29 September Everything you need to know about the conversational agent: vocabulary, technologies and project terminologies
The conversational agent Is it today one of the main levers for boosting the quality of customer service for companies?
The widespread observation of the adoption and use of artificial intelligence by a large majority of organizations to improve the customer experience seems to confirm this thesis.
In reality, a conversational agent is nothing other than a computer program which has incorporated artificial intelligence (AI) functionalities in order to interact with the customers and prospects of an organization that either to collect information or to satisfy some of their concerns.
If you also have questions about conversational agents and how they work in business, we explain everything you need to know about conversational agents: vocabulary, technologies and project terminologies.
What do you need to know about chatbots?
Whatever you call it, a chatbot can be useful for organizations in different situations.
How can we define a conversational agent?
A conversational agent can be understood as software or a robotic program to which artificial intelligence functionalities have been added in order to communicate and exchange with human users.
This definition highlights some fundamental elements that characterize the conversational agent.
First of all, being a robotic program, the conversational agent draws its information from a database designed by developers.
Then, the operating principle of the conversational robot is to communicate with a human whether by written mode or by voice communication.
It appears from these characteristics that the conversational agent is a virtual assistant adopted by an organization with the aim of improving the experience of its customers and prospects.
The vocabulary around the conversational agent
There is a multitude of terminologies used to refer to chatbots.
Even though the terminologies are interchangeable, there are some subtleties that are important to know.
First of all, if your chatbot works mainly on the basis of text commands, it is more appropriate to refer to it as “chabot”.
In other words, it is a text interaction bot that resolves its users' concerns through conversational scenario logic.
On the other hand, in the case where the conversational robot can interact with the user through an interactive voice interface, it should be categorized in the register of “voicebots”.
This type of intelligent virtual agent communicates by voice, answers customer questions, asks questions, and can imitate human thinking to provide answers to user needs.
When it is positioned at a reception center to receive or make calls, or when its role is to process and transfer calls to specialized services, the conversational agent takes the name of “ callbot”.
What functions should a conversational agent dedicate to in business?
Depending on your field of activity, you can assign different functions to a virtual assistant. However, a conversational agent can occupy three main functions in a company.
Some structures opt for the choice of positioning the conversational robot at the level of thetelephone reception.
In this position, the virtual agent will have to take all calls, carry out a qualification of each of the calls received on the basis of its embedded AI engine and put the callers in contact with human or conversational agents who will provide the expected responses. .
Another option is to deploy theconversational assistant as contact center support.
In this role, the intelligent bot is mainly designed to respond to the repetitive tasks that the organization's staff are often faced with (making appointments, taking orders, subscribing to services, account balance, product or service guide, caller ID, etc.).
The last frequent use of conversational robots is observed during surveys and polls organized by companies.
To this end, the virtual assistant has the capacity to launch volume campaigns, collect data, establish reports which can serve as a basis for future improvement projects or the design of new products or services.
What technologies does a conversational agent use?
The evolution of conversational agents has gradually been based on advances in technology and artificial intelligence.
Processing of pre-established texts by the conversational agent
Initially, to make conversational agents work, developers designed textual databases in the form of questions/answers to which the intelligent robot could respond based on the customer's request.
Clearly, if the client made a query contained in the database or a similar question, the conversational agent was able to identify the query and provide the answers pre-established by the designer.
The advantage of this frequently asked questions technology lies above all in the promptness of the conversational agent to resolve simple customer problems.
However, the major drawback was the difficulty in providing answers to complex queries or questions for which the chatbot had not been trained.
Natural language processing technology
Increasingly, conversational agents use NLU (Natural Language Understanding) to understand what a user really wants, even when they use complex terms to formulate their request.
In reality, the robot is trained to automatically learn and master natural language so that it can converse with the user in real time.
With this natural language processing technology, the conversational robot has the ability to identify the context of the conversation, discern the customer's needs and offer personalized solutions.
For example, if a customer asks a chatbot: “What will the weather be like tomorrow?” ", the robot will not just give it the weather like a simple traditional conversational agent would have done, but it will make other contextual suggestions like this: "Would you like to set the alarm for 7 a.m. for day tomorrow? ".
This proposal aims to help the user adapt their calendar according to their interest in the weather.
The incorporation of artificial intelligence
With the revolution in artificial intelligence, conversational agents are experiencing a very high level of precision so that they are equipped to predict user needs and offer them customizable solutions.
Thanks to the'semantic analysis and voice recognition, these generations of conversational agents can hold a conversation in real time with the user as a human being would do.
Based on these voice synthesis functionalities, it is now possible in companies to use a conversational agent in certain positions which previously were only the prerogative of human staff.
Online integration with organizations' CRM and ERP databases to provide up-to-date personalized dynamic information to customers
A virtual assistant must provide each client with dynamic information unique to them.
To make this functionality possible, the developers of the intelligent bot carry out online integration with the CRM and ERP databases of the organization that wants to deploy the intelligent virtual agent.
Finally, the voicebot is configured to perform speech synthesis in real time, which allows it to render this information fluidly without a voice conversation.
Why use a conversational agent?
The main reason for the adoption of conversational agents by organizations is the search for a better customer-business relationship.
With this in mind, intelligent virtual agents can provide several benefits to businesses.
Optimization of task management
The deployment of conversational agents in business constitutes real help for human staff who can now focus on specific and complex tasks that can bring added value to the organization.
All other repetitive tasks are entrusted to the conversational agent which provides an immediate response to customers.
Therefore, tasks such as product information, purchasing procedure, service registration, etc. are perfectly managed by the conversational agent, which leaves free time for human staff to take care of activities such as the design of new products or services.
In this same vein, it is not uncommon to see companies delegate other time-consuming activities and boring to conversational agents in order to maintain the productivity of their human agents.
However, it is important to remember that at any time a human agent can take over when the conversational agent is limited or in the case where the customer specifically requests the use of a human expert.
Permanent availability of the conversational agent
The chatbot maintains an omnipresent point of contact between the business and the customer even after hours or on holidays.
Indeed, the 24/24 operating capacity of intelligent virtual agents is an asset for all organizations who know that at any time the customer can be satisfied regarding their urgent and basic concerns.
With a functional chatbot, there is no longer any need to ask a customer to wait for offices to open before having the necessary information to use a product, order a service, etc.
A breakthrough in data management
Although a conversational robot does not exempt you from carrying out polls and/or surveys to improve the customer-company relationship, it should be mentioned that thevirtual agent already helps you amass a veritable wealth of information that can be useful for improving your services.
Thanks to all the data stored by the robot through conversational flows with users, you can map the needs of your questions, the complaints that come up frequently, the concerns expressed often, etc.
The final objective is to optimize the service or product you sell with a continuous improvement approach based on conversations with the intelligent bot.
A presence on social networks
Your storefront and contact center aren’t the only channels through which your customers can get in touch with you.
Today there are a variety of social networks (Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, TikTok, etc.) on which a large part of your customers and prospects can be found.
A chatbot added to any social network is a perfect opportunity to better promote your organization on different social networks and position it with customers.
This strategy will allow you to quickly convert visitors into new customers, retain old customers and, ultimately, increase your productivity.
Vocabase helps you choose the best chatbot for your business
If you want to introduce digital into your processes and you still doubt the type of conversational agent you need, you no longer have to worry.
Vocabase supports you throughout the process of selecting the best conversational agent, taking into account your field of activity, the level of technology you need as well as other technical criteria.
To benefit from support in deploying the ideal virtual assistant you need, simply: make an appointment online and you will have the opportunity to discuss your project with Vocabase professionals.
You can also draw on the past experience of Vocabase's many customers to choose a personalized solution for your organization with a view to improving the customer experience offered to all stakeholders in your company (customers, prospects, users, etc.). ).
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