Top 20 U.S. Utility Provider
Powering Productivity With an AI-Powered Virtual Agent
What if… an AI virtual assistant could perform mundane tasks and reduce the volume of service desk requests?
Our client is a Fortune 500 company that delivers electricity and natural gas to millions of homes and businesses across the United States.
Long Wait Times Negatively Impacted Employee Productivity
The energy company wanted an artificial intelligence (AI) solution that would improve productivity, reduce service desk workload by automating mundane tasks, expedite administrative work, resolve outstanding issues, and allow employees and contractors to resume their job responsibilities – all while reducing costs.
We proposed a two-phase solution that included an out-of-the-box ServiceNow Virtual Agent along with a change management plan to ensure successful adoption.
AI-Powered Virtual Agent Drives Efficiencies
We began by implementing the ServiceNow Virtual Agent to take over low-complexity, high-volume requests that could be resolved through automated processes. The out-of-the-box solution provides a virtual agent user experience that supports natural language understanding and comes with pre-built topics that can be cloned and customized.
Next, our ServiceNow experts customized the virtual agent to serve the organization’s unique needs. We conducted ServiceNow’s Topic Recommendation analysis on the company’s production data to create a list of recommendations and compared this list with the ticket-scrubbing data provided by the IT support team.
Once we finalized the list of topics, we used ServiceNow’s Conversational Interfaces module to customize the solution. We implemented the solution on an app as well as a browser, making it easy for the typical field worker to access and use.
The automated solution allows service center agents to focus on more-complex requests and improve efficiency while employees and contractors can self-serve simple requests for rapid resolution.
Ensuring Adoption and Long-Term Success
During the planning phase, we emphasized the importance of introducing a robust change management program in tandem with the launch of the virtual agent. Automated solutions often fail due to a lack of user education, awareness, and training. To ensure the success of the solution, we provided support from every angle to ensure the entire organization was comfortable.
We partnered with the client’s corporate communications team to create engaging, educational, and branded internal messaging. Additionally, we gave the agent an identity, created awareness and training videos, and held several townhall meetings with business leaders in attendance.
Our change management program resulted in high interest and excitement. Employees were educated on how the tool worked and were trained on best practices for using the virtual agent effectively.
92% of employees in the pilot launch responded that they were "satisfied" or "highly satisfied" with their experience with the virtual agent.
Monitoring Employee Feedback Throughout the Launch
The virtual agent solution was launched in three phases:
1. A targeted launch of 25 people
2. A medium-sized launch with 1,000 people in IT
3. The official go-live to all 18,000 contractors and employees
Throughout each phase, our team monitored employee feedback. Each time it was used, the employee was prompted to rate their experience on a scale of one (not satisfied) to four (highly satisfied), and anyone who reported a poor experience was personally contacted for more-detailed feedback.
We compiled user feedback throughout the phases to consider possible innovations and improvements and then created knowledge articles and pinpointed areas for improvement.
Results
A Workforce Empowered by AI
During the pilot launch with 1,000 employees, 92% responded that they were “satisfied” or “highly satisfied” with their experience. In the month following launch to all 18,000 employees and contractors, the energy company logged 10,000 interactions, showing high interest in the solution.
Perficient’s ability to be agile and act quickly resulted in our client launching its new virtual agent within a tight timeline of 12 weeks. Our ServiceNow and automation expertise – along with our flexibility, attention to needs, cross-platform expertise, and change management excellence – allowed us to turn an out-of-the-box solution into a tailored and effective chatbot.
