In this exclusive interview, Intent Communications’ Phil Page talks to Andrew Dickerson, CEO of Appleyards Removals, discussing how using a realistic ‘human’ avatar on his company website to answer frequently asked questions in real time has improved customer service.
With avatar technology moving at pace this is just the tip of the iceberg of what can be achieved. Using avatars to deliver training is another possibility which the maritime industry could benefit from and could experienced mariners download their knowledge in one ‘single source of truth’ avatar for cadets to benefit from? The possibilities are endless.
How did you decide what information to feed into the avatar first? Did you upload existing FAQs and documentation, or did you have to sit down and record your own spoken knowledge and scenarios?
We compiled a list of any information we had on record about our industry. This included asking staff to list the ten most popular questions they got asked by customers and how they would answer them. Then we added all our company information including our branch details with email contacts and phone numbers. This was input into a large word document which was uploaded to avatar.
How did you ensure the avatar sounds like you or reflects the culture of Appleyards, rather than sounding like a generic corporate chatbot?
That is down to the programming and how it is taught to respond. The avatar is based on me so I spent a number of hours being filmed. I had to keep repeating the same script over and over again, around ten to fifteen times. This was to ensure they had enough material to make it look as life-like as possible. I was asked to make small head movements which simulated this ‘live’ avatar listening to the question or pausing before answering the question. Different styles of avatar can be filmed depending on the situation. So our training avatars for instance use short hand gestures which people naturally use when speaking. The avatar is trained to pick up on a particular voice inflection and will use the most appropriate hand gesture to complement that.
How much ongoing effort does it take to update the avatar’s knowledge base when procedures or prices change?
Our information is fairly general so it does not have to be updated that often as we do not publish anything which is likely to change that frequently. However, it is very easy to update any of the information by simply editing the word document and then uploading the latest saved version to the avatar. It will not remember any previous information but will just access the most recent version.
Did you train the avatar solely on standard questions, or did you include more complex “what if” scenarios? How does it cope with non-standard situations?
We have uploaded all the main questions which we tend to get asked on a regular basis. Most of the questions tend to be about how we pack specific items like a grand piano, upright piano, paintings or a barometer and so on. All this information is in the word document which has been uploaded to the ‘brain’ of the avatar so it can go into quite a bit of detail if required. If someone asks the avatar a question which it does not have a response for it will not hallucinate and try to answer that question. It will just say that it does not have that information so is unable to answer.
What was something unexpected the avatar struggled to answer during testing, and how did you fix it?
No, in fact quite the opposite. We have been very impressed with the results. We no longer need an FAQ page on our website as our avatar has completely replaced that. It will give an instant response to any question asked in multiple commonly used languages.
In removals, a wrong answer might have serious consequences. How do you guard against the avatar generating inaccurate or plausible-sounding wrong answers?
It can’t do that. If it gets asked a removals industry specific question which we have not uploaded to it then it will just say ‘I’m sorry I cannot answer that question.’
Avatar technology is changing rapidly. What do you foresee as the next big change which you will be able to incorporate into your business?
I think avatars will progress and be able to follow complex multiple step commands. The technology might also get to a point where it can analyse and comment on real time data being fed into it. Hypothetically speaking it could progress to interaction between avatars without direct human intervention.
Interview conducted by Phil Page, Head of Public Relations, Intent Communications Photo Credit: Pixabay
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