​​It is increasingly usual to use virtual assistants in communication between companies and customers. When accessing messaging applications such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, personal conversations are interspersed with business customer services. In the case of Neoenergia​, this is a reality for 1 million and 200 thousand customers who already have the company number registered in their contact list. The interaction happens with the use of chatbot, technology that allows the request of services in a virtual way through a resource that automates the messages and uses artificial intelligence to learn from the interactions. The opportunities now are in expanding this reach and improving the flow of chatbot conversations in order to enhance the consumer experience.​

​CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE​​​

In total, there are more than 65 services that can be requested by Neoenergia's chatbot. Neoenergia's Digital Strategy and Services Manager, Renato Suplicy, highlights how this has modified the consumer experience. "Innovation is part of a scenario in digital transformation that has the customer at the center of decisions. The reach of the technology shows the potential of its accessibility, especially when we talk about WhatsApp, a tool widely used by people. We observed that, who accesses the virtual assistant once, always does it again, besides having new customers entering for the first time every day, what confirms the robustness of the initiative".

The manager reports that with the Covid-19 pandemic, the virtual assistant has become even more essential, since the scenario requires social isolation. With that, Neoenergia has invested and further accelerated the new developments of the solution, which contributes to people's safety, since they don't need to leave home to solve their demands. The result is a growing demand for this and other digital solutions for customers, strengthening the company's strategy to generate new digital experiences within Neoenergia's digital transformation program.​

SERVICES​

An example of a service easily accessed by the customer through WhatsApp or Facebook is the duplicate account request, made in a completely automated way. To do this, the person just needs to follow the instructions given by the virtual assistant so that, quickly, he/she receives the bar code or PDF on his/her mobile or computer. "We always seek to bring closer and create the best possible experience. Before, people needed to access a browser, search the company's website, look for the desired service, authenticate, choose the account and view the invoice in the browser. We have simplified these steps making it easier to visualize directly in WhatsApp, bringing even closer the Neoenergia group to our customers' daily lives", declares Mateus Prates, Neoenergia's Messaging Solutions supervisor.

The supervisor comments that there is still the challenge of some people to understand that the interaction takes place with a virtual assistant and not with a human attendant, but that it is part of Neoenergia's role to make this communication more fluid. "We constantly analyze the conversation flows to meet consumer expectations and make changes when necessary. Our goal is to facilitate the customer´s life, offering a dynamic service that evolves from the conversations", says Prates.

He also highlights some guidelines that can contribute in the communication with the bot, such as short and direct sentences. "The more objective the customer is, the faster and more efficient the experience will be. It is important that people participate in the satisfaction survey at the end of the service. This way, we are able to collect the feedbacks to implement constant improvements in the bot and deliver an even more humanized and agile product".​