Three Examples of How Virtual Agents Can Complement Live Chat

By Richard Simons, CEO, Creative Virtual USA

Over the past few years, offering live chat has become an increasingly more common option for organizations looking to improve their online support options. While a great channel for engaging with customers, live chat still requires the involvement of a live agent to address every question. Newer generations of intelligent virtual agents can be integrated easily and seamlessly with live chat, and can efficiently escalate chats to a live agent should the situation arise. Using a virtual agent with a live chat option can prove to be extremely beneficial and cost competitive. Here are three examples how:photo_2913_20070819

  • Example #1: A major telecommunications company has seen a 34% reduction in live chat volumes from pages that offer the virtual agent alongside live chat. This company also offers a proactive virtual agent, which pops up with contextually relevant help after a user is on the page for 60 seconds. With this additional feature, the call deflection rate is between 50 and 100% higher than when the user initiates the virtual agent themselves.
  • Example #2: Compared to the typical online FAQ document, intelligent virtual agents are goal-oriented and seek solutions by guiding customers through a step-by-step resolution process. The use of an intelligent virtual agent with a dedicated knowledge management system can achieve exceptional results by optimizing the use of live chat operators for situations that require a live agent and having the virtual agent answer the easy questions.
  • Example #3: Virtual agents now can create a personalized interaction between each unique customer and your organization’s brand. The virtual agent knows details about the consumers such as which types of credit cards the consumer has with that particular bank, or it can pull up a detailed history of the last six months of orders the consumer’s placed. Virtual agents can also have a customized look, which lends an emotional element to the  interaction even if the conversation doesn’t require escalation to a live chat agent.

While live chat can be an effective support channel on its own, the integration with an intelligent virtual agent can give you an even bigger push towards meeting your customer experience goals. If you think that it’s time to see how virtual agent technology can complement your live chat solution, please reach out to us for a demonstration.