SolarWinds IT Service Management (ITSM) is a software solution that helps organizations manage their IT services more effectively. It provides tools for logging and tracking service requests, resolving incidentsand problems, managing changes, and maintaining a knowledge base.
Organizations can streamline their IT service delivery processes, improve efficiency, and enhance customer satisfaction. Offering intuitive features for logging and tracking service requests, SolarWinds ITSM ensures a structured approach to managing incoming tickets. This helps organizations prioritize and address service requests promptly, leading to improved response times and customer satisfaction.
About Solarwinds
ITSM Product
The Virtual Agent end-goal is to help requesters (portal users) quickly resolve issues without getting a real agent involved (improve self-service and incidents reduction) and with 24/7 availability. The virtual agent can help with simple or routine issues, allowing real agents to focus on more important/complex tasks (improve productivity) and accelerating response times (reduce MTTR)
HCL Chatbot uses AI technology to solve ordinary issues while mimic human conversation, understand user language better, ask additional questions to get context, respond to the queries in real-time, and hand-off a conversation to a human agent when required.
HCL Chatbot is a white label chat it can be rebranded and
customized to the brand and design goals.
About the
Virtual Agent
One major issue we faced was the absence of a Chatbot in our web portal app, which put us at a disadvantage compared to our competitors. Since most of our competitors already offer this feature to their customers, we were losing potential sales and revenue due to the gap in our service offerings. In order to stay competitive and attract more customers, it was essential that we address this problem fast as possible and bridge the Chatbot gap in our portal app.
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Real Agent Must be involved
The absence of a Chatbot forces us to rely solely on live agents to resolve customer issues, which can result in slow response times and user frustration. With a Chatbot, customers can quickly and easily find solutions to common issues on their own, without the need for a live agent.
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Low Availability
We know are customers live agents has limited availability, which can lead to longer wait times and reduced customer satisfaction. By implementing a Chatbot, we can offer our customers a more accessible and cost-effective service solution that is available 24/7.
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Simple Issues
For quick and simple issues, a Chatbot can be much more efficient and cost-effective than a live agent, the Chatbot can provide a seamless and personalized user experience, guiding the customer through the support process and resolving their issue quickly than live agent.
Problems
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Admins
The admins persona uses the settings of the virtual agent in the service desk. They can easily turn it on or off and configure it according to your specific needs. In addition, they have access to valuable analytical information that allows them to monitor how many users are actively engaging with the chat feature. With this level of insight, you can optimize your chat usage and tailor it to specific use cases for maximum impact.
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Requesters
The requester persona has the option to talk with the virtual agent in the service portal and help them (portal users) quickly resolve issues without getting a real agent involved, such as creation of ticket.
User Personas
I used the "how might we" questioning method in the context of a virtual agent this allowed me for the generation of inventive solutions while ensuring a focus on addressing the most crucial problems. By framing questions using "how might we," it encourages creative thinking and opens up possibilities for innovative approaches to designing and improving the virtual agent. When applied to a virtual agent, "how might we" questioning prompts us to consider various aspects of its functionality, user experience, and problem-solving capabilities. For example, "How might we improve the virtual agent's ability to understand and respond accurately to user queries?" or "How might we enhance the virtual agent's conversational skills to provide a more human-like interaction?"
How Might We
Method
To fully grasp and evaluate the feature and its challenges, I meticulously mapped out all competitors who has the virtual agent capability.
Competitors
Thorough the research I collected and explored inspirations and ideas from direct competitors, the broader ecosystem, prevailing design trends, and big apps in the market, all tailored towards enhancing the Virtual Agent. I meticulously mapped out all the corresponding flows and research using Figjam. Below, you can find screenshots from the research.
UI.UX Research
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Chat with a Live Agent
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Admin Settings and configuration for the Virtual Agent - Service Desk
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Virtual Agent Console/Analytics Hosted by HCL integration on the Service Desk
A comprehensive map of the user experience when engaging with the virtual agent chatbot, demonstrating each UI screen and scenario. A key tool for aligning development and project management teams prior to creating wireframes and visual designs of the virtual agent feature.
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The Virtual Agent Open Action - Portal Users (Requesters)
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The Virtual Agent Inner Actions - Portal Users (Requesters)
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History Actions in Virtual Agent - Portal Users (Requesters)
Flow of the Screens
by Notes
Handoff
In the handoff phase, I met with the development team, explained the design details thoroughly, and ensured a comprehensive understanding of the project requirements. This streamlined the transfer of responsibilities and minimized the chances of overlooking important elements during development.
Design Review
The purpose of the design review to verify that the final product aligns with the designated design specifications and to offer constructive feedback on the user interface (UI) design, if required. This process aims to guarantee that the end result faithfully represents the intended design while also allowing for necessary improvements and refinements to the UI, ensuring a user-friendly experience.
Handoff Phase and Design Review
Please find below several screens from our mobile app and web app, illustrating the service portal's virtual agent chat feature. These screens offer a visual representation of the chat interface.