Personalized Customer Support on Facebook Through IVAs
As customer support becomes an increasing priority for online businesses in the age of social media, at least one company is pushing the bounds of virtual reality.
VirtuOz, a provider of intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) for online marketing, sales and support, has announced the launch of VirtuOz IVAs for Facebook. Web companies can use VirtuOz intelligent virtual agents to provide 24/7 support and service over any channel such as mobile devices, websites or social networking sites.
The IVA for Facebook is designed to be a complement to, rather than a replacement for, existing self-service and human-assisted channels such as contact centers and live chat.
One travel website, Voyages-sncf.com, which deployed an IVA on Facebook to increase customer satisfaction and boost favorable wall posts, leapfrogged its competition to achieve 100-percent customer resolution. VirtuOz provided the site with a virtual agent that not only directly answered customers' questions but also channeled issues back to live agents when necessary.
With recent reports suggesting that less than 5 percent of questions asked on companies' Facebook pages are answered, this can be a significant tool for Web businesses.
"Originally considered marketing's domain, social media is becoming an important customer engagement channel across all functions including sales and support," says Pam Kostka, chief marketing officer of VirtuOz. "Listening and monitoring social networks is no longer sufficient."
"Deploying an IVA on a corporate Facebook page helps companies move beyond passive social service to active social service. Through the IVA for Facebook, companies can quickly respond in a personalized way to customer requests, comments or inquiries and provide service through one of the world's most popular points of entry to the Web for 800 million-plus active users."
VirtuOz intelligent virtual agents for Facebook are available now and are deployed as a tab within a company's Facebook page.
