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Announcing Ava: eDesk’s game-changing AI chatbot transforming eCommerce customer service

Last updated: August 9, 2024
Announcing eDesk's Ava AI virtual agent featured image.

At eDesk, we’re continuing to harness the potential of AI to help multichannel eCommerce sellers deliver the best customer experiences, and today we’re thrilled to introduce Ava, our groundbreaking AI virtual agent.

“As sellers expand across ever more markets, AI is completely reshaping how these businesses operate. Our clients tell us about the challenges they face as they scale. From handling more orders and inquiries, providing 24/7 support, and maintaining personalized interactions, everyone understands that a ruthless focus on customer experience has always been at the heart of success for eCommerce.”

Brendan Hughes, CCO at eDesk

With OpenAI’s latest advancements, we knew that we had an opportunity to build the best virtual agent for multichannel eCommerce.

And we’ve done just that!

Introducing Ava AI Virtual Agent

Ava is more than an AI chatbot. It leverages advanced AI, automation and deep integration with your eCommerce data to instantly provide accurate sales and support assistance on your online store, 24/7. 

Ava has been designed to address the challenges our sellers’ support teams face—reliably managing high volumes of inquiries, providing 24/7 support, and maintaining personalized interactions and consistency across multiple channels. 

Ava takes the heat off your support team, allowing human agents the time to focus on complex tasks and to build meaningful relationships with customers.

Your perfect sales assistant driving conversions

Ava is the ultimate AI sales agent positioned to drive higher eCommerce conversions. With 65% of online sales happening outside business hours, Ava’s 24/7 availability captures opportunities when human support is often unavailable. By instantly handling up to 72% of pre-sale inquiries successfully, Ava elevates the customer experience and conversion potential.

“During our beta testing, we’ve seen excellent results with our existing customers…and an uptick in sales conversion on their websites.”

Gareth Cummings, CTO at eDesk

Ava… 

  • Educates buyers on product specs
  • Provides personalized recommendations
  • Confirms inventory
  • Communicates pricing and promotions
  • Explains shipping/payment options and much more. 
  • Its natural dialogue addresses concerns like return policies with on-brand, tailored responses.

This frictionless sales support creates well-informed customers primed to purchase confidently. Ava’s instant product guidance at the pivotal moment of intent removes barriers in the buyer’s journey. As an always-on sales ambassador, Ava allows brands to capture more revenue through exceptional shopping experiences.

Your front-line support agent improving customer satisfaction

As your always-on front-line support agent, Ava elevates customer satisfaction by instantly resolving post-purchase service inquiries you receive via your website. Unlike generic chatbots, Ava is built right into eDesk so it taps into your brand’s eCommerce data like order details, product content, and FAQs via the Content Hub to deliver accurate, on-brand responses.

“During our beta testing, we’ve seen excellent results with our existing customers. On average, a 60% deflection rate but that is already rising.” 

Gareth Cummings, CTO at eDesk

Ava…

  • Handles order and delivery status queries
  • Provides installation guidance
  • Walks through returns and repair claims
  • Troubleshoots product issues
  • Manages subscriptions
  • Facilitates feedback – all through natural conversations. 

When needed, it seamlessly escalates complex cases to human agents with full context.

By swiftly addressing these repetitive service requests, Ava saves support teams time and reduces costs. More importantly, the knowledgeable, accurate assistance cultivates trust and loyalty by ensuring customers instantly receive attentive support throughout the entire buyer journey. 

As an eCommerce-savvy virtual agent, Ava cements long-lasting customer relationships and takes the heat off your team.

Accurate and trustworthy

Ava is an AI you and your customers can trust, delivering “I couldn’t have said it better myself” responses. 

Unlike many general AI agents, Ava can be trained on vast amounts of data specific to your eCommerce business. Through the Ava Content Hub, you can define Ava’s tone of voice and train it on support content, product details, FAQs, and blogs. This extensive training ensures Ava asks the right questions and provides accurate answers instantly.

“Ava is the only purposely-built eCommerce AI chatbot that connects to your product and pricing data, FAQs, supporting content, and most importantly, has access to real-time order information.

Gareth Cummings, CTO at eDesk

Real-time data integration further enhances Ava’s capability to handle complex queries. Ava has secure access to customer and order data, and conversation history. This comprehensive approach ensures Ava delivers the best possible answer every time. 

And customers love it—with engagement rates on your web store increasing to over 40% when responses are accurate. 

Multilingual and multichannel support

eDesk is the number one platform for multichannel eCommerce sellers so Ava has multilingual capabilities to ensure that customer interactions are tailored to different regions and brands, providing a bespoke experience for each customer. This versatility allows eCommerce businesses to offer a personalized service, regardless of location or language. 

“Unlike other customer support software, eDesk is specifically designed for multi-channel e-commerce sellers, and the launch of AVA continues to demonstrate this commitment.”

Sam Lloyd, VP of Marketing at eDesk

Ava is part of your team, so its performance is transparent and measurable, just like any other agent. With features such as CSAT rating (coming soon), resolution rate tracking, and detailed insights, businesses can monitor and evaluate Ava’s effectiveness. Chatbot tickets assigned to Ava can be reviewed, and the quality of responses can be continually improved.

Complete control with Flow Builder

Ava’s Flow Builder is a user-friendly yet powerful tool designed to give you full control over customer service interactions. Its intuitive interface allows you to meticulously design and customize the processes Ava follows, ensuring every interaction aligns with your unique tone and operational needs. 

With Flow Builder, you can tailor every aspect of the customer experience, from the initial greeting to complex query resolutions. This level of customization guarantees that Ava not only meets but exceeds your specific service standards, delivering a seamless and consistent customer experience every time.

Real results

Early adopters are seeing significant improvements in their customer service metrics, with Ava solving up to 72% of sales and support queries—this is improving sales, lowering support costs and increasing customer engagement on their eCommerce sites. 

Ava is available 24/7, which means that the 65% of shoppers who are online after core working hours are getting the answers they need.

Ava is having a real impact on sales. 75% of Ava conversations are supporting purchase decision-making and one out of every four orders is now preceded by a conversation with Ava. Given Ava’s unlimited knowledge capacity, Ava can instantly address customer queries relating to you product portfolio faster and more accurately than any human can.

Listen to Tom from Wave Global…

The magic of integration

The real magic in exceptional eCommerce customer service happens when customers, virtual agents, human agents and eCommerce data are seamlessly integrated. This combination of AI efficiency and human empathy is key to driving business growth. Ava is our first step towards this future, making eDesk the only customer service platform you’ll ever need.

Explore Ava

We invite you to explore and learn more about Ava and see how it can transform your customer service operations.

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