Government Services

ClairVista’s Live Expert ® is the Industry’s Most Advanced Virtual Customer Service System for Government Services​

With nearly two decades of experience and countless successful implementations, we’ve received a wide range of questions about virtual service kiosks and virtual customer service. Below, we’ve outlined some of the most important questions government organizations should be asking—along with our answers.​

1. What should I look for when evaluating virtual customer service systems?​

Most virtual customer service systems being sold are immature “video plugin” tools that lack the features and reliability
necessary for a high-engagement, high-performance customer service operation. The following are the market validation and enterprise-class features that you should look for: ​

• Is the system used across many industries, including government services and Fortune-500 companies?​
• Most systems have a single industry footprint because they cannot compete with advanced systems like
  ClairVista’s Live Expert ® system, which has had 335 software updates over 16 years and is used by government
  services and companies across all industries.​
• Is the system deployed across hundreds or thousands of locations? Most systems only have few limited pilot
  implementations?​
• Does the system provide “one-click” connection to an available agent without the customer having to go
  through multiple steps, and establish a connection with an agent in 1-2 seconds?​
• Does the system provide automated agent selection and video call routing to available agent base service
  category, location, and customer’s language preference? ​
• Most systems use the “jump ball” method where all agents monitor incoming call requests and they select calls
  from that list. Other systems use old-fashioned closed circuit surveillance systems where agents have to
  monitor dozens of live video feeds to identify customers who may need help – never a scalable method for customer
  service.​
• Does the system provide automated customer queue management and after-hours workflow?​
• Does the system provide interactive tools like co-browsing and kiosk screen viewing + remote control for the
  agent?
• Does the system provide a well organized “resource library” of content and forms that agents can instantly click
  and share with customers?​
• Does the system provide configurable real-time reports and analytics for customer and agent activities,
  including wait time, customer abandonment, customer feedback, activity by location and time of day?​
• Does the system provide automated alerts for any service session issues, including kiosk device failure or
  network related issues?​
• Does the system provide kiosk, web, and mobile options for omni-channel virtual services.​

2. What should I look for when evaluating virtual customer service kiosks?​

​Since customers care about the kiosk cost, a common industry practice for kiosk manufacturers is to use inexpensive
components that are easy to use during the manufacturing and assembly processes. Kiosk manufacturers also benefit from
frequent “replacement cycles”, so long kiosk useful life is not the highest priority. The following are indicators that you can look for when evaluating kiosks and kiosk manufacturers: ​

• Is the kiosk computer, touchscreen LCD, camera, and speakerphone tier-1 brands and models that you recognize?​
• Does the computer and touchscreen LCD come with 3-years manufacturer’s warranty?​
• Does the warranty also cover the cost of onsite replacement of the device by a trained technician?​
• Make sure that kiosks are one-time purchases that do not require ongoing recurring payments.​

​ClairVista provides purpose-built kiosks designed specifically for virtual services, manufactured in US. Our kiosks use the highest performance component available, and we provide the strongest warranty available in the industry.​

3. What are the benefits of providing virtual customer service?​

​Virtual customer service allows small number of agents to support large number of locations since agents can be instantly connected to any location where a customer needs assistance. For many types of organizations, a single agent can cover 5 to 10 locations, resulting in 80% – 90% savings compared to onsite staffing.​

Virtual services also allow organizations to efficiently expand service hours or points of service, since kiosks are much less
expensive than physical offices with onsite staff. Also, with our Live Expert system, virtual agents have one-click access to all
informational content and forms they may need, which makes each session more efficient and productive.​

4. What advantages does virtual customer service have over self-service?​

​With ClairVista’s Live Expert® virtual customer service system, each customer is instantly connected to the agent best able to assist with the customer’s specific need. This achieves greater new customer conversion, first-contact resolution for existing customers, and elevates overall customer satisfaction. ​

​Virtual customer service kiosks with remote agents results in greater service utilization and lower session abandonment than self-service kiosks. Self-service kiosks experience high level of customer resistance and session abandonment, especially for information-intensive or infrequently used services.​ assist with the customer’s specific need. This achieves greater new customer conversion, first-contact resolution for existing customers, and elevates overall customer satisfaction.

5. Can I offer virtual customer service in conjunction with self-service or AI-driven services?​

Yes – Our Live Expert® virtual customer service system provides a customizable menu screen that can offers both live agent
services and self-service options (including AI-driven workflow). This enables businesses to provide live agent service during normal business hours and self-service options when virtual agents are not available.​

6. What are examples of organizations or companies that have successfully implemented virtual customer service?​

​With over 1700 virtual customer service kiosks deployed over the 16 years, ClairVista’s Live Expert® system has led the industry in virtual customer service implementations:​

• Orange County CA Courts uses our Live Expert ® virtual service kiosks to offer virtual “self-help’’ legal services to
  the public. Using these kiosks, citizens can select from a menu of 12 different services and several language
  choices to instantly connect with an available paralegal for live consultations.​
• Hertz used Live Expert ® virtual service system to operate ExpressRent kiosks at airport and off-airport locations for
  over 10 years (the largest deployment of virtual customer service kiosks in the world). Hertz was able to efficiently
  provide personalized services on demand, which reduced customer wait times while increasing up-sells and add-
  on sales. ​
• Prime Storage, National Storage, and others use Live Expert ® virtual service kiosks at hundreds of self-storage
  facilities, which allowed these companies to reduce onsite staffing while improving overall service availability. ​

For additional stories about organizations or companies using ClairVista’s Live Expert® system, click below.

7. What is the ROI for implementing virtual customer service?​

Many of our customers achieve annual ROI of 400% with investment payback time of less than two months. While every
implementation is different in terms of its service and financial objectives, the tremendous efficiency and productivity gains made possible by virtual service models ensure that each program has a high ROI.