Introducing Tico: The AI support game-changer
The vision was clear—to create an AI-driven support system that didn't just answer questions but understood and addressed users’ needs. By using Voiceflow's extensible conversational AI platform, the team developed a knowledge-base-centric AI agent that transformed their customer support.
Tico was an experiment in the “art of the possible”—its ongoing success proves that AI agents can yield unprecedented time and cost savings, along with efficiency and CSAT gains.
Here's how they did it:
- Deployed a consolidated knowledge base (KB): The Voiceflow team integrated Tico with a comprehensive KB, which brought together extensive Voiceflow documentation, support articles, and community-generated content into a single, searchable repository.
- Implemented advanced query handling: By connecting Tico to GPT-4, the team enabled Tico to interpret complex user questions and provide contextually relevant solutions, tapping into the KB when needed.
- Integrated seamlessly with existing systems: The team opted to integrate Tico with Voiceflow’s support system, providing users with instant access to help without disrupting users’ workflow.
- Provided a consistently on-brand user experience: The team at Voiceflow fine-tuned Tico’s interactions across all channels to maintain their brand voice, ensuring a natural extension of their customer service, even as new channels were added.
"Since implementing Tico, we’ve had a remarkable 97% deflection rate, drastically reducing live support tickets while retaining a 93% CSAT score." - Tahsim, Head of CX
Tico’s transformative impact on support and user engagement
Tico's incredible results proved to Voiceflow that their own product—sophisticated, AI agents—were just as valuable to them as to their customers. The introduction of Tico marked four significant milestones for Voiceflow’s customer support:
1. Drastic reduction in ticket volume
From an overwhelming flow of inquiries, Tico efficiently managed user interactions, leading to a sharp decrease in the need for live or human support.
Tico resolved a staggering 90.9% of support tickets, highlighting its effectiveness in managing queries. This shift has profoundly reduced the volume of tickets requiring human intervention—down to a mere 9.1%—allowing the human support team to focus on complex issues that require a personal touch.
2. Clear reduction in human support rates with knowledge base
The integration of Tico with Voiceflow’s knowledge base had a dramatic impact on human support rates, cutting the need for human interaction from 16.1% to an impressive 2.5%. In a matter of days, this drastic decrease highlighted the effectiveness of AI in preempting and resolving user issues, diminishing the need for direct human intervention.
3. Enhanced response time and efficiency
Tico’s assistance outpaced traditional support channels, delivering accurate answers with incredible speed.
In less than three months since its integration with Zendesk, Tico processed over 1300 tickets. That’s a workload equivalent to a full quarter for a human support representative but costs less than the price of lunch.
4. Optimized live agent productivity
The customer support team could allocate more time to complex customer interactions that require a human touch or nuanced escalation.
Tico managed 64% of all support questions while incurring only 4% of the total support operational expenses. This means the Voiceflow support team could reliably lean on AI's capacity to provide first-line assistance.
“A traditional cost center has evolved into an empowering, strategic asset.” - Tahsim, Head of CX
Tico’s impact on customer satisfaction (CSAT) and ROI
Customers care most about receiving accurate responses to their questions and getting their issues resolved. That’s why Tico’s ability to answer questions specifically and contextually marked an increase in Voiceflow’s CSAT. Customer satisfaction levels post-Tico Assist implementation have seen a slight uptick, with CSAT reaching 93.8%.
Within just three months, Tico's ROI turned positive. From Tico’s first deployment, it marked a major shift in Voiceflow's support operations, slashing direct support costs by 48%.
Today, Tico generates net savings with the most modernized instance of the AI agent across Zendesk, Discord, in-app, and Voiceflow’s website. A traditional cost center has evolved into an empowering, strategic asset.
The underlying value extends beyond the numbers, with human support agents and engineers now able to devote more time to development efforts—a benefit that enhances Voiceflow's capacity for innovation and growth.
Want to automate support with Tico? Book a call.
What's next for Tico?
Building on this success, the Voiceflow team plans to expand Tico’s capabilities. Tico now powers a robust automated test suite, ensuring that each iteration of the AI agent is rigorously evaluated for performance and reliability. Tico also powers many internal multi-step workflows in an easy-to-use conversational interface.
In the realms of customer support, future enhancements include handling more nuanced interactions, along with personalized account assistance, further cementing Voiceflow’s commitment to leading the charge in AI-driven customer experience. Tico’s abilities will also expand to transactions and commerce experiences, facilitating intricate workflow automations that extend the boundaries of conversational AI.
This forward-thinking approach positions Tico not just as a support tool, but as the standard for AI agents driving efficiency and innovation across conversational AI.
Want to learn more? Book a call with our CX experts.
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