It has been a busy time for Nuance. Just a week after debuting intelligence assistant Nina’s on the Amazon Alexa platform, the company is adding virtual assistant and asynchronous chat innovations to its Digital Engagement Platform. The new tools are designed to help client companies have more natural, conversational interactions with consumers during offline times and enable them to meet consumers in an environment where they’re already spending a significant amount of time.
With platforms such as Facebook Messenger stealing the spotlight, there isn’t much buzz around SMS these days. But ignoring text messaging as a channel is a missed opportunity for brands. “SMS is the most obvious, native, and intuitive mobile engagement platform out there, as nearly every demographic, particularly Millennials, have embraced texting and messaging as the preferred way to connect with friends and family,” says Marina Kalika, director of marketing for the digital customer engagement platform at Nuance.
But supporting SMS interactions comes with a unique set of challenges such as the always-on nature of messaging. Consumers expect nearly immediate responses, and ones that actually solve their issues, not pass them along to another channel. But its tough for businesses to deliver this level of service during off-hours. Nuance aims to solve this problem with its asynchronous (or offline) messaging powered by artificial intelligence.
Thanks to the added asynchronous and artificial intelligence–powered capabilities, Nuance enables customers to continue the conversation within the same channel using natural language, even during off-hours. “This reduces frustration for the customer, as they don’t have to switch channels, while also reducing contact center costs, as brands can now offer a seamless experience through a low-cost channel,” Kalika says. In other words, customers with support needs can now reach out to service teams at all hours of the night, and receive the same level of service through SMS as they would during normal operating hours.
For Nuance, this is a logical extension of their offering and philosophy. The vendor’s “design once, deploy many” customer engagement platform allows brands to deliver a consistent experience across not only SMS but also Web, mobile, IVR, other messaging platforms, and Internet of Things channels such as the Amazon Echo via Alexa.
“This provides organizations with the ability to efficiently and effectively broaden their customer engagement footprint, as opposed to building implementations separately for each channel. In this way, Nina [and the platform more broadly] significantly lowers the total cost of development and ownership,” according to Kalika.