Technology can and should be allied with companies in all possible processes, bringing automation, agility and efficiency to services, reducing errors and complaints and offering more productivity and time optimization. The virtual agent is another solution that aims to improve service to make life easier for users and the call center staff.
Through automation of service, virtual agents can solve various types of requests from the public without the need for human interference. This work helps streamline and improve service processes by sorting and directing the most complex demands to the company’s experts.
VaGuys111 will bring details about the virtual agents, showing the definition of this technology and presenting its benefits. In addition, we will explain the way this resource works, which is being increasingly adopted by companies, bringing significant results.
1. What Are Virtual Agents?
Virtual agents, or intelligent virtual assistants, are technological solutions developed to present an agile and efficient service to the public of an organization, through the use of robots.
In a simplified way, it is an automatic “agent”, which answers to the users answering the questions in an intelligent and functional way. All this work is possible as the tool extracts information from a database that is constantly updated behind the scenes and in real time, from the information provided by the customers in attendance.
The virtual agents can be used in chats, telephone calls, can simulate a real attendant, in fact, there are several possibilities with the same proposal of agility and optimization, without losing the customization of the services provided.
Unlike automated / recorded responses or even frequent question lists, virtual agents have the ability to respond to questions presented by the public in a personalized way, bringing a humanized service aspect , even if this service is being performed by a robot.
Imagine the following situation: you are a bank account and urgently need to cancel your credit card for personal reasons. You’ve been robbed, you’re out of the phone, and the only thing you have access to is your work computer. If your bank uses virtual agents in the service, it would be enough to send a message for the problem to be dealt with and resolved in a few minutes.
Virtual agents are prepared to meet the common demands of a company’s customers, because they constantly go through thousands of tests before they are put into operation.
Because they involve artificial intelligence rules, they can solve common problems even with more dynamism than the actual attendants, since they use the information crossing in search of the best solutions.
In addition, they can help to optimize the work of actual attendants, since the cases that reach them will usually be those that really need human commitment to resolution.
2. Benefits
When technology is used correctly and intelligently, the benefits come as natural fruits of this process. In the case of virtual agents, they can be many. We will cite some of the following:
2.1. Constant Learning Ability
Each virtual agent service is a new opportunity for him to learn even more about customer interaction. As robots continue to provide service, they will also enrich their repertoire, increasing the database and expanding the ability to offer ever more personalized service.
2.2. Decrease Costs For Companies
It’s time to take your contact center to the next level, When it is necessary to increase the capacity of service of the SAC, it is not always possible to increase proportionally the staff of attendants. There is then overloading of services and this situation directly interferes with the quality of the services provided – and consequently with the company image.
Therefore, due to the high capacity of absorption of the demands, the virtual assistants promote a great economy, since they reduce costs in the hiring of labor and equipment for support, used in the execution of these virtual assistant works.
In a simplified way, virtual agents can absorb many calls, even when demand is increased, all without losing the agility and quality of solutions proposed to users.
2.3. Optimization Of Time For Special Care
Some specific situations still require human interaction, but the great achievement with this technology is that the actual attendance will be more qualified, since the human attendants will have more time to study the client’s question and solve it.
In these more specific cases, the virtual agent itself routes the service to the actual service. While virtual workers screen and solve those demands that can be solved in an automated way, the actual attendants take care of specific cases, with enough time to bring the best solutions to the company’s clients.
2.4. Agility Of Processes And Reduction Of Complaints
Virtual agents also have the benefit of streamlining the fulfillment process, as they “auto-store” information automatically and are programmed to deliver accurate and fast information whenever necessary.
Because it is automated, it can answer questions faster and more efficiently. In this way, complaints about service and long waits tend to decrease, which is a very positive factor for any business.
2.5. Availability Of Service Any Day And Any Time
Another benefit of the adoption of virtual agents for customer service is the fact that this service will be available to the public 24 hours a day, every day of the week.
For the consumer, this possibility brings comfort and security and, for the company, brings the peace of mind of being good service even at times out of the ordinary, supporting their consumers when they need them the most.
More than that, the full-time service also offers the optimization of the processes as a whole, since the resolution of the demands through the virtual agent, even in atypical hours, avoids accumulations of pending issues to be solved during the week.
3. Active Virtual Agents
It is also possible to use virtual agents to take the initiative to contact users, consumers or debtors. A common approach is to make contact at level 1, that is, the technology assistant makes the first contact with the user to deal with the most common possibilities. After a few steps, and after the user answers certain questions, he terminates the contact or negotiation or directs the client to the human service.
When passing on the service to a real attendant, the caller receives the whole conversation history and has access to the answers provided previously to the virtual attendant. This already optimizes the work as a whole and saves user time, which will not have to answer the same questions again.
It is worth remembering that this service is nothing “robotized”, even if it is done by a robot. Programmed to interpret various types of expressions, words, regional expressions and even slang, the virtual assistant not only interprets them as responding to each of them in a natural, humanized way.
The virtual attendant can be customized, that is, offer a “character” of service that meets the characteristics that most have to do with the profile of the user being served. This makes the service even more humanized, since the user feels special, being attended by a “person” who speaks their language and possibly will understand their pains.
It is worth remembering that the virtual agent helps, even, to make an initial screening of the telephone calls, since it questions the main problems faced by the consumer. With this, it helps streamline the process and saves the time of consumers and staff.
The database that passes the information to the virtual assistant is constantly updated by the IT staff and, even better, by the consumer himself. Reading the information passed on by the public gradually increases the repertoire of the various information and problems considered by the program.
The greater the number of services provided, the greater the learning and the information that can enrich the repertoire of virtual agents, which solve problems faster and more efficiently.
This technology is so useful and so important that it can soon be applied in other sectors of society, not just call centers.
A practical example is the application of this solution in medical care. Imagine, for example, a virtual clerk screening patients before they are directed to medical care? This reality is perfectly possible and applicable in the near future.
Virtual agents are efficient technological solutions, increasingly adopted by companies and accepted by consumers. It is important, however, to choose the best type for your business, and hire the tools of specialized companies , able to customize the virtual attendance according to the specifics of your business and your most diverse public.
In addition, it should be understood that virtual attendants do not replace specialized services. They only serve as a support to answer the simplest questions, making an accurate screening only then, if necessary, direct users to the responsible sector.
It is essential to have trained professionals to create an efficient model, to keep it up to date and in line with the needs and priorities of the company and its clients. In addition, it is important to note that it is essential to closely monitor the operation of these services to ensure that they are, in fact, fully functional and meet all the needs presented by users.
