virtual Agent experience that is available on the main website at CopaAir.com.

55% of consumers now expect companies to provide customer service via social media sites such as FaceBook1

1) Synthetix


Section 4: The Live Support Channel

The Live Support ChannelThe live agent support channel is unique compared to the digital channels such as web, mobile and social. However, this does not mean that it cannot benefit from the same virtual agent technology that is deployed in customer-facing self-service outlets. In fact, when your live agents are using exactly the same virtual technology as your customers, you virtually eliminate all possibility of inconsistency of answers. It’s no secret that contact centers are rife with challenges – many of which have been around for decades. Specifically, they are:

1. Inaccurate and inconsistent answers to customer questions 2. High AHT 3. Low agent morale 4. Too many escalated calls (Low FCR) 5. High agent turnover 6. High training costs 7. Higher operating costs

Fortunately, there are cause-and-effect relationships among these problems. When mapped visually, as we do on the next page, it becomes easy to see the root cause, and therefore easy to identify the corrective action.

The Vicious Cycle in the Live Support ChannelThe good news about a vicious cycle is that, in this case, the starting point is easy to spot. This means that making an improvement at the front end will have a predictable positive impact on all the other problems in succession. Suboptimal knowledge management tools on the agent desktop is the root cause of all manner of problems and avoidable costs. By “suboptimal knowledge management tools,” we mean any agent desktop experience that requires an agent to do one or more of the following: • use a legacy system that is cumbersome to navigate or slow to respond, • rely on a rudimentary keyword search tool that returns anything more than one precise and accurate answer, • toggle through multiple screens to compare information or find answers, • scroll past one screen in order to find the information, • remember where information is stored in your knowledgebase, • memorize a click path in order to access the content they need, or • deal with extraneous visual ‘clutter’ on their screens.

7. High Operating Costs

Root cause: Poor agent tools for getting answers

1. Inaccurate and Inconsistent Answers6. High Training Costs 3. Low Agent Morale

5. High Turnover

2. High AHT

4. High Escalations


How Virtual Agents Add Value in the Live Support ChannelAs the preceding illustration shows, the solution lies in optimizing the live agent desktop screens with a technology that delivers them the single, correct answer to any customer question instantly, at their fingertips. In their report, Navigate the Future of Customer Service, Forrester Research describes how an optimized agent screen (i.e. “workspace”) should look and perform: “Customer service organizations will continue to work on simplifying the agent workspace and making it more usable. This includes removing extraneous data elements from agent screens, automating tasks to increase agent productivity, and ensuring that relevant information is easily accessible to agents...”To accomplish this, many organizations have simply deployed next generation knowledge management tools (also known as “virtual agents” or “virtual assistants”) on agent desktops. These are the very same virtual agent technologies that are now used in online self-service deployments, where customers simply key in their question in natural language and get the one right answer, instantly. Below is an example of virtual agent technology deployed on contact center agent desktops. This virtual agent technology puts commonly-requested information at the agent’s fingertips and allows the agent to enter a question in natural language and receive the approved, accurate answer in one click.



VIRTUAL AGENTS IN THE CONTACT CENTER What Kind of Results Are Reasonable to Expect?Here’s how the benefits of equipping agents with the right technology, resolves each of the key issues from the vicious cycle diagram on page two.

PROBLEMS: VIRTUAL AGENT SOLUTIONS:

Inaccurate and inconsistent answers to customer questions

Delivery of the one right approved answer to the agent’s screen virtually eliminates the chances of giving a customer the wrong information.

High AHT One right answer increases speed to response and therefore lowers AHT.

Eliminates informal “queues” that exist within contact centers when CSRs seek assistance from more seasoned peers.

Low agent morale Delivering of one right answer and related information accessible with one click greatly reduces stress and frustration.

Faster, more accurate responses help reps become better at their job, and achieve performance goals with greater regularity and ease.

Too many escalated calls (Low FCR)

Delivery of the single approved answer to the agent’s screen greatly reduces escalations and improves FCR scores.

High agent turnover A faster, easy-to-use, accurate virtual agent on the desktop makes the agent’s job far less stressful.

Being able to fully resolve customer problems faster and with ease means agents have far fewer interactions with frustrated, angry customers.

High training cost A “single source of truth” virtual agent system, with instant answer delivery and related questions accessible with one click allows for rapider, streamlined training of new CSRs.

The need to learn extraneous systems or keep physical binders is eliminated.

Higher operating costs Cumulative effect of improved AHT, fewer escalations, lower turnover and streamlined training result in lower operating costs.

Organizations in a wide variety of industries have enjoyed significant results after implementing a virtual agent for their contact center agents. The breadth of improvement across three key performance metrics includes: • FCR improvement of 25% to 50% • CSAT improvements of 20% to 50% • AHT improvements of up to 25%

© 2014 IntelliResponse Systems Inc. Improving Contact Center Performance With Virtual Agent Technology | 4

AHT Reduction and FTE Equivalent Savings One of the best ways to predict efficiency gains from a virtual agent solution is to have a team of live agents attempt to resolve a customer query using your existing knowledge management tool, and then solve the same query using the virtual agent technology.IntelliResponse conducted this type of head-to-head comparison for a North American financial institution. Eight live agents with experience ranging from two months to five years were selected for the study. Agents were given 28 questions and tasked with finding answers using two different systems. AHT for all 28 questions among the eight reps varied significantly between the legacy system, compared to the IntelliResponse Virtual Agent. Results are shown below.


Daily Call Volume Seconds SavedPer Call

Seconds Saved per Day

Hours Saved per Day

FTE Equivalent Savings per Day

3,100 39.3 sec 121,830 33.84 4.23

Legacy System

IntelliResponse Virtual Agent 6.8 sec

41.6 sec

SECONDS SAVED PER CALL: 39.93

COMPARATIVE AHT




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ON ON ON ON

Nextwe’llmoveontoSection5:Deployment

WHERE ARE WE SO FAR? In Section 3, we outlined the four channels where Virtual Agents need to be deployed in order to deliver an optimal and consistent customer experience and have the greatest impact on reducing support costs. This brings us to the completion of this schematic, and leaves you with a one-page visual map to the key points for understanding how an optimal digital self-service experience operates, with Virtual Agents at the heart.



TARGETED MARKETING

OFFERS


INSIGHT



INSTANT EFFORTLESS

SERVICE


Best Practices & Tips for Deploying Virtual AgentsNow that you’ve got a clear understanding of the key drivers and optimization elements for digital self-service, this section provides a list of 10 best practices and recommendations for deployment of Virtual Agent technology. These little-known, insider recommendations are based on our expertise in deploying hundreds of Virtual Agent solutions for leading organizations around the world.

1) BrandingDeveloping a brand for your Virtual Agent is important because it can enhance familiarity and recognition, promote interaction and self-service, and increase consumer adoption and use. While your options are virtually unlimited, two popular strategies are described below:

• Branding as a Persona: Choosing to brand your Virtual Agent as a persona could beone of the best decisions you make when deploying your Virtual Agent and it is a bestpractice that we highly recommend. This strategy involves building a persona (eitherreal or fictional) to deliver answers to your users. This could be a virtual person, a fictional character or mascot, or an employee at your institution. Branding as a persona encourages users to phrase their questions in natural language.

Copa Airlines has created a virtual service counter for passengers and potential travelers to help answer users’ questions. “Ana,” a fictional flight attendant with the airline, helps the user feel comfortable asking questions and also encourages the user to form his or her question in natural language.

• Branding as an “Entity”: This strategy generally involves using your existing organizationor department name to deliver answers. This may be explicit, or implied (via a slogan such as “Ask Us!”). Branding as an entity is ideal if you wish to promote the name of your institution or company, or if you want a more formal approach for your Virtual Agent deployment.

Quick Tip: Enhance Your Persona!• Add a static picture or character.

• Add an Avatar. An avatar is simply an animated character that gestures and moves.

• Add Voice. Virtual Agents can answer questions with live audio responses.

Section 5: Deployment


Within 6 months ofimplementing ‘Ask Ana’ Copa saw online queries jump to 42%, then 50%, of ALL customer service channel interactions.

At the same time, their calland chat volumes have steadily declined.

Fastest-Growing Airline Deploys Virtual Agent VIRTUAL AGENT SUCCESS STORY

Copa Airlines is Latin America’s fastest-growing airline. In an industry historically bemoaned for poor and antiquated customer service, Copa Airlines set out to do things better.

Seeing how important the online customer experience has become, and what a a critical role it will play in any airline’s ability to stay competitive in the future, Copa established a clear vision: turn the web channel(including mobile) into the NUMBER ONE source of answers and information for COPA customers.

Copa deployed ASK ANA, a virtual agent, on their customer-facing web site, Facebook page and mobile site. As Copa’s highly-mobile, time-pressed customer base adopted this solution with fervor, Copa saw immediate and sustainable drops in customer phone calls, emails, chats and - of course - a reduction in the costs associated with these human-assisted support channels.

of all customer service interactions with Copa

are handled by the‘Ask Ana’ virtual agent

50%

CUSTOMER SERVICE SHOULD NEVER SLOW YOU DOWN | 5

2) Encouraging Natural Language Questions:Virtual Agents that encourage the user to enter natural language questions should be preferred over more traditional site search solutions that simply rely on indexing technology and request the user to enter keywords.

Including a “directional sentence” that instructs the user to type real questions, and ideally provides an example as well, inside the question box of the Virtual Agent solution is a simple yet highly effective technique that increases the frequency of natural language questions being submitted.

Quick Tip: Make sure you differentiate the question box from a keyword search.• Ensure the question field is long enough to accommodate natural language questions

rather than one or two keywords.

• In your directional sentence, it also helps to use terms such as “real questions.”

3) Visibility and Placement:High-visibility placement of the Virtual Agent solution on your website is essential to the success of your implementation. Why? The higher the visibility, the more questions you will receive. And more questions will mean more satisfied end users, fewer emails/chats/ phone calls, and increased voice of the customer insights for your organization. High visibility can be achieved by a “sticky” question box in a prominent location, the incorporation of many different entry points, or a combination of the two together.

Quick Tip: If you have minimal web page real estate with which to work, try one of the following:• Create a question box that is smaller than average.

• Create an image or text link instead.

• Use an icon in the shape of a button that uses your existing brand elements.Then, link to your question box.


4) Strategic Placement to Reduce Email and Call Volumes:Virtual Agents can help answer the bulk of those informational questions that would otherwise flood your higher cost contact center channel in the form of phone calls, emails and chat. To achieve the greatest reduction in call and email volume, your Virtual Agent should either replace your usual escalation points or it should be promoted with much higher visibility so that users are inclined to use it.

The goal is for your users to become familiar and confident with the self-service solution as their first point of contact. If you follow one of these two approaches, you should notice a significant reduction in your email and/or call volume numbers.

5) Replace Static FAQs with Dynamic “Top Questions”:There are a few common issues with static FAQ lists. They are cumbersome to maintain, information can become outdated quickly and they do not always provide a satisfying customer experience. A good Virtual Agent vendor will advise against static FAQs and suggest the use of dynamic, built-in “Top 10 Questions” functionality. This enables your visitors to access questions which truly are the most “frequently asked.”

EPCOR, a North American utilities provider, includes dynamic “Hot Topics” and “Top 10 Questions” lists right alongside answers to customer questions.


6) Virtual Agents, Site Search, or Both? Choose Wisely!:If you currently have a site search function embedded within your website, you will need to consider if, or how, the introduction of a Virtual Agent will change your search strategy. Simply presenting site search alongside the Virtual Agent question box without a clear strategy can lead to confusion for your customers. Below we’ve indicated three deployment options, along with our recommendations:

Recommended• Virtual Agent Replaces Site Search: If you feel that your organization’s site search tool is not

providing accurate or useful results, you may choose to replace your search with a VirtualAgent question box. Note that for this option, it is important for your Virtual Agentimplementation to cover the same scope as your site search tool. Otherwise, you could endup with numerous out-of-scope questions which do not have corresponding answersin your Virtual Agent knowledge base.

• Site Search as a Secondary Option: If you don’t want to eliminate site search altogether butyou do want to promote the Virtual Agent first, you can also offer site search as asecondary option.

• Virtual Agent Complements Search: If you wish to leave your site search tool as is, you canincorporate most Virtual Agents as a complementary option. This can be appropriate whenthe scope of your Virtual Agent deployment does not match the scope of your site search.However, it is important to provide adequate visual differentiation between the two options,or you may end up confusing or frustrating your users.


7) Direct Answer Links:As an additional bridge into your Virtual Agent solution, you can embed direct links to actual answers in your knowledge base within your website. TD Canada Trust leverages Direct Answer links on its website, as shown here, with its online banking “help” links.

8) Multiple Interface Considerations:You might also wish to deploy multiple interfaces (i.e. separate Virtual Agent knowledge bases). If you decide to place each Virtual Agent question box (or link) exclusively within its own area (for example, within the Prospective area of a university website, or within the Credit Cards area of a financial institution’s website) then you can simply place the question box and your Virtual Agent vendor can help map it to the correct area of the knowledge base. However, if you would like to place the question box further up on your page hierarchy (i.e. the home page) you will then need a way to narrow the scope so that questions are asked in the correct areas.

An alternative technique is to provide a single question box, but implement a form control that is used to narrow the scope. The New Jersey Institute of Technology has implemented radial buttons that their prospective students use to indicate whether they are interested in graduate or undergraduate studies.


9) Answer Page Considerations:Your Virtual Agent solution’s answer page is where answers will be displayed to your users’ questions, along with additional components, such as a Top 10 list, an answer rating mechanism, related questions and escalation options. There are two high-level options your organization can choose for its answer page.

The first approach is to integrate the answer page seamlessly within your web environment. A second approach is to launch the Answer Page within its own window or console. This is the approach used for Virtual Agent implementations and many other instances when a separate, scaled-down look and feel is desired.

10) Escalation Management:Let’s face it, the world is a complex, messy place, so the need for complex customer interactions still remains. While modern Virtual Agents are extremely well suited to answering commonly asked ‘informational’ questions (think questions with a single correct answer), you’ll still need live contact center agents to answer those questions that are more personal in nature.

As a best practice, your Virtual Agent should be deployed using a layered approach to delivering customer self-service. In this situation, customers will first attempt to receive the one right answer by entering their question in the Virtual Agent question box. But, in those circumstances where the answer is not readily apparent or accessible, the ability to escalate their question should be readily apparent and intuitive to the user.

While you’d ideally like the Virtual Agent to accurately answer the majority of the questions, the need to provide these escalation options (such as click to call, email, chat, or even search) is still important for maintaining a positive customer experience and should not be intentionally hidden to keep contact center costs down.

© 2013 IntelliResponse Systems Inc. 9

12) Escalation Management: Let’s face it, the world is a complex, messy place, so the need for complex messy customer interactions still remains. While modern Virtual Agents are extremely well suited to answering commonly asked ‘informational’ questions (think questions with a single correct answer), you’ll still need live contact center agents to answer those questions that are more personal in nature.

As a best practice, your Virtual Agent should be deployed using a layered approach to delivering customer self-service. In this situation, customers will first attempt to receive the one right answer by entering their question in the Virtual Agent question box. But in those circumstances where the answer is not readily apparent or accessible, the ability to escalate their question should be readily apparent and intuitive to the user.

While you’d ideally like the Virtual Agent to accurately answer the majority of the questions, the need to provide these escalation options (such as click to call, email, chat, or even search) is still important for maintaining a positive customer experience and should not be intentionally hidden to keep contact center costs down.

Escalation options are easy to see, alongside the answer.


Escalation options are easy to see, alongside the answer.


Section 6: Final Thoughts

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Final Thoughts: 9 Key TakeawaysWHY NOW IS THE TIME TO DEPLOY VIRTUAL AGENT TECHNOLOGY

In this eBook, we’ve examined digital self-service from every angle. In this brief closing section, we leave you with a quick summary of the most important key takeaways. The following items are great ‘talking points’ you can familiarize yourself with, to help others understand why now is the time to deploy a digital self-service solution with Virtual Agent technology at its core.

Virtual Agents are the future of customer service. Gartner predicts that by 2020, the customer will manage 85% of the relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human. So it’s not a question of IF Virtual Agents will take the lead role in your customer service operation, it’s more so a question of WHEN your company will deploy the solution and, how many customers you may lose along the way to competitors who do so before you.

Virtual Agents deliver what customers want most: digital access to answers and information, and an effortless service experience. Customers today want efficient, transactional service that provides the one right answer to their questions on their first attempt. Virtual Agents are perfectly suited to meet this need, delivering the single accurate answer to questions regardless of the hundreds of ways a question can be phrased. This gives customers the efficiency they desire, and makes it accessible in a self-service manner in the digital channels that they prefer.

Virtual Agents offer many benefits over live agents. With a Virtual Agent handling low complexity questions online, you can operate with a skeleton staff contact center, with fewer reps that handle only higher-value or complex customer interactions. This is the future of the contact center. What’s more, Virtual Agents work 24 x 7, never get sick, and never leave their desk to go to lunch, let alone to go away on vacation.

A Virtual Agent will help you monetize customer service traffic. The link between a positive customer service experience and a customer’s propensity to buy is clear. Virtual Agents let you capitalize on the immediate ‘goodwill’ earned in the delivery of the right answer. Our clients that have run their own A/B tests confirm conversion rates improve when you provide relevant offers that match the intent of a customer’s original question. The best Virtual Agents have this intent-recognition matching intelligence built in. RELEVANT offers open the door to conversions.


Intent recognition is key to success. The importance of intent recognition technology cannot be overstated. With intent recognition, companies can now truly understand the intent behind their stakeholders’ questions, meaning the virtual agent technology can deliver the accurate answer instantly, reliably and consistently across channels. This has benefits not only from a customer satisfaction perspective but also in the areas of monetization as well as harnessing voice of the customer insights.

ROI is easily calculable and largely predictable. This eBook provides easy-to-follow visuals for calculating ROI in a variety of scenarios. Using your own data, follow these examples and perform the ROI calculations for yourself to help you establish the business case for digital self-service.

Customers want a consistent customer experience across all channels. Delivering a customer service experience at the highest level means delivering the same approved answer to customers regardless of the channel in which they choose to ask it. To get an idea of the consistency of answers delivered at your organization, test the customer experience for yourself. Select ten commonly-asked questions and see how easy or difficult it is to find the correct answer on your customer-facing website, in the mobile channel, social channels such as your Facebook page and the live support channel. Any inconsistencies with this small sample size of ten questions are likely indicative of much larger problem across your knowledge base.

The consequences of poor digital self-service are too big to ignore. Every time a customer goes online in search of information from your organization and doesn’t find the answers he or she is looking for, it’s simply bad new for your organization. Time and again, customers demonstrate their propensity to take actions that are highly costly. Either they will escalate their query to higher cost channels, or they will abandon their transaction or defect to competitor websites. It’s a no-win solution for organizations because the impact is either higher service costs or lost revenues.

Now is the time for action. You may have an opportunity to get your Virtual Agent solution up and running before your key competitors, but don’t wait. Even the largest of companies in the oldest of industries have seen the urgent need to make their digital channels the number one destination for demanding digital consumers. IntelliResponse has rolled out over 450 deployments and counting for some of the world’s most recognized brands.

CONTACT US AT [email protected] SO WE CAN HELP YOU PUT A WORLD-CLASS DIGITAL SELF-SERVICE SOLUTION IN PLACE TODAY.

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Next Steps?Gartner predicts that by 2020, the customer will manage 85% of the relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human. The time to deploy a virtual agent solution is now. IntelliResponse Virtual Agents deliver cost savings, revenue opportunities, and voice of the customer insight to hundreds of organizations worldwide. Contact us today to see how we can help your organization meet the needs of today’s mobile digital customer.

© 2014 IntelliResponse Systems Inc.