Intelligent Assistance: The Future of Customer Self-Service

FEBRUARY 2, 2016 – TIME 2:00PM ET/ 11:00 AM PT

It's midnight and your customer is searching for an important answer on your website. Will they be able to find it?

We are in a new age of digital customer service where on-demand help is expected 24/7. The tide change toward customer independence is reflected by the growing dislike of needing to connect with an agent over the phone. Precisely why more and more companies are investing in virtual assistant technologies.

Virtual Assistance can lower customer support costs by handling common inquiries before they ever reach a live agent. Based on Natural Language Processing technology, users are given helpful and relevant information by human-like agents that provide customers with a more personalized experience.

Some companies – like Ticketmaster – are even developing a specific avatar to provide an identity for its customer support. Early results have proven effective; Ticketmaster has seen a 15 percent increase in sales conversion rate since implementing Inbenta’s Intelligent Avatar for its International site in Turkey.

What Attendees will learn:

  1. Why self-service technology is transforming the customer experience.
  2. How Intelligent Assistance can improve customer loyalty and increase revenues.
  3. How important the VA avatar is to the self-service experience.

Who should attend:

  1. Customer Service/Experience Managers
  2. Call Center/Operations Managers
  3. CMOs
  4. CTOs

Sponsored by:


 
 

Presenters:

Jordi Torras
CEO, Inbenta


Jordi Torras is the CEO and Founder of Inbenta, a company that specializes in Natural Language Processing and semantic search to improve the customer experience. Jordi started his entrepreneurial career in 1997 with his brother. Together they founded SBD in Barcelona, a professional services firm who had over 200 consultants by 2004 and was acquired by the French firm Alten Technologies. Jordi then founded Inbenta in 2005 to help companies improve online relationships with their customers. In 2012, Jordi moved to California to continue the rapid growth of Inbenta. Today, Inbenta's patented technology helps to greatly reduce incoming customer service emails and calls to call centers for industry-leading companies including Ticketmaster, Coupa Software and Schlage Locks.

Dan Miller
Lead Analyst & Founder, Opus Research


Dan Miller has over 25 years experience in marketing, business development and corporate strategy for telecom service providers, computer makers and application software developers. Dan founded Opus Research in 1985 and helped define the Conversational Commerce marketplace by authoring scores of reports, advisories and newsletters addressing business opportunities that reside where automated speech leverages Web services, mobility and enterprise software infrastructure. As Director of the New Electronic Media Program at LINK Resources from 1980-1983, he helped define one of the first continuous advisory services in the information industry. He then held management positions at Atari, Warner Communications and Pacific Telesis Group (now part of AT&T). Dan founded Opus Research, Inc. and published Telemedia News & Views, a highly-regarded monthly newsletter regarding developments in voice processing and intelligent network services. He served as Editor-in-Chief of The Kelsey Report, where he also oversaw the launch of advisory services on local online commerce, voice & wireless commerce and global directories. Dan received his BA from Hampshire College and an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences. He has been quoted in SpeechTek magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Wired.com, CommWeb and elsewhere. He has also provided commentary on CNN and TechTV.

Amy Stapleton
Virtual Agent Chat blog


Amy Stapleton writes the Virtual Agent Chat blog, providing an independent viewpoint on intelligent virtual assistant technologies. Stapleton was a judge for Opus Research's Intelligent Assistants Awards of 2014. Her IT background includes stints at SAP, IBM, and public sector organizations as a software project manager and consultant.

Moderator:

Stefania Viscusi
Editor, TMC

Stefania Viscusi is an established writer and avid reader. She is a 2005 graduate of Albertus Magnus College, Magna Cum Laude. She currently holds a Bachelor's degree in English and a Bachelor's degree in Communications. Stefania has had four of her poems published by "Breakwater" (an Albertus-run literary magazine) and completed a successful internship with the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation as a Public Relations Specialist.