Real-Time Interaction Guidance

This overview is for administrators. If you're an agent, see the Real-Time Interaction Guidance help page for MAX or Salesforce Agent. If you're a supervisor, see the page about using RTIG with CXone Supervisor.

Real-Time Interaction Guidance (RTIG) is like a coach who's always available and ready to help. It can provide agents with suggestions during an interaction at the exact time it can make a difference. RTIG uses NICE Enlighten AIClosed A comprehensive AI framework for customer engagement, with models trained on billions of real-life consumer interactions. to provide real time suggestions for how agents can improve each call.

RTIG can offer agents two types of guidance:

  • Phrase-based guidance: Listens for certain words or phrases during the conversation. It offers suggestions based on words that are said (or not said) during the interaction. It can listen to the agent, the contact, or both.
  • Behavior guidance: Measures soft-skill behaviors such as empathy and rapport building. It scores the agent's performance in real time for each behavior. It can show alerts to agents when their score falls below the level you configure. This feature requires separate licenses.

Each type of guidance is customizable. You can specify the words and phrases to listen for and choose the behaviors to monitor. You can also define the suggestions and alert messages agents see. You can use the same behaviors and phrases for all agents in your organization. Or you can create multiple profiles to offer different guidance by team.

Guidance appears in a separate panel in the agent application. RTIG supports MAX and Salesforce Agent (Lightning agent). Using RTIG in Salesforce Agent requires additional setup steps. Supervisors can see RTIG scores and guidance for their agents with CXone Supervisor, if your organization uses it.

Real-Time Interaction Guidance works with both inbound and automated outbound (Personal Connection) voice interactions.

Classics, Inc. has decided to use Real-Time Interaction Guidance in its call center to increase the coaching its agents receive. Classics, Inc. management likes that: 

  • With RTIG they can help their agents focus on important soft-skill behaviors.
  • Phrase-based guidance can help ensure script compliance.
  • They can advise agents who are handling tricky situations. By adding alerts for phrases such as I'm frustrated or cancel my account, Classics, Inc. can help support its agents.
  • Supervisors can observe agents using CXone Supervisor to see how they're using the prescribed behaviors. This will let them offer coaching during a call when it can be immediately helpful, instead of just after the call.

Anne Shirley is the CXone administrator for Classics, Inc. She creates RTIG profiles for the Support, Sales, and Customer Service teams. She sets all three profiles to offer guidance for three behaviors: empathy, speech velocity, and building rapport. For the Support and Customer Service teams, she adds the Promote Self-Service behavior. The plan is to change the behaviors each month so agents can focus on building their skills over time.

Anne configures different words and phrases for each team. She ensures that the words and phrases are in line with the scripts that each team follows. She also adds words and phrases specific to the types of situations that each team handles. For example, she adds cancel my account to the Customer Service and Support team profiles. She adds take me off your list to the Sales team profile.

Newer versions of Google Chrome introduce security settings that block cookies in incognito mode. If you use incognito mode when configuring RTIG in CXone, you must first configure Chrome to allow cookies. In your Chrome browser, access the Privacy and Security section under Settings. Locate the setting to allow all cookies and select it.

Multiple Profiles and Spoken Language Support

RTIG supports multiple profiles for teams. This allows you to customize the kind of guidance and alerts that each team receives. Each RTIG profile requires a separate script in Studio.

RTIG supports different spoken languages. You can choose the language that you want RTIG to use when listening to agents. When you add an RTIG profile, it defaults to the appropriate language based on your CXone region. RTIG currently supports North American English and International English.

Phrase-Based Guidance

RTIG can listen to interactions and offer alerts based on what is said or not said during a call. You can configure many sets of words and phrases for each RTIG profile. Each set of words and phrases can have its own alert message.

You can also configure the conditions that trigger RTIG to show each alert message. The conditions can include:

  • Words or phrases spoken by the agent, the contact, or both.
  • Words or phrases the agent should have said but didn't.
  • Words or phrases said or not said at any point during a call.
  • Words or phrases said or not said within a configurable number of seconds from the start of the call.

Each set of words and phrases can have only one set of conditions. If you want the same set of words to have a second set of conditions, create an additional set.

Anne Shirley is the administrator of the Classics, Inc. contact center. She wants to ensure that agents are following the script. In particular, she wants to remind them to include certain statements at the beginning of every call. She configures RTIG to listen for two phrases that are part of the required script. The phrases are we're happy you chose Classics, Inc., and this call may be monitored or recorded. She configures it so that if the agent doesn't say the phrases within the first 30 seconds of a call, RTIG displays an alert.

Behavior Guidance

RTIG measures two types of behaviors:

  • Customer Satisfaction: Indicates how satisfied a contact is with the interaction. Agents receive an overall sentiment score that indicates their performance. This score updates in real time and agents can use it to focus on displaying behaviors to improve the contact’s satisfaction. There are 11 customer satisfaction behaviors.

  • Likelihood to Buy: Shows how likely the contact is to make a purchase. Agents receive an overall likelihood to buy score that indicates their performance. This score updates in real time. Agents can use it to focus on improving behaviors to improve sales effectiveness and increase the contact’s likelihood to buy. There are eight likelihood to buy behaviors.

An RTIG profile can only offer guidance on one set of behaviors at a time. You cannot have one team of agents receive both kinds of guidance at once. After you choose the set of guidance behaviors you want a profile to use, you can choose as many or as few behaviors as you want for that profile.

During an interaction, RTIG tracks and scores the agent's performance for the behaviors you select. The agent’s scores for the behaviors are visible in the agent application. Each behavior has at least one alert. When a behavior's score reaches a certain level, RTIG displays the alert message. You can define the scores that trigger alert messages for each behavior.

Each set of behaviors requires an additional license. If you want to use both Customer Satisfaction behaviors

Sentiment and Likelihood to Buy

RTIG shows an overall score, which indicates the agent's overall performance. It can also indicate the contact's satisfaction with the interaction or how likely they are to make a purchase. All of the scores update in real time as the interaction progresses. In the agent application, the overall score for the customer satisfaction behaviors is labeled Sentiment while the overall score for the sales effectiveness behaviors is labeled Likelihood to Buy.

The overall score is visible on the Interactions tab in CXone Supervisor. It appears as a smiley icon The icon for the RTIG tab in the Contact ID window in CXone Supervisor. beside the phone number in the Contact column. Agents can also view the overall score in the the agent application.

Alerts

Alerts provide guidance when an agent's performance starts to falter. Both measured behaviors and sets of words and phrases can generate alerts. You can use alerts to provide reminders, positive reinforcement, and even scripted statements.

For measured behaviors, you can configure the performance scale. The scale allows you to customize the acceptable scores for each behavior. The scale defines three categories that the scores fall into: successful, neutral, and needs improvement. The gauges agents see in the RTIG panel in the agent applications change based on the scores you assign to each category.

Classics, Inc., has recently launched a new loyalty rewards program. The contact center administrator adds an alert to all profiles for the Acknowledge Loyalty behavior. It reminds agents to thank contacts for their business. It also reminds agents to ask if contacts would like to be signed up for loyalty rewards.

Supervisor Experience with RTIG

RTIG works inCXone Supervisor. It displays information in the Contact ID window in CXone Supervisor. Supervisors can view an agent’s sentiment score, suggestion summary, and guidance score in real time. This can help the supervisor determine if an agent requires monitoring, coaching, or help during the call.

The RTIG panel shows: 

  • Overall Score: The live score for the interaction. This indicates the agent's overall performance. Depending on the behaviors being monitored, it shows the contact's overall satisfaction or how likely they are to buy. The overall score appears on the Live Monitoring page as a smiley icon The icon for the RTIG tab in the Contact ID window in CXone Supervisor. beside the phone number in the Contact column.
  • Suggestion Summary: The current guidance alerts triggered by the agent's performance during the interaction. This includes alerts for measured behaviors and phrase-based guidance.
  • Guidance Scores: A set of gauges that show the live scores for each of the measured behaviors, if your organization uses this feature. This panel shows only the set of behaviors assigned to the RTIG profile. These sets are either customer satisfaction or sales effectiveness. The gauges help the agent stay on track during the conversation.

Agent Experience with RTIG

RTIG works in MAX and Salesforce Agent. It displays information on a slide-out panel in the agent application. Agents cannot interact with the panel. It only provides suggestions to agents on improving their performance during calls.

The RTIG panel shows: 

  • Overall Score: The live score for the interaction. This indicates the agent's overall performance. Depending on the behaviors being monitored, it shows the contact's overall satisfaction or how likely they are to buy.
  • Suggestion Summary: The current guidance alerts triggered by the agent's performance during the interaction. This includes alerts for measured behaviors and phrase-based guidance.
  • Guidance Scores: A set of gauges that show the live scores for each of the measured behaviors, if your organization uses this feature. These sets are either customer satisfaction or sales effectiveness. The gauges help the agent stay on track during the conversation.

Agents using MAX can collapse the panel if they want to. RTIG continues monitoring the interaction even when the panel is collapsed.