I am a volunteer English tutor working with adult learners over Zoom. Today, when I was screen-sharing a Word document, the document/program suddenly started jumping around -- with rapid, jerky up-and-down movement, as well as side-to-side movement in the ribbon/tabs area at the top. I had lost control of the document and could no longer continue reading it with my learner. Can anyone explain why that happened, and how to prevent it from happening in the future?

In the digital age, people want autonomy and the ability to self-serve, making AI chatbots a popular tool in customer experience strategies. In fact, a Morning Consult study found that 67 percent of consumers have used chatbots at least once in the past year and 42% are comfortable using them. The relative ease of use and widespread adoption of virtual assistants and agents make a customer support AI chatbot platform for websites beneficial and cost-effective to meet today’s customers’ expectations.  

What is a customer support chatbot?

A customer support chatbot uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to answer customers’ questions. AI chatbots are valuable customer service tools, adding a self-service option that allows customers to skip the wait and find the information they need without assistance from an agent. 

From a customer’s perspective, a customer support AI chatbot platform for websites is similar to a live chat tool. However, AI chatbots feature advanced automation so human agents don’t have to take time to respond—the AI chatbot software does. 

The advantages of using a customer support AI chatbot platform for websites

In an era of labor shortages, rising costs, and more customers opting to engage digitally, businesses of all sizes are looking for new solutions for customer support. Call centers that require customers to wait on hold for an agent won’t meet expectations for speed, convenience, and self-service options. 

In fact, a Mindful study determined that a customer’s patience wears thin after five minutes on hold, making it no surprise that Morning Consult reported 85% of consumers say short wait times should be provided as part of a support experience.

Also, adding an AI chatbot to your website allows customers to type their questions in natural language and get an immediate response. Furthermore, because a customer support AI chatbot platform for websites uses information from your knowledge base or help center documentation, all information the chatbot provides is up-to-date, accurate, and on-brand. 

A customer support AI chatbot platform for websites also allows small businesses to level up their service, helping them compete more effectively with bigger companies with more customer support resources. 

Build vs. buy website chatbot software: which is best?

When you add a chatbot to your website to support your customer service team, the next decision you need to make is how to do it. One option is to leverage internal resources with coding skills and user interface/user experience (UI/UX) expertise to create a chatbot for your business. Conversely, you can choose to use chatbot software from a vendor. 

Each option has its advantages. For example, in-house development allows you to design a unique chatbot. However, development takes time and investment, so using a platform from a solution provider can help you implement a chatbot more quickly. 

If you decide to use software from an AI chatbot provider, remember that some building will still be involved to tailor the chatbot to your specific needs. Fortunately, you won’t need developers on your team to use it, however. A platform that includes a visual chatbot builder will make it easier for you to create chatbots to add to your WordPress site or other website platform. 

How do I add a chatbot to my website?

Once you create and test your chatbot, you need to take it live on your website. If you choose a platform from a software provider, you’ll have information on native integrations or using a widget to add the chatbot to your website. 

What to consider when choosing the best customer support AI chatbot platform for websites 

Many companies planning to deploy a customer support chatbot use one from a provider. But it can be a challenge to find the best AI chatbot platform from among dozens on the market. 

These tips can help you evaluate options for your business.

Narrow your search to artificial intelligence chatbots

Not all chatbots are AI-powered with natural language processing capabilities. You may be able to add live chat or a search function to your website, but it won’t deliver the same customer experiences that an AI chatbot can offer. AI enables a chatbot to understand a customer’s intent and sentiment to provide more human-like responses. 

When selecting a chatbot for customer service, research the technology behind it and request a demo to experience the types of experiences it provides firsthand. 

Insist on the ease of a visual chatbot builder

A customer support AI chatbot platform for websites with a visual builder allows you to create chatbots by dragging and dropping elements of a customer interaction into a digital workspace to create a conversation flow. For example, the exchange may start with the question, “What’s my loyalty rewards balance?” You can drag a field in which you enter a response that takes the customer to a page where they can check the status of their loyalty account. You can also create interactions that clarify exactly what the customer is looking for or that request customer feedback. 

The software provider typically trains the AI chatbot platform to understand variations in language and ways a customer can ask a question, enabling interactions in different wording. 

Make pricing about value, not a bargain 

While searching for the perfect chatbot platform for your business, you’ll likely find free trials or free account versions. While this may enable you to deploy a chatbot, these deals may not give you all the features you need, like chat history, automated messages, and unlimited bots. 

Focus on the capabilities included in the packages and choose the one that will provide the greatest value to your support team and your business. Also, keep in mind that 57% of businesses find that chatbots deliver significant ROI. 

(Read how our Zoom chatbot helps us reinvent the customer experience and achieve a cost savings of $13 million every month.)

6 ways to improve customer support with an AI chatbot platform for websites 

Once you have selected the platform, remember these tips to optimize user experiences with the customer support AI chatbot platform for websites.

Add personality

The best customer experiences with AI chatbot platforms come from interactions that incorporate elements of human conversation. Build friendly greetings, thank them for using your website, and use a conversational tone that puts customers at ease. Giving your chatbot a “personality” that complements your brand can improve customer satisfaction. 

Expand integrations, if possible

A chatbot integrated with your knowledge base or help center is valuable. But one that’s integrated with your customer service management, customer relationships management, or ticketing software can deliver even more value to your customers and customer service team. Plan conversation flows and connect customers with the resources they need to create the best experiences possible. 

Plan fallbacks and escalation to human agents

The last thing you want is to trap a customer in a loop that doesn’t give them the information they need. The best AI chatbots include fallbacks that give customers an out, whether directing them to another resource or connecting them with customer service agents. 

When researching AI chatbot platform options, ask, “What if…?” and see how the chatbot responds. 

Test and update

A customer support AI chatbot platform for websites will only provide responses based on the information you give it. Involve your customer service team to determine the best way to respond to customer queries and how to orchestrate customer engagements. 

Your customer service team is also probably best qualified to test the chatbot and help keep it updated, enabling it to provide the best possible responses. 

Analytics 

Even if your evaluation of your chatbot is positive and it appears to work during tests, monitoring its performance in the real world is still necessary. Keep track of the most common customer queries and whether your chatbot gives answers that lead to customer satisfaction. 

Also, establish key performance indicators (KPIs) that will help you gauge chatbot performance, such as how often it responds correctly the first time and how often it needs to escalate requests to agents. If the chatbot isn’t achieving its objectives or performance declines, it’s time for an update or adjustment. 

Customer surveys

A quick way to gauge chatbot performance is to ask your customers. Ask customers to provide a quick rating or a brief comment at the end of each interaction to gather information that can help you measure customer satisfaction and identify potential areas of improvement. 

How Zoom Virtual Agent can help

Customer preferences continue to shift from requesting help from a human agent when they need straightforward answers to questions about products and services. The right customer support AI chatbot platform for websites enables you to offer a self-service tool that can enhance your customer service and allow your support team to work more efficiently. 

Zoom Virtual Agent includes the features you need, such as a visual chatbot builder and conversation flow builder, that make creating a chatbot simple. It also uses natural language processing to give your customers an improved experience. It also provides options to escalate issues to human agents on your team with smooth hand-offs. 

Talk to an expert today to learn how easy it can be to add an AI chatbot to your website. 

Original article posted in Zoom Blog.

Scheduling meetings used to be a tedious task, a never-ending game of scheduling Tetris, trying to fit everyone's availability into a neat little grid, which made it a time-consuming endeavor. But then, Zoom Scheduler came into the picture, a scheduling wizard that lets me effortlessly share my availability, allows my clients and colleagues to easily book appointments with me, and helps me focus on the important stuff – the actual meetings themselves.

Key Features of Zoom Scheduler:

• Share your availability: Zoom Scheduler allows you to share your availability with others, so they can easily see when you are available for meetings.
• Book appointments: Others can book appointments with you directly through Zoom Scheduler.
• Manage your schedule: Zoom Scheduler allows you to view and manage your schedule in one convenient location.
• Integrations: Zoom Scheduler integrates with Zoom Meetings, Zoom Mail and Calendar, Google Calendar, and Microsoft 365.

Benefits of Using Zoom Scheduler:

• Save time: Zoom Scheduler can save you time by eliminating the back-and-forth emailing and phone calls that are often required to schedule meetings.
• Boost productivity: Zoom Scheduler can help you boost your productivity by making it easy to schedule meetings and appointments with people inside and outside of your organization.
• Improve communication: Zoom Scheduler can help improve communication by providing a centralized location for scheduling meetings and appointments.
• Increase efficiency: Zoom Scheduler can help increase efficiency by allowing you to manage your schedule in one convenient location.

Overall, Zoom Scheduler is a powerful and versatile tool that can help you save time, boost productivity, and improve communication. I encourage you to give it a try and see how it can help you streamline your meetings and appointments. To learn more about how to use this amazing feature, check out Getting started with Zoom Scheduler.

Picture this: I was in a recent client meeting and we're in the midst of a lively discussion, and one of the admins, eyes brimming with curiosity, raises a question about Meeting Summary notifications. They admitted they missed the boat on Zoomtopia 2023, which happened in early October.

With a cheerful smile, I leaped into action and decided to show them the ropes. I swiftly demoed some past meeting summaries, revealing the magic of AI technology at play. I explained that this feature taps into the brilliance of AI, even involving third-party models, to let meeting hosts initiate an AI-generated meeting summary. The best part? It's sent out automatically after the meeting wraps up, right to their in-app chat and email. It's like a wizard at work, weaving meeting summaries effortlessly!

To make their day even brighter, I shared a nifty link where they could dive into all the details about using Meeting Summary and how Zoom's AI Companion takes care of their data. You should have seen their faces light up with excitement! They realized this fantastic feature was part and parcel of their Zoom One bundled package, and that was the icing on the cake.

Seeing our clients filled with happiness, joy, and excitement as we deliver top-notch service? It's what makes our job truly wonderful! 🌟

Even with the rise of AI, some users still prefer to manually create notes. The problem though is that users leverage a separate note-taking tool (or a 3rd party Zoom app) to summarize and track action items from their meetings, causing loss of focus and time to grant everyone access and to collaborate asynchronously.

With this in mind, Zoom has enriched the platform with collaborative document functionality in the form of Zoom Notes. 

Zoom Notes provides a clean user experience that allows users to create agendas and notes while staying within the Zoom platform instead of jumping to other content management tools. This allows users to create and share content within a Zoom Meeting and collaborate with others on the call for real-time inputs thus eliminating the distraction of switching between Zoom and third-party documents and apps. Users can even continue to work in Notes outside of meetings asynchronously and share them for collaboration anytime, anywhere.

You can access this and take notes right in the Zoom desktop or web client (coming soon to the Zoom mobile app) to further enhance Zoom’s collaboration capabilities before, during, and after a meeting.

• Before a meeting: Create a note, build an agenda, and share it with attendees in advance of the meeting. 
• During a meeting: Open a note and share it with others so they can collaborate during the meeting.

• After a meeting: Share a note with anyone who may benefit from the content. 

Notes also offers a robust personal and collaborative document editor with extensive formatting options such as font, styling, bullets, colors, add images and links. Moreover, Notes autosaves your work at regular intervals, so you don’t need to worry about losing any data.

And the best part? This is available for all users (free or paid) at no additional cost.

Accessibility is at the heart of what we do at Zoom, and we’re always looking for ways to make our products more inclusive. To make your Zoom experience more equitable, we are excited to announce that automated captions will be enabled ‘on’ for all Zoom accounts in the coming weeks. Automated captions help make Meetings and Webinars more inclusive for multilingual speakers, participants with hearing impairments, and others by providing real-time transcriptions of meeting and webinar conversations and content. 

Once automated captions have been turned on for your account, your meeting participants can start captions in your meetings.  Account admins and owners have the ability to customize the availability of automated captions at the account, group, and user levels. Visit the Zoom support site for detailed instructions on enabling and managing automated captions. For additional questions, please read our accessibility FAQs.

Make sure that you are on the global minimum version of Zoom so that they are able to view automated captions in their Meetings and Webinars and utilize this feature.

Zoom is excited to host several events for our Education, Healthcare, and Government customers next week. From customer use cases to the company road to opportunities for external funding, take a look below at our special events for verticals. Register for however many you’re able to attend, and don’t forget to tell your colleagues!  If you have questions about any of the events below, reach out to your CSM.

Tuesday, November 14

• For Healthcare: Zoomtopia Recap

Wednesday, November 15

• For Higher Education: Embracing Cloud Telephony for Academics and Administrators with Zoom, UC Santa Barbara, EDUCause, and AWS

Thursday, November 16

• Grant Support for Higher Education
• Grant Support for Healthcare 
• Grant Support for State & Local Government and K-12 Education

Every month we share a recap of new products, features, ZLC courses, business updates, and more with account admins and owners in our What's New at Zoom email newsletter. In October, we primarily focused on updates to Zoom's new AI features. Download the latest version of the Zoom client to access all of these features, and remember to check out our release notes for a complete list of past releases across the Zoom platform. 

Zoom Learning Center Updates

• Explore Zoom AI Companion with free training - Come see what all the buzz is about! Explore features of Zoom AI Companion across the Zoom platform with the Zoom Learning Center’s free, self-guided courses for users and administrators.
• Calling all Zoom Phone fans - The Zoom Learning Center recently refreshed its Zoom Phone catalog for users and administrators. Dial in your knowledge of the latest features in this comprehensive, eight-course collection.

Key Highlights from Zoom’s October Releases 

Zoom Web Updates

• Migration of AI Companion web settings to dedicated AI Companion tab - The corresponding web settings for most AI Companion features are being moved to their own dedicated tab on the Account, Group, and User-level settings pages in the web portal. This includes settings for Meeting Summary, AI Companion questions, Team Chat Compose and Summary, and Email Compose, but excludes Smart Recording, as that is still included in cloud recording settings. Future AI Companion features will also plan to have their settings located in this new AI Companion tab.
• Greater admin control of which participants can interact with AI Companion - The web settings for AI Companion questions in meetings will also allow admins to control who in the meeting can ask AI Companion questions about the current meeting, if active in the current meeting. Admins can restrict AI Companion access to only the host, all participants from the point they join (meaning they cannot ask questions about topics from before they joined), and all participants for the entire time the AI Companion is active. These additional options under the AI Companion setting are available at the account, group, and user levels. If this is unlocked, hosts can also control this access during the live meeting.
• Greater host control of which participants can interact with AI Companion - The web settings for AI Companion questions in meetings will also allow hosts to control who in the meeting can ask AI Companion questions about the current meeting, if active in the current meeting. The host can restrict AI Companion access to only themselves, all participants from the point they join (meaning they cannot ask questions about topics from before they joined), and all participants for the entire time the AI Companion is active. If this is unlocked, hosts can also control this access during the live meeting.

• Additional availability of Meeting Summary and Thread Summary AI Companion features - The AI Companion Meeting Summary and Team Chat Thread Summary features are now available for accounts with BAAs in place. These features remain disabled by default and may be enabled by account admins.

Zoom Rooms Updates

• Support for AI Companion Smart Meeting Summary (Win, Mac, Appliances, ZP Appliances, iPad zr, iOS zrc, Android zrc, Win zrc, Web zrc) - Hosts can initiate an AI generated summarization for the current meeting directly from a Zoom Room. Hosts will be prompted to enter an email address on the Zoom Room that the summary can be sent to. The ability to receive the meeting summary can be restricted to the host alone, the host along with users on their same account, or extended to all attendees of the meeting, including invitees outside of their organization. All meeting participants will be notified that the summary is being generated, and the meeting host can stop the summary at any time, if necessary.
• Ask AI Companion questions about the meeting (Win, Mac, Appliances, ZP Appliances, iPad zr, iOS zrc, Android zrc, Win zrc, Web zrc) - Zoom’s AI Companion transcribes and analyzes the verbal discussions in Zoom Meetings, allowing participants to ask the AI Companion questions about the meeting content that has been discussed and receive a response based on the meeting analysis thus far. Admins can choose to have this option remain visible in the meeting toolbar, even when the feature is disabled in web settings. Meeting hosts can start and stop AI Companion from a Zoom Room for other participants. Participants in the Zoom Room itself cannot ask AI companion questions.

Zoom Revenue Accelerator Updates

• Access Email Compose from the Conversations page - Users can access the Zoom Revenue Accelerator Email Smart Compose directly from the Conversation detail page, making it easier to create follow-up emails after calls. This feature includes suggested content, topics, and recipients, leveraging third-party AI models, to assist in writing messages based on context from the associated conversation. Previously, Email Smart Compose was only available from the Deals page.

Zoom Whiteboard Updates

• Whiteboard Content Generation with AI Companion - Users can leverage Zoom AI Companion with Whiteboard to unlock visual ideation for an improved Whiteboard experience. Users can generate ideas, refine and extend existing content, and add objects to a canvas with just a click.