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Web-based winners:
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BKK Zollern-Alb becomes the first health insurance provider to invest in a virtual customer adviser.
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Hamburg, Germany, 1th August, 2001. There is a new face on the homepage of the BKK Zollern-Alb: coinciding with the health insurance provider's web relaunch, Alberta is now on-line to greet and assist visitors to the German-language www.bkk-zollern-alb.de. She is part of a generation known as the IPI agents (Interactive Personable Intelligent agents), created and developed in Germany by the Hamburg-based software company, novomind AG.
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With the help of the novomind IQ software, the BKK Zollern-Alb is the first health insurance provider to offer its customers round-the-clock customer care on-line. Regardless of time or place, a friendly first point of contact is there to answer user queries and help with the website navigation process.
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IPI agents are able to deal with hundreds of concurrent customer requests, meaning that call centers no longer have to deal with routine FAQs. And if the queries become too complex, Alberta can transfer the user directly to the call center: an Online Talk Button sets up an instant live chat with a human dialog partner – without changing communication channels. The novomind TrueTALK™ software solution is the interface that enables Live Operators to assist up to four concurrent customers and display specific information on the user's screen via the push page function. novomind AG’s combinination of natural language agents and live chat make them technological front runners in the automated customer support sector: "By combining technologies, we can optimize query responses across the board," adds Marco Busacker, novomind AG’s CMO. "The IPI agents deal with the routine work, enabling the human operator to intervene when requests become too specific."
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Alberta owes her appearance to a real-life photo model. "An IPI agent’s success does not just depend on the complexity of its graphics or the size of its knowledgebase. Personality also plays a vital role. Users have to be able to identify with the agent," concludes Barbara Terbeck, who heads the Alberta project at the Hamburg-based on-line agency, PCS New Media, which was responsible for the entire web relaunch. Alberta human appearance and, in particular, her range of emotions and natural language dialog, create a more personal atmosphere that puts web user at their ease. Returning users are recognized and their individual requirements taken into account.
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Customer service is essential for health insurance providers: according to the business consultants, Mummert & Partner, one in eight insurance queries will be made via the internet by 2005 – four times the number of current on-line requests. Over the past year, 40 percent of German internet users said that they would like to see more customer service through virtual assistants. By implementing innovative technology, such as novomind IQtm and novomind TrueTALKtm, BKK Zollern-Alb increases ist sevice scope whilst cutting costs. Thomas Bodmer, BKK Zollern-Alb’s CEO, is enthusiastic: "By implementing a virtual customer adviser on our homepage, we are setting a trend. Alberta enables us to break with the traditional image of health insurance providers and bring our own innovative company image to the forefront."
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About novomind:
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novomind Inc. was founded in 1999 and is one of the leading providers of intelligent software solutions that open up new dimensions in internet company-client relations and allow companies to increase turnover and cut costs. The novomind systems bring the human touch to the internet and allow future-oriented customer services to be integrated into eCommerce.The novomind IQ standard software enables virtual web agents to be developed to guide the user interactively through internet events, provide him or her with personalized advice and create intelligent user profiles. novomind TrueTALK™ enables users to be connected to a Live Operator based in a call center. There are currently over 40 employees working for novomind Inc. The company’s clients include well-known concerns such as Bertelsmann (bol.de/bol.uk), Gruner +Jahr, Otto and the Heinrich Bauer Verlag publishing house.
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About BKK Zollern-Alb:
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BKK Zollern-Alb is a customer oriented health service provider whose 712 employees currently deal with approx. 485,000 individually-insured clients, as well as over 120,000 company-insured clients in 26 locations across Germany. BKK Zollern-Alb was renamed in 1996 after mergers with long-standing insurance providers representing well-known companies such as Bizerba, Stora Enso, Kraft Jacobs Suchard and approx. 40 others. Increasing numbers of company insurance providers are choosing to join the BKK Zollern-Alb alliance, making it one of the best-known insurance providers in Germany, with its headquarters in Balingen and 25 branch offices nationwide.
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Press contact:
Going Public GmbH
Martina Ladewig, Maren Wittern
Burchardstrasse 17
20095 Hamburg – Germany
phone +49.40.20 00 05-25
fax +49.40.20 00 05-55
email info@goinggroup.de
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