As we approach just over three weeks of the launch of the smartform enhancement on SIMon as a way to submit tickets to our Moderator Team, let’s keep the conversation going on how things have gone!
If you’re new around these parts, I highly suggest reading my previous blog posts (Part 1 & Part 2) to learn about the context and behind-the-scenes of the development of this exciting change to our virtual assistant.
Without further ado, let’s open up the curtain and check in on how things have gone!
How is SIMon performing?
Since launching the smartform enhancement at the beginning of the month, SIMon has had 15K conversations, with 70% of conversations being resolved within SIMon. Way to go SIMon! This was undoubtedly boosted by the “predictive suggestions” and “intros” improvement that we silently launched at the same time of the new smartform features. Have you noticed this? As you start typing your question, SIMon will preemptively suggest what he thinks you’re asking, making the conversational experience easier to use than ever before.
Effect on ticket handle times
SIMon’s tickets now account for just under half of all Moderator interactions. With the smartform enhancement, our goal is to do two things:
- Decrease the average time to resolution (the time between a customer contacting us and when they respond that things are working back-to-normal)
- Increase the % of tickets that are closed in 1 message
We’re glad to hear that a number of you have experienced faster response times when using SIMon, and we are working hard to make sure that this continually becomes the norm moving forward. SIMon’s tickets are indeed prioritized ahead of regular private messages to encourage more of our customers to try this new process (see: Why should I use SIMon?). To date, customers who use SIMon have a 20% faster time to resolution compared to private message users.
We are also observing a 10% lift in the share of tickets closed in 1 message thanks to the information collected in the forms. We’ve taken some small steps to improvement so far, and rest assured we are continually learning and collecting feedback to take further steps.
Addressing some Q&A
Q: When does the smartform link expire?
- A: The smartform link is a unique URL generated by your chat session. It expires when any user submits a ticket using that URL. In other words, it is designed to be a one-use link for the original chatter, and not widely shared. That’s why if you click the same link once a ticket has been submitted through it already, you will see a 404 error as a result.
Q: What about a direct link to the form?
- A: We are definitely aware of this ask and can appreciate it’s not ideal to tell a customer (who has posted on the Community already and shared their issue), to share it again with the Chatbot. That said, we also consider the need to deflect simple issues (which SIMon has proven to be very good for) and to not create an unnecessary workload to our Moderators. To that end, we will likely explore a middle ground solution to this but it is certainly one of the first items in our to do list (more on that in “What’s next”).
Q: I can’t submit a ticket because of a 403 error message. What’s happening?
- A: We addressed the following bugs at launch and in the recent weeks:
- I can’t verify my Self-Serve account in the form when I use an email alias (ex.JohnSmith+Mom@gmail.com) → All Self-Serve accounts should now work
- I am getting a 403 error when I try to open up the form → 403 error is now removed; direct chat links to https://publicmobile.ca.ada.support/chat/ will now work
What’s next
We are constantly collecting feedback through an SMS survey that we send to customers who have contacted a Moderator since the launch of this initiative. Additionally, we are collecting feedback from our Moderators and Retail Partners in an ongoing huddle. We’ve started to accumulate a backlog of changes, including ones voiced by the Community about the preference for a direct link and live wait time.
I’m personally very excited for these early results as I know our Moderator Team has been learning and adapting to these changes as well. I’m hopeful we’ll continue to see additional benefits down the road when this new process becomes a well-oiled machine. What do you think of this change so far? Let us know down below.
Until next time,
Alan
Great news! 
@Luddite wrote:As long as https://publicmobile.ca.ada.support/chat/ never fails I see no need for direct links to individual smartforms. Work on a system bug instead, please.
But OMG, 15k queries in a month is 500 topics a day!!! I take back everything I said about Simon be a waste of time.
I dunno. Web stats are easily inflated. If they had conversation path stats maybe. How many of those "hits" are all of us fiddling around with magic incantations trying to get a dang form 🙂
Or start to thumbs-up and done maybe. And not just the pm link to moderators or the mystical form. Those aren't resolution.
But then how many are people coming in and fiddling with it and throwing their hands up and taking their business elsewhere or suffering the problem.
We do see postings of people coming to the community saying they've had something going on for weeks.
@Anonymous wrote:Gonna put the regulars here and the moderators there out of work. 🙂
Never fear, retail push will continue bring lots of folks here. Especially many more unfamiliar with online support as the only mode to get assistance. I may need a crash course in using Android OS to be of any help. 
"SIMon has had 15K conversations, with 70% of conversations being resolved within SIMon." is indeed remarkable. 
As long as https://publicmobile.ca.ada.support/chat/ never fails I see no need for direct links to individual smartforms. Work on a system bug instead, please.
But OMG, 15k queries in a month is 500 topics a day!!! I take back everything I said about Simon be a waste of time. 
