Major European telecoms company

This major telecoms operator is using virtual chat to deflect 50% of inbound interactions to the web and persuaded 74 % of users to switch to web-based customer support.

The organization has more than 18 million customers, with a significant percentage of outsourced inbound call centers dealing with all aspects of customer service. Agents were handling around 5 million inbound calls every month - a costly operation that the company was looking to streamline.

Since quality of service has a direct effect on customer retention and new sales, the company wanted to at least maintain and, ideally, to improve customer service levels and save money at the same time.

Six million visitors were coming to their website every month, to the company focused its attention on making the website the primary customer service channel, with fallback to the contact center for complex transactions and inquiries.

Around 500,000 calls per month were to seek assistance for basic things like mobile handset usage, SIM card replacement and so on - routine interactions that could more usefully be handled automatically via the website. The specific objectives were to:

• Cut the number of routine assistance calls
• Drive users to the web as a first port of call
• Build a high level of customer satisfaction with the new process to encourage more web interactions

The solution: try before you buy!

Artificial Solutions developed a pilot program as a 'proof of concept' focusing on:

• Deflecting callers and driving them to the assistance area of the website
• Measuring levels of customer satisfaction levels with the new process

A Virtual Assistant was designed with a friendly and efficient personality. The Virtual Assistant was the primary tool for answering customer queries and given high visibility on the website. The assistant was structured to engage in interactive dialogues with a helpful, friendly approach and provide accurate answers to specific questions about the use of mobile handsets. Any questions beyond the scope of the initial Knowledge Base, were automatically handed over to a call center agent.

To evaluate the service, all users were asked to take part in a short and simple, five-question online satisfaction survey.

The pilot was a huge success, with around half of all calls being deflected to the website. Although the solution had a limited initial Knowledge Base, early results on customer satisfaction levels were as high as 74 per cent.

The pilot has since been uplifted to a full implementation, which includes an evaluation of potential integration with email and direct to mobile applications.