By Ross Feldman, CTO for the Banking and Insurance groups
In today’s tough and increasingly competitive business environment, how an organization manages customer relationships can a crucial factor in its success—or even its survival. Consumers and business-to-business customers now expect more diverse and convenient ways to connect.
Forward-looking enterprises are working to deliver anywhere, anytime availability, with more responsive and personal customer care and customer service contacts. And they are trying to reduce the time and cost of those interactions. This means being available for longer hours and in more ways—physical and virtual—and responding to service requests through live, assisted and self-service channels.
To meet those challenges, many organizations are supplementing their voice capabilities using the web and 
For many customer-oriented organizations, VAs are a logical—and highly effective—way to deliver those rapid responses and improve service quality, while at the same time reducing overall contact center costs.
What is a virtual agent? A virtual agent is a computer-generated character that simulates a conversation to deliver interactive voice- or text-based information in a customer service/care environment. Virtual agents can provide accurate, personalized and interactive information to via websites, mobile phones, social media sites, kiosks, blogs, IM applications and online games.
When properly designed, deployed and managed, virtual agents are real workhorses. They can perform as 
Although virtual agent technologies are still emerging, today’s most advanced VA toolsets consist of a visual design application, prebuilt VA personalities, a chat engine and a knowledge base of conversational content. Enterprise-class virtual agent platforms use sophisticated automatic learning capabilities, voice and animated presentations, and powerful reporting and business intelligence features.
What are the Best Practice Guidelines for Virtual Agents? When evaluating potential virtual agent toolsets, organizations should examine how those platforms perform in the critical areas of conversion and engagement, deflection and encouragement toward self-help resources and customer satisfaction.
Other VA best practices include the need to set clear expectations for this new technology and the benefits of coordinating VA deployment with broader application of knowledge-based initiatives. It is also important to recognize the time and cost of writing content appropriately for the virtual agent environment.
Virtual agents are getting some great performance evaluations. Informed observers say that VAs can deliver improved service quality at a lower cost while driving new revenues, better decisions and greater customer satisfaction. That’s why forward-looking CRM professionals are familiarizing themselves with the benefits of “hiring” virtual agents.
If you’d like to learn more about virtual agents, read our Viewpoint Paper.
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