Theory, meet practice

Elzware has worked in collaboration with the Design and Technology Association, the recognised professional organisation representing all those involved in D&T education, to produce an in-house Virtual Assistant. For more information on the how and why, see this article (PDF, 400 KB) written for the Design and Technology Association April 2010 newsletter.

Alternatively, you can visit Dee in person by visiting the Design and Technology Association website.

ASDA was founded in 1965, quickly becoming one of the world's leading supermarkets. 'Ask Amy' was launched in 2009 in partnership with KMP, to assist customers with their online shopping experience. Amy is happy talking about all aspects of ASDA's online service, from product and payment queries to troubleshooting issues with accounts and deliveries. This solution has been delivered in partnership with Creative Virtual Ltd.

Tesco Mobile is a joint venture between Tesco and O2, offering a wide range of tariffs and handsets. Their Virtual Assistant, Rachel, is one of the most recent solutions we have developed, and is playing an increasingly prominent role in Tesco Mobile’s customer service strategy. Rachel has been designed to reduce call centre traffic - she can field common queries regarding any aspect of Tesco Mobile’s product range, while allowing more complex problems to be escalated via an email based webform system. This solution has been delivered in partnership with Creative Virtual Ltd.

We have worked with Aviva since 2005 to create Ava, a Virtual Assistant designed to provide users with the information they need in the most efficient way possible. Ava provides information on policies, time critical information like Volcanic Ash flight disruption, and can help users through the application process. Mini dtrees, escalation dtrees, refined keywords and the ability to escalate direct to a Live Chat operator whilst handling over 10000 enquiries each week, mean Ava is an effective call reduction method for the Aviva call centre. This solution has been delivered in partnership with Creative Virtual Ltd.

The O2 Virtual Assistant, 'Ask Lucy', was deployed in 2008 to reduce call centre costs, improve sales and raise levels pf customer satisfaction. With over 130,000 conversations every month the system is playing a valuable role in the O2 customer support strategy and provides them with a better understanding of their customer's requirements. Working round the clock, Lucy provides an easy way to get answers to common questions, while also allowing more complex queries to be directly escalated to agents via their live chat system. This solution has been delivered in partnership with Creative Virtual Ltd.

Alliance and Leicester were so impressed with the Virtual Assistant they decided to use it instead of their site search functionality so all site searches are directly dealt with using our system. This focus on both full questions and keyword searches puts our technology above and beyond that of other automated customer support systems. Accessibility was a big concern for the client so we implemented various accessibility standards and functionality, such as different text sizes and styles for users who are visually impaired. A feedback system is also provided so that the client can really understand the issues of their customers and obtain related satifaction statistics. This solution has been delivered in partnership with Creative Virtual Ltd.