RingCentral has expanded its AI Receptionist product with new links to Shopify, Calendly, and WhatsApp. That’s because communications software companies are pushing their products beyond basic phone answering and into more routine customer service tasks.
The company said its AI receptionists, known as AIRs, can now handle some order inquiries through Shopify, arrange appointments through Calendly, and respond to WhatsApp messages they receive. AIR has also been added to your shared SMS inbox and call queue, allowing you to respond to texts even when phone lines are busy or staff are unavailable, and to intervene when staff are unavailable.
According to RingCentral, more than 11,800 companies are currently using AIR.
The product is primarily aimed at small and medium-sized organizations that receive regular inbound inquiries, and RingCentral lists healthcare, financial services, legal, hospitality, and construction as sectors where customers are using AIR for front desk operations and overtime coverage.
Keller Interiors, the contractor for Lowe’s Home Improvement, said it has installed AIR in 33 locations. Chief of Staff Beth Owens said the company has routing issues that are difficult for staff to resolve. “RingCentral AIR solved a problem that was never properly answered by humans: How do we correctly route all incoming calls across 33 locations 24/7 without building a call center?” Owens said. She said Keller Interiors has reduced wait times from 12 minutes to 90 seconds and increased customer satisfaction scores by three points over four months.
Tara Breaux, vice president of operations at Maple Federal Credit Union, said they used AIR to reduce hold times at branches. “We have reduced hold times by 90%, enabling faster service and reducing the burden on our staff, allowing them to focus on the conversations that matter most.”
The new Shopify link is designed to help AIR answer basic ordering and customer support questions over the phone. The Calendly interface allows AIR to schedule appointments using Calendly’s tools. The use of WhatsApp will also extend to messaging apps that are widely used by consumers and small businesses.
RingCentral also adds automatic language detection. According to the company, AIR can recognize the language of a caller and continue a conversation in that language, and is compatible with 10 languages, including English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese.
Michelle Morgan, research manager for AI-enabled sales, customer service and contact center strategies at IDC, said the update is an example of applying AI to everyday work. “RingCentral’s extension of AIR to Shopify, Calendly, WhatsApp, and intelligent call queues is a demonstration of what applied AI should look like, with every feature tied to a clear pain point,” she said.
Joe Fahrner, RingCentral’s vice president of AI product growth, said AIR is becoming the “digital workforce” for small and medium-sized businesses, offering a broader view of the company’s products.
According to RingCentral, AIR is currently available as a standalone product starting at $49 per month, including 100 minutes. Existing RingEX customers can add AIR starting at $39 per month (100 minutes included).
(Image source: Pixabay, below)
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