transforming customer engagement with ibm watson

Transforming Customer Engagement with IBM Watson Vince Padua, Director, IBM Watson Rahul Garg, Product Manager, IBM Watson

The interactions customers want

Examples of cognitive computing

The role of cognitive computing

The information is available today but the systems can’t use it effectively

Information is unstructured •  Structured data from CRM systems and ERP systems provide a small

portion of the information needed Information is spread across many systems

•  Product Manuals •  FAQs •  Knowledgebases •  Call notes •  Forums •  Reviews •  Blogs

Mobile: •  Customers demand great experiences on their

mobile devices across their relationship with you Personal: •  Customers expect you to know them across

channels and personalize your interaction Self - Service: •  Customers are embracing self-service options

75% 75% of customers prefer some form of self-service for simple inquiries

91% 91% of Smartphone users say they would use an online knowledgebase if it was tailored to their needs

Customers want this type of interaction

Today the Customer Service department manually brings the information together

Lower customer satisfaction

$300B Organizations spend over $300B annually on contact center labor

42% % of service agents unable to efficiently resolve customer issues due to disconnected systems, archaic user interfaces, and multiple applications

11% Average amount of time agents spend looking for information needed to manage customer interactions

Fewer deflected calls Lower first call resolutions Higher average handle times

CO

STS

SER

VIC

E

The effects of poor service ripple beyond the Contact Center to Marketing

6-7X It is 6-7 times more costly to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one

4X Customers are 4 times more likely to buy from a competitor if the problem is service related vs. price or product

Poor service •  Increases customer churn •  Reduces loyalty and share of wallet •  Reduces word of mouth advocacy

and net promoter scores •  Drives up marketing costs

66% Percent of customers willing to spend more with a company they feel provides excellent customer service (on average 13% more)

The effects also ripple to Sales

45% % of US consumers that abandon an online transaction if their questions or concerns are not addressed quickly

55% % of consumers that have intended to conduct a business transaction or make a purchase, but decided not to based on a poor service experience

Poor service •  Reduces sales revenue

•  Increases cart abandonment

83% of consumers require some degree of customer support while making an online purchase

Perceiving: Watson understands the world as we do: it interprets sensory input beyond traditional data

• Understands natural language • Reads manuals, social data, blogs, consumer reviews, etc.

Reasoning: Watson thinks through complex problems: it deepens our analysis and inspires creativity

• Makes inferences • Evaluates pros and cons • Finds rela=onships between terms and concepts

Relating: Watson understands how we communicate, and personalizes its interactions with each of us

• Responds in natural language • Personalizes the interac=on and provides reasons

Learning: Watson learns from every interaction, scaling our ability to build experience

• Trains with experts and improves with feedback

Watson is a learning system that augments human cogni2on; scaling people’s abili2es to perceive, reason and relate

Decision Maker

Decision Maker

Search Engine Finds Documents Containing Keywords

Delivers Documents Based on Popularity

Has Question

Distills to 2-3 Keywords

Reads Documents, Finds Answers

Finds & Analyzes Evidence Watson Understands Question

Produces Possible Answers & Evidence

Delivers Response, Evidence & Confidence

Analyzes Evidence, Computes Confidence

Asks NL Question

Considers Answer & Evidence

Decision Maker

Cognitive conforms the technology to the user; Keywords force the user to conform

“My husband hardly ever uses his phone, which plan is right for him?

“I need a window covering for my dining room. I want the natural light, but in the morning the sun shines in low and I have to close the shades.”

Watson Engagement Advisor

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© 2014 International Business Machines Corporation

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The core of Watson is a learning system that works by understanding both customers and knowledge

Multiple interpretations

Hundreds of answer sources •  Primary search •  Candidate answer generation

Tens of thousands of evidence sources and scores •  Answer scoring •  Evidence retrieval •  Deep evidence scoring

Learned models •  Combine and weigh evidence

Inquiry analysis Decomposition Hypothesis generation Synthesis Hypothesis and evidence scoring

Final confidence merging and ranking Question Answer

? ! © 2014 International Business Machines Corporation

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Gary

This evidence suggests “Gary” is the answer BUT the system must learn that keyword matching may be weak relative to other types of evidence

In May 1898 Portugal celebrated the 400th anniversary of this explorer’s

arrival in India.

Legend

Key word hit

“Reference text” Answer

Question: In May, Gary arrived in India after he

celebrated his anniversary in Portugal.

Supporting evidence:

Answering complex questions requires more than keyword evidence

“explorer”

“India”

“In May 1898”

“India”

“In May”

“celebrated”

“anniversary”

“in Portugal” “Portugal”

“400th anniversary”

“celebrated”

“arrived in”

“arrival in”

“Weak evidence”


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“27th May 1498”

Vasco da Gama

“landed in”

“arrival in”

“explorer”

“India”

Paraphrases

Geo-KB

Stronger evidence can be much harder to find and score… §  Search far and wide

§  Explore many hypotheses

§  Find judge evidence

§  Many inference algorithms

“400th anniversary”

“Portugal”

“May 1898”

“celebrated”

In May 1898 Portugal celebrated the 400th anniversary of this explorer’s

arrival in India.

“Kappad Beach”

Legend

Temporal reasoning

“Reference text” Answer

Statistical paraphrasing

GeoSpatial reasoning

Question:

On the 27th of May 1498, Vasco da Gama landed in Kappad Beach.

Supporting evidence:

Date Match

Watson leverages multiple algorithms to perform deeper analysis


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Watson Engagement Advisor delivers the next wave of customer engagement through cognitive computing

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•  Automates customer interaction to increase customer engagement in sales and service

•  Transforms customer engagement by knowing, engaging and empowering clients

•  Develops customer relationships through a transformative user experience

What it does

•  Provides answers not links and webpages

•  Answers with evidence not guesses •  Not restricted to a predefined question-

answer set

•  Learns from every interaction

How it does it

17 © 2014 International Business Machines Corporation

New agents need to get up to speed quickly

and demonstrate value

Customers (Millennials):

Customer demographics and expectations are shifting, creating challenges with traditional service environments

Agents:

Expect instant responses that understand them

Goal is to take action immediately

Increase in mobile use reduces reviewable information

Customer insight is lost as many don’t call and

transactions are separated

Issues:

Promotions can be overlooked decreasing

customer lifetime value

18 © 2014 International Business Machines Corporation

Watson helps new agents become productive quickly

Watson helps Millennials get instant answers

across devices

Watson integrates processes to enable action

Watson reads information to net it out for customers

on mobile screens

Watson captures interactions over time for

identification of new insights

Watson surfaces promotions in discussion,

increasing visibility

Customers (Millennials):

Watson enables transformational customer engagement improving the customer experience and business value

Agents: Solutions:

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A mobile phone provider plans to use Watson to differentiate the company with personalized service and support.

Needs 1.  Meet changing

expectations 2.  Reduce churn 3.  Beat competition

Solutions 1.  Omni-channel self-

service 2.  Guide through

processes

Benefits 1.  Increase loyalty 2.  Decrease churn 3.  Grow customer base

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usiness Machines C

orporation

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Self-service User Experience

Here is what you are looking for.

Here it is. Shall I complete the task for you?

Here it is, complete. Also,

this new info might be helpful.

How did it go? Can I assist with these next steps?

Knowledge Expert Empowered Assistant Personal Advisor

Ask a question Get answers Ask a question Get answers Get action

Ask a question Get answers Get action Get suggestions Get follow-up

Recom

mended (A

nalytic Engine)

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Valu

e

Customer Satisfaction

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Shannon is… the unconfident agent □ A new employee

□ Wants what’s best for customers

□ Spends too much time searching for answers

□ Feels inferior when asking for guidance from peers

IBM Watson is… the Cognitive Agent Advisor ■ Provides answers from trusted information

■ Uses natural language

■ Offers more visibility of customer needs

■ Tailors proactive service to each individual

■ Decreases need for supervision

■ Creates efficiencies


Jim is… the busy, capable customer □ A multi-line customer for years

□ Busy, rarely available during normal business hours

□ Prefers self-service

□ Calling into a contact center will instantly put him in a bad mood

IBM Watson is… the Empowered Virtual Agent ■ Transforms customer self-serve with the ability to answer questions

■ Can complete transactions

■ Provides personalized and proactive recommendations

■ Uses an intuitive text/voice interface

■ Continues learning from prior interactions

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To add mobile hotspot to your iPhone, simply launch setting, cellular and select mobile hotspot. You may have to restart your phone once added. You can also order online by logging in to your account.

Watson helps Shannon and Jim


Knowledge Expert Empowered Assistant Personal Advisor

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How expensive is it for a customer to add a new line to their account?

It should be 9.99 for customers already in a family plan.

How do I upgrade my customer to the latest device?

1)  On the NPC screen, select Prices and Promotions.

2)  From the Sales Offer Mode (SOM), select Upgrade > Waive Activation if appropriate

How do I add Mobile Hotspot to my iPhone?

I see you have a family plan with 4 lines. You also have 2GB of data per line. We have a new family share plan that you are eligible for, $160 / Month includes Unlimited Text, Unlimited Talk and 10GB of shared data.

My bill is too high.

I’d like to learn more about the new shared family plan.

Ok. Let me connect you with an agent to provide you more information on plan eligibility.

Hi Jim. This is Shannon. I see you’re interested in learning more about the new shared family plan…

Hi Jim, I’ve noticed you’ve been spending more on international roaming recently Did you know that we offer an international roaming package that is available to you for only $46 extra per month which can be turned on and off at any time. Would you like to add the international roaming packages?

Yes, please add the international roaming packages to my account.

I’ll make that change now. Give me a moment to add International roaming… I added international roaming package, and backdated the addition so you save $30 on your last month bill I notice you’ve had some late charges. Can I help you avoid future charges by setting up AutoPay or changing your bill date?

Yes, I’d like to set up AutoPay....


Watson on Watson Demo

transforming customer engagement with ibm watson

Technology

evidence watson

evidence confidence

interactions customers

evidence sources

excellent customer service

customer service department

types of evidence

customer engagement