虚拟代理技术的价值

Benchmark

InsightsThe

value

ofvirtual

agenttechnologyImprovecustomerserviceandboostfinancialresultswithAI-enabledsystemsHow

IBM

CognitiveCare

can

helpWorld-renowned

brands

have

transformed

theircontact

centers

with

IBM

Cognitive

Care—a

customerengagement

center

powered

by

data,

AI,

and

hybridmulti-cloud

technology

that

dynamically

supportsboth

customers

and

live

agents.

IBM

Cognitive

Carecan

help

your

enterprise

achieve

not

only

a

technologyand

process

transformation,

but

also

a

lasting

culturalshift

in

your

organization.

For

more

information,

visit/services/conversational-ai.By

JoePetrone,Gillian

Orrell,andCarolyn

Heller

BairdKey

takewaysFar

beyond

experimentationSignificant

financial

benefitsVirtual

agent

technology

(VAT)

is

having

its

moment.

Ifyou’ve

recently

called

a

company’s

customer

care

numberor

conducted

an

online

chat

about

a

service,

product,

orpayment,

there

is

a

good

chance

you

were

interacting

withvirtual

agent

technology.

VAT’s

popularity

is

surgingbecause

of

the

technology’s

seeming

ability

to

doeverything:

better

serve

customers,

enhance

employeeexperience,

reduce

costs,

and

increase

revenue.99%ofstudyrespondentsreportreductionincostpercontactasaresultofusingvirtualagenttechnology(VAT).

ArecentForresterConsultingstudyestimatedthatalargeorganizationthatimplementsVAT

canachieve$5.50costsavingspercontainedThe

COVID-19

pandemic

has

rocketed

VATadoptioninto

hyperdrive.

For

emergency

situations,

when

speedand

simplicity

are

mission

critical,

out-of-the-boximplementations

can

go

live

in

a

matter

of

hours.

However,companies

that

thoughtfully

design,

develop,

and

deployVAThave

the

potential

to

unlock

even

more

value

for

theirorganizations

and

their

users,

be

they

customers,employees,

or

human

agents.conversation.

Ouranalysisrevealsan1averagecontainmentrateof64%witha38percentage-pointswingfromhighesttolowest.94%ofVAT

Leadershavealreadyachievedorexceededtheirbusinesscase.Satisfaction

scores

increaseUntil

now,

actual

data

about

VATperformance

has

beenlimited

to

individual

case

studies,

making

it

difficult

fororganizations

to

derive

meaningful

comparisons.

As

weembarked

on

this

research,

we

knew

organizations

neededanswers

to

four

key

questions:SomeorganizationsfearVAT

couldcausesignificantdecreasesincustomerandemployeesatisfaction.However,

wefoundaverageimprovementsof8and7percentagepointsincustomerandagentsatisfaction,respectively.Averagehumanagenthandletimedroppedby12%.VATLeadersachieveevenmore:averageimprovementsof12and9percentagepointsincustomerandagentsatisfactionanda15%reductioninhandletime.Leadersimplementedearly,

integratedVATwithbackendsystems,andtraineditonhighvolumesofcontacts.–

How

efficient

is

AI-enabled

VAT?–

What

are

the

key

attributes

and

practices

that

drivevalue

from

VAT?–

What

is

the

impact

of

AI-enabled

VATon

customers,end

users,

and

human

agents?–

What

impact

does

VAThave

on

organizations’

financialperformance?Rising

to

the

challengeWhenCOVID-19struck,organizationswithmatureVAT

capabilitiesrapidlyexpandedoperationstosupportbusinesscontinuity.Themajorityoftheseorganizationssawanincreaseincustomersatisfaction.199%Our

analysis

revealed

thatVATis

having

a

positive

impacton

nearly

every

measure,

including

customer

satisfaction,employee

satisfaction,

and

revenue,

and

a

remarkably

highproportion

of

respondents

(96%)

have

exceeded,

achieved,or

expect

to

achieve

their

anticipated

ROI.ofrespondentsreportanincreaseincustomersatisfactionasaresultofusingvirtualagenttechnology.Armed

with

detailed

metrics

and

benchmarks,

decisionmakers

can

now

assess

their

current

and

proposed

VATinitiatives

with

far

greater

specificity

and

relevancy.They

can

use

this

information

to

determine

the

rightenhancements

for

their

customer

care

or

service

desksolutions,

no

matter

where

they

may

be

on

their

digitaljourney.20%istheaveragecontributiontohumanagentsatisfactionattributedtovirtualagenttechnology.Our

study

approachThe

IBM

Institute

for

Business

Value

(IBV),

in

cooperationwith

Oxford

Economics,

surveyed

1,005

respondents,across

12

industries

and

33

countries,

to

gatherperformance

data

from

organizations

employing

VATdaily,

in

live

situations,

for

periods

from

six

months

to

just96%over

four

years.2exceeded,achieved,orexpecttoachievetheiranticipatedreturnoninvestmentfortheirvirtualagenttechnologyimplementation.We

gathered

data

for

three

types

of

VATimplementation:1.

VAT

directly

interacting

with

external

customers2.

VAT

directly

interacting

with

internal

customers

suchas

employees,

contractors,

and

suppliers–

VATsupporting

service

desk

agents,

commonly

knownas

“agent

assist

technology.”(See

the

Study

methodology

section

on

page

15

formore

information.)2Measuring

VAT

performanceCustomers

might

say,

“How

do

I

settle

my

account?”

whentheir

intent—from

VAT’s

perspective—is

“Pay

my

bill.”Training

VATto

recognize

true

customer

intent

behind

themany

ways

customers

express

their

intent

is

critical

forsuccessful

implementation

and

maintenance.

The

skillrequired

to

program

VATto

ask

good

clarificationVATperformance

is

measured

by

a

combination

of

newmetrics,

unique

to

the

way

the

technology

works

(seeFigure

1),

and

traditional

contact

center

metrics

impactedby

the

technology.questions

should

not

be

underestimated

(see

“Insight:Conversational

user

experience

(UX)

design”

on

page

4).1.Intent

recognitionIntent

is

the

customer’s

purpose

when

making

contact

andduring

the

contact,

for

example,

questioning

a

charge

orasking

about

a

product.

Intent

is

distinct

from

contactbecause

customers

may

have

more

than

one

intent

percontact.

VATis

trained

to

recognize

and

respond

to

eachintent

separately,

making

it

vastly

more

sophisticated

thana

traditional

keyword

search.Average

intent

recognition

for

all

survey

respondentsacross

all

three

types

of

VATimplementations

is

68%.For

situations

in

which

VATdirectly

interacts

with

externalcustomers,

the

average

is

70%.

And

for

intelligent

agentassist

implementations,

the

average

intent

recognition

is65%.

This

could

be

a

reflection

of

organizations

makinglarger

investments

inVATsystems

aimed

at

externalcustomers.Figure

1Thenew

contact

center

performance

measuresVAT

directly

interacting

with

customer

or

end

user1Intent

recognition2In-scope

segment3ContainmentDoes

the

VAT

understandthe

customer’s

needs?Is

the

VAT

trained

to

meetthe

customer’s

needs?Does

the

VAT

meet

allthe

customer

needs?68%

Median75%

Benchmark64%

Median70%

Benchmark64%

Median70%

BenchmarkInbound

contactsHuman

agent

supported

by

agent-assist

VAT1Intent

recognition65%

Median75%

BenchmarkHuman

agent

routed2In-scope

segment62%

Median70%

BenchmarkSource:IBM

InstituteforBusiness

Value.3Insight:Whatwemean2.In-scope

segmentOnce

virtual

agent

technology

recognizes

customer

intent,it

should

also

know

if

it

has

been

trained

to

support

thatintent.

Across

all

survey

respondents,

the

averageproportion

of

inbound

contacts

with

intents

that

fallwithin

the

scope

of

the

VAT

is

63%.

The

differencebetween

the

lowest

and

highest

in-scope

segment

is36

percentage

points.byvirtualagenttechnologyVirtual

agent

technology

referstothedeploymentofautomationthatusesacombinationofartificialintelligence(AI)technologiesorcapabilitieslikemachinelearning,naturallanguageprocessing,naturallanguagegeneration,sentimentanalysis,languagetranslation,speech-to-text,roboticprocessautomation(RPA),andopticalcharacterrecognition(OCR)toautomatedialogue,andinsomecasesbackendprocesssteps,toserveendusers.3.ContainmentNot

all

companies

measure

containment

the

same

way.Some

define

containment

as

the

percentage

of

all

contactsfully

handled

by

the

VAT.This

can

result

in

low

containmentpercentages

when

the

VATdoes

not

yet—or

will

never—handle

certain

types

of

contact.–

This

may

or

may

not

take

the

form

of

a

chatbot.

Somechatbots

qualify

as

VATbecause

they

incorporatemachine

learning

as

well

as

natural

language

processing.–

Integrated

voice

response

(IVR)

systems

only

qualifyas

VATwhen

they

use

AI

to

power

a

conversationalexperience

and

the

user

is

not

limited

to

uttering

a

setof

specific

key

words.In

this

study,

containment

is

the

portion

of

total

contactsthe

VAT

has

been

trained

to

handle

that

it

resolves

withoutany

escalation

to—or

involvement

from—a

human

agent.Measuring

containment

at

contact

level

is

pragmatic,though

it

can

under-report

the

achievement

of

VATwhensome—but

not

all—of

a

customer’s

intents

are

resolvedby

VAT.The

use

of

sophisticated

and

automated

analyticsto

measure

containment

fairly

is

important

for

futuredevelopment.Insight:Conversationaluserexperience(UX)designConversationaluserexperience(UX)isanascentareawithindesignthatfocusesoncreatingsystemsthatcanengageinnaturalconversation.Userinteractionworksthroughthewordsalone,whethervoiceortext.Thisrequiresformalknowledge,adaptedfromsocialscience,ofhowhumanconversationworks.Average

containment

across

relevant

respondents

is64%

The

difference

between

the

lowest

and

highestreported

containment

is

38

percentage

points.

This

is

awide

range,

and

the

financial

implications

can

be

significant.Every

contact

contained

byVATmeans

no

human

agenttime.

Based

on

IBV

analysis

of

human

handle

time

across

allcontacts,

an

average

of

four

minutes

of

human

agent

handletime

is

saved

when

a

contact

is

contained

by

VAT.Whilesomechatbotsandvoiceassistantsarelimitedtoansweringquestionsorfollowingcommands,virtualagenttechnologyusingnaturalconversationcanengageinawiderrangeofactivities,fromhellostogoodbyes.Thegoalismutualunderstanding,anditincludesmanynaturalmechanicsfordisplayingandrepairingmisunderstandings.Ontopofthisfoundation,designerscancreateexperiencesPerformance

for

containment

is

strongly

linked

withmachine

learning

and

systems

integration

factors

(see“North

American

grocery

chain:

Outsourcing

to

AI”

onpage

6).

For

example,

66%

of

respondents

in

the

topquartile

for

containment

report

that

their

VAT

can

executecomplex

actions

on

behalf

of

customers,

compared

withonly

23%

in

the

bottom

quartile.thatreflecttheorganization’sbrandqualities.34Influencing

VAT

performanceSome

factors

influence

individual

metrics

and

others

havethe

potential

to

influence

broader

performance

acrossmultiple

metrics

(see

Figure

2).

Machine

learning

andsystems

integration

factors

have

the

greatest

impact

onlevels

of

relative

performance

and

are

interrelated.Many

factors

have

the

potential

to

influence

VATperformance,

from

levels

of

strategic

intent

and

investmentto

the

skills

of

the

people

maintaining

it

and

the

choice

ofspecific

technologies

implemented,

such

as

the

standardof

parsers

used

for

natural

language

processing.

A

largepharmacy

store

chain

in

the

US

implemented

sentimentanalysis

for

contacts

that

are

escalated

by

the

VATtohuman

agents

so

agents

can

quickly

prioritize

customersat

risk

of

becoming

dissatisfied.

This

enables

agents

todirectly

influence

their

most

important

metric:

customersatisfaction.Machine

learning

factors:

The

longer

the

VATis

in

use,the

more

content

it

has

been

trained

to

handle,

and

themore

it

does,

the

better

it

should

perform.Systems

integration

factors:

The

greater

the

level

ofintegration

between

the

VATand

other

systems

and

themore

complex

actions

the

VATis

enabled

to

take,

thebetter

the

results.Organizational

factors:

Specific

circumstances

such

as

theemphasis

placed

on

tracking

results

and

industry-relatedaspects

such

as

complexity

of

customer

contacts

anddigital

uptake

can

influence

performance.Figure

2Factors

influencingVAT

performanceMachine

learning

factorsSystems

integration

factorsOrganizational

factorsDegree

of

integration

betweenVATand

other

systemsDuration

in

useType(s)

of

VATimplementedLevel

of

investment

inVATPerformance

focusIndustryNumber

of

separate

intentsin

scopeComplexity

of

action

the

VATis

enabled

to

take%

of

contacts

being

handledVolume

of

contacts

being

handled5NorthAmericangrocerychain:OutsourcingtoAILeader

attributesOur

analysis

identified

a

small

group

(105

organizations)of

VATpioneers

we

call

the

“Leaders.”

Each

Leaderdemonstrates

three

critical

attributes

that

are

the

resultof

deliberate

business

decisions:Competitionamonggrocerychainsisfierce,andwiththinmargins,customerloyaltyiscritical.AlargeNorthAmericangrocerychainrecognizedthatasmartcustomercontactcentercouldenableastronger,

expandedloyaltyprogram.Hiring,training,andretainingcallcenteragentsischallenging.Thechainneededacost-effective,predictable,scalablewaytohandleincreasingcallvolumesandcomplexitywithminimalcapitalinvestment.–

Early

adopter

of

VAT–

Large

proportion

of

inbound

contacts

are

withinthe

scope

of

their

VAT–

High

degree

of

integration

exists

between

theirVATand

backend

systems.ThecompanyturnedtoIBMtodesign,build,andoperateanenterprisecognitivecallcentersolutionthatleveragesVAT

withvoiceintegration.Thesolutionfeaturescallflowsdesignedtooptimizecustomerexperience,whileloweringoperationalcostsandscalingforthefuture.Comprising

10%

of

our

sample,

Leaders

span

all

industriesand

regions

surveyed,

as

well

as

all

three

types

of

VATimplementation,

in

almost

equal

proportions.

Leaders

alsoreport

outperforming

their

competition

on

revenue

andprofitability

for

the

last

three

years.

Leaders

outperformother

respondents

on

core

metrics

used

to

measure

theefficiency

of

VAT(see

Figure

3).Integratedwithbackendsystems,theVAT

systemisenabledtoauthenticatecallersandtakeaction.Eachcallisloggedinthecompany’scustomerrelationshipmanagementsystem,whichcantrackthesolution’sperformancelikeitwouldforahumanagent.Thechainonlypaysforcallssuccessfullyhandledandsaves40%oneachcontainedcall.It’slikeoutsourcingthecallcentertoVAT.Figure

3Theefficiencyof

Leaders’

VAT

farexceeds

whatothersreport80%66%75%62%74%63%IntentrecognitionContainment*FirstcontactresolutionLeaders

Others*Containment

definition

for

this

study:

The

portion

oftotal

contacts

that

the

virtual

agent

technology

has

beentrained

to

handle

that

it

resolves

without

any

escalationto

or

involvement

from

a

human

agent.6“Your

first

release

will

beyour

worst.”Virtual

agent

technology

developer,

financial

services

industry,

UKContinuous

improvementLeaders

don’t

just

passively

measure;

they

act.

Nearly

allLeaders

have

expanded

the

scope

of

their

VATin

responseto

their

reviews,

compared

with

59%

of

others.

Whetherenhancements

entail

additional

VATtraining

or

upgrades

tothe

VATinterface,

Leaders

are

taking

action

to

continuallyimprove

performance

(see

Figure

5).Continuous

improvement

is

a

critical

component

of

VATperformance.

Reviewing

and

retraining

VATis

conductedby

skilled

humans

and

through

automation.

While

allrespondents

report

using

automation,

more

of

therespondents

outside

the

Leader

group

use

manualmethods

(41%)

than

Leaders

(33%).But

it’s

the

way

Leaders

select

virtual

agent

conversationsfor

review

that

truly

differentiates

them.

Leaders

use

a

widerrange

of

techniques

and

more

sophisticated

methods(see

Figure

4).Figure

4Figure

5How

virtualagent

conversations

are

selected

for

reviewResults

of

virtualagent

qualityreviews

inthelast30daysCustomer

intent86%Scope

of

virtual

agent

expanded91%68%59%Sentiment

or

tone

analysis

resultsAdditional

virtual

agent

training74%82%55%64%Contacts

where

SLAs

missedCustomer

interface

changed74%82%64%51%Neurolinguistic

program

confidence

levelScope

of

virtual

agent

reduced64%2%14%13%Specific

call

categories,

e.g.,

abandoned

calls

or

by

agent58%51%Leaders

OthersHigh

volume,

low

containment58%45%Algorithm55%36%Random30%49%Leaders

Others7HongKong

bank:ContinualVAT

enhancementpaysoffVAT

impactVirtual

agent

technology

directly

impacts

customers,human

agents,

and

organization

financial

results.Inthequesttoimprovecustomerutilityandeaseofengagement,aleadingbankinHongKonglaunchedafirst-of-its-kindAIvirtualassistanttoaddressretailcustomers’inquiresforselectservices.Overthreeyears,theVAT

wasextendedtosupport13services,includingaccountservices,paymentplatform,billpaymentservices,andcreditcard,withcontextualconversationinChinese(CantoneseandSimplifiedChinese),English,andevenamixoflanguages.Impact

on

customersThere

are

a

variety

of

reasons

why

organizations

adoptVAT,but

improving

customer

experience

is,

by

far,

themost

cited

one

(see

“Hong

Kong

bank:

Continual

VATenhancement

pays

off”).

For

46%

of

Leaders

and

33%

ofother

respondents,

it

is

the

single

most

important

driver(see

Figure

6).Today,

thecompany’sVAT

cantalkwithacustomertohandlepersonalbankingrequests,suchasamoneytransfer,

andisintegratedwiththebank’se-bankingservices.TheVAT

systemhaswonmorethan15awards,andcustomeruseofthechannelhasgrownbyafactorof6.Figure

6Reasons

for

implementingVAT46%22%ThissuccessledthebanktoimplementVAT

foritsbusinessbankingdigitalengagementplatform.Here,too,resultsareimpressive:Usersurveysreport75%satisfaction,anduseoftheVAT

channelhasgrownbyafactorof10.LeadersOthers8%13%11%Mostimportantreason33%15%10%19%23%88%69%68%48%41%LeadersOthersAllreasons72%45%42%61%64%CustomerexperienceImprove

brand

differentiationReduce

costIncrease

revenueImprove

human

agent

experience8Vodafone:VAT

success99%

of

all

respondents

report

positive

absolute

change-to-date

in

customer

satisfaction

for

all

inbound

contacts

as

aresult

of

using

VAT.In

other

words,

regardless

of

whetherimproving

customer

experience

was

the

driver

for

theirimplementation,

practically

all

report

an

increase

incustomer

satisfaction

scores

as

a

result

of

using

VAT.Thevast

majority

of

Leaders

credit

VATfor

having

a

“significantlypositive”

impact

on

their

customer

satisfaction

scores(see

Figure

7).Aspartofitscustomerexperiencestrategyanddigitaltransformation,VodafoneGroupbecameoneoftheworld’sfirsttelecommunicationscompaniestoadoptagenttechnologyforcustomerservice.Today,

TOBi,Vodafone’s

AI-baseddigitalassistant,isavailablethroughouttheUK,Europe,Africa,andtheMiddleEast.TOBiprovidesacentral,modularplatformtowhichchannelscanconnect,enablingindividualmarketstoprioritizethechannelsthatsuitthepreferencesandneedsoftheircustomers.ChannelsdeployedincludeSMS,theMyVodafoneapp,localVodafonehomepages,Facebook,WhatsApp,andAmazonAlexa.Figure

7How

theuseof

VAT

hasimpacted

customersatisfactionscoresAsaresult,thenumberofVodafonecustomersmessagingversuscallingthecallcenterhasalmostdoubled.InItaly,

two-thirdsofcustomercontactsarenowcontainedthroughTOBi.70%63%128Customer

satisfactionlast30

daysPercentage-point

change

incustomer

satisfaction

fromusing

VATLeaders

OthersImpact

of

VAT

on

customer

satisfaction2%1%20%25%12%LeadersOthers73%67%Somewhat

negative

impactNeutralSomewhat

positive

impactSignificantly

positive

impact9Impact

on

human

agentsusing

natural

human

language.

Forrester

Consultingestimates

that

over

three

years,

with

a

conservative

25%containment

rate,

the

cost

savings

would

be

worth

moreAgents

who

feel

valued

and

empowered

with

the

propertools

and

support

are

more

likely

to

deliver

a

betterexperience

to

customers.

And

the

cost

of

replacing

adissatisfied

agent

who

leaves

the

organization

can

be

asthan

$13

million.5Respondents

in

our

study

report

both

top-

and

bottom-linebenefits

from

using

VAT.Every

respondent

indicates

thatVAT

has

contributed

to

an

increase

in

organization

revenue,the

average

increase

being

3%.

Total

revenue

uplift

forrespondents

reporting

results

for

VATdirectly

interactingmuch

as

33%

of

the

exiting

employee’s

salary.4Leaders,

especially,

are

keen

to

improve

the

human

agentexperience;

68%

cite

it

among

their

reasons

for

adoptingVAT,and

our

data

suggests

it

is

having

a

positive

impact.

Bycalculating

all

respondents’

reported

change-to-date

as

apercentage

of

their

current

human

agent

satisfaction,

wedetermined

VAT’s

average

contribution

to

current

humanagent

satisfaction

to

be

an

impressive

20%.with

external

customers

sums

to

$5

billion.6In

addition,

99%

of

respondents

report

thatVAT

hasreduced

their

cost

per

contact,

with

25%

citing

a

reductionof

20%

or

greater.VAT

also

impacts

human

agent

handle

time.

Averagechange-to-date

as

a

result

of

using

VATis

a

12%

reduction,with

Leaders

reporting

an

average

reduction

of

15%.Leaders,

particularly,

have

enjoyed

VAT’s

benefits,

both

theincreased

satisfaction

and

decreased

costs

(see

Figure

8).The

only

area

where

study

results

point

toward

a

minoradverse

impact

is

human

agent

attrition.

Absolute

change-to-date

was

an

average

1%

increase

in

annual

agentvoluntary

turnover.

In

the

context

of

typical

levels

ofcontact

center

turnover,

this

is

not

large,

but

the

directionis

interesting.

This

finding

could

suggest

thatVATis

afactor

in

the

decision

to

leave

for

some

agents,

while

itcontributes

to

improved

satisfaction

for

those

who

stay.Figure

8Leaders’

average

reported

impactof

usingVATCustomersatisfactionincrease*First

contactresolution*▲

14▲

12Impact

on

financial

performanceNPSRevenuepointsWhen

you

reduce

the

time

it

takes

human

agents

toresolve

contacts,

you

reduce

cost

to

serve.

Whether

you’veempowered

agents

with

VATto

reduce

their

manual

effortor

you’ve

provided

customers

or

employees

with

VATfor

self-service

or

to

conduct

the

initial

intercept,

theseimplementations

can

have

a

significant

financial

impact.increase▲

5

pts▲ 3%For

example,

the

Forrester

Consulting

study

estimatedthat

a

large

organization

could

achieve

an

average

costsaving

of

$5.50

per

contained

conversation

using

IBM’sWatson

Assistant™.

A

conversational

AI

platform,

WatsonAssistant

allows

users

to

interact

with

business

systems-15% ▼-18%

▼Human

agenthandle

time-18% ▼Cost

percontactFTEs

handlinginbound

contacts*

Percentage-point

increase10Return

on

investmentOptimizing

VATinvestments54%

of

all

respondents

report

having

already

achieved

orexceeded

their

expected

return

on

investment

(ROI)

fortheir

VATimplementation.

94%

of

Leaders

are

in

thisposition

compared

to

4