Tag Archive for: customer experience

Talking Conversational AI

By Chris Ezekiel, Founder & CEO

In 2003, motivated by a vision of a time when “conversations powered by computers would transform the world”, I founded Creative Virtual. Over these past 20 years we have constantly been at the forefront of developing innovative conversational AI solutions that address real business issues and deliver real business value. Our V-PortalTM and V-PersonTM products have won many awards, are rated highly by analyst houses, and have benefited businesses in 25 countries.

The Gluon release of our V-Person Technology, which we launched globally on 16 May, continues our history of innovation and bringing to market new powerful solutions that deliver real business value. It also inches us closer towards the reality of the vision that we dreamt about all those years ago.

A transformational product, Gluon has raised the bar and shows that it is possible to create responsible enterprise-grade conversational AI solutions that put organisations in control, enable accuracy of content curation and sharing, and deliver accurate and consistent real-time multi-channel customer and employee experiences.

The microservices architecture of Gluon gives organisations a higher level of agility, workflow flexibility, accelerated integration capability, and enables scalability, supporting the composable enterprise model favoured by companies.

This architecture also provides stronger security, makes our system much easier to use, and enables organisations to deliver richer and more powerful customer and employee experiences through the seamless delivery of accurate, relevant content across multiple channels in real-time.

Creative Virtual’s experienced R&D team have been actively examining and testing large language models (LLMs) for many years. With Gluon, we have made LLMs configuration easier; providing native support in V-Portal and enabling organisations, with one click, to choose both their preferred language model and deployment method, whether that be on-premise, in a public or private cloud.

That’s not all. Because of the team’s unparalleled knowledge and experience in conversational AI development, we can provide our customers with the ability to mitigate the potential data privacy and protection risks associated with LLMs, through our innovative engineering and putting in place measures, processes and systems, that still allow our clients to reap the maximum benefit of these models.

The ground-breaking technological capabilities of the Gluon release with its advanced features and functionality, and redesigned user-interface, are matched by the equally impressive business value it can deliver. The time, efficiency, productivity and cost savings are measurable, and greater personalisation capability provides for an enhanced reputation through better customer and employee experiences.

Operationally, the Gluon release simply becomes part and parcel of an organisation’s technology ecosystem, integrating seamlessly into its current tech landscape and enabling improved utilisation of current assets.

The Gluon release of our V-Person technology marked a momentous day in our history. It was also a day that has advanced conversational AI solutions that deliver real business value. With the continued growth of computational power, technological innovation, and human ingenuity, the time when “conversations powered by computers are transforming the world” is now, and will also be tomorrow and the future.

Whilst we are constantly driven by our vision which, excitingly, we continue to see unfold before us, we are equally motivated by our belief in “The Science of Conversation” which has been our strapline since day one.

The ‘science of conversation’ is at the heart of our Gluon release, blending, in a seamless way, the art of conversation and the rigour of science and engineering to herald a new era in conversational AI.

Please contact us if you would like a demonstration of our Gluon release.

APAC demonstration

EMEA demonstration

US demonstration

Human Hallucinations

By Chris Ezekiel, Founder & CEO

There are so many organisations having their say on ChatGPT, but not everything that is being said should be taken at face value.

Companies wondering how they will be able to best leverage large language models (LLMs) – whether that be GPT, LaMDA, Galactica, Megatron-Turing or any other model – need to ensure they separate fact, fiction and fantasy.

We’ve been innovating in the conversational AI space for nearly two decades and as technology continues to advance, we are constantly asking ourselves serious questions about how it may, or is, disrupting the value we can add. This drives us to innovate, so that our customers can maximise real business value from our solutions.

The hot topic of LLMs is not new to us. Our team has been exploring and investigating them for about two and half years now.

One of the enterprise-level features of the Gluon release of our V-PersonTM Technology, which we launched on 16 May, is native support for LLMs. Like all technology, the value lies in how it is used, and this is also the case with LLMs.

An example of how we are using LLMs is theme matching. This has come about following many conversations with our customers and partners and listening to their concerns, challenges and requirements. This use of LLMs is value adding; ensuring accuracy of responses in real-time, at a significantly lesser cost and greatly reduced time and effort compared to similar possible methods.

When going down the LLM route, the questions companies need to be asking are:

  • What is the conversational AI provider able to deliver, that can’t simply be done by using LLMs such as ChatGPT directly?
  • What value is the conversational AI provider adding to your business through real customer use cases they are showing?
  • Can the conversational AI provider back up and demonstrate what they are saying?
  • What is the data privacy, security and sovereignty safeguards that the provider has in place?

The reason these questions must be asked is because simply using ChatGPT to do something doesn’t mean it adds any value. Companies need to look for a provider who delivers conversational AI solutions that address real business challenges and are designed to deliver real business value.

Let me give you an example of what I saw recently on a webinar. Presenting an example of a transactional chatbot, the company demonstrated how easy it is to build a currency converter using ChatGPT.  Good so far.  But:

  1. How many of us have been using Google to do that for as long as we can remember? and,
  2. This is not as a transactional chatbot, and to call it one is disingenuous.

A transactional chatbot that adds value to a business would be one that, for example, would be able to add money to your travel card. Having a chatbot able to execute the task deflects this common transaction away from the contact centre. This is of value to a business as it allows them to free up agents to deal with more complicated customer issues that require a live agent.

Companies should also feel confident to challenge their conversational AI provider to substantiate what they are saying.  We hear and read a lot about responsible AI, but you need to insist that your provider can show you exactly how they going to deliver this, the measures they have embedded and processes they are following. Responsible AI starts with responsible humans.

Similarly, companies should be confident that their provider is fully versed in data protection, private and sovereignty, and understands the language model infrastructure and how it uses data. Organisations must ask what is happening to the data, and if queries put to ChatGPT are being processed on overseas infrastructure how does this affect data sovereignty or other data protection issues.

The pace at which LLMs are advancing means that the best conversational AI provider is one that is extremely agile in terms of product development. Recently we added the capability to deploy language models locally, both on-premise and in a private cloud, to alleviate the concerns of some clients about sending data to globally deployed models.

Our approach to product development has always been in collaboration with our customers and partners. This ensures that our innovation is driven by solving real business challenges and enables us to deliver real business value.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of unsubstantiated claims about ChatGPT, LLMs and AI but with the right provider, conversational AI is a great tool for businesses looking to deliver better customer and employee experiences.

The excitement about ChatGPT is causing human hallucinations, so ask those questions of your conversational AI provider.

The changing face of chatbots

By Maria Ward, Knowledgebase Engineer and Account Manager

We would all do well to heed the warning “with great power comes great responsibility,” when it comes to ChatGPT.  Today, industries of all sizes are making use of AI chatbots, voicebots and virtual assistants to great effect in delivering better customer and employee experiences. Consumers the world over have gotten used to and accept interacting with these ‘human-imitation’ tools to answer their questions, help them complete tasks, and guide them to resolve issues.

The face of AI chatbots, voicebots and virtual assistants is continually changing as technology advances, customer and employee demands and expectations increase, and how we communicate evolves.

Right now, there’s a lot of hype about the capabilities of ChatGPT and the large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-3 and GPT-4 that feed them.  This is not surprising given the far-reaching impact the technology can and is having across industries, professions, and social development.  People from all walks of life, from writers and developers to traders and architects, are saving time and improving efficiency by using the open AI to produce content.

The generative abilities of ChatGPT are astonishing to observe.  The capability of AI  has developed at a rapid pace over recent years, and we are at an inflection point where things are only going to develop at an ever-increasing pace!  The power of the latest LLMs is undeniable.  How this power is used practically in the design and implementation for conversational AI solutions will either add or detract from the customer and employee experience.  This is where businesses need to ensure they are speaking with experts in conversational AI.

ChatGPT in business settings

You can ask ChatGPT to give answers based on company documents, websites, and other sources of information.  When a question is asked and the answer available from the provided information source, the results are pretty reliable (but not 100%) at giving the correct information.  However, it is a recognised risk that ChatGPT will “hallucinate”, and do so very convincingly, when it cannot find the information from the source material.  This could cause significant reputational and even financial damage to a business.

So where does that leave organisations that are about to embark on their conversational AI journey and those who have existing solutions?  How do they ensure that their chatbot is powered by the latest technology and accurately represents their company?

Most organisations will not want to risk wrong information being provided to customers, however small that risk is.  Indeed, often it will be essential for public facing content to be signed off by legal departments.

Knowledge Management is king

The bottom line is that content is key when it comes to providing the best conversational AI experience. Managing the information that ‘feeds’ the chatbot is paramount for delivering the best experience to customers and employees.  It is, after all, this source information that enables accuracy of conversations.

The knowledge management system of Creative Virtual’s V-PortalTM platform allows businesses to embrace the power of LLMs.  And they can do so with the confidence that the ultimate responsibility for the content is in the hands of humans.  Putting humans in control ensures that no hallucinogenic (or incorrect) answers are provided.  Businesses remain in charge of what information their chatbot can and does share.

Knowledge Management System in V-Portal

V-Portal is a platform where you can manage answers for all channels, such as web, voice, social media, and agent assist, as well as enable language capabilities, and include personalised information.  The platform supports LLMs, including native support for GPT, which enables businesses to deliver greater personalisation.

For example, using ChatGPT within the V-Portal platform you could enable a single signed off answer to be modified to change length, tone of voice (etc.) to suit the needs of the customer, based on the channel they are using. Integration with CRM systems provides knowledge about that customer to deliver an even more appropriate personalised response.  This would be a minimal risk scenario using ChatGPT, that would enable organisations to deliver a new level of personalisation.

Content creators can be assigned specific permission levels according to their needs by granting access to only the content relevant to them. Tasks can be set against all content types giving you the power to set actions and assign these to specific users, for example for content review.

Workflows and approvals are also an integral part of the platform, allowing control over what content makes the final cut. And, with a full version history you always have visibility of what was changed and when.

A fundamental part of the platform is flow design.  This allows you to build processes to hand-hold customers through the decisions they need to make to complete their journey.

Thinking about it, V-Portal serves as the engine that brings together the great power of AI and the human intervention and judgement needed to ensure that great responsibility is maintained.

There’s more to GPT than the ChatGPT headlines

By Chris Ezekiel, Founder and CEO

AI attention over the past couple of months has been quite astounding.  Especially considering that it has been part of our every-day lives for so long already.  Face-ID to open our mobile phones – AI.  Social media – AI.  Voice Assistants like Siri and Alexa – AI.  Route mapping – AI.  Its attractiveness and almost universal application is undeniable, with global spending on AI-centric systems expected to reach $154 billion this year according to IDC.

Used extensively across every industry, delivering huge benefits and rewards, AI has been transforming businesses and the workplace for decades. In healthcare it is used in radiology results analysis and robotic assisted surgery, in banking it is the core of fraud detection, and in retail and e-commerce it is the behind personalisation, integral to effective inventory management and powers customer service chatbots.

AI used in education is enabling personalised learning and in transportation it has made driverless vehicles possible.  Businesses of all sizes are using it to deliver better customer and employee experiences with more human-like chat and voice bots, to strengthen cybersecurity, and to build more effective workflows and operations.  And these are just a few of the myriad of applications.

At Creative Virtual we have been at the forefront of helping businesses build better customer and employee experiences with innovative conversational AI solutions for nearly 20 years. Since inception we have always ensured that we practice ethical technology. We see this as a fundamental responsibility that we take seriously, and it is something that our customers expect.

There has always been adoption hesitancy when it comes to new technologies.  Issues such as job erosion, privacy, surveillance, behavioural manipulation, fake news, changing labour force/job erosion and bias are just some of the topics that come up in impact analyses of advanced technologies.

Whilst practising ethical tech comes naturally to Creative Virtual, we are not blind to the fact that there are bad actors exploiting technology and many questions on the wisdom of a concentration of power among a small elite of tech giants, with no regulatory oversight.

It is critical that the business models of companies in a position of power have robust systems in place that take account of legislative and ethical responsibilities relating to the privacy, security, discrimination and misinformation and other issues of today.

Technology has always moved faster than legislation and regulation, most recently for example we have seen this with Uber.  This is also the case in relation to AI, with questions being raised on whether self-regulation is strong enough to safeguard the rights of individuals, protect, promote and support cultural diversity, halt the spread of mis/false information, and ensure adherence to data and privacy legislation.

The continual questioning and interrogation of the social and economic impacts of new technology must happen concurrently with tech advancement and progress, with one not stopping the other.

It seems, from the media coverage at least, that ChatGPT took the world by surprise when it burst onto the scene back in November 2022.  Almost overnight, the world became obsessively captivated by AI.

The focus by mainstream media on AI technology might be new, triggered by ChatGPT, but it has been around (admittedly not as powerful or impressive – but technology is always evolving and improving) and used by businesses for quite a long time.

Nevertheless, it is being seen as ‘new’ in terms of massification and consumerisation which has led to a lot of AI hype filling print, digital and broadcast media platforms.  It has been simultaneously sensationalised, in some cases demonised, and satirised.

Most recently, it has also been politicised. We have all read that countries such as Russia, China, North Korea, Cuba, Syria, Iran and Italy have banned ChatGPT.  It should be noted that Italy is a bit of a different case to the other countries. The Italian government has banned the application because they are concerned with privacy and data, stating that “the ChatGPT robot is not respecting the legislation on personal data and does not have a system to verify the age of minor users.”

Russia, China etc. have banned ChatGPT because they either have strict rules against the use of foreign websites and applications, full on restrictions in the use of even the internet, or they have strict censorship regulations.

ChatGPT is also on the ‘watch-list’ of several countries. France, Germany, Ireland and the UK have indicated that they will be monitoring the use of the application closely for “non-compliance with data privacy laws”, and they have also raised concerns about algorithmic bias and discrimination.

It is not only governments that are questioning AI, a moratorium on the development of AI has been proposed by tech celebrities Elon Musk and Steven Wozniak.  They have put their signatures to an open letter, along with prominent and respected AI researchers such as Yoshua Bengio, Stuart Russel and Gary Marcus, asking for “… all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.  This pause should be public and verifiable and include all key actors. If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium.”

Of course, the concerns voiced by governments, individuals and the industry, are valid.  They are centre stage in the ongoing debate of the ethics-morality-technology-societal quadrangle. This discussion should continue. However, proposing a pause or ban on technological advancement is not a sensible or necessary response.

As previously mentioned, Creative Virtual’s approach when building and deploying conversational AI solutions is from a position of responsibility, deploying tech in an ethical and moral way. This includes understanding the intended outcomes of the conversational AI technology solutions we build and deploy, and to debate potential unintended outcomes so we can mitigate these.

For example, it is a known that GPT-3, 3.5 and even the latest model GPT-4 are not fully reliable (humans are not reliable all the time either!) and there is no guarantee of 100% accuracy.

Yes GPT-4 is more accurate than previous versions, but it does still “hallucinate”, can give inaccurate information and harmful advice. Businesses must be able to mitigate the risks this poses to avoid financial and reputational damage and be in control of the information their company is sharing.

To ensure organisations are in control, Creative Virtual supports large language models (LLMs) including the latest versions of GPT, but we remain uncompromising on not transferring total authority to machines.

Our conversational AI solutions provide a signature blend of AI and rules-based natural language processing (NLP), with the AI component compatible with workflow functionality to allow for customisable configuration options. It also means that our systems improve continuously in a reliable way that meets the needs of an organisation.

At the same time, natural language rules can still be used to enable control over responses in instances when AI answers are insufficient. Our blended approach ensures accuracy, enables the resolution of content clashes, and delivers very precise replies when needed.

This level of enterprise-grade functionality differentiates Creative Virtual’s conversational AI platform from all others on the market today. Providing this high degree of control over the AI is critical for businesses. Organisations can be confident in the accuracy of what they communicate to customers and employees because we enable human judgement to be applied to the information created by AI.

Recent commentary about ChatGPT has highlighted examples of its imperfections as well as potential immediate and longer-term social implications. At Creative Virtual we make it possible for our customers to mitigate these risks whilst still enjoying the business benefits of large language models, specifically GPT-3.5 and 4.0 today.

Using our V-Person technology, real business concerns regarding the security, data, privacy, and accuracy aspects related to information sharing are moderated, and organisations retain full control over AI output.

We are already working with customers and introducing LLMs as part of their conversational AI solution for tasks to deliver better customer, employee and contact centre agent experiences.  After identifying specific use cases we are piloting a number of GPT capabilities that are changing the playing field, including vector matching, summarisation, text generation, translation, clustering/analysis, Q&A preparation, and using generative AI.

Implementing LLMs requires experience and expertise, especially given the rate at which AI is developing.  In conversational AI, knowledge management is critical. Creative Virtual’s orchestration platform – V-Portal – supports LLMs, enabling businesses to maximise the benefits of the latest technology and can do so safely, securely and with confidence.

Our V-Portal platform combines knowledge management with workflow management and user management, supports multiple versions of answers for a single theme which gives granular control over the responses given, and allows for optimisation for individual channels.  It also has the capability to manage multi-lingual solutions within a single knowledgebase.

Organisations using our V-Portal platform have options for presenting users with a specific response based on a variety of criteria, including channel, authenticated user profile or selected language.  The platform also supports the use of rich media such as diagrams, images and videos in addition to text and hyperlinks within answers.

The flexible architecture of V-Portal enables seamless integration of our conversational AI solutions into existing processes and technology infrastructure, ensuring business continuity and as a cloud-based solution upgrading to take advantage of the newest technologies and stay ahead of the competition could not be easier.

AI will continue to capture headlines for many years to come.  The good, bad and ugly will be debated.  How society, businesses and individuals choose to use AI is a big part of the positive impacts it will have.

As a business tool, conversational AI solutions powered by the latest in AI technology advances can supercharge employee, customer and contact centre agent experiences, whilst also delivering cost and efficiency savings, and improving productivity.

It’s all about having the right conversational AI partner who understands the technology, business challenges and responsibilities, and can build and deploy solutions that meet the real needs of business.

Contact us to find out more on how LLMs can help you deliver better employee, customer and contact centre agent experiences.

An Experience Designed for Your Customers

By Chris Ezekiel, Founder & CEO

Every month I write a column for Wharf Life, a fortnightly publication that’s available for free around Canary Wharf, Docklands, and east London as well as in an E-Edition online. Titled Virtual Viewpoint, I use this column to share my thoughts on a variety of technology related topics as well as my recent experiences. My latest Virtual Viewpoint was about grocery shopping at the local Canary Wharf Waitrose, something I’ve done regularly – and without much fanfare – since the store opened over 20 years ago.

For all those years I was always baffled by the wine bar in the middle of the food shopping court. On many occasions, I would wonder why on earth people would want to combine the drudgery of picking up their spuds and toothpaste with a glass of wine. I was especially perplexed considering the abundance of lovely bars in such close proximity. Yet, it’s always appeared consistently busy and continued to be a fixture of the store despite the updates and renovations over the years.

The penny finally dropped the other day after my wife and newborn son arrived home from the hospital, and we were suddenly thrust into the two-under-two club. A few days into the lovely chaos of both chasing a toddler and caring for an infant, and suddenly a trip to Waitrose felt quite exciting!

With a spring in my step, I put on my noise cancelling headphones with some relaxing music and the experience felt completely different to normal – more like a trip to a health spa. Oblivious to the mundanities of my shopping trip, I suddenly stumbled upon the bar. And that’s when the light bulb moment happened. I was in my personal spa, and the idea of a glass of champagne amid the shoppers made perfect sense.

Every company has a target customer base, and it’s no secret that designing your experience for your target customer is good for business. Yet within that target group there are a variety of subgroups that have different needs and expectations. Those variations could be based on age, location, access to technology – even number of children! It’s important that you consider these differences when making customer experience (CX) decisions.

As the leader of a conversational AI company, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I am a huge supporter of implementing technology to improve your CX. But I am also a huge supporter of keeping the human at the centre of all CX decisions. While Creative Virtual’s V-Person™ solutions successfully automate digital customer service, forcing all customers to only self-serve with a virtual agent is never a good CX decision.

This is just one reason why it’s key to consult with experts on your CX strategy. This group of experts should include those experienced with your industry, with the technology, and with your identified use cases. It should also include your customers – the true experts on their experiences with your organisation, products, services, and employees.

Go beyond the typical customer surveys and dig into rich data like conversations with your virtual agent and contact centre. See what customers are actually asking, where they are experiencing pain points, and what they really love. Look for ways you can make experiences easier and more personalised. And be sure to take into consideration the varying preferences and needs of your whole customer base – get insights from both the carefree dad of one young child and the sleep-deprived parent of two-under-two!

If you’re local to Canary Wharf and want to discuss customising your CX with conversational AI, I’d be happy to meet you at Waitrose for a glass of wine and a chat. You can also arrange a session with one of Creative Virtual’s experts around the world by contacting us here.

A great resource if you’re evaluating different conversational AI solutions is the 2023 Chatbot Buyer’s Guide. It includes a technology comparison chart that can help you determine the specific functionality you’ll need to design the right experience for your customers.

Don’t Let Your CX Become a Battle Between Humans and Technology

By Chris Ezekiel, Founder & CEO

Running a company automating customer service processes, I’m always thinking of new ways we can help organisations to make life easier for their customers. CX Day – the annual international celebration of all things customer experience – is always a good time to reflect on how far things have come (or not!) in the industry overall. I’m always considering my own customer experiences in this regard, and three recent experiences standout:

Experience 1: the (more than usual) expensive trip to the dentist

A trip to the dental hygienist reminded me that no matter how good the technology, it’s people who write the software and design the user interface. I sat in the chair as the hygienist cursed about the new software that she was required to use. This is a case whereby bad design was impacting both the internal user and the customer’s experience. As the frustrated and cursing dental hygienist was banging away on the keyboard, the customer (me!) wasn’t being served (and paying for the privilege!).

The lesson here is that no matter how smart technology can be, there is no substitute for proper real-world consultation and testing. It reminds me of the days of locking coders in a room for long hours and sliding pizzas under the door every eight hours. Don’t put your customer experience at the mercy of coders who are cut off from or out-of-touch with the needs of your end users.

Experience 2: the computer says “NO”

A recent flight from Amsterdam to London transcended into the ridiculous. As I arrived at the departure gate there was an immediate feeling of foreboding as I could see a large group of people talking to the airline departure staff. I was quickly briefed by a fellow passenger who was incredulous as he explained that our aircraft was just about to depart with ONE passenger onboard. The airline staff at the gate were explaining that a human error had been made whereby the incorrect flight on the computer system had been cancelled and the system was now only allowing the check-in of one passenger. None of us could quite believe it. The computer wasn’t allowing the staff to re-check-in the passengers and for about half an hour it looked like the staff were really going to allow the aircraft to depart with just the one passenger on-board. This was the most ridiculous case of ‘the computer says “NO”’ I think I’ve ever encountered!

There’s much debate about computers and artificial intelligence one day taking over the world, but this experience made me realise that in some ways computers already have. There was seemingly no way for humans to override the computer’s ‘decision’, and it was only after many frantic conversations with the airline’s IT team that they were able to slowly start to re-check-in passengers for the flight. There was no human override, no option for human discretion (computers don’t do discretion!) to save a failing customer experience.

Experience 3: stupid AI

Listening to the media, one could be forgiven for believing that our smartphones have become synonymous to a lifelong partner who finishes the other’s sentence before they’ve even thought about what to say. The reality is far removed from this though. A recent experience of receiving a phone number within an email which contained a space between the country code and the phone number proved how far we haven’t come. I tried to copy and paste the number to make a call, and the smartphone couldn’t deal with the missing leading zero. Something so obvious to a person was not at all clear to the “smart” phone. I had to open the notes app and edit the phone number before I could copy and paste it into the phone app. I’m sure many of us have experienced something similar.

While this issue sounds like a minor inconvenience, it’s these small things that can often make-or-break your customer experience. It’s important to keep our expectations of the capability of computers and AI based in reality. We need to be calling out these basic shortcomings to stop us stumbling down a route that leads to a worse customer experience.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. There is a proper, best practice way of applying the technological/ artificial intelligence revolution to greatly improve our experiences without the risks I’ve outlined here. And it’s a simple solution: combining humans with technology to work together in harmony.

Within the conversational AI field that Creative Virtual operates in, it’s about having a solution that enables organisations to turn a dial to decide between the machine learning and human elements of customer service, whilst at the same time making this seamless from the customer perspective. This has always been our vision at Creative Virtual, even when this method was unpopular with the research analysts. And as we approach our twenty-year anniversary, it’s what gives me confidence in Creative Virtual’s continued success.

Humans should control the training of machines, not algorithms alone. Humans should drive the design of digital tools, not technology specs alone. Humans should determine when a technology override is needed, not computer software alone. Humans should always be at the heart of a customer experience strategy, not technology alone.

That’s why today, on CX Day and the second day of Customer Service Week, we celebrate the humans that make great experiences possible. I’m proud to lead a team of experts that do this every day. It is our human collaboration with our customers and partners that enable our conversational AI solutions to play a key role in better CX.

Better Digital Support with the Virtual Insurance Agent

By Mandy Reed, Global Head of Marketing

Insurance companies have always had the challenge of delivering personalized support for their customers. From selecting coverage and understanding benefits to confirming payments and filing claims, both policyholders and agents need information that is customized to them. As the expectation for companies across all industries to offer digital, 24/7 support and self-service has grown, delivering a positive experience has become more challenging than ever for the insurance sector.

Fortunately, advances in conversational AI technology are helping insurance companies escape from the dangers of frustrating, disjointed experiences by creating the seamless digital support options policyholders and agents need. According to industry experts at Insurance Thought Leadership (ITL), “The sky is the limit for conversational AI.”

In their whitepaper The Virtual Insurance Agent, ITL takes a detailed look at how conversational AI is allowing insurance companies to greatly improve their customer experiences while also reducing costs. With the right integrations, conversational AI tools – like virtual agents and chatbots – can reach across silos and into back-end systems to pull together all the relevant information and customer data to deliver the right responses in a consistent tone. The technology has the capability to both provide the best self-service options to customers and improve insurers’ interactions with agents.

ITL identifies six common use cases for conversational AI in the insurance industry, explaining the benefits and limitations of each example.  All of these – selecting coverage, filing a claim, understanding benefits, updating policies, educating insurance agents, and supporting the contact center – represent perfect opportunities for successfully automating top service queries through personalized, integrated conversation flows.

Being able to respond to such a high percentage of contacts from customers and agents with conversational AI delivers valuable benefits for insurance brands. They can:

  • Create better customer experiences and meet expectations for digital support
  • Improve agent experience and boost productivity
  • Reduce contact center traffic and alleviate pressure on busy live agents
  • Increase revenue by reducing customer churn and making the buying process easier
  • Lower support costs and improve efficiency by simplifying complex processes

According to ITL, “Conversational AI is one of those rare beasts in business: It delivers demonstrably better service to customers while cutting companies’ costs.” Isn’t that every insurance company’s dream?

Read more on these insights from ITL by downloading the full ‘The Virtual Insurance Agent’ whitepaper.

Also check out the short video below for a closer look at how Creative Virtual’s V-Person™ for Insurance brings together chatbot, virtual agent, and live chat technologies with extensive industry experience to create reliable digital support that is personalized, convenient, and efficient.

 

Satisfied Customers and Happy Employees Require a Long-term Mindset

By Rachel F Freeman, Operations Director

Whilst we celebrate customer service with a special week, we should always acknowledge that customer service is not something we can only think about 7 days out of the year! Equally, with the imminent COP26 taking place soon in Glasgow, we shouldn’t only spend a few weeks thinking about sustainability and climate change as a flavour of the month for it to then be tucked away until the next global summit.

We should use these special and timely events to do a deeper dive into what we can do to improve for the rest of the year and ways we can treat these topics with a focus year-round. In fact, I think that Customer Service Week and COP26 have a few overlaps in their objectives.

Part of the many aspects of ESG (environmental, sustainability, governance) objectives includes ensuring diversity and inclusion in the workplace as well as providing a safe working environment. Having happy and safe workers, who feel valued, increases both productivity and retention levels.

The parallel for how we should approach our customers is strikingly similar: well-treated customers, who feel safe in the care and attention given to them, are likely to be retained as customers. So long as the value we have for them continues and develops with their requirements, we will have happy, long-term customers.

Valued employees are more receptive to learning, listening, and wanting to support the company, which in turn means supporting our important customers – and they are ALL important! – in the best possible way. It is a team effort to create value in a company’s products, services, and support.

This creates a cyclical process which rewards everyone yet is crucial to maintain and takes ongoing attention and nurturing.

A linear customer experience can be defined as: customer asks for product; company gives product, end of story. This works well if you are buying a hot dog, for example.

However, a cyclical customer experience includes having the “lifecycle” of the exchange extended through communication and understanding of requirements and working to see how the customer can be supported. The experience covers everything from design to implementation and after-care. It aims to draw from core company values and expertise to offer best-of-breed advice.

This sounds so simple, but the key is to continue to monitor the cycle and check in on both employees and customers regularly to evaluate motivation, satisfaction, and success. Those are the prime elements for keeping satisfied customers and happy employees and for working towards sustainable ecosystems.

October and November will offer specific opportunities to consider all of the above. We should take advantage of these events with the mindset of carrying their importance with us for a lot more than just the next 12 months. Creative Virtual’s Founder & CEO, Chris Ezekiel, often ends his internal company communications with “Onwards”, and I feel this is a perfect moment for me to do the same.

Onwards and upwards towards never quenching the thirst for keeping both employees and customers happy and for operating within a sustainable working model that maintains the long-term investment ethos.

#CXDay: You Gotta Understand Expectations if You Wanna Meet Them

By Mandy Reed, Global Head of Marketing

Last week my neighbor sent me the image below with the caption: How to ruin Trick-or-Treat!

trick or treat

Is there anyone who has gone Trick-or-Treating who doesn’t remember that house that always gave a crappy “treat”? For me, it’s the woman who ran a little hair salon in her basement and always handed out combs – and insisted on chatting with each kid forrrr-ever, slowing you down from getting to all the houses with the good treats!

So, what’s wrong with handing out combs or mini salad bags on Halloween? Why do those kinds of treats get a bad rep? The problem is that they don’t meet the expectations of Trick-or-Treaters. If you are going house to house in your costume, you are expecting a sugary piece of candy, a salty snack, or a fun little toy or gadget. When the Trick-or-Treat experience doesn’t match with your expectation, you are left disappointed.

Today the world is celebrating CX Day, as we do on the first Tuesday of October every year. This celebration is an opportunity to recognize the professionals who create and deliver great customer experiences and to share insights into how to make our CX strategies better. It also happens to be the second day of Customer Service Week, which is fitting since customer service is an important piece of a customer’s experience.

Creating and successfully implementing a CX strategy that delivers consistently positive experiences is hard. It requires a team effort across the entire company. It requires the right processes and procedures. It requires properly integrated technologies. But most importantly, it requires a true understanding of your customers’ expectations.

Understanding the expectations of your customers has to be at the core of your CX strategy or you’re doomed to fail. Implementing the latest technologies, conducting training workshops for your employees, or launching cool new product updates can be great for your customer experience, but only when they are approached with your customers in mind. Defining customer expectations – of your digital tools, of your staff members, of your products – must always come first.

For most companies, the digital experience they provide has now become central to their overall CX. It can be tempting to think that throwing a new technology at a digital issue or pain point will provide a quick fix. Unfortunately, this approach often fails to resolve the underlying problem or creates an unnatural, frustrating, and disjointed interaction. The reality is that unless that technology is strategically selected and deployed, it can actually make the experience worse for customers.

Before you implement a CX technology, be sure you can:

  • Define how it will meet the expectations of your specific customer base.
  • Explain the ways it will improve the experience for customers and employees.
  • Identify your own internal expectations and goals for the solution, both short-term and long-term.

When it comes to CX, there’s no shortcut to success. You gotta understand your customers’ expectations if you wanna meet them.

That is why I always aim to give the Trick-or-Treaters who come through my neighborhood what they expect – and that means no mini salad bags at my house! In fact, this year my costumed visitors will be greeted by a big basket of fun rubber duckies, back by popular demand after overwhelming positive reviews last Halloween from kids of all ages.

This CX Day, ask yourself: Does my business really understand our customers’ expectations?

Conversational AI Doesn’t Have to Be a Risky Investment: Step 1

By Mandy Reed, Global Head of Marketing

In the technology industry there tends to be a focus on being innovative, cutting-edge, and ground-breaking. Industry awards, conferences, and articles frequently showcase and reward vendors for technological innovations. Analysts and expert speakers regularly highlight case studies of companies that are early adopters, deploying technologies in inventive ways, or finding success by taking a chance on something new and unproven.

Innovation is essential to the advancement of technology but doesn’t automatically equal practical business benefits. Having companies try out new technological developments and deploy existing solutions in creative and unfamiliar ways is important for finding practical applications for new innovations. However, being the organisation that deploys an innovative technology typically requires being comfortable with a high level of risk.

Most companies don’t have the financial flexibility or company culture to take that degree of risk, whether real or inferred. For them, proven and reliable results are more important than being innovative and flashy. Projects that get budget approval and management backing are ones that are considered safe bets because they utilise established technologies that have documented business benefits.

Conversational AI is one technology that is regularly described with words like ‘innovative’ and ‘cutting-edge’. Simply having ‘AI’ in the name makes some people think of it as being futuristic or only for companies with the resources to implement it for the cool factor. It can be easy for business leaders to associate conversational AI with being a high-risk investment.

Deploying conversational AI solutions like chatbots and virtual agents can be risky but doesn’t have to be. Your organisation doesn’t need to be an early adopter of new innovations to benefit from this technology. Chatbot and virtual agent technology has been used by businesses for over two decades as part of their customer experience and employee engagement strategies, and you can take advantage of those learnings to leverage conversational AI within your organisation.

Over the course of this three-part blog series, I’ll outline three steps for minimising risk and maximising benefits of conversational AI projects. Let’s get started with the first and most important step:

Step 1: Be selective when deciding on a vendor and technology.

The conversational AI market is oversaturated with new, inexperienced start-ups and technologies that haven’t been well-tested in the real world. The first step to reducing your risk is to choose a vendor that is established in the industry and provides a technology that has proven results. Both criteria are important when it comes to risk level.

Vendor experience is critically important because the more knowledge your selected provider brings to your project, the more confident you can be in their advice and guidance. You want a vendor that will become an extension of your own team and knows what they are doing because they’ve done it all before. Working with experts means you benefit from their many years of experience, thereby making your investment less risky even if your company is new to this type of technology.

When evaluating a vendor’s experience, ask specifically about how many years the company has provided conversational AI technologies, as these solutions may be an offering added recently even though the company has been in business for decades. Also ask about the experience of their individual team members and staff turnover rates. If they have high staff turnover and are constantly training replacements for departing employees, then you will likely miss out on the risk-reducing personal expertise you want the vendor to bring to the collaboration.

Just as critical as the vendor experience is having proof of their technology delivering positive results in real world applications. Don’t assume that just because a provider isn’t a brand-new start-up that they have a well-performing conversational AI technology. If the company has been in business for four or five years and only has one customer, you should question why more companies aren’t using their technology and if working with them is a risky option.

To reduce risk, ask about how the vendor has deployed their technology within your industry and what documented business benefits those solutions are providing. Saying they have the ability to deploy important features and functionality is great, but you want to see the technology in action in live installs. Also ask them about the length of their customer relationships as long-term engagements indicate that existing customers are happy with the technology, their results, and the collaboration. The vendor should be able to provide you with customer references so you can get first-hand feedback on their conversational AI projects.

Keep in mind that even if your company is minimising risk by selecting a proven solution with reliable results, you still want to partner with a vendor that is consistently innovating. You may not be the organisation trying out those new innovations first, but you don’t want to invest in a solution that’s not going to improve as those advancements become well-tested and are shown to deliver business benefits.

In my next post, we’ll explore building a realistic business case as part of Step 2 for reducing risk. In the meantime, check out the Guide to Selecting a Virtual Agent or Chatbot Vendor: Forget the Technology & Focus on Experience. It explains in more detail the most important questions to ask a vendor about their experience during your procurement process.