ServiceUnplugged

When I first heard of the adoption of Avatars in customer service environments, the vision of a yellow bubble appeared in my mind saying, “It looks like you’re trying to write a letter, would you like some help?” Yes, I was thinking of the most annoying entity to ever cross the screen of my computer, the Microsoft Office Assistant, “Clippy the Paperclip”. I wondered how contact centers could tread down that dark road that we all didn’t want to be on between Office 97 and Office XP. Yes, Avatars are flashier, look more human (but Clippy also had the Puppy and Einstein as alternatives), and you can change their clothes, but I thought my tolerance of Avatars would essentially follow the same path.

…that was until I read the article, Avatars, the Future of Customer Service, written by my friend Paul Roberts. This article talks about Sylvia, the attractive, hip, customer Service Avatar from the self help website of CartaSi, an Italian credit card issuer. After reading this, I realized that maybe an Avatar-based customer service user-interface agent maybe something completely different and may indeed hold merit. It got me thinking - what is it that makes Sylvia different from the Paperclip that would make it a viable user interface agent? After all, they are both there to try and help me in an environment where I may be looking for information. Let’s see…

• The Paperclip offered help when I didn’t need it and it gave suggestions in an intrusive way. When a customer contacts a company’s web page (equipped with a customer service Avatar), they are purposely seeking help and are already in the mindset to hear what help comes their way.
• With The Paperclip, it was an effort to turn it off. Avatars? I guess it would depend on their implementation.
• Avatars can possess a multitude of looks, from an attractive female sporting her midriff, to my favorite hockey player wearing a Canucks jersey; the details, look and voice determined by my customer preference and triggered by identification and segmentation.
• Avatars can speak dynamic information through text-to-speech and correlates the expressions based on what is being said. The Paperclip was limited to pre-defined, scripted information via text in a cartoon-like bubble.
• Avatars are becoming a form of branding that have the potential of pleasantly projecting a positive consistent image that as a consumer, I would be accustomed to seeing for each contact center that I deal with. The Paperclip? It’s a paperclip (or Einstein or a Dog – but definitely not a young female with short blond hair in stylish disarray)
• Companies are moving their product lines and service descriptions to services such as SecondLife where Avatars flourish and mimic the real world furthering and enhancing my ability to understand what the companies I deal with do and offer. Functionality that is well beyond the Paperclip’s capabilities.

It seems that the user-interface agent’s (as it’s officially called) time has come - maybe the Paperclip was around before its day (a misunderstood poet?) Maybe we didn’t give him a chance. With Web 2.0, video (and animations) moving to the web and the enhanced capability that IP communications and the visually rich interactions that broadband bring us, I think that this new technology will be (and already is) able to get customer service to a differentiated presentation scheme where it can actually make my interactions more pleasant.

Like all world events, I can remember where I was when Clippy got the pink slip, I am happy that the days of me saying “die, Clippy, die” are over and I am confident that I won’t relive this again with Avatars. I am convinced that Avatars in customer service environments will be a positive interaction… but then again… who knows; maybe Bill Gates is searching the alleys of Redmond to find the unemployed homeless Clippy to rehire him and upgrade his capability… Clippy Vista?

Remembering Clippy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obra67O8RY8

Gustavo Garcia

Technorati Tags: Genesys, Customer Service, Avatar, CartaSi, Microsoft