Intelligent virtual assistant (IVA) technology provider Next IT has launched Alme for Chat, a solution that can answer more than 80 percent of customer questions without any wait time.
Alme for Chat can answer a majority of questions that do not require a human response, and frees human chat operators to focus on answering more complex questions and creating new revenue opportunities, according to the company.
“We discovered that 80 percent or more customer interactions over live chat are fairly routine,” Mitch Lawrence, executive vice president, sales and marketing, Next IT, in a statement. “That means that customers are stuck waiting in a queue while chat operators answer the same questions over and over. We knew our virtual assistant technology could provide a more rewarding experience for customers. With Alme for Chat, every customer receives an instant response and human operators can spend more time on complex interactions.”
Alme for Chat is built on the same Alme platform that powers IVAs for Aetna, United Airlines, and the U.S. Army. Using artificial intelligence technology, Alme virtual assistants can understand questions from customers and communicate the best course of action using everyday language. When integrated into a live chat environment, the IVA can increase efficiency and maximize the value of trained chat operators. In pilot tests of Alme for Chat, clients saw a five-fold return on their investment in only six months.
Alme for Chat is easily integrated into nearly any existing chat environment. The technology works as a layer on top of the live chat application, maximizing its capabilities and efficiency. The Alme platform includes language analysis tools for processing large volumes of chat logs or call transcripts in order to identify the needs and objectives of end users. As it interacts with customers in everyday language, the Alme for Chat IVA continues to improve its performance and learn new questions and answers.
Key features include:
- Advanced natural language and concept-based understanding of customer questions.
- Intelligent understanding through conversational awareness (what user has said) and page awareness (location on the Web site).
- Conversational data and entity extraction to support dynamic responses and robust integrations to data-driven web components or back-end CRM, ERP, transactional, and other systems.
- Configurable escalation to live, Web-based chat via Next IT ActiveChat or other API-accessible support channels
- Complete interaction recording with robust reporting (ActiveReports) and BI support
- Easy-to-deploy JavaScript-based implementation on Web sites.
- Support for both SaaS-based and on-premise deployments.