Optimize your customer service with the advantages of chatbots

Elmer de Valk
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

“It is my mission to show customers the transformational benefits that platforms can bring to their organization and think about ways to achieve those benefits.”

Elmer is one of the three co-founders of Plat4mation, 4Industry and 4Mation Technologies India. In his role as CEO, he closely collaborates with customers and ServiceNow to develop and market innovative solutions and implementation approaches. He makes sure our offerings address business challenges, while utilizing new platform capabilities to their full extent. His extensive experience with building IT strategies and transformational plans make him our top strategic advisor for large international organizations. As advisor, he loves to challenge the status quo to uncover new and innovative ways to improve business performance. Elmer is often praised for his visionary outlook and entrepreneurial passion. He has got his heart and soul in the company and is an excellent motivational speaker. Watch out, because his enthusiasm is infectious! [contact-form-7 id="1207" destination-email="elmer.de.valk@plat4mation.com"]

Users today are demanding and fickle. Immediate reaction and personalized service anywhere and anytime is the new norm. Younger consumers expect customer‑service agents to know their information. Some consumers have even stopped doing business with a firm after a lousy customer‑service experience. Chatbots like ServiceNow’s Virtual Agent can help prevent this.

With the automation of simple tasks, a Virtual Agent frees up valuable time. Allowing support agents to focus and spend more time on complex issues that require live support. Furthermore, it can help multiple users at the same time, anytime. With its web-based interface, Virtual Agent is also accessible through various messaging services (Slack, Teams, and Workplace), websites, and mobile.

The impact of chatbots
The business impact of chatbots is increasing; the market is expected to reach $1.25 billion by 2025. Many experts (Forrester & Gartner) believe in the growth of chatbots. Some put the annual growth rate of chatbots between 24.3% and 37% (Business Insider & Orbis). This remarkable growth illustrates the potential added value for companies. By improving services for users and employees through 24/7 automated support, and reducing workload for service desks by resolving common requests, Virtual Agent scales business efficiency. It lowers costs and handles a higher volume of routine tasks.

Limitations of chatbots
Everything has its limitations, so do chatbots. See below for a list of possible barriers that might be encountered when working with a chatbot.

• Lack of practical AI
  Some chatbots are driven by a decision tree, developers preprogram the chatbot’s responses. Any query outside this program might lead to errors.
• Unawareness of context
  Not all chatbots can understand or remember the context of a conversation, e.g., a user can first ask about flight information and afterward ask about the weather.
• No communication with business systems
  Several chatbots are not linked with business systems. This prevents it from accessing customer data to give a personalized experience.
• Platform dependent operation
  Most chatbots are platform dependent, meaning that they only work with one platform.
• Unnecessary multitasking
  Multitasking for chatbots is becoming a standard. However, few bots manage to do it correctly. This might affect the user experience and lead to the avoidance of the chatbot.
• Poor damage control
  When the bot fails to understand a problem, it tends to make it worse by continuously asking the same question.

ServiceNow Virtual Agent has tackled most of these limitations, except for the lack of practical AI and the unawareness of context. However, its new release will include natural language processing to overcome these limitations.

Virtual Agent is linked to ServiceNow. This allows the chatbot to access all the user’s information. Furthermore, Virtual Agent can multitask and is multilingual. It is not only for end-users but also for employees for simple business operation. If the bot can’t help, it will automatically redirect the user to a live person. This can be done at any time during the interaction.

Implementation
As the only Triple Gold partner of ServiceNow, Plat4mation can assist with the implementation of a Virtual Agent. There is a specialized team that can guide your organization through the chatbot journey and process. The primary purpose of the engagement will be to utilize the capabilities of Virtual Agent to provide a seamless user experience, increase customer self-service, and lower IT costs by deflecting low complexity requests.

With the implementation of Virtual Agent, service desk workers will have more time to focus and work on higher complexity requests and users will achieve more in even less time. Chatbots are no longer an option but a necessity. Virtual Agent is the solution and Plat4mation can assist with the implementation. It is time to provide a seamless user experience that scales business efficiency. It is time for the chatbot.

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