Hi there,
This blog page is an experiment with creating a chatbot -or ‘conversational agent’ which can help an HR/Payroll organisation customer service agents to handle the routine, easier questions.
Service center agents often have to handle repetitive tasks which can be demoralising and unfulfilling (e.g. pre-qualification (what’s this issue about?) or authorisation (how can you prove you are John Smith)). The chatbot can do that instead.
Customers don’t like being put on hold or wait in a phone queue – the chatbot is always there and ready to answer questions. Finally customers don’t like to repeat themselves- since all the conversations are logged in the thread, the information is available also to a human customer service rep if required.
I’ve built this below CA (conversational agent) to be able handle simple queries like:
- “can you send me my payslip”?
- “What was my overtime balance for the previous month”?
- “Connect with support team”
- etc…
There is an “authorisation step” when you are requesting either a payslip or overtime, accepted name values are: “John”, “Sally” and “Pentti”.
These are just some simple examples, more can easily be configured. Give it a go here:
As you’ll note there is no back-end integration at the moment, however the conversational agent is able to greet the customer, understand the queries, do an authorisation check and direct her further if needed.
Pls let me know what you think in the comments, or contact me via the contact page.
Thanks
Oskar
Hi Oskar,
Sound wonderful but my initial concern would be the security as you know payroll information are confidential in nature.
I am curious to know also how and where the information sources will be stored.
Hi Ryan, yes a valid concern of course, some comments: A) The data would still reside in the respective payroll /HR systems, and the chatbot would make requests to the backend via an API (JSON) in an encrypted connection. B) There would need to be an authorisation step in the flow, which depending on the client could be via single-sign-on (SSO) or require user/pw entry.
I believe chatbots still have ways to go and are still in Generation 1, the exciting future of transactional and conversations commerce with deeper NLP capabilities will be the tipping point. Do read our collection of blogs at Engati, test our platform and provide us feedback at http://www.engati.com – you can also register and build your bot for free in 10 mins and publish it across 8 platforms simultaneously including a web chat widget.