AI Receptionist by RingCentral now comes equipped with integrations with Shopify, Calendly, and WhatsApp as the software maker seeks to expand the offering beyond basic call answering to customer service tasks.
According to RingCentral, AI Receptionist, also referred to as AIR, can process certain order inquiries on Shopify, schedule meetings via Calendly, and reply to incoming WhatsApp messages. The company also plans to add AIR to shared SMS inboxes and phone queues such that it can be able to answer text messages and pick up calls when lines are busy.
RingCentral said over 11,800 organizations use the AIR solution.
The solution is primarily aimed at smaller and mid-size businesses that get regular inbound inquiries. RingCentral noted that healthcare, finance, legal, hospitality, and construction were just some of the sectors where customers have been using AIR for front desk operations.
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Keller Interiors, a provider of installation services to Lowe’s Home Improvement, claimed that it utilized AIR at 33 of its facilities. Beth Owens, Chief of Staff, stated that they faced a challenging issue that could not be adequately handled by humans. “RingCentral AIR helped us solve a problem we didn’t have a human solution for: how do you route every inbound call correctly, all day every day, at 33 different facilities, without creating a call center?” Owens noted. According to her, Keller Interiors managed to decrease wait time from 12 minutes to 90 seconds while improving customer satisfaction scores by three points in four months.
Tara Breaux, Vice President of Operations at Maple Federal Credit Union, reported that it used AIR to cut down hold times within their branches. “We’ve been able to decrease hold times by 90%, which allows for quicker service, decreased stress on our team, and more focus on the important conversations.”
The new Shopify link has been designed to enable AIR to give answers to some common questions related to orders and customer care on the phone. The Calendly interface enables AIR to schedule appointments using Calendly tools, while use of WhatsApp integrates with the messaging application used broadly by consumers and small businesses.
Automatic language detection will be enabled in RingCentral. The company claims that AIR can detect the language used by a caller and proceed with the conversation in that language, providing services in 10 different languages, including English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese.
Michelle Morgan, research manager for AI-enabled sales, customer service, and contact center strategies at IDC, said that the new version demonstrated applied AI within everyday business operations. “RingCentral’s expansion of AIR into Shopify, Calendly, WhatsApp, and intelligent call queues shows what applied AI should be: features linked to pain points.”
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Speaking about the product, Joe Fahrner, the vice-president of growth for AI products at RingCentral, provided the broader perspective about the same, stating that AIR is transforming into a “digital employee” for SMBs.
According to RingCentral, AIR is available as a standalone service, which starts from $49 per month, with 100 minutes included. For existing RingEX users, there is a special price – starting from $39 per month with 100 minutes.
