Nowadays, chatbots are a part of our expectations when we use a website. From a business perspective, they are great, as you have a 24/7 worker who is a front line in solving problems. You can easily create chatbots by using Microsoft’s Power Virtual Agents, a component of Microsoft’s Power Platform.

The Virtual Agents can be integrated with Power Automate (another component of the Power Platform) to automate tasks. They increase customer satisfaction and reduce cost as they solve common customer and internal-facing issues quickly, freeing up staff to focus on complex requests and high-value interactions. Power Virtual Agents empowers staff because Virtual Agents can be built by people without any coding or AI expertise. The chatbots can be published to engage with customers on multiple platforms or channels. These include live websites, mobile apps, and messaging platforms like Microsoft Teams and Facebook.

Some use cases for a Virtual Agent are:

• Customers enquiries. E.g., flight details or updates, latest Covid laws, next bus or train, store hours.
• Answer a FAQ and elevate to appropriate team if it can’t be answered.
• Refund items. E.g., grocery shopping delivery items (This is a great one for me when my Woolies delivery goes awry).
• Reset password for a system. E.g., an employee wants their password reset for a business application.
• Receiving reports from customers. E.g., Reporting a pothole or damaged infrastructure.
• Estimations based on details provided by customer. E.g., policy or building estimates
• Troubleshoot products. E.g., Troubleshooting a printer, or any kind of device.
• Buying products. E.g., an event ticket.
• And much more!

The Virtual Agent can require that the user logs in before allowing certain actions, so you can restrict specific actions to only those authorised. Microsoft’s Power Virtual Agents includes OOTB tools to monitor and continuously improve chatbot performance using AI- and data-driven insights available in an easy-to-read dashboard.

There’s such a wide range of applications for Power Virtual Agents. Because it’s easy to set up, cheap, and high value, no wonder businesses are using it already.

City of Kobe uses Power Virtual Agents to respond to questions about COVID-19. The bot gives instant responses through multi-turn conversations and provides the appropriate resources.

• Miami Dolphins uses it to address customer queries in areas of Guest Services, Parking, Sales, and Customer Service providing personalized solutions to their ticket members. E.g. What are the store hours? Where do I park? How do I get tickets?
• OBB (Austrian National Railway) uses it to streamline customer service workflows. It can deliver completely optimised ticket, travel, and rebate services through one chat window.
• HP uses Power Virtual Agents combined with Dynamics 365 Customer Service to help both its customers and agents navigate the 50,000 pages of HP product information, providing better self-service and allowing users to troubleshoot a printer through the chat window.

Join these people today to help your customers and get ahead of your competitors with Power Virtual Agents.