[24]7 recently announced today that its intelligent chatbot technology, [24]7 Virtual Agent, leads the market with more than 500 intelligent chatbot deployments, across a range of industries including banking, healthcare, insurance, retail, telecom, travel and utilities. BC Hydro, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City and Vodafone Qatar are among the more than 160 organizations globally using [24]7’s market-leading Virtual Agent to enhance the digital customer experience.
[24]7 Virtual Agent is an intelligent enterprise chatbot that helps consumers find information they need in the moments that matter by delivering automated answers and completing transactions via website, mobile devices, Facebook Messenger and social media channels. The Virtual Agent can also act as a comprehensive, easy to use knowledge base for live agents and employees. This industry-leading technology empowers businesses to deliver a world-class self-service experience at a consumer’s crucial first point of contact, all the way through to issue resolution or task completion.
[24]7’s self-service chatbot solutions cover the full spectrum of digital customer experiences, from informational virtual agents deflecting customer support call and email volume, to AI-driven intelligent assistants allowing customers to perform digital transactions within their chosen channel. These solutions are continually fine-tuned based on the 34 million chat conversations that happen annually on the [24]7 Customer Engagement platform.
Telecommunications company Vodafone uses a virtual agent “Hani”. This is an intelligent chatbot that answers 80,000 questions per month and deflects calls away from the contact center for 75 percent of the customers it chats with. Vodafone contact center staff also use the same technology to access accurate, up-to-date information on Vodafone products and services. Similarly, Canadian utility BC Hydro wanted to improve customer service and satisfaction for its 4 million customers and improve operational efficiency by deploying a chatbot on its website. In the first 11 months, the chatbot answered more than 720,000 questions with an accuracy rate of 94 percent.
“An intelligent chatbot should perform as well your top agent,” said Scott Horn, chief marketing officer at [24]7. “The enhancements we’ve made to our Virtual Agent products empower enterprise clients to tap into the power of AI and machine learning to provide dramatically improved experiences for consumers. Not only do the predictive capabilities of our Virtual Agent lead to improved customer satisfaction scores, but they also free up human agents for more complex, higher-value interactions.”
In addition to improving customer satisfaction and operational efficiencies, [24]7’s chatbots also help reduce Average Handle Time (AHT). Because the chatbot has already handled many of the qualifying questions that the live agent would have otherwise handled, AHT can be reduced by up to 10 percent. When working alongside a chatbot, agents are able to handle more chats per hour, increasing productivity.
