virtual agents

The advertising headwinds have been gathering. The $7.4B lost to bad ads. The chronic underperformance. Major firms pulling millions from media budgets. Consumers actively avoiding ads. And yet the interruptions continue. There are bright spots: great storytelling from some brands, better channel orchestration, and the pragmatic application of programmatic. Advertising fueled the remarkable rise of […]

So this makes it official: the rite of passage for every new analyst. My first research report, How Self-Service Research Changes B2B Marketing, has just been published. I covered the premise of this report in my first blog post — but I’ll summarize it here again: multiple Forrester surveys have shown that B2B buyers strongly […]

What do Aetna, the US Army, L’Oreal, and the London 2012 Olympic Games have in common? Each of these diverse organizations has deployed a virtual agent. Virtual agents are software services that provide automated assistance by simulating a two-way conversation with customers. And they have come a long way from Clippy the dancing paper clip. […]

Not all companies that offer a virtual agent elect to have an avatar. However, many companies choose to make cartoon, 2D or 3D renderings of a human to personalize the experience, support the brand, and reinforce the conversational nature of the interaction.  But what should an avatar look like? Here are some considerations for eBusiness professionals […]

One of the questions I'm frequently asked by clients is if virtual agents are a good idea. Many of us have had frustrating interactive agent experiences over the years (recall Clippy, Microsoft’s animated paperclip that launched a thousand parodies). Times have changed, and I think virtual agents are worth taking a look at. Today’s virtual agents can […]

I was speaking with clients today about their views on telephone customer service. One believed that his customers liked calling the call center to solve problems with a “human touch.” His colleague countered that telephone customer service is simply too expensive to be giving away that “human touch.” I think they are both correct. And […]