Agentz Data Reveals Nearly One in Four Consumers Prefer Communicating with Small Businesses Using Automated Assistants

FREMONT, Calif., Feb. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With staffing shortages persisting for many small BUSINESSES, automated assistant technology is poised to ease the hiring gap. Evidence comes from businesses that have installed the Agentz Automated Assistant showing a 37.2% increase in user engagement in 2021 as consumers demonstrate their willingness to self-service using smart automated tools vs. relying on live human help.

"It is quite remarkable what we saw last year," said Kerry Baldwin, Head of Channel Partnerships.  "The level of consumer engagement with the Automated Assistant grew quarter over quarter resulting in nearly one-fourth of consumers opting to use automation. Even more remarkable is that less than 1% of those engagements resulted in the consumer requesting live help. This proves that technology can elegantly handle many types of customer inquiries easing the workload for understaffed small businesses."

Surpassing simple 'lead capture' tools, automation has evolved to handle many routine tasks. Some key evolutionary trends:

• SMBs are increasingly comfortable trusting automation to answer questions and schedule appointments on their behalf
• Transferring missed calls to an automated SMS conversation is the feature most in demand by SMBs who continue to miss upwards of one-third of their calls 
• The ability for businesses to provide the same self-service experience across SMS, Facebook, Google My Business, website, and voice is increasingly valued
• Consumers expect help 24/7 - Agentz data shows that one third of automated conversations are after hours

Founder, Ketan Shah, notes: "The ability to service a quarter of customers using automation is a game-changer for small businesses struggling to keep up with demand. The heavy investment in automation tools has historically been at the enterprise level leaving a real opportunity for us to tackle the underserved SMB audience.  We've democratized automation technology with the SMB in mind." 

"The current environment is furthering the adoption of self-service tools out of necessity and we believe our technology is just hitting its stride," added CTO, Arun Kumar. "Both consumers and businesses appreciate the convenience of automation for sales and routine inquiries. Heading into this year, we are prioritizing continued development of our SMS and responsive voice capabilities to match trending consumer preferences." 

Self-service automated assistants couldn't come at a better time. This past November saw the "Great Resignation" with a record 4.5 million Americans quitting their jobs. As pandemic after-effects continue and workers quit for better pay, working conditions or hours, employers are paying a premium for new hires - if they can find someone. 

"At a cost of less than 3% of the average employee, the Agentz Automated Assistant works 24/7, never calls in sick and continually learns," said Shah. "When we set out to address the needs of the SMB, we could not have predicted what the past two years would bring but when we hear from our customers how automation helps keep their business running, we know that we're solving the right problem, the right way."

Agentz recently released their white paper "A Case for Automation: Agentz Data Signals" that provides insights into how consumers interact using automation, including the most common intents. The top five intents were to request a service, share contact information, ask about pricing, ask about availability, and troubleshoot a problem.

To see the full report, the white paper can be accessed for free at the Agentz website.

About Agentz
Operating since 2019, Agentz is based in Silicon Valley, built by entrepreneurs with decades of experience in building technology companies including Yellowpages.com and Weblistic. Agentz was born out of the founder's personal experience of operating a small business where he realized how difficult it is for SMBs to compete and stay on top of everything without automation. 

The Agentz Automated Assistant is a no-code, easy to set up and use solution right out-of-the-box, designed so that small businesses can feel the impact on day one.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Agentz
Ketan Shah
510-915-2850
[email protected] 

Link to Press Kit: 
http://agentz.ai/press-kit/

SOURCE Agentz