The most widely available options on many companies’ websites require customers to take extra steps – such as logging in to get customer service support or filling out a form that doesn’t seem likely to deliver results – to find information, according to Deloitte (News - Alert) Technology.
“Today’s digital consumers demand effortless online service and failing to deliver can mean lost loyalty and revenue, potentially killing a growing business,” said David Lloyd, CEO of IntelliResponse. “As companies grow, it becomes increasingly critical to offer efficient self-service across their digital interaction channels using virtual agent technology that can provide the single right answer based on the intent of customers’ questions and not just keywords.”
Definitions vary as to what is a virtual agent, but here’s a collection of companies and what they’re calling virtual agent solutions
IntelliResponse provides digital self-service technology solutions for the enterprise. It says its patented Virtual Agent solutions transform corporate websites, mobile applications, social media channels and agent desktops into world class self-service platforms. Using IntelliResponse, consumers can ask questions using natural language and get instant, accurate answers as well as targeted offers that lead them down the purchase path and improve conversion. Key voice of the customer insights also are captured in natural language, allowing companies to build highly detailed customer profiles over time. Customers include CIBC Bank, ING Direct, Arvest Bank, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, Progress Energy, Optus (News - Alert), Copa Airlines, Penn State University, and Yale University.
Interactions Corp.’s mission is to transform the customer care experience and its virtual assistant solutions allow its clients’ customers to engage naturally and conversationally to effectively accomplish their goals. Interactions solutions are built with patented Adaptive-Understanding technology, which the company says delivers unprecedented comprehension. Interactions works closely with platinum brands such as Hyatt, Humana, and LifeLock (News - Alert) to help them more effectively interact with their customers.
LiveOps (News - Alert), a cloud contact center and customer service solutions provider, offers a virtual call center solution with inbound and outbound calls, IVR capabilities, and full integration with salesforce.com CRM. The cloud-based platform provides a virtual alternative to on-premises solutions or brick-and-mortar outsourced call centers. LiveOps’ IVR provides self-service, customer segmentation, or pre/post-routing applications in a personalized, user-friendly manner with speech-enabled applications, touch-tone call routing and call surveys. The LiveOps solution is scalable and flexible, and it can be used with an organization’s own agents or in conjunction with LiveOps Agent Services. LiveOps Agent Services offer a community of more than 20,000 work-at-home agents that can be deployed as needed. This on-demand pay structure ensures organizations only pay for the bandwidth and infrastructure that is utilized. The multi-channel routing feature of this solution ensures calls are directed to the most qualified agent, regardless of location. Finally, the LiveOps Contact Center Solution Platform is compliant with the most stringent enterprise security policies and manages over 100 million calls per year while maintaining the highest levels of security.
Nina is a digital persona who delivers personalized, effortless customer service via a human-like conversational interface. Nina can be the ambassador for a brand, the all-knowing guide to clients’ content, or the reassuring voice of a customer service organization. Nina combines speech recognition, natural language understanding and voice biometric technology. Nina establishes brand loyalty by expressing the brand’s attributes through persona, differentiating the company from competitors by delivering the missing attribute in self-service – the human touch. This heightened level of personalization and human-like connection, according to Nuance (News 
- Alert), has a significant impact on consumer perception and behavior, making customers more likely to view a company favorably and motivating customers to come back to a website or app again and again to get the outcomes they need.
SmartAction is the leader in Artificial-Intelligence enabled voice self-service, and proudly announces the next evolution in virtual agents: IVA, Intelligent Voice Automation. SmartAction's IVA bridges the gap between the limitations of conventional IVRs and the significant overhead of live agents. IVA is powered by a cloud-based technology and uses natural language speech recognition throughout every call, an artificial intelligent brain to handle the conversation flow, and is based on an object-oriented coding framework. IVA provides a consistent, optimal, and compliant customer service experience that is comparable, and sometimes even better in terms of customer satisfaction, than that of live agents.
Virtual Spirits is the name of VSpirits Technologies’ SasS offering. Building on patented technology, Virtual Spirits chats automatically with website visitors 24/7, answering their questions, helping them purchase online, and generating leads for human sales. Today, tens of millions of people across the world use Virtual Spirits automated chat at thousands of websites.
Edited by Maurice Nagle
