Unilever Consumer Services:

The Impact of RealDialog Agent Assist

High-Performance Agents Enhancing the Consumer Experience

In North America, the Unilever consumer contact center handles approximately 3.5 million contacts annually in support of hundreds of products within over 90 brand families. On any given dayat any given minuteUnilever contact center representatives are working toward the end goal of delivering world-class service to its consumers.
When youre one of the largest consumer goods companies in the world, the importance of effective knowledge management takes on a new dimension. It plays a critical role in the process of building individual consumer relationships. The quality of direct interaction experiences can have a lasting impact on consumers and those within their social networks.
In North America, the Unilever consumer contact center handles approximately 3.5 million contacts annually in support of hundreds of products within over 90 brand families. On any given dayat any given minuteUnilever contact center representatives are working toward the end goal of delivering world-class service to its consumers.

Unilever selected Astute Solutions RealDialog Agent Assist for its proven ability to meet highly complex knowledge management needs, while minimizing costs and driving enterprise-wide advantages.
The Challenge: Improving Accessibility and Management of Key Information
Unilevers offerings span 14 categories of home, personal care and foods products. With vast information repositories across the enterprise, the company faced escalating access and maintenance challenges that were filtering down to the contact center. Unilevers team of over 135 representatives experienced difficulties locating specific product details to answer consumers questions in an accurate and timely manner. Utilizing the Folio knowledge management tool, they were tasked with conducting lengthy searches, which often led to the dead-end response: no search lists. When presented with an inquiry involving a product label, they had to locate the actual physical package from an on-site storage cabinet to respond. As a result, Unilevers internal help desk faced escalating call volumes from contact center agents who were unable to locate the information they needed. It became clear to Unilever that the time had come to find a knowledge management solution that worked for their service objectives and representatives, not against them. The company required a solution that would enable it to continually enhance consumers experiences by overcoming contact center challenges, reducing operational costs, and increasing efficiency and performance. Unilever needed to simplify the accessibility and management of key company information to advance its goal of creating a world-class consumer service organization. Unilever selected Astute Solutions RealDialog Agent Assist for its proven ability to meet highly complex knowledge management needs, while minimizing costs and driving enterprise-wide advantages.

The Solution: Implementing RealDialog Agent Assist

Astute Solutions RealDialog is a conversational knowledge management solution that delivers a clear and specific answer to a user question asked via a companys Web site, intranet portal, contact center, email, chat, or other channel. The technology behind RealDialog enables it to deliver the most precise and contextualized responses available through a knowledge base and self-service

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has the ability to achieve up to 99 percent accuracy rates by using self-learning techniques and by identifying and reporting where specific knowledge gaps exist for continuous improvement. Because its knowledge base content can be authored by non-technical business users across the enterprise (contact center agents, product managers, marketers, and more), end-users receive the most complete and current information. The company achieves significant cost savings by eliminating the need for IT involvement in the authoring and updating process. .

RealDialog Agent Assist at Work

In the contact center, RealDialog Agent Assist expedites call processing and issue resolution to improve the consumer experience and reduce costs. Unilever representatives simply enter a consumers question, verbatimor select a question submitted via emailand they instantly receive a response in the form of a specific answer, paragraph within a document, and/or file (sound, video, Web page, or document). When needed, RealDialog guides the representative through a conversation with the consumer, prompting them with specific questions and responses to get to the heart of the issue and its resolution. It simplifies and improves the process for accessing relevant information, so representatives can focus on providing high-quality, relationship-building service. At the same time, it enables Unilever to control the messages representatives deliver to ensure a branded experience.

solution. It uses Natural Language Understanding and advanced linguistics techniques to comprehend users input and questions in their natural languageincluding the use of pronouns, slang and company/product/industry specific terms delivering responses with unprecedented ease and accuracy. RealDialogs distinct ability to engage users in human-like conversations when clarification is needed, help it to deliver a highly precise, contextualized, and even personalized response to the user.

The Transition
Unilever replaced the Folio knowledge management tool with RealDialog. During this process, proprietary information was converted into html pages. RealDialogs knowledge base was established and enhanced by leveraging existing enterprise content (Web pages, documents, and files) and information systems. This was a key improvement for Unilever, as accessing and updating its vast information repositories was a major challenge leading into the initiative. Furthermore, RealDialogs capabilities enabled Unilever to load multimedia images of labels for all of its products, giving agents immediate access to all relevant information. The implementation laid the groundwork for ongoing improvements and greater accuracy. RealDialog

The Impact of RealDialog Agent Assist: Rapid ROI, Best-in-Class Service

Upon implementing RealDialog Agent Assist, Unilever began to realize a return on investment: The solution initially achieved an unprecedented 94 percent accuracy, demonstrating its ability to comprehend the myriad ways representatives and consumers phrase questions Within the first 60 days, calls to the internal help desk were reduced by 50 percent

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 Agents quickly began to improve handle times For the first time ever, Unilever gained the capability to load all of its packaging information and graphics into Agent Assist eliminating the on-site repositories housing physical containers for hundreds of products Among the many business and operational advantages it has using RealDialog, Unilever Consumer Services now has the flexibility and functionality to: Enhance the consumer experience. By empowering its representatives with rapid access to the exact information they need, Unilever is ensuring a better experience for its consumers. This was evident early on through improved issue resolution times and greater information accuracy. This performance is reinforced as Unilevers consumers interact with representatives who are now able to focus exclusively on the emotional aspects of delivering world-class service. Improve knowledge management across the enterprise. By supporting multiple touch points and leveraging existing content (Web pages, documents, and files) across a wide variety of information sources, RealDialog enables Unilever representatives to deliver exceptionally fast, accurate and consistent information to consumers. They are empowered to continue improving issue resolution rates. Gain actionable consumer insights. RealDialog excels at capturing, interpreting and organizing large volumes of unstructured data, which provides Unilever with increased reporting capabilities and a unique under-

standing of its consumers needs and preferences. This was a key improvement for Unilever. This information offers a basis for product, service and process enhancements across the enterprise. The company now has the capability to identify and quickly respond to trends and problems, while becoming more and more responsive to consumer wants and needs. This is typically a major challenge for large organizations. RealDialog Agent Assist clearly had a quick ROI. Weve gained a valuable technology partner in Astute Solutions, said Linnea Johnson, director of consumer services, Unilever. RealDialog enables us to understand our consumers immediate needs and enhance their experience at the time when it matters most. It also gives us powerful insights to further our business objective of delivering products that meet the changing tastes, lifestyles and expectations of our consumers.

Building on KM SuccessA Glance at Phase 2

Unilevers success implementing RealDialog Agent Assist laid the foundation for best-in-class service. The company envisioned an opportunity to leverage core functionality in the contact center out to its high-traffic brand websites Past attempts at incorporating online self-service to offset the growing volume of calls and emails were short-lived. The technologies used failed to meet the companys expectations and high service standards. Unilever required a solution capable of: providing instant access to accurate information ensuring great consumer experiences reducing operational costs increasing efficiency

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About Astute Solutions

Focused on customer experiences, customer insights, flexibility and value, Astute Solutions software enables companies to deliver exceptional customer interactions so they can strengthen customer relationships, learn from customer insights and reduce the cost and complexity of managing interactions across the organization. Our Customer Service, Contact Center, Knowledge Management, and Self-Service solutions enable companies to: Differentiate their brands by delivering exceptional service in the contact center, on the Web and in the field Resolve issues with greater efficiency and accuracy Increase customer satisfaction, retention and advocacy Dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of customer interactions Respond quickly and effectively to trends and opportunities Adapt and respond to changing regulations, business needs and customer preferences Drive continuous improvements in products, services and processes through actionable voice of the customer insights

Confident in the capabilities of Astute Solutions, Unilever chose its RealDialog Self-Service for the second phase of its knowledge management overhaul. Its Popsicle, Klondike and Breyers U.S. brand websites were selected for the first three implementations, as the contact center was anticipating a surge in email volume from scheduled 800 number rollouts. As with the RealDialog Agent Assist solution, the return on investment with RealDialog Self-Service began immediately. Upon implementation, the solution was successfully responding to 90 percent of all online inquiriesreducing the emails escalated to a representative to just 10 percent. Unilever currently operates 48 brand websites. Focusing on the highest-traffic sites, its goal is to take seven websites live with RealDialog Self Service by the close of 2009.

The Value of a Strong Technology Partnership

Together, Astute Solutions and Unilever are validating the role of knowledge management as a key enabler of best-in-class service. Recognizing the critical importance of each consumer experience, theyve created an interaction environment with empowered agents; and immediate, enterprise-wide access to specific, detailed product information. Over time, voice of the consumer feedback and expanded functionality will continue to drive product and service enhancements and operational efficiencies enabling Unilever to make the most of every interaction.

Our solutions optimize operations through immediate, actionable feedback, while meeting the complex technical requirements of the enterprise. Astute Solutions Global 1000 customers include: McDonalds, British Airways, Levi Strauss & Co., LOreal USA, The Scotts MiracleGro Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Abbott Labs, and Dunkin Brands.

For more information, visit: www.astutesolutions.com/solutions

2400 Corporate Exchange Drive Columbus, Ohio 43231 Phone 877.769.3750 info@astutesolutions.com www.astutesolutions.com
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2009 Astute Solutions