https://nextiva-1.wistia.com/medias/xzpa9nvgt6
As more businesses implement automation for customer interactions, how can a company take their business to the next level and set it above the others? Boosting automated customer service raises a company’s brand value and communicates the company’s commitment to excellence.
For example, the owners of a vacation rental home want to make their business stand out. They use an interactive voice response system to manage call handling but want to further enhance the customer experience by incorporating the latest technology.
Advanced IVR offers Conversational AI, which uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to extract meaningful information from natural language input and produces natural language output. Conversational AI turns mundane interactions between callers and the Virtual Agent into more natural conversational interactions.
For instance, instead of hearing a menu of options from the Virtual Agent (“For address and directions, press 1” and so on), callers who dial into a system that utilizes Conversational AI hear “How can I help you today?” Callers can then respond naturally, such as, “Hi. Where are you located?” to which the Virtual Agent responds with the requested information and follows up with, “Is there anything else I can help you with?”
In addition to providing information, Virtual Agents, backed by Conversational AI, can route calls in response to natural speech requests:
Virtual Agent: “How can I help you today?”
Caller: “Yes. Hi. I’d like to speak to someone in Billing, please.”
Virtual Agent: “Sure. I will transfer you to our Billing department. Have a great day!”
The Virtual Agent routes the caller to the Billing department.
In the example of the vacation rental home business, the owners can use Advanced IVR with Conversational AI to provide a virtual concierge for their guests. Instead of relying on staff to address frequently asked questions, the owners can increase efficiency by implementing Virtual Agents to provide callers with the requested information:
Virtual Agent: “How can I help you today?”
Caller: “Hi. What are the best restaurants nearby?”
Virtual Agent: “I will be happy to help you find a restaurant. What kind of food would you like?”
Caller: “Hm. Let’s see. I think Mexican food sounds good right now.”
Virtual Agent: “Sure. For Mexican food, I recommend…”
The Virtual Agent provides the caller with a list of recommended Mexican restaurants.
Advanced IVR with Conversational AI automates the process of addressing common questions from callers in a humanized manner while offering cost savings on staffing and call time for the business. When the caller’s request is not recognized, the system routes the caller to a live agent. Conversational AI learns from past mistakes and improves with more data and runtime experience so the request can be recognized in the future.
Advanced IVR gives businesses the opportunity to boost their brand value by implementing the latest technology in customer care. Conversational AI:
- Integrates the most advanced technologies from Google and IBM Watson.
- Allows Virtual Agents to detect user sentiment to control call behavior on the fly. Virtual Agents can detect joy, fear, sadness, anger, analytical, confidence, and tentative tones. Businesses can then tailor responses to improve customer interactions.
- Includes support for speech-synthesis markup language (SSML) to customize the
way Virtual Agents communicate. For example, businesses can control the rate, pitch, volume, or emphasis of text-to-speech.
Advanced IVR helps businesses implement innovative and advanced customer care technology that enhances customer perception and boosts the value of their brand. To add Advanced IVR to an account, contact a Nextiva Account representative or call (800) 799-0600.