H&M Adds a Virtual Assistant and Live Chat to Its Contact Centre

Customers can now engage with H&M virtual assistant and live chat agents directly from services like Google Maps or Google Search.

The new integration of Nuance’s virtual assistant and live chat deployment is the first of its kind and allows H&M to leverage prior investments in AI-powered intelligent engagement to give customers more choice and flexibility when shopping online.

H&M implemented the Nuance Intelligent Engagement Platform for virtual and live chat in 2018 to manage increasing contact volumes, improve customer experience, and automate self-service options 24 hours a day across 13 major online countries including the US, UK, Sweden, and Germany.

The solution assists H&M customers through their shopping experience and provides real-time answers to enquiries such as item availability, online order tracking status, and store locations and hours.

Nuance’s latest integration with Google’s Business Messages allows H&M to take advantage of new messaging channels while leveraging the same AI-engine core to its successful virtual assistant and live chat deployment – to enable more seamless cross-channel customer experiences, reducing contact centre call volumes, and increasing digital interactions.

Online shoppers can engage with H&M through Google’s Business Messages initially in the US market.

“We are delighted to work with H&M and Nuance to help H&M customers get answers to their questions, directly from Google Search using Business Messages,” said Rob Lawson, Head of partnerships, Business Messaging at Google.

Every year contact centres receive billions of calls originating from Google applications. Adding an easily discoverable messaging option that integrates with the existing virtual assistant and live chat deployments gives customers the ability to select their preferred channel, which can significantly reduce an organization’s overall call volume.

“With the explosion of digital engagements, especially in the retail sector, we’re hearing from customers more about the need to better optimize and handle consumer engagements and service requests across channels,” said Tony Lorentzen, Senior Vice President, Intelligent Engagement at Nuance.

“The differentiator with Nuance technology is that we can partner to build one virtual assistant and extend that system to whichever channel an organization wants to leverage for engagement.”

“Google’s Business Messages is one example where we are further enabling H&M to give customers more convenient options to get their questions answered without ever having to pick up the phone.”

The Nuance Intelligent Engagement platform combines the best of virtual assistants and human-assisted customer service engagements into one platform that can be extended to any voice or digital channel.

By leveraging Nuance’s Conversational AI engine at the platform’s core, organizations ensure investments and data gathered are best utilized to give consumers choice in how they engage while providing a unified, cohesive experience across channels.