Empower customer service with Power Virtual Agents

Chatbots sometimes get a bad rap.

We all remember a time when bots weren't always helpful. Before Artificial Intelligence, they could cause unnecessary frustration to customers and weren't always intuitive.

But that has all changed with Microsoft's Power Virtual Agents, which utilizes cutting-edge AI technology to create an intelligent and efficient virtual agent that can assist you in providing outstanding customer service. With this chatbot solution on your side, you won't need to rely on manual input anymore - they make everything happen automatically for you!

What are Power Virtual Agents?

Power Virtual Agents are customer engagement solutions that allow business teams to quickly and easily construct powerful chatbots without needing extensive developer assistance.

It's also part of Microsoft's prestigious Power Platform, a low-code platform that brings together PowerApps and PowerBI, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents.

Chatbot technology is becoming an integral part of customer service operations. It's simple to integrate with customer relationship management solutions, allowing customers to use Power Virtual Agents with Dynamics 365 for automated problem identification and resolution.

Microsoft Power Virtual Agents: Why you need them

Let's take a quick look at the state of chatbots that are built with bot frameworks and the limitations they have.

• The quality and quantity of a chatbot's knowledge are paramount to its success. It should be able to comprehend complex problems, offer appropriate solutions, and effectively communicate with customers. Unfortunately, customer service professionals who interact with customers often are unable to resolve these issues, leading to poor bot conversations and an unpleasant customer experience. It is, therefore, essential for customer support teams to build virtual agents for themselves.
• Changes in market and business conditions can prompt new questions and requests, such as launching a new product or rolling out an update. To stay relevant, chatbot content needs to be regularly updated. Customer service teams should have the capacity to add topics quickly and conveniently via their chatbot interface.
• Chatbots that fail to comprehend customers' intents can lead to frustration. In order for chatbots to truly adapt and serve customers, they need artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) capabilities.
• Chatbots for customer service should not only be able to respond to users but also perform tasks on behalf of clients. Therefore, integration between chatbots and backend systems is essential.

Why is an effective customer journey essential?

1. Increase in customer retention: Retaining customers is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones, potentially leading to a 25% boost in profits for the organization. A Virtual Agent could assist an organization in increasing operating income through customer retention strategies.
2. Customer satisfaction: Satisfied customers are more likely to refer others to your office than unsatisfied ones.
3. Customer experience: A successful brand image can be created when 75% of customers share positive experiences with the business. Dynamics 365 also offers social integrations that enable organizations to monitor user comments and use this data for improving processes.

How can Microsoft Power Virtual Agents help?

This customer engagement software offers a proactive approach to customer service and provides an intelligent workflow for solving customer problems. Let's explore some of its key features in detail.

Discover how to automate your issues

The Dynamics 365 Customer Service Insights dashboard can assist in recognizing repetitive, trending, and time-consuming issues for your virtual agents. AI also offers recommendations to help select the correct issues that can be automated.

The Virtual Agent automates support issues

After identifying the most frequent issues and support topics, customer service teams can quickly create a virtual agent to automatically address these concerns. Agents build rich conversations with an easy-to-use no-code interface and pre-made templates without needing programming skillsets. Furthermore, existing chatbots can be updated without creating a new agent - saving time on administrative tasks!

User actions

Virtual agents not only assist users with their issues but can also take action on their behalf. Your customer service team can integrate Power Automate and Dynamics 365 Virtual Agents so that bots are triggered to access data in your backend systems or perform tasks.

Human hand-off

Customers have the option to "Talk to someone real" if a virtual agent is unable to solve a problem or the conversation becomes too complex for them to handle. Once agreed upon by the customer, they will transfer the customer communication over to a human agent.

Analytical monitoring of performance

Microsoft Power Virtual Agents offers an AI-powered analytics dashboard to monitor topic handling, human hand-offs, and overall performance. This monitor offers suggestions for improving the service experience while freeing up bandwidth for agents. This dashboard offers continuous suggestions to enhance the entire customer journey.

Still, need convincing? Here are four compelling reasons why artificial intelligence for virtual agents in customer service centers is a must-have.

Reduce wait time

Chatbots offer customers and businesses alike the greatest advantage in that they reduce waiting time to get their problems addressed. They quickly answer basic questions and provide answers that are frequently asked, leading to happier customers, who in turn lead to increased satisfaction with the business.

Reduce errors

Human workers possess unique talents which chatbots cannot replicate. Human workers are better at solving problems and handling abstract information than bots, though they also make mistakes - particularly when handling repetitive tasks.

Chatbots are adept at repetitive tasks and make no errors. As such, chatbots guarantee customers receive consistent and precise service for routine inquiries.

Happier human workers

Chatbots may replace some employees, but it provides those workers with a better experience.

Your staff won't have to answer the same questions every day, freeing them up to focus on more complex customer service problems.

With automation, the real advantage is that the workforce is better facilitated and equipped to handle more complex requirements. Ultimately, improving the profitability of the company and that translates to better wages. This will encourage employees to feel valued and they would stay longer with the organization.?

Power Virtual Agents: Industry use cases

Microsoft Power Virtual agent can be employed in virtually any industry for a variety of internal and external uses. Consider, for instance:

• A virtual agent can assist customers who have forgotten their login information for mobile banking.
• A virtual agent can be helpful to customers with auto insurance questions. It will either direct them to the online knowledge base of their insurer or connect them to a live agent at the call center.
• Patients can utilize their healthcare provider's online portal to book an appointment and view available times.
• Virtual agents can be utilized by sales reps for software-as-a-service companies to invite potential clients to meetings. Furthermore, these agents gather data from any recipients who respond to an email invitation, saving time and money during actual meetings with clients.
• Financial service customers can utilize virtual agents to inquire about current money market rates and obtain details on various investments.
• A virtual agent is available to offer assistance to healthcare plan participants who want to learn how to prevent contracting COVID-19.

Microsoft's advanced customer engagement solutions like Power Virtual Agent empower businesses like yours to make more informed and proactive decisions that enhance user experience and boost customer loyalty.

Connect with Advaiya Solutions today to discover more about Power Virtual Agents for Customer Service.

About the author - Ankit Panchal

Ankit Panchal is a Consultant in the Biz App Development team at Advaiya. He is an expert on business process automation. He is Microsoft Certified professional keen on building solutions using Power platform, Office 365 and SharePoint and has over 5 years of experience in IT and various Microsoft technologies.