USPS
Virtual Call Center Agent using Dialogflow Chatbot
Company Profile
The United States Postal Service (USPS; also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service) is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the United States, including its insular areas and associated states.
Business Situation
USPS receives many incoming calls from customers, who are tracking their packages. During peak hours the wait times for customers are long and call center agents cannot differentiate between queries which are easy to answer vs those which are difficult. The goal was to augment the call center with a virtual agent that can answer most of the common questions and delegate the difficult ones to live agents. This should reduce the call abandon rate; increase customer interaction and satisfaction; allow agents to focus on priority interactions.
Google Cloud Implementation
SpringML developed an intelligent IVR AI agent which handles incoming traffic using Dialogflow. The virtual agent handles the first line of interaction with the customer using the ML-based conversational interface. This virtual agent can interact with the end customer via voice-enabled conversations. The virtual agent is trained to answer most of the frequently asked questions with zero wait time. These questions were setup as intents in Dialogflow. A process was also setup to seamlessly transfer calls to a live agent in case customers require additional information.
