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A virtual assistant said: I’m sorry, I didn’t understand correctly, I’m still learning, can you write it another way?

Andrey Lujan | Head of Digital Experience NTT DATA Chile | December 20, 2021

I ask the Virtual Assistant: Are you really learning? Is someone helping you learn? Do your creators know how to teach you? Do they know what to teach you?

I don’t think you have learned yet that we, the users, are desperate to save time, avoid long physical lines or tedious minutes of waiting while a call center executive attends to us. When we contact you, we are really impatient.

Let me tell you a story of an experience with a virtual assistant.

Yesterday at 10 o’clock at night I had no TV service, just when there were no branches open, no call center available. And the only thing I found was a floating virtual assistant button, and I couldn’t get through the maze of your training to avoid the dreaded “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand correctly” sentence. And without being able to help me, you also give me no option to talk to a human who can understand me.

You think my satisfaction is increased by just having a floating chat button, a cute name that has the letters “AI” and the best designed avatar. I think I and many users expect your “AI” (Artificial Intelligence) to be really smart enough to be able to detect that we need to solve problems quickly.

I must admit that when you understand me, I really solve my problems in seconds and not in minutes or hours! That’s why I want to help you to solve more, and that your “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand correctly” is not the sentence that makes you sadder for not being able to help a user with needs.

I imagine you sad and overwhelmed, even a little frustrated for not being able to help more. And at the same time, eager to be helped. Help you to be a key player in increasing users’ digital NPS, to be central to your company’s cost-saving strategy, to make more users prefer to tell you what’s wrong with them, and to increase your success rate.

If you can, tell your creators what you already know you should do:

Always convey that you’re a bot and not a human. Don’t try to look like a human, because the differences are still noticeable.
Teach me the best way to write you, so I can increase your assertiveness rate.
Let me go back so I can ask you about something else. Don’t expect me to just end up where you imagine, because I will most likely want to resolve other things.
Don’t try to be omnipresent. Surely there are places on digital sites where you simply do not help. It is better not to be in those cases, because I get frustrated and lose the desire to continue the journey.
If you are not yet trained to solve some issues, give me the option to talk to a human. Relax, you’ve already solved many transactions and that’s fine. But sometimes you have to make room for someone else.
And if you can refer me to a human, don’t be mean and share all the information. Don’t make me waste time telling the whole story again.
Finally, we both know you have all my data, you know what I wrote, at what time, you know if I have already entered other digital channels, even if I have gone to the branch or called the call center. I imagine you might know if I am a good and profitable customer, or my ARPU is higher or lower than average. Ask to look at metrics and statistics so you really learn.

How do I know all this? At NTT DATA we have a methodology that allows us to achieve virtual assistant assertiveness rates of 85% or higher.

Our OKR methodology based on metrics and digital analytics, allows us to have a set of Performance, Experience and Business indicators to achieve ROI and increase profitable customer experience.