MIAMI — April 23, 2020 —Sitel Group, a leading global customer experience management provider that delivers more than 3.5 million customer experiences every day, and Rulai, a state of the art conversational computing platform, today announced the two companies have been recognized by IAOP®, the International Association of Global Outsourcing Professionals, for Excellence in Strategic Partnerships for their work with Michelin.
“We are honored to be recognized alongside Rulai by IAOP® for our work with Michelin,” said Ryan Maund, Chief Product & Innovation Officer, Sitel Group. “It’s rewarding to know that through our work with the team at Rulai and their innovative platform, we were able to help one of the world’s leading tire manufacturing brands accelerate their digital transformation and improve the chat experience for more than 100,000 consumers through the use of AI.”
Sitel Group’s Digital Agent, a conversational AI solution that allows brands to immediately answer common customer queries in natural language, and provides end-to-end support for key transactional contacts with speed, can be deployed across voice and digital channels. The Digital Agent is an integral part of the overall agent population in supporting and scaling business teams as they deliver quality customer support. The group has committed to training and improving the solution over time, supporting the technology as it gets smarter, much like they coach and upskill their human agents.
Working together with Michelin, Sitel Group and Rulai’s partnership led to the development of Michelin’s Digital Agent, Mitch, which contains about half of the chat contacts on Michelinman.com, provides considerably faster resolution when compared to a live agent and delivers strong customer satisfaction.
“Successfully deploying and scaling Virtual Assistant projects requires experienced bot builders and an advanced Conversational AI platform,” says Marc Vanlerberghe, CEO of Rulai, “We are proud that this partnership has resulted in a very successful bot that has garnered high praise from Michelin and its customers.”
“We wanted our bot to be extremely user-friendly and knowledgeable with high Customer Satisfaction Scores, and our successful partnership with Sitel and Rulai allowed it to be just that,” states Michelin Consumer Care Director Martha Burwell. “Mitch works 24/7, 365 days a year on our MichelinMan.com website. He successfully handles close to half of our chat engagements and escalates to live agents whenever he’s confused or a customer requests it. This investment has been well worth it for Michelin and we are currently investigating new use cases. I’d like to thank Sitel for their leadership in this project.”
For a 14th consecutive year, Sitel Group was recognized on the Best of The Global Outsourcing 100® list produced by IAOP®, which recognizes the world’s best outsourcing service providers and advisors. This list is based on applications received, and judging is based on a rigorous scoring methodology that includes an independent review by an independent panel of IAOP customer members with extensive experience in selecting outsourcing service providers and advisors for their organizations.
For more information about the IAOP Excellence in Strategic Partnerships, visit, https://www.IAOP.org.
About Sitel Group
Sitel Group’s 80,000 people across the globe connect many of the world’s best-known brands with their customers – 3.5 million times every day. As a global customer experience (CX) management leader, we apply our 30+ years of industry-leading experience and the entrepreneurial spirit of our group’s founders to deliver omnichannel experiences through voice, chat, social media and more to customers of our 400+ clients across all verticals – from Fortune 500 companies to local startups.
Our group’s breadth of capabilities – powered by our ecosystem of experts including innso, Learning Tribes, Sitel, Sitel Insights and TSC – go beyond business process outsourcing (BPO) to support every stage of the customer journey. We are redefining the contact center and improving business results by pairing innovative solutions – such as self-care and automation – with the human touch, emotion and empathy of our people.
As a CX platform, we are powered by experts to deliver tailored CX solutions to fit our clients’ needs through our consultative, customer-centric approach adding value at every touchpoint – regardless of location, channel or time of day.
Learn more at www.sitel.com and connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
About Rulai
Rulai is a next-gen Enterprise Conversational Computing Platform provider. Rooted in academia, the founding team has a combined 200 years of experience in AI research and filed over 80 patents in advanced AI-based dialog management. It is the only SaaS platform in the market capable of supporting Level 3 virtual assistants.
Enterprises in banking, insurance, retail, telco, and life sciences use Rulai to augment the work of customer service agents, as well as increase customer self service capabilities across voice, chat, and messaging channels. Its all-in-one platform is designed to accelerate time-to-value by allowing business users to create and evolve virtual assistants, with minimal use of precious IT resources.
Rulai has been recognized by Gartner, Forrester, and Bloomberg. It was named as one of the top 50 AI companies in the US by Forbes.
For more information, please contact https://rul.ai/.
About MICHELIN NORTH AMERICA
Dedicated to the improvement of sustainable mobility, Michelin designs, manufactures and sells tires for every type of vehicle, including airplanes, automobiles, bicycles, earthmovers, farm equipment, heavy-duty trucks and motorcycles. The Company has earned a long-standing reputation for building innovative premium tires. In addition to tires, the Company also publishes travel guides, hotel and restaurant guides, maps and road atlases. Headquartered in Greenville, S.C., Michelin North America employs more than 20,000 people and operates 19 major manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Canada. Forbes magazine has ranked Michelin No. 1 on its annual survey of “Best Large Employers in America” for 2018. Learn more about purpose-driven careers with a purpose-driven company at jobs.michelinman.com.
About IAOP
IAOP is the global association that brings together customers, providers, and advisors in a collaborative, knowledge-based environment that promotes professional and organizational development, recognition, certification, and excellence to improve business service models and outcomes. Our members and affiliates worldwide are digging deep at IAOP conferences, learning at IAOP chapter meetings, getting trained and certified at IAOP courses and workshops, and connecting through IAOP social media, all with one goal: better business results. Whether you are a customer, provider or advisor, new to collaborative business models like outsourcing, or you are an experienced professional, IAOP connects you and your organization to our growing global community and to the resources you need to get the results your company deserves and demands. For more information and how you can become involved, visit www.IAOP.org.