Customer Experience

‘The business case for avatars’ webinar points to growth opportunity

Image courtesy of Agora Brands Group.

June 11, 2021

What is the business case for avatars? Are they a game changer for the retail, foodservice, banking, health care and hospitality industries?

A team of experts from Agora Brands Group explored this critical question during a well attended webinar recently, titled "Avatars as Customer Service Agents in a Digital Workforce: The Business Case."

Presenters included Stuart Rogers, CEO and co-founder, Dale Seavey, chief technology officer and Kevin Mason, media director. Elliot Maras, editor of Kiosk Marketplace and Vending Times, served as moderator.

Rogers described the challenge that many businesses face: the inability to fill positions. He shared data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showing the steep decline in monthly payroll employment from January 2020 to December 2021. This is due to a combination of a tight labor market and the fact that generous government unemployment payments make it more lucrative for people to not work.

Rising costs present challenges such as a potentially increasing national minimum wage, the need to offer higher wages to attract workers, and the expense of COVID-related protocols.

Current customer service technologies offer what Rogers called an unsatisfactory customer service experience, such as voice mail systems, chatbots and touchscreen tablets.

Rogers then described the "Avatars as a Service" advantages, which are customized solutions that include voice and speech; spoken information content designed for the customer's expectations. Such architecture accommodates direct access to third party technologies, data sets and APIs.

"Avatars as a Service" can work on interactive kiosks, smart vending machines, personal computers, digital signs and smartphones.

Artificial intelligence enables avatars to recall and recognize repeat customers, optimizing selling opportunities. They can recognize dialects and speech patterns to personalize service delivery and can learn a disciplined approach to sales and service.

"Avatars as a Service"are also scalable, as they can quickly be deployed across vast geographical areas. Customer interactions, are stored in the cloud and are available as reference to all avatars in the network, he said during the presentation.

Another advantage is that business analytics are available such as what is selling or not, what customers say about the products, in addition to time-of-day, seasonal and weather-related analytics.

To view the webinar,click here.