The challenge developing content for a virtual assistant

Aivo is passionate about technology, but we also want to understand the people using it - what they need and the right interaction for each time. On this point, content plays a central role. But what does it take to create content? To learn a little more, we talked to Valeria Garis, Content Strategist for our team.

Vale has a degree in Social Communication and began her career at Aivo as a Project Leader in the Customer Success department. Nowadays, she’s focused on making a richer experience for our customers and their end users, creating natural and innovative interactions as a UX writer.

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What motivated you to get into creating end-user content?

When I joined Aivo, I already had experience in Customer Success, but I found that the technology developed here is super friendly for people coming from communications or social sciences, so for me it was the perfect match between technology and what I could do.

Eventually, I learned and understood our end users and their needs, and that’s how I got involved in this area. Actually, right now I’m working on a diploma in UX Research because I think you have to understand people's expectations when interacting with digital products in order to create content focused on the end user.

The key to good content for enhancing the experience

How do you think users feel when interacting with a virtual assistant? Is this kind of interaction natural for people?

I think users will be satisfied with any service that can resolve their issues right then and there.

The strategy used by each company to resolve issues is the key to satisfaction, because it also depends on a ton of external factors, like being able to have a team dedicated to taking care of more complex questions, or adding on integrations.

Anyone will be satisfied with a service that can resolve a problem as soon as possible.

That’s where content plays a key role, right? Because if we have a limited amount of answers, and the customer is going around in circles trying to resolve a concern, the experience is diluted.

Yes, exactly. When people have the same kind of questions, they don’t really care if they get an answer from a person or a bot: the key is being able to understand what they need and when they need it. It also depends on how much learning capacity the company has about the information provided by the bot.

The challenge is how to build the experience and make that contact with technology as natural and conversational as possible, so that besides solving a problem, someone will want to ask a question again whenever they need to.

How important is it to update, listen, measure and improve content?

So important. In fact, at Aivo, customers who have a better level of satisfaction and take advantage of the virtual assistant are the ones who put in the time to analyze information and optimize the experience. And I’m not talking about a lot of time, but just enough to learn and understand the end user.

It’s essential to see the feedback, understand what content is mapped and have constant conversations inside the company so that information is updated and consistent across all channels.

It’s really important to provide a consistent experience across all service channels so it’s as user-friendly as possible.

The process of developing content for a bot sounds complex: researching, writing, uploading the intents. Is that really true?

The complexity of this process is higher or lower depending on whether you know your users. If you know them, it won’t be hard, because you’ll understand their FAQs and try to lessen, through natural conversations, the friction the end user may have with technology.

In this process, end-user mapping will really help you, and so will having different departments within the company to give you the information you need.

But if you don’t know your customers, it’ll be harder. It could take you longer to understand what answers to give for each case. The good news here is that, for example, our platform lets you gather information, then make the changes you need. So you might realize that with a first mapping you didn’t understand your customer’s expectations from the virtual assistant, but it can all be changed and improved upon.

Do companies have any frequent need or common issue when it comes to generating content for a virtual assistant?

A company that’s just starting out probably has questions about the needs of their audience and how to meet that demand. For companies that have been around a while, I would say one of the most frequent concerns has to do with qualitative or quantitative metrics for making decisions, especially about content.

At Aivo, our customers really like the effort we put into that. Apart from appreciating general functionality features, they like the fact that we stay on top of everything that’s included with the bot, from aesthetic improvements to functionality, plus having robust analytics that let them make decisions.

When it comes to supporting our customers with implementation processes, what do you see as the greatest challenge ahead?

We can’t forget that conversations and generating natural conversations are the ultimate goal. I think a lot of our customers know that and work really hard to fully optimize knowledge. What happens is that although some companies really do know and understand their users, they still need to learn what to expect from their virtual assistant and more about contact channels.

The capabilities and languages of each channel have to be taken into account. Even a user’s tone over the phone isn’t the same as someone who contacts them through the virtual assistant. You always need to understand the user’s goal and what they expect each time. This is a huge challenge for a lot of companies.

Tip: conversations with users should be successful, and to do this you need to understand what each person is looking for.

Unbiased content: a trend that’s gaining ground

There’s a trend towards more inclusive content, for example, gender-neutral. Does the Content Generation team take that into account now?

Yes, absolutely. There’s so much receptiveness in UX writing right now that didn’t exist before. Now there’s a greater consideration for users, regardless of gender, status or age. We hold onto that as a basic premise on the Content Generation team.

Does this make the content creation process more complex at all? Are there ways to make it more simple?

It makes it more complex because socially we’ve thought a certain way for a long time. Changing or challenging that logic means whoever generates the content makes a conscious effort to have content be as inclusive as possible, because we know every audience can be highly diverse.

We make sure that all content we create gets double checked. Of course the content belongs to the customer, so they have the final say based on their voice, tone and style.

The experience of being part of Aivo

How did Aivo’s Content Generation team come about and what does it involve?

The Content Generation team came out of the customer need to be supported and have strategically generated content, streamlining the conversations that let them connect to their users in the best way.

Our goal is to make conversations as natural as possible and build knowledge together with the customer, creating conversational bots that understand the rationale, business and culture.

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Aside from having external customers, we’re the link between the Customer Success and Learning departments so that all features and improvements made to the engine are tested the right way and go into production performing well. This is one of our most significant challenges.

Considering the technology and the experience of end users, what do you think is the best feature of our platform?

I think the best thing about our platform is the transparency and user-friendliness. The logic is super simple and appealing, and doesn’t require any type of extra knowledge to be able to use it.

I think Aivo’s greatest strength is the quick learning required to use the platforms, making them more accessible so our customers don’t need a technical team.

The customer at the center of the strategy

Whether it’s thinking up new features or creating interactions, our focus is always the customer. That’s where people-centered content plays a major role: it’s not only about answering, it’s about doing it in a friendlier, more efficient and useful way.

If you want to learn more about how our solutions can help you  enhance the experience of your customers, contact our team.