Organizations, such as TIM, Banco Original and Magazine Luiza, are getting significant results with AI in their relationship with customers during the pandemic
A new study by the IBM Institute for Business Value reveals that 99% of respondents report an increase in customer satisfaction as a result of adopting virtual assistants with AI. The study, entitled “The value of virtual agent technology”, surveyed more than 1,000 companies, from 12 sectors and 33 countries, that use virtual assistants between six months and four years.
The survey also showed that 94% of respondents defined as "leaders" - those who implemented AI-based virtual assistants in advance, integrated into back-end systems and trained with many contacts - have already achieved or exceeded their expected return on investment, in comparison with the other 49%.
“The study validates what we are experiencing with clients in Latin America: those who bet on AI to optimize their relationship centers are already reaping significant results, such as reduced costs, better user and human agent experience and increased revenue”, says Egle Menezes, leader of Cognitive Process Transformation for IBM Services in Latin America.
TIM bet on the artificial intelligence of IBM as a channel of relationship with customers. TIM's cognitive self-service responds, by voice in natural language and in real time, to questions or problems from consumers on issues related to the benefits of each plan, bill payment, in addition to performing services such as data hiring, unblocking lines, contesting information, among others.
“Innovation and agility are in TIM's DNA. So, our search is for solutions that bring more convenience to customers and accelerate the resolution of demands. The demand for self-service models is growing worldwide and we are using artificial intelligence to improve the consumer experience. The use of this technology allows us to have access to the feedbacks of the users themselves in the entire process of service evolution. Therefore, our goal is that we can be more and more assertive to meet the real needs of users ”, says Saverio Demaria, Customer Relations Director at TIM Brasil.
Other interesting data from the study:
- 44% of the “leaders” reported having cloud strategies fully integrated into their head office systems, compared to 19% of others.
- Organizations using virtual assistants reported an average contention rate of 64%. In this study, containment is the part of the total number of contacts that technology has been trained to handle with what it solves without any escalation - or involvement of - a human agent.
- The customer experience is the most important motivator for the use of the virtual assistant for 46% of the “leaders” in the use of technology and 33% of the other interviewees.
- Each respondent reported that the technology contributed to an increase in the organization's revenue of an average of 3%.
Companies in Brazil are benefiting from virtual assistants in different aspects during the pandemic:
Banco Original uses IBM Watson Assistant to have high retention rates in the service channels, successfully managing demands even with the increase in the number of accesses during the pandemic period. Since 2019, the volume of support by the virtual assistant has grown by around 600%, while retention has risen from 70% to 93%. Banco do Original's virtual assistant has been expanding the importance and reach of this service in different channels, such as the bank's App, Messenger, Internet Banking and Whatsapp and today it already represents 70% of all contacts with account holders. ”
Another good example is Magazine Luiza. Lu, the company's digital influencer, is the face of customer interaction and over the past three years it has evolved using IBM Watson's artificial intelligence capabilities, based on the IBM Cloud. In the first half of 2020 alone, Lu recorded an average of 1.4 million calls per month, 8.5 million interactions and approximately 6.1 messages per user. 20% of calls are resolved on the first intention and 60% of people do not contact SAC after talking to the virtual assistant, which confirms the commitment to the effectiveness of customer service.
About the IBM Institute for Business Value
The IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) offers reliable business insights from our position at the intersection of technology and business, combining the expertise of industry thinkers, leading academics and subject matter experts with global research and performance data. IBV's thought leadership portfolio includes in-depth research, benchmarking and performance comparisons, and data visualizations that support business decision making across all regions, sectors and technologies. Follow @IBMIBV on Twitter and to receive the latest insights by email, visit: www.ibm.com/ibv.
