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Here are 8 companies to watch out for which are shifting the way customer service works.
Helpshift
“Exceed the expectations of your digital users with instant, proactive, and personalized support.”
What does Helpshift do?
Helpshift is a customer service platform with a strong focus on “proactive support.” They also provide customer self-service options and easy access to support information.
How does Helpshift automate customer service?
They take information from a business’s apps, installs, and websites to understand how their customers are segmented. They then identify common issues in the purchase, onboarding, and customer support processes.
This information drives proactive messaging and updates from the bot into the app, website, or other service the customer is using. This means the bot is supporting the customer as they are using customer services and helps to remove obstacles in real time.
Benefits of Helpshift’s customer service automation
- Improves the customer experience by providing relevant, proactive messaging.
- Enhances trust with the customer by identifying and fixing problems before they become an issue.
- Increases product engagement and conversion rates by providing advice and hints on getting the most out of it.
- Provides push notifications so the updates are noticed by the user.
- They also have self-service portals and answers to questions so customers can sort out their own issues.
In 2017, Helpshift was a dominant chat platform working with over 500 million users. It is integrated into Service Cloud from Salesforce. Its rise as a dominant force in the automated chatbot ecosystem hasn’t happened — yet.
Salesforce — Service Cloud Einstein
“With Service Cloud Einstein, contact centers can automatically unlock deep customer insights powered by AI and machine learning–in real-time–to deliver a transformational customer service experience, and it’s seamlessly baked into your existing Service Cloud deployment.”
What does Service Cloud Einstein do?
Service Cloud Einstein is an extension of the very popular Salesforce CRM software. It uses data already inside the customer support system to help customer service agents identify and resolve customer issues much more quickly.
How does Service Cloud Einstein automate customer service?
It uses customer service history to identify patterns and trends in customer calls, service tickets, and support. It analyzes common issues and creates a series of recommended classifications and solutions to those issues and presents those to customer service agents. The agents can then use these to improve the customer experience by making intelligent, personalized recommendations.
Benefits of Service Cloud Einstein’s customer service automation
- Makes customer fixes faster by providing recommended classifications and solutions.
- Lets CS agents quickly close simple calls so they can focus on more difficult issues — This means all problems get a better response.
- Makes it easier to manage customer expectations by predicting how long it will take to fix the issue based on previous incidents.
- Can be networked with other parts of the Salesforce cloud to provide an end-to-end positive customer experience.
In 2017, Service Cloud Einstein is becoming a major focus for Salesforce. It is integrated as the AI brain in multiple applications, from Einstein bots to prediction and data insight and exploration. Salesforce uses Einstein both to provide intelligence to users and as an AI platform that will allow more non-developers to build AI and machine learning-powered apps.
Nanorep
“Our support chat-bot enables an amazing customer service experience… Personalized guidance is given in nanoseconds wherever the customer happens to be.”
What does Nanorep do?
Nanorep provides brands with customer support chat bots to answer personalized, contextual user questions and provide them with self-service solutions.
How does Nanorep automate customer service?
The bot imports content from a company’s existing knowledge base, FAQs, websites, and other sources. It uses semantic search and intelligent technology to understand the intent of a user’s questions and provides accurate, personalized answers. When someone asks a question, it matches their enquiry with the best answer using existing information. It can also flag any gaps in answers or knowledge so they can be fixed.
Benefits of Nanorep’s customer service automation
- Immediate responses to questions, based on customer need.
- Customer can ask questions in natural language.
- Customers don’t need to search a knowledge base for answers to a question as the bot does it for them.
- Makes customer self-service easier.
- Reduced business support costs.
- Consistent experience across multiple platforms.
In 2017, Nanorep was sold to LogMeIn and is now a part of Bold360 — “In the longer term, having Nanorep as part of the LogMeIn family provides a natural path for us to leverage our chatbot technology even more broadly.”
TechSee
“TechSee keeps the smart home up and running with intelligent visual assistance. It delivers game-changing customer assistance technology that automates support for customer care experts and consumers.”
What does TechSee do?
TechSee provides intelligent, visual technical support. It allows a customer support representative (CSR) to access a user’s smartphone camera, so they can see exactly what the user sees, and show the customer what to do using augmented reality.
This data trains the system “brain” to identify issues and analyze them, creating an ever-growing visual knowledge base of devices, problems, and solutions. The system visually identifies common problems and solutions to help CSRs assist customers quickly and effectively.
How does TechSee automate customer service?
TechSee enhances the support provided by a technician or CSR. It uses visual interactions and machine learning algorithms to learn how an expert solves real life problems. The result is a visual knowledge base that serves as the “brain” for the Virtual Technician Bot. The bot uses the mobile device camera to see and recognize problems and provides on-screen visual cues and augmented reality to help customers fix issues.
Benefits of TechSee’s customer service automation
- Transforms the customer support experience from textual or call-based support to interactive visual support.
- Integrates image recognition, real time augmented reality, and annotations into the support process to create quicker and more efficient customer self-service.
- Lets CSRs visually track and report common issues and faults to make future problem resolution easier.
- Increases the first time fix rate.
- Enables CSRs to remotely identify and support more complex cases resulting in a reduction in technician dispatch rates.
In 2017, Techsee has grown to become the market leader in intelligent visual support. It received another round for funding in 2017 and is a pioneer in computer vision in the field of technical support and visual automation. It is used by AT&T, Orange, Vodafone, Samsung, and many other businesses.
Spixii
“With a simple conversation, find out what insurance would be right for you in an instant. Finally no more form-filling. No more confusing jargon. This is insurance made simple.”
What does Spixii do?
Insurance is often a complex field, with customers not understanding the type of coverage they need. Spixii is a B2C customer service bot that interacts with consumers looking to buy insurance. It asks questions, sources information, and provides choices to make insurance buying simpler and easier.
How does Spixii automate customer service?
Spixii automates one difficult part of insurance customer service — The buying process. It asks questions from users so it can suggest and pinpoint the information they need. It then searches through underwriting and other data to present the best policy at a fair premium for the user.
Benefits of Spixii’s customer service automation
- Guides customers to the exact type of insurance policy and coverage they need.
- Provides options on insurance coverage and premiums.
- Customers can talk to Spixii in natural language.
- Reduces the number of online forms insurance applicants have to fill in.
In 2017, Spixii recently won a mentorship program with samsung and continue to develop its product.
We’ve also identified three more recent additions to the list of innovative active companies who are combining advanced AI and chat capabilities with innovative business models to create unique value for consumers.
Lemonade Insurance Bot
Lemonade is an insurance business and uses Maya, their special chatbot, to help customers with their quotes and claims. It allows customers to get quotes through their mobile device or desktop, file claims, and keeps them informed about the status of their claim.
How does the Lemonade Insurance Bot automate customer service?
The bot lives entirely online and is deeply integrated into Lemonade’s policy, signup, and claims processes. It parses a user’s natural language to provide customized pricing and quote information.
Benefits of Lemonade Insurance Bot’s customer service automation
- Immediate responses to questions, based on customer need.
- Customer can ask questions in natural language.
- The bot automatically provides quotes and lets people sign up for policies.
- People can file claims online through the bot.
- It will keep them informed about claims payments and processing.
Lemonade is currently providing insurance through the bot in multiple states, with further rollouts planned across the US.
Hipmunk
“Hipmunk from Concur is the fastest, easiest way to plan travel. We offer the most comprehensive travel search, from commercial flights, trains, and charter flights to hotels and vacation rentals through Airbnb. Our website, mobile app, and AI-powered bots help save time and money by comparing top travel sites to show the perfect flight or hotel at the cheapest price.”
What does Hipmunk do?
Hipmunk is a travel planning business. They make it easy to plan travel and book flights, hotels, cars, and travel packages. Hipmunk’s smartphone app is powered by the Hipmunk chatbot.
How does Hipmunk automate customer service?
Hipmunk uses travel plans, itinerary, and user preferences to sort and filter through all the hotel, flight, and other options available. It then presents options to the end user in natural language, based on their needs. They can easily book, track, and manage their travel needs entirely through the bot.
Benefits of Hipmunk’s customer service automation
- Customers can get advice on travel destinations and when to go.
- They can enter custom preferences to guide and limit searches based on their needs.
- They can search for exact dates, destinations, and specific holidays.
- Hipmunk can be accessed on a mobile device or via email and will send responses instantly.
- It returns flight, hotel, and other options, and allows you to make additional requests.
- It also integrates with Google Calendar and will update all your travel information into the GCal app.
- Hipmunk can be accessed through Facebook Messenger, Skype, and Slack.
DoNotPay Bot
“This summer, DoNotPay expanded to provide more than 1,000 legal services for U.S. and U.K. residents who typically can’t afford to hire a lawyer for things like getting a deposit back from a landlord, applying for maternity leave at work, or drawing up paperwork in event of the loss of a loved one.”
What does DoNotPay Bot do?
DoNotPay is a legal advice bot. It takes information from end users and provides advice, fills in legal forms, and assists users in getting the right legal remedy to their issues.
How does DoNotPay Bot automate legal services?
DoNotPay bot asks a series of simple questions, including your address, phone number, and zip code, and helps you fill in the appropriate PDF. This can be used to help you file claims, dispute parking tickets, and help with several other legal areas. A lawyer is never needed in the process. For example, it can allow you to file a lawsuit against Equifax for data breaches.
Benefits of DoNotPay Bot’s legal service automation
- Users can dispute parking tickets.
- It has now expanded to provide more than 1,000 legal services for U.S. and U.K. residents.
- It can cover areas like getting a deposit back from a landlord, applying for maternity leave at work, or drawing up paperwork in event of the loss of a loved one.
As you can see, there are many different parts of the customer service process that can be automated, all aimed at one common goal — improving the customer experience. From interactive conversational bots through machine vision, smart customer service, and easy insurance purchasing, AI based solutions are here to stay. We’re here to guide you through the world of bots and automation in customer service, so if you’d like to stay informed, please subscribe to our newsletter.
