Agent secrets

Our continuing research into the value of virtual agents as customer-facing online tools for businesses has yielded some very interesting responses from participants.

We wanted to find out how well virtual agents would be accepted as frontline substitutes for actual call centre staff. Our studies showed that the majority of helpdesks have noticed an ’80/20 rule’, whereby 80 percent of the calls they field are very similar and frequent, while only the smaller volume of calls requires more personal attention.

If implemented intelligently, taking into account the emotional and intellectual reactions of consumers, virtual agents can fill a round-the-clock, on-demand, self-service help role for busy organisations. They can help maintain genuine customer relationships, while freeing up the valuable time of real-life support staff who can then step into the fray if and when enquiries are escalated to a more hands-on channel.

One project conducted in conjunction with the Royal Mail caused us to look at prototype assistants as part of a more general study into customer awareness and acceptance of virtual agents. As well as being a pleasing visual element for a support page, virtual agents give customers the impression that there is someone actively helping them. They add a human feel to any website, providing a business with a consistent face.

Participants in our studies responded very positively to virtual agents, despite the fact many people remained unsure as to whether the characters were simply a rich help feature, or a genuine live chat session. (We recommend businesses clarify that the agent isn’t live with text close to the agent’s image.) A number of respondents simply enjoyed the virtual agent concept, judging it to be “cool” as well as a useful tool for secondary help and for “weird or exceptional” enquiries they couldn’t find answers to elsewhere on the page.

Once implemented, it’s vital that any virtual agent is populated with sufficient relevant support information to be of genuine help to customers. On average, respondents in our study said they would attempt to use the virtual agent two to three times before abandoning the feature.

As you would expect, choosing the face for the agent is very important. Faces need to look trustworthy, helpful, informal and cheerful, but not dishonest, false, unprofessional or stern. Model looks and fake smiles were big no-nos with our sample, while a certain amount of maturity was considered a bonus.

Perhaps less obvious were the reasons given for choosing the right name for an agent. Unusual or old-fashioned names were given the boot, as were names considered “upper class”. Simple, common names were thought of as far more friendly and helpful sounding. From this feedback we quickly realised that smiling, smart, approachable faces named Sarah, Laura or Kate were going to prove far more popular than sharp looking characters in business suits (or overly casual dress) named Olivia, or Polly. It can be surprising what characteristics appeal or don’t appeal to a test sample, but given a broad range of feedback and provided with the explanations behind choices, a clear picture of general preferences quickly builds.

On the whole, customers are perfectly willing to suspend belief and cooperate with a virtual agent, but they have to believe in and want to like the virtual person they are faced with. Royal Mail’s web-based self-service virtual agent ‘Ask Sarah‘ is integrated with the organisation’s other online services as well as its parcel tracking system and delivery status updates. Revealingly, Sarah has helped to raise Royal Mail’s web site hits from 3.5 million in 2007 to 4.5 million in the first half of this year alone.