Virtual Airport Agents Humanize the Customer Experience
by Jessica Cody, Marketing Manager
Just when you think Virtual Agent technology couldn’t get more innovative, a whole new dimension is popularized. Case in point is the virtual passenger information agents that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has recently installed in Newark Liberty International Airport, as well as LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International Airports.
Technically a kiosk, this passenger information agent appears as an actual person, projected onto a female-shaped glass pane. She is available to aid customers with important airport information at Newark, LaGuardia and Kennedy airports. Likewise, the Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC also recently installed a 3D hologram Virtual Agent named Paige to assist international travelers with customs inquiries. While these avatars aren’t currently interactive, there is potential for them to be integrated with natural language processing technology in the future so they can answer questions when spoken to. With these Virtual Agents front and center at such popular airports, this advancement, following the emergence of Siri onto the market earlier this year, is guaranteed to further familiarize people with the concept of Virtual Agents.
This development also demonstrates the importance of humanizing the customer experience, even when it is delivered by an automated Virtual Agent. Companies such as Creative Virtual are implementing and deploying Virtual Agents that are capable of holding and remembering more information than any human, and able to reply to questions quicker. This makes them an ideal investment for companies with high call center and website visitor volumes.
Creative Virtual deployments such as Ask Alison, On the Beach’s automated Virtual Agent, feature animated avatars with human characteristics that appeal to users. On the Beach is a UK-based company that offers cheap flight and hotel deals to top destinations around the world. Alison appears as a warm and welcoming customer service advisor, wearing an On the Beach branded polo and standing in the company call center. She also displays a variety of facial expressions.
Since intelligent Virtual Agents such as Ask Alison are able to handle more inquiries than humans, Creative Virtual customers have seen reductions of up to 70% in Live Chat volume and call deflections of up to 50%. Another feature that makes the experience more meaningful to each particular customer is the intelligent Virtual Agent’s ability to provide personalized responses through integration with backend systems. For example, Verizon customers are able to log in to their online accounts and ask the Virtual Agent, Ask Verizon, questions such as “Can I see my payment history?” or “Is my account paid through AutoPay?”. This allows users to have an experience that is specific to them and their needs.
Creative Virtual is an established provider of Virtual Agents (VAs) with over 40 deployments of our V-Person™ product. Our V-Person technology functions as a virtual employee, trained as an expert in all necessary aspects of the company, so website users can be provided with the information they need, available 24/7 when they need it. Delivering accuracy of over 90%, and call deflection of up to 50%, V-Person is one of the most compelling self-service products in the world today. Our solution is used for the purposes of customer support, sales, marketing and call center assistance, and streamlines the workflow of self-service information across Mobile, Web, and Social Media channels.
For more information about Creative Virtual’s V-Person technology and implementations, please visit our website.
