National Rail Enquiries Launches Virtual Agent “Ask Lisa” on Facebook

by Jessica Cody, Marketing Manager

Creative Virtual and their partner The Virtual Zone have enhanced social media Virtual Agent technology with the launch of National Rail Enquiries’ Ask Lisa on the company’s Facebook page.  Instead of simply having the website Virtual Agent accessible from Facebook, Ask Lisa has been integrated into the Facebook page as an app.  This allows the user experience to remain in one location, so there is no need to leave Facebook or open another window.

This advancement in Virtual Agent technology shows how the Virtual Agent can be placed in a number of locations and presented in different layouts.  Facebook Virtual Agents such as these are easy to implement, since the knowledgebase from the website Virtual Agent is re-used in a new context.

While having a conversation with the Virtual Agent, the user is able to “like” the Virtual Agent answers, which are then displayed on their Facebook wall.  This serves as an excellent method of viral marketing for companies like National Rail Enquiries, since Facebook users are able to see the interactions others had with the Virtual Agent.   If someone clicks on an answer, they are taken directly to the Virtual Agent Facebook interface.

From an analytics perspective, having a Virtual Agent within Facebook is very beneficial to the company as well.  The Virtual Agent is able to gather profile data about the users with which it has conversations, and this gives the company a more complete picture of their customer than they get from website Virtual Agent analytics, such as the user’s interests, age, job, etc.

Click here to chat with Facebook Lisa about the National Rail network in Great Britain (she is located just under the cover photo on the company’s Facebook page).  To find out more about Virtual Agent innovations, visit Creative Virtual and The Virtual Zone.