At some point in your life, you’ve probably experienced the anger and frustration that comes from interacting with a call center.
Regardless of the reason to get in touch — maybe you needed to debate a bill or request a refund — call centers are notorious for using endless, labyrinthine menus to stave off perturbed customers as they wait to get a real human on the line.
Interactions, a Franklin-based software company, aims to eliminate this disgruntlement with intelligent virtual assistants, or IVAs, used by major brands to communicate with customers through web chat, text messaging and phone conversations.
We’ve been working for years perfecting our approach with some of the largest brands in the world.”
Mike Iacobucci, CEO of Interactions, said his company’s virtual assistants can eliminate the need for call center agents.
Founded in 2004, Interactions’ bots use a combination of AI and human understanding to comprehend what customers write or say, regardless of factors like accent, slang and even background noise.
“IVAs can communicate with consumers in a very human-like conversational manner, whether they’re texting or chatting on the phone,” Iacobucci said. “We’ve been working for years perfecting our approach with some of the largest brands in the world.”
Some major clients of Interactions include Hyatt, LifeLock, SRP and Mountain America Credit Union.
Ultimately, Interactions hopes to not only keep consumers happy, but also reduce the operational costs businesses incur maintaining call centers with live agents.
Currently, Interactions employs about 125 people in Franklin; 420 total. The company has raised nearly $163 million to date from venture firms including SoftBank Capital, Sigma Partners and Comcast Ventures.
“Our biggest objective is effecting change in the way consumers communicate,” Iacobucci said.
