Universal skills for Chat and Voice

To ensure a good user experience, the virtual agent needs universal capabilities that, for example, allow the user to exit the conversation at any time, enable help, or simply respond to a simple "thank you". 

We call these capabilities universal skills and they are processes which should be possible to trigger at any point in the conversation. In addition to the aforementioned "Thank you", think of utterances such as "Wait a minute", "I don't understand" or "I want to speak to a human agent".

In this article, you will find some universal skills that have proven themselves in our projects. Of course, you can always add and expand your skills. 

Overview for Chat

  • Cancel
  • Delete my Profile
  • Help
  • Human Handover
  • Thank you
  • What can you do

Add on for Voice

  • Audiocodes Disconnect Event
  • Call back later
  • Repeat
  • Wait

 

Overview for Chat

"Cancel", "Help", "Thank you", and "What can you do" should be available in any case. "Delete my Profile" is only necessary if data from the user is stored, and a "Human Handover" should, in the best case, be forwarded to a live agent tool, such as Live Agent. However, if no system is available or internal capacities are missing, a ticket can be created in a ticket system, or mail can be sent to a distribution list. It is important that the user is not left alone with their issue but knows it will be taken care of.

 

Cancel

Cancel.jpg

By "Cancel", we enable the user to cancel the process at any time and start again from the beginning.

 

Delete my Profile

Delete-Profile.jpg

With "Delete my Profile", we ensure that the user can delete the data we've stored about the user at any time.

 

Help

help.jpg

With a general help intent, we either provide help with a specific text or rebuild that part and handover to a human agent or similar.

 

Human Handover

Handover.jpg

The difference between the planned and the escalated Handover is that the planned one is a mandatory Handover in the Flow, and the escalated one is needed when our virtual agent fails. We track these Handovers differently to get a better overview of our KPIs, like the Deflection Rate.

 

Thank you

Thank-you.jpg

Just being able to prompt small gestures like "thank you" are the details that make the virtual agent seem intelligent and polite.

 

What can you do

What-can-you-do.jpg

"What can you do" is one of the few small talk skills we should offer to make the scope of use of the virtual agent clear to the user.

 

 

Add on for Voice

For Voice, in addition to the universals above, we should offer the following: "Disconnect", "Call back later", "Repeat", and "Wait". This is partly because we don't have a visual chat history available and because of the nature of the conversation. A phone call always requires an instant response, there is no possibility of waiting for a long time, like chat, which allows asynchronous communication.

 

AudioCodes Disconnect Event

Disconnect.jpg

This intent detects when the connection to AudioCodes has been interrupted, for example, when the user has hung up. Before we hang up, a goal is completed to track interruptions. This is only relevant when you're connecting with AudioCodes. 

 

Repeat

Different possibilities vary depending on the system used (Voice Gateway, AudioCodes, etc.), so please contact a consultant of your trust or write to our support. We'll help you.

 

Call back later

Call-back-later.jpg

This intent detects whether the user asks the virtual agent to call them back, and an e-mail with the information will be sent to a predefined mail address. Depending on which system is used, Voice Gateway or AudioCodes, one or the other Node can be deleted.

 

Wait

wait.jpg

With "Wait", we wait for another user's input. In the Set Session Parameters, we set the User Input Timeout, the time in which the user does not have to respond, and we wait for an input. If this timeframe has expired without user input, we can state something like "Are you back again?" to make sure whether the user is still with us. After that, we analyze the answer, and if it is not a clear answer, we check again with the user if we should continue. And again, depending on which system you use, Voice Gateway or AudioCodes, you may delete one or the other node.

 

In general

Screenshot_2022-12-29_at_11.01.07.png

Be aware that the behavior in the conversation will change depending on whether you enable the setting "Continue main Flow after attached Flow" in the main Flow. 

Cancel-continue.jpg

If enabled, the main Flow will continue afterward (right conversation). If disabled, it will wait for the next user input and then continue the main Flow (left conversation).

 

You can find all the showcased Flows in the attached package.

Feel free to take a look at other conversation design patterns.

Handover specific conversations


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