Tag Archive for: pricing whitepaper

The Success of a Chatbot is in the Details

By Mandy Reed, Global Head of Marketing

Last year many of us were spending much more time at home than usual as we did our part to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our communities. This created a surge of another kind, though: a wave of do-it-yourself project attempts. If you’re at home anyway, why not try to tackle that project yourself?

As many DIYers quickly discovered, the devil is in the details. No matter how easy something looks in the YouTube video or how complete the step-by-step instructions may appear, some projects are better left to the professionals. Sometimes recognising the small details needed to really succeed requires an expertise that comes only from experience.

This is most certainly true when it comes to creating chatbots for customer self-service, and too often organisations fall into the DIY trap. Some companies delegate their project solely to an inexperienced internal team because they underestimate the amount of expertise needed to build and deploy a working chatbot. Some companies treat their chatbot as an unimportant DIY side project not worthy of dedicated resources and investment because they fail to recognise the importance of conversational AI in modern customer experience (CX) strategies. Whatever the reason for a DIY approach, these organisations soon discover that they should have collaborated with a chatbot professional.

A good example of an important detail for chatbot success that is often overlooked comes from Maria Ward in a conversational AI vendor selection guide. Maria, an industry expert with over 15 years of experience working with chatbots and virtual agents, shares this insider tip:

“Avoid using ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ at the beginning of virtual agent answers as it may not fit with the many ways a question may be asked. Adding the subject within an answer also gives the user confidence that they have received the correct answer. For example, when answering ‘Can I have 3 slices of cake?’ instead of ‘Yes, you can.’, use ‘You can eat as much cake as you like!’”

 Besides making me hungry for cake, this quote also illustrates an important point about the importance of the details in chatbot creation. When you read Maria’s tip, you might think that structuring the chatbot’s answers in that way should be common sense. It sounds so logical. But, if you’re not experienced with creating chatbot content, is that something you would automatically know? Probably not.

Really understanding how to structure answer content to work with the many ways users may ask the same question is just one skill that comes with experience. It’s a detail that’s crucial to delivering a quality self-service experience and building user confidence in your conversational AI tool. It’s also a detail that could very easily be overlooked by an inexperienced DIY team.

When it comes to creating a successful chatbot and delivering a positive customer service experience with conversational AI, the devil really is in the details. Unless you have a highly experience internal team, taking a DIY approach is not worth the risk. CX is a critical competitive differentiator for organisations, and a poor performing self-service tool will quickly erode customer loyalty and your brand reputation.

It’s Time to Pull Back the Curtain on Enterprise Conversational AI Pricing

By Chris Ezekiel, Founder & CEO

Enterprise software pricing is often shrouded in mystery and the subject of intense negotiations between the supplier and customer. For applications where the market is immature then this is necessary as it takes some time to equate the cost with the business value. Whilst chatbots and virtual agents have been around for a long time, it’s relatively recently that they’ve become ubiquitous within the enterprise. I’m very pleased to report that Creative Virtual is stepping forward to lead the way in removing this shroud of mystery around conversational AI pricing.

Long-term relationships based on trust and transparency are attributes that underpin the culture within Creative Virtual, and we’re proud to launch the ‘Guide to Enterprise Conversational AI Pricing: Calculating the Cost of a Successful Chatbot or Virtual Agent’ whitepaper

This comes at a particularly important time as the conversational AI market is oversaturated with solutions that do not deliver the level of sophistication, flexibility, and customisation needed for a well-performing enterprise solution. These tools come with a lower price tag but end up negatively impacting the organisation’s bottom line by harming the customer experience and eroding customer loyalty.

This expert guide pulls back the curtain on enterprise-level pricing to empower organisations with the knowledge they need to properly budget and evaluate costs of conversational AI solutions.

We have drawn on our many enterprise-level customers and partners, together with a world leading amount of experience within the industry, so that organisations can have confidence not only in the pricing but also the advice on the effort and expertise required to maintain a successful solution. And whilst the technology platform is clearly a key part, the experience and expertise are often undervalued. That was the motivation for our previous whitepaper, ‘Guide to Selecting a Virtual Agent or Chatbot Vendor: Forget the Technology & Focus on Experience’.

conversational ai pricingNow, your organisation has two important complementary whitepapers that draw on Creative Virtual’s nearly two decades of delivering successful solutions in many sectors to help you develop a conversational AI roadmap designed to give your company a customer experience competitive advantage.

Download our new guide to enterprise conversational AI pricing for insider tips on budgeting for your solution, typical pricing models, and average costs for pilots and full systems.

When you’re ready to learn more and start building your own business case for a conversational AI solution, our expert team will be here to arrange a personalised demo and discuss your consultation workshop.