We’d like to call your attention to a recent update that will help you take advantage of the most recent cutting edge TTS voices – as soon as they are made available by our 3rd party TTS partners.
SitePal currently supports TTS voices from: Google Cloud, MS-Azure, AWS Polly, Eleven Labs & Open AI.
To use these 3rd party TTS voices with the SitePal API, you need to specify the desired voice using 3 parameter values: the Engine ID (EID), the Language ID (LID), and the Voice ID (VID).
This document, TTS Languages & Voices (available on our support page), provides you with the IDs to use for all the TTS voices we provide or support through our partners.
We have noticed however that available voices for certain 3rd party providers are frequently updated, with new voices added and older voices sometimes dropped. Consequently, the information may be out of date while we catch up. This specifically relates to voices from Google Cloud (Engine 11), MS-Azure (Engine 12), and Amazon Polly (Engine 13).
That is why we’ve introduced an alternative way of calling the SitePal API, specifically applicable to Google, Azure & Amazon voices. You now may – if you prefer – call our API with Language and Voice IDs obtained directly from the TTS voice list on the respective provider’s pages. Our API automatically recognizes which method you are using.
This allows you to use any voice made available by Google, Azure & AWS as soon as it is made available, even if it has not yet been configured and setup by us – and is not listed in our ‘TTS Languages & Voices’ doc. Supported TTS Voices for each 3rd party can be found here:
An example should help make this clear. Let’s say you want to use the Google voice –
en-GB-Chirp3-HD-Achernar
Following the ‘standard’ method, you would look this voice up in the voice table, and identify the voice ID as 135. You could then call any SitePal API speech function (such sayText) with the following parameter values:
EID = 11 (the Google engine ID)
LID = 1 (for English, see language table)
VID = 135
Using the direct method – you would locate the voice on Google’s list of voices on their site, and use the following values:
EID = 11
LID = en-GB
VID = en-GB-Chirp3-HD-Achernar
Both calls would produce exactly the same result.
Note: both LID & VID parameters must match in modality, either text or numeric.
We hope this information proves useful. Please reach out to us with any questions or comments. We’d love to hear from you.
Warm Regards,
The SitePal Team
Hello SitePal Fans!
We’ve just introduced a batch of new avatars that are more lifelike than anything we’ve done before. Facial animation has been improved, and new “360 Eyes” have been introduced.
The result is a meaningful improvement – especially when using avatars as conversational agents.
Check them out for yourself in our demo editor – www.sitepal.com/demo – or in your own SitePal account.
Or see these links –
MariaDr. TillersonDeAnnaGabrielAmySteve
Now some of you may be thinking – these avatars are great, but they are not gen-ai video avatars. You’d be right. But that’s a good thing – if you are looking for a solution that works with any AI Agent technology & supports your traffic without breaking the bank.
Talk to us to learn more about the advantages of SitePal avatar technology in the AI era.
If you can’t find what you need in our collection, you can create your own 3D avatar from a photo using Photoface 3D, or ask us to create your custom avatar for you. Watch our new 6 minute Photoface 3D Tutorial Video to see how easy it is to use this unique tool.
We’re constantly working on new SitePal features & capabilities (and more great new avatars too!). Stay tuned for further updates…
Warm Regards,
The SitePal Team
SitePal has always supported what we refer to as “Dynamic TTS”: TTS speech generated and spoken in real time. More recently, with many customer implementations taking the form of AI driven dialog – ‘real time’ has assumed even more importance. For how can you have a conversation if your counterpart takes unnaturally long to respond?
Part of the challenge is that the text to be spoken can be lengthy, and generating TTS audio takes time. The longer the text, the more time required. We address this problem by slicing the text into segments, processing them in parallel, and seamlessly speaking them in sequence. This is done automatically & transparently. The first segment is always the shortest, to minimize initial response time. Subsequent segments are progressively longer, as we process them while the avatar is already speaking.
Recently we’ve gone a step further, allowing users to fine-tune the process. You now have the option to select the optimization level you prefer. There is a balance to be had though, because more segments means more stream usage.
Three optimization levels are provided. ‘Normal’ – which is the mid-level choice – is the default, and should be appropriate for most implementations. If you are using our 3rd party TTS voices tough, in particular Eleven Labs or Open AI voices, you may want to select the ‘High’ optimization setting. These providers require a bit more time to generate audios, especially longer ones (though improvements are being made all the time and this statement may not be true a few months hence).
Already mentioned above, but worth repeating, is that the length of the text is a major factor determining the time required to generate the audio. And the impact of the length of the text on response times is greater with some engines than with others.
The ‘High’ optimization setting improves the initial response time by segmenting the text input more aggressively. Specifically – the first segment becomes very short, and subsequent (longer) segments are also correspondingly shorter to allow for seamless playback.
But, as with all things, there is no free lunch. We mentioned that more segments mean a higher stream usage. But there is another caveat. Ideally, we prefer to break our audio segments at what we call “natural break points” – such as an end of sentence, or a comma. But with a more limited range in which to locate an optimal segment break point – it may not be possible in every case to select a natural one. This may result in a (barely) noticeable segment break in mid sentence.
So it’s a tradeoff. The best way to decide is to try. The ‘TTS Response Optimization’ setting can be found in your SitePal Account’s ‘Settings’ page, and it affects all avatars published from your account.
We hope this information proves useful. Please reach out to us with any questions or comments. We’d love to hear from you.
We’ve just introduced our No Code solution for creating Intelligent agents. And we mean NO PROGRAMMING AT ALL.
The new AI Wizard allows you to create your own AI Agent speaking avatar solution with a few simple steps. Select the relevant options (the avatar, the voice, design settings & more) & publish to your web page.
Both text input and speech input are supported options to choose from. So your users and customers can talk or text with your Agent.
Our No Code solution has been verified to work on all platforms, including mobile. We’ve done the heavy lifting so you don’t have to.
Check it out on the SitePal home page at https://www.sitepal.com
To create your own, login to your SitePal account and select ‘AI Agents’ from the main menu. The rest is self explanatory.
For detailed step-by-step instructions & much more, see our technical note –
This new feature is included with your Gold Plan or higher subscription – no extra cost on our end.
However – you do need to sign up for one of our pre-integrated partner solutions for the AI Bot portion – ChatGPT, Chatbase, Google DialogFlow or Pandorabots. We recommend Chatbase as the simplest to use & easiest to pick up. Just point it to your web page and your documentation – and it instantly becomes an expert on all things related to your business.
Coming soon – SitePal will offer its own built in AI Bot solution, making it unnecessary to use any 3rd party. Stay tuned for more updates – these are exciting times!
Eleven Labs (EL) have just introduced a faster TTS model, Flash 2.5, which is specifically geared towards conversational agents. See their announcement here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YmHnkTVkFA
According to EL, speed is faster & quality is lower.
We reviewed the new model and can confirm that in the SitePal environment overall latency is reduced by 15% to 20% on average for English. For non-English improvement is much greater – with average latency reduced by 50% to %60.
As the new model is multilingual it can be used for all supported languages, which is why latency for non-English is more significantly improved. Until now, non-English input was processed using the slower multilingual model.
We were not able to audibly detect loss of quality. We concluded that the difference in quality is not meaningful in an online conversation scenario.
We have therefore modified the API to use the new Flash v2.5 model as its default model for EL, which means it will be used if you do not specify a different model when calling the API.
This update is now implemented. There is nothing you need to do if you use the default engine.
If you prefer not to use the new default model, specify the model name in the xdata1 parameter when calling sayText or sayAI. To review this and other options for fine tuning EL audio generation, see details in the SitePal API reference. Check out the parameters for the sayText or sayAI functions & look for ‘xdata1’.
New model: model_id=eleven_flash_v2_5
Previously used model – for English: model_id=eleven_turbo_v2
Previously used model – for non-English: model_id=eleven_multilingual_v2
Eleven Labs (EL) TTS can be integrated with SitePal by adding your EL API key to your SitePal ‘Connect’ page, and is one of several 3rd party TTS providers available for use with SitePal Avatars, to complement the built in TTS voices. Using 3rd party TTS requires the Platinum Plan.
Hello SitePal Fans!
We are delighted to let you know that SitePal is now pre-integrated with Google DialogFlow
What does this mean, and how can you take advantage of it?
With current AI breakthroughs, new solutions are available from companies large and small. These solutions enable you to create your own LLM knwoledge base & teach it about any subject matter. What all these solutions have in common – they could use a face, a speaking avatar, to better interact.
Enter SitePal. We have made it our mission to create speaking avatars that not only work great and look great – but are 100% API driven. So they can be integrated with any AI solution.
YES, ANY AI SOLUTION CAN BE CONNECTED WITH A SITEPAL SPEAKING AVATAR.
This means that you can create an AI knowledge base (a ‘Bot’) which contains relevant information for your visitors, and use a SitePal character as an intelligent agent to communicate with your website visitors. You website visitors can learn about your products and services by conversing with your SitePal character.
While this is not hard to do, using our API, we have made it even easier by pre-Integrating with selected 3rd Party solutions. For these 3rd Parties – the required effort has been reduced to minimal configuration & setup work.
Thus far we have pre-Integrated with:
Chatbase
ChatGPT
Pandorabots
and now joined by –
Google’s Dialog Flow
The following technical example allows you to select a Bot to interact with. Select DialogFlow from the menu & try it out by asking questions.
So what do you need to do to create a useful DialogFlow implementation for your website?
In broad strokes the effort would consist of 2 parts:
1. Open a Google Cloud account and implement your DialogFlow AI persona. Teach your personal about your products (or anything else you want it to know)
2. Setup a SitePal character on your website to answer users questions by interacting with your DialogFlow persona.
The first part can be implemented using tools provided by Google. This is outside the scope of our explanation here – please google it to find out more.
The second part is where our Pre-Integration comes into play. To publish your SitePal character as a speaking DialogFlow driven intelligent agent, you need to add your Dialog Flow API JSON key file to your SitePal account. Then use our sayAI API call (yes, ONE call !) to have your character speak the responses to user questions.
We did the heavy lifting – so you don’t need to! It’s that easy.
Please see detailed step-by-step instructions in the following technical note – and start taking advantage of AI intelligent agent technology today!
Additional 3rdparty AI vendors will be integrated with SitePal in the coming months. If you have a specific one in mind, drop us a note and let us know. We will do our best to prioritize.
TTS Latency Optimization – we’ve recently come to realize that TTS response times have deteriorated due to increasing levels of usage. Both additional load and accumulated data have had a detrimental effect over time. We’ve just implemented an update to address the problem. With this update response times are now faster than they have ever been. In most use cases you should find that latency has been reduced by over 50%.
JavaScript Framework Examples – We’ve added new framework examples for ReactJS, NextJS, Angular and Vue. This should prove helpful as customers have repeatedly run into issues that were not covered by our initial technical example. We’ve identified a set of five examples that together cover most envisioned scenarios.
The following examples are now available for each framework:
Conversation Example: Multiple avatars, the use of Portals.
AI Text Example: Using the sayAI API with text input
AI Audio Example Using the sayAI API with audio input
All the examples come with full source code, and are available on the SitePal support page.
Access Audio Raw Data – Note: this feature is available to Platinum and Integrator Plan customers.
We’ve added a new API function ‘getAudioObject’ that enables access to the raw audio data as it is being played. To understand why this feature might be useful, let us share the scenario that brought this about.
In an AI Agent implementation our customer preferred to have an active mic at all times to allow users to interrupt the avatar. They used echo cancellation to eliminate avatar speech from the input & required access to the realtime audio data to make this work.
We’re sure customers will find other equally cool and unexpected ways to take advantage of this feature.
Eleven Labs Lip Sync Fix – due to special characteristics of Eleven Labs audios they were not being correctly processed, causing lipsync to be sub-par for Eleven Labs audios. This problem was identified and fixed on Aug 9th.
Also, if you’ve missed it please see our recent announcement on this blog regarding Chatbase Pre-Integration. We’re very excited about it.
Of our future plans & projects perhaps worth mentioning at this time are the following –
Flutter Support – we’re looking to add Flutter support and Flutter code examples to our support materials. This should be available in the next few weeks.
Photoface 3D API – the intention is to enable customers to enable their end users or customers with a Photoface like tool, that end users could use to create & use their own avatars. This feature will be available to Integrator Plan customers only. This project is in the planning phase. Please contact us if you have an interest in this capability.
That’s it for the moment. We hope that you have found this information useful. Please contact us with any comments or questions. We’d love to receive your feedback.
We are delighted to let you know that SitePal is now pre-integrated with Chatbase, one of the leading tools for creating AI chatbots for business.
While this blog post is similar to one we posted several months ago regarding ChatGPT integration, the information here and in the referenced docs is updated and includes new relevant details. Also – this is a different AI Bot solution, with what we believe to be greater potential for businesses to take advantage of.
So what does this mean for you, and how can you take advantage of it?
With Chatbase you can easily create an AI Bot which knows all about your business and products, and then use a SitePal avatar as an Intelligent Agent to communicate with your website visitors. Your visitors could then learn about your products and services by conversing with your SitePal avatar!
And, you can do all that without complex programming! Creating your AI bot with Chatbase and teaching it all about your products, takes only moments (assuming you already have a website and/or documentation). Integrating it with SitePal requires copying your API key from your Chatbase account to your SitePal account. Yes, It’s that easy.
The following technical example allows you to select a Bot to interact with. Select ‘Chatbase’ from the menu & try it out by asking questions. Note: This Inteligent Agent was set up by scanning the SitePal Site and Blog, so it knows quite a bit about SitePal. Ask it!
At the risk of being slightly technical, let us explain what you actually need to do to create an Intelligent Agent implementation, using Chatbase, for your website.
In broad strokes the effort would consist of 2 parts:
1. Open an account with Chatbase and teach your bot all about your products & business by pointing it to your website(s) and/or uploading documents.
2. Setup a SitePal character on your website to answer users’ questions by connecting to your Chatbase bot.
The first part is done by using the simple tools provided by Chatbase. It’s totally straightforward.
The second part is where our Pre-Integration comes into play. To publish your SitePal character as a speaking Chatbase-driven Intelligent Agent, you need to add your Chatbase API key & Bot ID to your SitePal account. Then use our sayAI API call (yes, ONE call !) to have your character speak the responses to user questions.
We did the heavy lifting – so you don’t have to!
Please see detailed step-by-step instructions in the following technical note – and start taking advantage of intelligent agent technology today!
Additional 3rd party AI vendors will be integrated with SitePal soon. If you have a specific one in mind, drop us a note and let us know. We will do our best to prioritize.
Photoface™ 3D is a SitePal® feature that enables you to create your own 3D character from a photo. To access this feature, open the SitePal Editor, and in the ‘Models’ tab click on ‘Create Your Own’.
Photoface 3D is available with the Gold Plan & higher
In this post we would like to share best practices and tips that should help you make the most of this unique feature. Getting good results with Photoface 3D is partly due to optimal photo selection, and partly to acquired skill with the creation process. We will discuss both.
I. Photo Selection Tips
Your first rule – pick photos that meet our guidelines –
Mouth closed (no teeth showing) – smile is ok
Face looking forward, directly at the camera
High quality, hi-resolution photo (more about this below)
Evenly lit & in focus – no shadows on the face
No eyeglasses, hair or other obstructions over the face. Facial hair should not be a problem.
High hair (a bun or Afro for example) can cause problems and should be avoided. Long flowing hair should not be a problem.
Optimal Resolution
So what is the right resolution to use?
Use a low resolution image – and your character may appear pixelated (grainy) when displayed on your web page. Use too high a resolution – and you’d be adding weight (download size) to your character unnecessarily.
The rule of thumb is roughly 1000 x 1000 pixels for the area immediately surrounding the face (while the photo itself may be larger). There is not much value to be gained by using a higher resolution, because on most screens it is unlikely that that these extra pixels will come into play. But if your implementation has unique viewing characteristics, do the math & decide for yourself.
Image Composition
We suggest to use a photo that displays at least the upper part of the body, not just the head. For best results the body should be visible from below the chest & up. This will allow you to create a character with a large enough portion of the body, which will enable more flexibility when positioning on your web page.
Background – does it matter?
The Photoface 3D process does a pretty good job identifying the persons’ outline & auto-removing the background. But having a complex, noisy background can sometimes cause problems. While we do not require it, if you have the option we encourage the use of a uniform color background in your photo.
Pre-Edit the Image
Being fluent in Photoshop can be an advantage in certain cases. For example – a short neck (or no neck) photo can cause the shoulders to animate when the face moves. Sometimes that works well, and other times not so much. In those cases editing the photo by adding or extending the neck can help resolve.
Another example is the so called “high hair” scenario. In some images, the face might be slightly inclined forward, resulting in the upper scalp occupying a bit more of the vertical length of the face than it normally would. This can result in visual problems when the Avatar animates. Sometimes it can be addressed by adjusting the Camera Angle setting (see below). But it can also be improved by trimming the upper scalp. This phenomena can exacerbated when the face shape is long and narrow.
A long narrow face can result in “high-hair” distortion – slight trim of the upper scalp may help
Special Cases
Note that a photo may not work very well despite satisfying all requirements. Sometimes it is best to simply select a different photo. The opposite is also true – we sometimes see great results with faces that are off center, looking slightly sideways, or wearing eyeglasses.
Photoface 3D technology is optimized to the proportions of a “normal” human face. Faces with unusual proportions may not work very well. For example – an alien face with exceptional large or protruding eyes.
Despite that, we sometimes see customers achieve surprisingly good results with images of inanimate objects. A customer recently shared with us a very lovely “carrot face”, created by anthropomorphing an image of a carrot. We encourage you to use your imagination – but bear in mind that the tool was designed for human facial proportions.
Example of inanimate image that works nicely
II. The Photoface Editor – Suggestions & Tips
When you click on “Create Your Own” and initiate the Photoface process, there are 4 steps to go through:
1. Image upload & positioning
2. Anchor points placement
3. Masking the image
4. Finalizing your characters’ settings
Step 1 – Rotate & Scale
In the first step, your uploaded image is scaled and positioned automatically. Treat this initial positioning as a “first approximation”. It is up to you to fine-tune it.
Rotation: be sure to position the face with the eyes horizontally aligned. In some photos the mouth and the “eye line” are not parallel – your priority should be to align the eyes. The mouth can be fine-tuned later.
Scale: As you position the photo in the frame, you may want to zoom out a bit, to allow more of the body into the frame. This positioning determines your final character’s visible extent. If the body is cut too short it may limit later positioning on your web page.
Make sure the eyes are horizontally aligned, adjust mouth later
Step 2 – Anchor Point Placement
In the second step we auto-position the anchor points for you based on facial image analysis. This should also be considered an “initial approximation” for you to review and edit.
Follow the positioning in the sample picture & adjust the points carefully as needed. The auto-placement frequently requires manual fine-tuning.
Sometimes initial point positioning is off – always check and adjust
Step 3 – Masking the Image
We recommend going with the deafult settings in this step, unless you have good reason not to. Automasking works well in most cases, and produces better results.
Step 4 – Final Settings
In the final step, detailed tools are provided to help you get the mouth just right. Try them out repeatedly, until you get a good feel for how each setting affects the result.
For example, you may need to extend the mouth slit – not too wide, and not too narrow, to enable the mouth to open naturally. You may need to position the mouth slit off center & play around with its curvature and vertical location. Faces are never symmetrical.
Check out the slider for teeth whiteness. Avoid teeth that are too bright – a good rule of thumb is to match the whites of the eyes in the photo.
The “Camera Angle” setting can be very helpful. Play around with it to get a good feel for its effect.
Many times a face appears perfectly natural in the photo, and it is not immediately obvious that the photo was taken from slightly below the facial plain. This may cause the upper part of the head to stretch unnaturally as the head moves & can be a particular problem with naturally elongated faces.
Adjusting the camera angle can compensate & resolve.
Comments? Questions? Send us a note to: support@sitepal.com
We’ve just completed our first 3rd Party Text-To-Speech integration – with Google Cloud TTS leading the way. This integration adds 284 Google voices to SitePal.
Before proceeding we’d like to make clear:
Using the new voices requires integrating your Google Cloud account with your SitePal account. This is done by adding your Google API key to your SitePal account’s “Connect” page. This is not difficult and requires no coding.
Thus the cost of generating the Google voices (if any) is borne by you, and not included in the SitePal subscription cost. Please bear in mind.
3rd Party TTS voice integration requires the SitePal Platinum Plan.
The integration covers Google’s Standard, Wavenet & Neural voices. For a complete list of the added voices, see our API Reference – see Engine 11 in Appendix B.
Note: some newly added Google Voices might not yet be available in SitePal, we’ll be adding those periodically.
Google voices can now be used in SitePal just like any of our built-in voices. The new voices can be used either Statically or Dynamically.
Statically – created using the UI in your SitePal account, and then assigned to your Scenes.
Dynamically – real time via the SitePal API. Response times and performance are excellent.
Tips:
If the audios that your avatar will speak are known in advance, it would be best to manually create, name & save the audios in your SitePal account, and then use the “sayAudio” API call to invoke speech dynamically (as opposed to using “sayText”). Doing so means that we will not access the Google API at runtime, thereby saving usage costs.
Separately – it’s worth noting that SitePal caches dynamic TTS and if an audio is frequently used it will likely be delivered from the cache. This optimization is built-in – you don’t need to do anything to turn it on.
We’re working on integrating additional 3rd Party TTS providers, with AWS Poly, MS-Azure and Eleven Labs next on our list.
Last but not least! – we’ve recently introduced great new Robotic characters, available now to all SitePal plans. Check out our entire collection here: www.sitepal.com/collection
New Robot avatars. Each of them has several alternates.
With recent AI technology advances, we’re seeing the long sought after vision of a “Virtual Doctor” come closer to reality!
While a virtual healthcare professional is a prominent (and much needed) use case – this has enormous potential which is not limited to healthcare. The gap between available services and the public’s ability to take advantage of them is growing in every industry. With available options growing or changing by the day, it is likely that your customers cannot effectively understand or use your products without talking to someone.
We recently implemented integration with ChatGPT, which opens the door to any “Virtual Expert” type application. Industries from Insurance to Finance to Travel to Government Services and everything in between, can and will take advantage of AI Agents to make their products more accessible to the public.
How often have you heard the phrases: “If I could only talk to someone who understands all this!” – well, now the technology exists to truly make that happen.
To learn more about creating an AI Agent with SitePal and integrating with ChatGPT (or any 3rd party AI solution) see our recent blog entry – www.sitepal.com/blog?p=239.
So, with all that in mind we’ve just added several new healthcare professionals to our lineup. To review our full lineup of characters see: www.sitepal.com/collection, or create your own character from a photo using Photoface. If you need a custom character for your application – let us know.
We’re constantly working on new SitePal features & capabilities (and great new characters too!). Stay tuned for more updates…
ps. Why type your questions when you could speak them? Voice based interaction would be so much better! An idea whose time has come? We think so. Check out our latest AI Speech demo here – www.aispeechdemo.com
We are delighted to let you know that SitePal is now pre-integrated with ChatGPT.
What does this mean, and how can you take advantage of it?
SitePal has long supported building intelligent agents using its built-in AIML based capability. This means that you can create a knowledge base (a ‘Bot’) which contains relevant information for your visitors, and use a SitePal character as an intelligent agent to communicate with your website visitors. Your website visitors can learn about your products and services by conversing with your SitePal character.
We’ve now enhanced this capability with connectivity to 3rd party bots. The first such integration was with Pandorabots several weeks ago, now followed by OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The following technical example allows you to select which Bot to interact with. Select ChatGPT from the menu & try it out by asking questions.
So what do you need to do to create a useful ChatGPT implementation for your website?
In broad strokes the effort would consist of 2 parts:
1. Open an account with OpenAI and teach your ChatGPT bot about your products (or anything else you want it to know)
2. Setup a SitePal character on your website to answer users questions by interacting with your ChatGPT bot.
The first part can be implemented using tools provided by OpenAI and other companies. This is outside the scope of our explanation here.
The second part is where our Pre-Integration comes into play. To publish your SitePal character as a speaking ChatGPT driven inteligent agent, you need to add your OpenAI API key to your SitePal account. Then use our sayAI API call (yes, ONE call !) to have your character speak the responses to user questions.
We did the heavy lifting – so you don’t need to! It’s that easy.
Please see detailed step-by-step instruction in the following technical note – and start taking advantage of intelligent agent technology today!
Additional 3rd party AI vendors will be integrated with SitePal in the coming months. If you have a specific one in mind, drop us a note and let us know. We will do our best to prioritize.
ps. Why type your questions when you can speak them? Talking to your bot would be so much better! An idea whose time has come? We think so. Check out our new AI Speech Demo here – www.aispeechdemo.com
We’ve received many inquiries about using SitePal with React Native, and we’ve worked hard to make that possible.
React Native makes building mobile apps much simpler as many developers are coming to realize. This is mainly because it allows web developers to capitalize on their existing expertise, but also because it is a cross platform tool that enables you to build native apps for both iOS and Android.
ps. If you are just starting out with SitePal, or it’s been a while since you used SitePal (so much has changed…) we encourage you to check out our video tutorials, available on our support page here – www.sitepal.com/support
Customers sometimes ask us whether SitePal characters’ lip animation can be improved.
Well, if you are using human recorded audio then the answer is yes! We recently launched a very useful update we’d like to make you aware of.
Note:
This improvement applies only to 3D characters & works only for English for now
For TTS – the improvement is automatically applied – see explanation below
When you upload (or record) an audio, you will now see a “transcript” section where you can add… yes, a text transcript of the audio.
The text transcript is used to improve our automated lip-sync analysis and produce better results.
How much better?
We put together two SitePal Scenes for you to compare. “Before” and “After” if you will. Unlike the Pepsi challenge – you’ll need to keep your eyes open! Take a look:
Uploaded without transcript: www.sitepal.com/geturl/?ss=2756599&sl=0&acc=7029566
Uploaded with transcript: www.sitepal.com/geturl/?ss=2756598&sl=0&acc=7029566
As you can see the improvement is noticeable. So when adding audios to your account do take the time to add a text transcript to each audio, it is well worth the effort. To apply this improvement to existing (recorded or uploaded) audios, you would need to re-upload your audios and enter a text transcript for each.
The other (unrelated) advantage of adding a text transcript to your audio is that it enables subtitle display. If subtitles are relevant to your implementation – we suggest reading the technical note “Adding Subtitles to your Scene”, on our support page.
Note:
for TTS (both static and dynamic) adding a transcript is usually unnecessary because the text used to generate the audio is automatically applied to enhance the Lip-Sync as well. So there’s nothing you need to do. But in some cases you may still benefit from adding transcript to your TTS text input. That might be the case if your TTS text is heavily phonetic, or contains SSML tags. A good way to think about it is: TTS text is meant to be machine readable. The transcript is meant to be human readable (whether used for Lip-Sync or subtitles or both). To the extent the TTS text is modified to enhance the former, you might benefit from the latter.
Oh, before we forget – do check out our new AI Demo – if you haven’t done so already! See – www.aispeechdemo.com
We’re actively working on additional features & capabilities (and new characters!) to be added soon… Stay tuned for more information.
( tip: click on the “die” button to select other SitePal characters )
The point of this demo is to showcase 2-way speech interface, coupled with SitePal integration. The specific AI bot integrated here is not the point – as SitePal can be used as the animated face for any AI chat bot.
To implement the speech recognition part we’re using the Web Speech API. The Web Speech API is an evolving web standard which is now built-in to most browsers* and can be used for speech recognition.
A technical example is also available on our support pages – where you can more easily peruse the source code and see how it is put together. See at:
As always – our examples are meant to be copied and used – so check out the source code of the page and feel free to use it with your SitePal account.
To learn more about implementing SitePal for your AI bot, send us a note to support@sitepal.com & ask for guidelines.
*Note: the Web Speech API is universally supported on all platforms and browsers – including mobile -with the exception of the Firefox browser. The demo (and example) automatically reverts to text input when Firefox is used.
Oh, and last but not least – we’ve just added new animal characters, now available to all SitePal customers. Check out our entire collection here – https://sitepal.com/collection
As always, we’re actively working on additional features & capabilities (and new characters!) to be added soon… Stay tuned for more information.
We have long offered built-in AI knowledge base creation (known as SitePal AIMC) – and we are proud to have recognized the value and practical potential of AI so early on (more than 15 years ago…)
At the same time we also recognize there are many AI solutions out there, using different technologies, and designed for different audiences and use cases. There IS ONE THING they all share though: they can all benefit from an animated speaking avatar as their (user-inter) Face. After all – why communicate via text when you can do so by speaking? An idea whose time has come? We think so.
So we’ve gone ahead and done two things:
1. We’ve implemented 3rd party AI integration
2. We’ve demonstrated how to connect with the Web Speech API to enable speech input.
Let’s go over these one by one and explain exactly what we mean.
Part I – 3rd Party AI Integration
Our customers have been integrating SitePal characters with their 3rd party AI for years, so what’s changed? What’s new now is that we’ve gone ahead and made it much simpler to do.
Instead of implementing API connectivity from your web page to two services – SitePal & your AI provider – the AI programming interface is now taken care of by us. All you need to do is setup your 3rd Party API key in your SitePal account, and from that moment on, your SitePal character is connected! To implement you still need to use the SitePal API – but that’s all you need.
The first 3rd party AI solution to be integrated is Pandorabots – long a favorite of ours. We put together a technical example to demonstrate how it’s done. Check it out here, and feel free to view and use the source code of the page – that’s what it’s for!
Pandorabots integration is available now to Gold plan users. Next on our list is Google Dialogflow, with other popular AI solutions to be added thereafter. Send us a note if you need a particular AI solution – we’ll add it to our to-do list.
Part II – Speaking to Your Speaking Character
The Web Speech API is an evolving web standard which is now built-in to most browsers* and can be used for speech recognition!
We’ve worked out how to add speech input to SitePal using the Web Speech API – and put together a working example – check it out:
As always – out examples are meant to be copied and used – so check out the source code of the page and feel free to use it.
*Note: the Web Speech API is now universally supported on all platforms and browsers – including mobile -with the exception of the Firefox browser. The example automatically reverts to text input when Firefox is used.
We’re actively working on additional new features & capabilities (and new characters!) to be added soon… Stay tuned for more information.
As 2022 is coming to a close, we’re so excited to look back and consider all that we’ve accomplished this year – and the many new SitePal users we’ve welcomed on board.
Welcome all!
With so many product updates added in the past 12 months, we thought we’d give you a quick run down – just in case you missed some of them (and also because we’re so proud of what we’ve done…! ).
So here goes – just the highlites:
Photoface Automated Image Masking
When creating a 3D character from your photo, you no longer need to spend time painstakingly outlining the outline of the persona. This task has been automated, so you can try out different images quickly!
Support for React, Angular and Vue Frameworks
Using NPM packages it is now a snap to integrate SitePal in your web project.
Audio Playback Limits – Removed
No more 90 seconds limit! Assign multiple audios to your Scene to be spoken in sequence. Or – if you are using the TTS API, you can now feed in text as long as you like. The 900 character limit has been removed.
New Tutorial Videos
Our new “Getting Started” tutorials are short (8 and 12 minutes respectively) but are jam packed with useful info and tips – and get you on board in no time.
“No-Javascript” Embed
You can now publish your SitePal to those pesky blogs or CMS or LMS systems that do not permit Javascript code. Yes – for real!
Subtitles Now Supported
Add text subtitles to your speaking character, in any language. The character & the displayed text conform responsively to the available space!
Speech Recognition Integration Example
Speak to your SitePal character – and it responds. How cool is that?
With full source code available – you can build your own!
3rd Party Integration – Pandorabots
Integration with Pandoarabots intelligent agents is now built-in. Just add your PB api key to your SitePal account – and your speaking character will be connected to your Pandorabots smarts. Now that’s intelligent! (with more integrations to come)
New User Interface
The new user interface improves usability and clarifies all aspects of SitePal use – as so many customers have told us!
And…. we’ve not even mentioned the huge cast of new characterswe’ve added this year. Do check them out.
As always – we’re actively working on new features & capabilities to be added soon… Stay tuned for more information.
Happy Hollidays!
The SitePal Team
www.sitepal.com
“What does your site say?”
ps. If you are looking to get started with SitePal, or it’s been a while since you used SitePal (so much has changed…) we encourage you to check out our new video tutorials, available on our support page here – www.sitepal.com/support
The use of animation in business is constantly increasing. Having an animated speaking character or characters representing your brand can create a more memorable and engaging way to communicate with your audience. In this blog post, we will explore the top animation character creators for your business.
Are you a business owner who is curious about AI marketing but unsure of where to begin? Undoubtedly, character animation is where you should start. We have listed 5 applications to make animated characters along with their top features to help you make the right choice.
How Character Animation Is Helping Businesses
Marketers today are increasingly using animated character visuals to promote their brand, products, and services. Due to the rising popularity of video marketing and its optimized outcomes, such characters can successfully deliver a message to an audience by being both entertaining and educational.
Marketers can better engage their consumers by using animation character creators for videos of all types -such as customer reviews, whiteboard animation, demo videos, and more.
How To Determine The Best Character Animator
Set a clear target
Choosing what you want to do with the animation character creator is the first step in making the best choice. Therefore, carefully decide what you want to accomplish before employing an animated character creator.
Create a list of the features you need
After deciding on your objective, you’ll have a good notion of the features you’ll require. As a result, you should then make a list of these capabilities and check for them as you filter through your selections.
Assess the learning curve that comes with it
If the software you pick is not user-friendly, then you’re in for a brain-racking experiment. And so, take into account your knowledge of and experience with character animation before making your choice. If you are just starting off, choose a tool that lets you make animated characters with ease and is designed for beginners.
With this in mind, let’s dive into the best animation character creators.
Best Tools For Character Animation
1. SitePal
SitePal is a cloud-based software application that prioritizes human touch-infused customer service on websites, web applications, retail in-store kiosks, and mobile apps. SitePal’s lifelike speaking avatars can speak in any language and can be used for customer support, sales, email marketing campaigns, e-learning, or to promote a product or service.
To make animated characters with a natural and authentic voice, SitePal is built to either use human recorded voice or cutting-edge text-to-speech technology. AWS Poly, Google TTS, and MS-Azure are a few of the pre-integrated text-to-speech services. This animation character creator does not require programming, but programmers can take advantage of a rich API to integrate your SitePal character with your website business logic.
SitePal provides a full range of 2D, 3D, and Full Body style characters to meet the needs of any website or mobile application. You can custom-design your own avatar from a photo using its versatile Photoface 3D feature. The platform comes with hundreds of built-in TTS voices in more than 40 different languages.
Doratoon is a cartoon character maker that provides a seamless experience while being simple to use. With the aid of the proper components, this animation character creator promises the capacity to produce custom films.
This tool has accessibility to make animated cartoons and is, therefore, an ideal option for cartoon creators. With the tools at hand, these elements aim to encourage imagination while perfectly animating the figures.
3. Adobe
Banners and cartoons can come to life with the use of interactive animations created using Adobe Animate for the web, TV, and gaming. Additionally, it helps users create infographics, eLearning materials, avatars, doodles, etc. for sharing across various platforms.
It is a potent animation and illustration tool for making augmented reality experiences for mobile and online content. The animation character creator offers drawing and sketching tools that let you use Adobe Fresco and experiment!
4. Vyond
For professional purposes, such as eLearning, training, sales, human resources, and marketing, animated videos, Vyond is a great tool. Create media right away using a bank of materials, pre-made templates, and a complete set of team collaboration capabilities.
With the help of audio, a library of templates, and props, one can easily change the generic into dynamic videos. Video production is simple and adaptable, producing good business results with impactful visuals.
5. Reallusion
Making 3D talking heads has become smoother with Reallusion’s CrazyTalk. This animation character creator is a facial animation program that has facilitated adding text and speech to the visuals. It incorporates a number of ground-breaking auto-motion capabilities which helps make animated characters.
The visuals may be used to create animated talking characters with the use of the 3D Head Creation tool. Unique animated picture albums, emails, and online greetings can all be generated.
What’s the Best Pick For Your Business?
As we decoded these character animation tools, selecting the right one is our last step. Note that a tool that works for your competition might not necessarily be a great fit for you. So, be sure to select the choice that is best suite to your specific needs.
We have found that uniquely among the solutions listed above, SitePal is the one tool that was designed first and foremost as an internet based solution. It is designed to work in a web browser and mobile app – and can be embedded, modified & updated with ease. SitePal is not a video based solution – which can be difficult to produce and costly to update. Its animated characters are lightweight and, once added to your page, both speech and appearance can be edited frequently without touching your web page again.
SitePal is easy, powerful, and professional, providing an all-in-one experience! If your business already has a branded character, SitePal can be used to create a custom avatar that brings your brand character to life. This way, you can instantly establish a brand identity across all mediums. And the best part, it’s a breeze to publish your character. Effortless plus quick! No programming knowledge required.
With its free 15-day trial, you’ll see how SitePal improves your customer service experience and converts potential prospects.
In today’s retail environment, kiosks are becoming more and more popular. Using kiosks is an excellent way for retailers to improve sales and customer service. However, there are a few things retailers can do to make their kiosks more user-friendly and improve sales. In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the ways that retailers can enhance the retail kiosk experience, make it more user-friendly, and improve sales.
Retail kiosks are automated machines typically used to sell products or services. They are often found in high-traffic areas, such as malls or airports, and can be used to sell everything from tickets to food. Retail kiosks are usually operated by a touch screen and accept cash or credit cards.
Kiosks are an excellent way for businesses to sell their products or services without the need for a human salesperson. They are also convenient for customers, as they enable purchases without waiting in line. Retail kiosks are becoming increasingly popular as they offer a quick and easy way to get information and make purchases.
In fact, the results of a 2019 Forbes survey revealed that 65% of customers would be more willing to visit a restaurant if it had self-service kiosks. Not only that, but a PYMTS survey also showed that 49.4% of retail customers prefer self-checkout kiosks because they’re faster.
As technology continues to evolve, so do the retail kiosk capabilities. By making a few adjustments to the design and user experience of your kiosks, you can create an engaging retail kiosk experience that draws customers in and keeps them coming back for more. Here are a few ways to improve the retail kiosk experience:
1. Enhance the graphics
The first step in improving the retail kiosk experience is to enhance the graphics. One way to do so is with high-resolution images and videos that help bring your products or services to life. You can also use interactive graphics that let customers explore different features or options. This can help them make better-informed decisions about their purchase.
2. Make the interface more user-friendly
Another way to improve the retail kiosk experience is to simplify navigation. Customers should be able to easily find what they’re looking for without having to click through a lot of different screens. Consider using drop-down menus or categorizing products by type to make it easier for customers to find what they need. You can also make the retail kiosk experience more user-friendly by adding icons or graphics that help guide users through the process.
3. Offer more customizability and personalization options
Enhancing the retail kiosk experience can also include making it interactive so customers can browse and learn more about products before they make a purchase. Plus, you can include a search function on the kiosk so customers can quickly find the products they’re looking for. Adding a loyalty program to the retail kiosk so customers can earn rewards for making purchases can also ensure they come back!
4. Improve the speed and accuracy of the kiosk
In order to improve the speed and accuracy of the retail kiosk, it is important to make sure that the kiosk always functions correctly. Cleaning and maintaining it regularly will keep the kiosk in good condition and allow it to function properly. Additionally, it is crucial to keep the software up-to-date in order to ensure that the kiosk can handle new product information and updates quickly and accurately.
5. Offer on-site customer support
Despite providing autonomy to the customer, the retail kiosk experience may not be a pleasant one if customers can’t figure out how to find what they need. There may also be times when a kiosk malfunction or some other issue arises. That’s why it can be helpful to have built-in customer support to immediately solve any issues your customers may have.
Retail kiosks are a great way to improve sales and customer experience. However, they can be improved even further by making them more user-friendly. To make the retail kiosk experience more user-friendly, consider using an avatar to help guide customers through their experience.
As we move into the future, more and more businesses are looking for ways to automate their operations. This includes the use of text-to-speech software. This type of software allows you to convert written text into spoken words, so you can multi-task and get more done in less time. This can be useful for a variety of business applications, such as customer service, telemarketing, and more. But with so many different options on the market, it can be hard to know which one is right for your business. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the best text-to-speech software for business in 2022.
What is Text-To-Speech Software?
Text-to-speech software converts written text into spoken words. It is also sometimes referred to as text-to-voice or voice synthesis software. This technology is very useful for people who have difficulty reading or who want to listen to text instead of reading it. It can also be used to in language teaching to help students with pronunciation but it’s most effective impact is on improving customer facing communication for business.
According to an industry report, the text-to-speech market was valued at USD 2.0 billion in 2020 and is estimated to reach USD 5.0 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 14.6% during the forecast period.
Text-to-speech software usually has a wide range of features, including the ability to adjust the speech rate, pitch, and volume. Some programs also come with a built-in dictionary that can be fine tuned to improve pronunciation. There are also a number of different ways to create spoken words, such as using pre-recorded sounds or synthesizing the speech. Some programs even allow the user to create their own custom voices. No matter what your needs are, there is a text-to-speech solution that can help you.
The Best Text-To-Speech Software of 2022
SitePal: Every Text-To-Speech Software’s Best Pal
SitePal is a cloud-based software application that allows the creation of lifelike speaking avatars for use on websites, web applications, and mobile apps. SitePal avatars can speak in any language and can be used for customer support, sales, training, e-learning, or to promote a product or service.
SitePal is designed to utilize either human recorded voice or state of the art text-to-speech technology in order to provide a realistic and natural-sounding voice for the avatar. To do so, SitePal has licensed and includes in its platform some of the leading Text-To-Speech platforms mentioned above, as well as several others! Hundreds of voices in over 40 languages are built-in to the SitePal platform.
In addition to these built in voices – SitePal is pre-integrated with several of the most advanced text-to-speech solutions, including AWS Poly, Google TTS, and MS-Azure. You can connect your speaking avatars to your Google account (for example) by dropping your API key into place, it’s that simple!
All this allows for a more lifelike experience for the user, and a vast selection of the most advanced voices to choose from. There is no need for you to consider which Text-to-Speech vendor to select, because almost all of them are available with SitePal.
The ability to utilize text-to-speech (TTS) is a great asset for any business. SitePal is able to provide businesses with a way to use this technology effectively by pairing it with its speaking animated avatars. The platform is designed to be able to use any TTS technology, and all key TTS providers are in the process of being integrated into the platform.
NaturalReader is one of the best text-to-speech services that converts written text into spoken words. It’s a great tool for busy professionals who need to be able to listen to documents while they’re on the go. It can be used to convert any written text into natural-sounding speech.
With NaturalReader, you can have your computer read any text aloud to you, or you can save the text as an MP3 file for later listening. The program is also helpful for students who have difficulty reading. NaturalReader can convert text from a variety of sources, including PDFs, websites, and eBooks.
Amazon Polly
Amazon Polly is a cloud-based service that provides text-to-speech conversion. It uses advanced machine learning technologies to convert text into lifelike speech. Amazon Polly is a service that turns text into lifelike speech, allowing you to build more natural user interfaces.
Polly supports a variety of languages and voices, so you can create applications in your preferred language. Polly provides a REST API that you can use to create applications that talk and an SDK that you can use to build natural user interfaces.
ReadSpeaker
ReadSpeaker is text-to-speech software that can be used to convert written text into spoken word. It can be used for a variety of purposes, such as to improve accessibility for those with vision impairments or to provide a text-to-speech interface for websites and applications.
ReadSpeaker is available in a number of languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, and more. With ReadSpeaker, you can choose how fast or slow you want the speech to be, and you can even have the software highlight the words as they are being read.
NeoSpeech
NeoSpeech is another text-to-speech software that offers a technology that transforms digital text into natural-sounding speech. This technology can be used for a variety of applications, such as reading aloud digital books, converting text to audio files for playback, or creating voice-enabled applications.
NeoSpeech’s text-to-speech technology is based on a deep learning platform that analyzes text and converts it into speech that sounds natural and human-like. The platform is constantly learning and improving, which means that the quality of the speech output is always improving.
SitePal also offers a free 15-day trial, so you can try it out and see for yourself how it can improve your text-to-speech needs.
Every business has a unique story to tell, and your brand character can be the embodiment of that story. Your brand character could come to represent the voice, personality, and look of your business. It’s what makes your business stand out from the crowd. Creating a brand character is an important step in building a strong and recognizable brand. But what exactly is a brand character? And how do you create one? In this blog post, we’ll answer those questions and give you some tips for creating a brand character for your business.
What is a Brand Character?
Your brand is more than just your logo, name, and color scheme. It’s the personality of your business, and it’s what sets you apart from your competitors. A strong brand character can help you connect with your customers on a deeper level, and it can make your business more memorable. In fact, Disney once revealed that its brand character (or mascot) Mickey Mouse had a recognition rate of 88% with children worldwide.
A brand character is a personality that is associated with a brand. It can be a fictional persona based on the brand’s overall image or it can be specific to a particular campaign or product. A brand character can be manifested in many ways, such as through a spokesperson, a mascot, or even an anthropomorphized version of the brand itself.
This personality is often human-like, and it helps consumers to connect with the brand on a more emotional level. Brand characters can be used in marketing and advertising campaigns to help communicate the brand message in a more relatable way. While some brand characters are created specifically for marketing purposes, others are based on historical figures or characters from popular culture. Notable brand character examples include Mr. Clean, who is based on the Greek god Poseidon, and the Pillsbury Doughboy, who is based on the popular cartoon character Popeye.
Brand characters can be an effective way to connect with consumers and create an emotional connection with the brand. They can also help to communicate key messages in a more memorable and engaging way. If done well, brand characters can become an invaluable asset to a company. However, it is important to ensure that the brand character is developed in a way that is consistent with brand identity and values.
SitePal is a feature-rich tool that helps you create a brand character for your website or app. With SitePal, you can easily create a lifelike character that speaks to your visitors in their own language. You can also use SitePal to create characters for marketing campaigns, product demos, and more.
SitePal is the perfect tool for businesses of all sizes who want to create a more engaging experience for their visitors. This is a great way to build rapport with your customers and create a strong relationship with them. Plus, SitePal is an excellent tool to add personality to your brand and make it more memorable.
1. Sign in to SitePal
First, you’ll need to sign up and log in to SitePal. However, you don’t need to pay for a subscription right off the bat. SitePal provides a15-day free trial so you can try it out and see if it works for you!
2. Design your avatar
Select and design your brand character using the various options from SitePal’s website, or create your own from an image! You can customize an existing character as per your brand personality, there are hundreds to choose from. Select from human characters, illustrated characters, animal characters, or fantasy characters. Plus, there is no limit as to how many times you can modify your brand character, should you want to apply changes. SitePal will even create a unique custom character per your instructions (this involves additional cost – please ask).
3. Give your character a voice
Add a voice to your character by recording or uploading your audios. Or use the text-to-speech feature to type in whatever you want your brand character to say. Hundreds of voices in over 40 languages are available to select from.
4. Publish
Use SitePal’s publishing wizard to publish the character to your own website, integrate it into your mobile apps, or send in an email.
Brand characters can help you better connect with your target audience and build customer loyalty.
To create a brand character, start by thinking about what personality traits would best represent your brand. Then, use SitePal to create a custom avatar that brings your brand character to life.
Using SitePal does not require programming, but programmers can take advantage of a rich API to integrate your SitePal character with your website business logic. A SitePal character can be programmed to provide targeted or personal information to visitors – and even to answer questions.
The way we connect with others has changed dramatically in recent years thanks to the rise of digital technology. We can now communicate with people all over the world in an instant, but sometimes this can come at the expense of human connection. In this blog post, we’ll explore the concept of digital empathy and how it can help you build stronger relationships with your customers.
What is digital empathy?
Digital empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person who is interacting with you online. It’s about creating a connection with someone, even though you’re not physically present with them. When you show digital empathy, you’re showing that you understand and care about the person you’re talking to. This can go a long way in building relationships and creating connections with customers.
Unfortunately we often see a lack of empathy in digital interactions. This can happen when companies give automated responses, or cookie-cutter standard responses to customer complaints. When we lack digital empathy in our online interactions, it can lead to misunderstanding and conflict. It can also make it more challenging to build trust and rapport.
Digital empathy is important because it can help build better customer relationships. If we want to create more meaningful and successful digital interactions, we need to ensure that we bring empathy to the table. When you show customers that you understand their concerns and are willing to help, they will be more likely to do business with you.
Why is it essential to connect with customers?
Customer connection is about more than just building relationships. It’s about understanding customers on a deeper level so that you can provide them with the best possible solution. When you connect with customers, you’re able to create a bond of trust and rapport. This not only makes them more likely to do business with you, but it also makes them more likely to recommend you to others.
A global survey by Freshworks revealed that 52% of consumers stopped buying from a company due to their communication. In fact, 17% of them even quoted “insensitivity” as the main issue.
Connecting with customers can also help businesses better understand their needs and wants. By understanding their customers, businesses can create products and services that better meet their needs. There are many ways to connect with customers. You can connect with them through social media, phone, email, or in person. Finding the right method for your business and your customers is important.
At the end of the day, businesses need customers to survive. Building customer connections requires an investment of both time and effort; however, the payoff can be significant. By connecting with your customers, you are able to demonstrate that you care about their needs and respond to their questions in a timely manner. Additionally, maintaining positive customer relationships can lead to repeat business and referrals. And the best way to get and keep customers is by connecting with them in a genuine and meaningful way.
How can you use digital empathy to connect with customers?
In a world where more and more interactions are happening online, it’s important to be able to connect with people in a way that feels personal and human. According to a recent global survey from PwC, 75% of consumers say that as technology improves, they would prefer to interact with humans rather than machines.
Building digital empathy doesn’t have to be complicated. Just a few simple things can go a long way to help you connect with your customers in a deeper, more meaningful way. Here are a few ways you can use digital empathy to connect with your customers:
Make an effort: Make an effort to really understand your customers. Take the time to learn about their needs, wants, and challenges.
Pay attention to your tone of interaction: Are you coming across as cold or robotic? Or are you taking the time to understand your customer’s concerns?
Be present and responsive: When you’re interacting with customers online, be present and responsive. Don’t let distractions pull your attention away from the conversation.
Create a personal connection: Find ways to create a personal connection with your customer. This could include sending a personalized email or notification, being present during customer service interactions, and more.
Tips for using digital empathy with customers
Here are a few tips for using digital empathy with customers:
Be present and responsive. When someone is reaching out to you online, they want to know that you’re there and that you care about their issue. Be present and responsive in your interactions, and show that you’re truly listening to what they’re saying.
Be human. We’re all human beings, so let your humanity show through in your interactions. Be warm, relatable, and understanding.
Put yourself in their shoes. Try to see things from the customer’s perspective and understand what they’re going through.
Digital empathy is a powerful tool that can help businesses connect with their customers on a deeper level. By understanding and respecting the customer’s digital needs and preferences, businesses can build stronger relationships and improve customer satisfaction.
What’s empathy without human touch? That is precisely what SitePal helps with. Humanize your digital customer service experience with SitePal’s Photo-face 3D characters. With no prior programming experience necessary, SitePal’s intuitive technology makes it easy to integrate your avatar with your website, marketing campaigns, retail stores, and apps.
What’s empathy without human touch? That’s where SitePal comes in!
Humanize your digital customer service experience with SitePal’s Photo-face 3D characters. With no prior programming experience necessary, SitePal’s intuitive technology makes it easy to integrate your avatar with your website, marketing campaigns, retail stores, and apps.
In any industry, customer experience is today’s business benchmark. Providing a great experience to your customer is more important than ever and helps set yourself apart from the other players in your field. In order to improve customer experience in healthcare, we must first gain a deeper understanding of what healthcare consumers truly need. Although the industry has been talking about consumer-driven practices for at least a decade, healthcare is still in the early stages of its Consumer Revolution. In this blog post, we’ll explore why great customer service is essential and what healthcare professionals can do and are doing to improve it.
Why is great customer service important especially in healthcare?
Healthcare is a complex system, and patients need all the help they can get to navigate it.
First and foremost, great customer service is essential for maintaining patient satisfaction, especially in medical industry. Studies have shown that patients who have a positive experience with their healthcare provider are more likely to stick with that provider and recommend them to others.
In addition, great customer service can help to build trust between a medical organization and its patients. When patients feel like they are being treated well, they are more likely to have confidence in the organization and its staff. This trust can lead to improved patient attitude and compliance, and therefore improved treatment.
Finally, good customer service is simply good business. wellness providers who offer excellent customer service are more likely to attract and retain patients. This can lead to increased revenue and a more successful business.
3 ways to improve customer service in healthcare?
Value-based care is a central focus in the healthcare industry. As the industry grows, it becomes increasingly important to deliver a retail-like experience that will keep patients and members coming back. However, creating a seamless user experience can be difficult when data is spread across disparate systems. This causes users to have to interact with multiple systems, which is inefficient and often frustrating. A well thought out patient-centric experience, personalization, and live assistance can help improve customer service. Let’s look at these in detail below.
1. Personalization :
People appreciate experiences that are created exclusively for them. Personalization in healthcare can now be extended as far as predicting potential health risks and providing round-the-clock remote live assistance. The use of technology and AI has made it easy to hyper personalize and one excellent way to do that is by using SitePal. SitePal can be integrated into your website, email marketing campaign, kiosks, apps, etc. to improve and add a human touch to the customer/patient service experience.
2. Live assistance :
In recent years, there’s growing evidence that worsening health and mobility difficulties make remote healthcare consultations more desirable for many patients. According to a report by Cisco, 74% of patients are inclined towards a virtual doctor than a face-to-face appointment. Hence, expanding and enhancing live healthcare assistance by voice or video chat solutions is the need of the hour for most healthcare businesses.
3. Flawless experience :
With the advent of new technologies such as AI, cloud solutions, live interactions, and big data, healthcare providers are now able to offer a more seamless and end-to-end patient experience. However, in order to truly provide a flawless end-to-end experience, it is important to also improve interactions between the healthcare provider and patients over various touchpoints. By doing so, health facility providers will be able to retain patients at each stage of the customer journey, from choosing a health protection provider to scheduling appointments, receiving personalized health care advice through AI, to remote consultation and treatment.
The Takeaway
Great customer experience is pivotal in the healthcare industry because it helps to build trust between patients and providers and helps make a complex system accessible. By ensuring that patients feel valued and listened to, healthcare providers can create an environment of mutual respect and rapport, and by doing so actually improve medical treatment as well.
In conclusion, through the use of innovative customer experience platforms like SitePal, healthcare providers can improve patient retention rates and offer a more personalized and customized healthcare experience.
Having your potential customers put you into a spam folder is the last thing you want your marketing activities to achieve.
Instead, you want to build trust with your prospects so that they remain interested in receiving communication from you.
With email marketing and list building being such an important part of any digital marketing strategy, it’s worth taking the time to consider what works best for your business and which methods (both new and old) will prove most beneficial in the long run.
So, if you need some inspiration on how to improve and optimize your email marketing and list-building efforts, take a look at our 5 pro tips.
1. Segment Your Email Lists
When you segment your email lists, you send different messages to different groups of people.
For example, you can send a promotional message to one group and an educational message to another. You can also send different messages to people depending on their interests or location.
There are a few key reasons why it’s important to segment your email lists when you’re doing email list building and email marketing. But #1 is that it allows you to send more targeted and relevant messages to your subscribers.
Second, it helps you to avoid spamming people with too many emails. And third, it can help you increase your open and click-through rates.
2. Do A/B Testing – Often.
Understanding the type of messaging or content that resonates with a potential customer over another is one of the most valuable marketing insights you can have as a business.
And A/B Testing is the best way to learn.
With A/B Testing, you can test different subject lines, layouts, images, and even CTA copy to see what gets the best results. You can try out different personalization strategies, and unique features like talking characters, and more.
It’s one of the best and most effective ways to fine tune the effectiveness of your outreach, and thus improve your click-through and conversions.
3. Automate, Automate, Automate
Automation is one of the most important tasks you can do to build a successful email list.
With email automation, you can send a series of emails to your prospects and customers automatically, based on certain trigger events– saving you time, energy, and money.
However, when setting up an automated email marketing system, there are a few things to keep in mind:
Make sure you have different forms to collect email addresses from your various media platforms.
Use email automation tools like Mailchimp to schedule emails automatically.
Create various email triggers for specific actions. ( Ie. abandoned cart emails, new subscriber emails,)
Automation can also help to keep your email list both clean and organized. As more people join your email list, it becomes harder to keep track of everything that’s going on. Automation allows you to keep all of your subscribers in one place and ensure that you’re sending the right emails to the right people.
4. Only Send Valuable and Compelling Content
Sending valuable and relevant content to people you want to connect with is an essential component of any email marketing strategy. It’s important to know what types of content your audience wants to see, and how they want to receive it.
There are a number of ways that you can send compelling content in an email marketing campaign. You can include images and video, even speaking characters (checkout Sitepal), share blog posts and articles, promote webinars and events, or create customer case studies.
The key is finding what your customer enjoys and finds valuable so that whatever you share builds trust and communicates your expertise in the field.
5. Personalize Your Messaging
Personalization is a key component of any email marketing strategy. And it can take many forms.
For example, you can personalize certain elements of an email, including the subject line, the body text, and the sender name (i.e., the name displayed in the form the field). You can also customize your message based on user data such as location and device type.
Personalization is an area where experimentation is key. Try different variations of your email to see which features are most effective in increasing engagement and driving more clicks.
You’ve Got Subscribers. What Next?
So our tips helped you understand ways to grow your email list and be more effective at email marketing. But now that you have a subscriber base, how to best engage them?
One way is by using talking avatars. If you don’t know what they are, think of them as virtual versions of yourself or your brand persona that subscribers can interact with on a regular basis.
With SitePal you can select or create your own speaking animated character and embed it in your emails, webpage, video or mobile app. You can even create your own 3D character from a photo! Personalize what your characters say, including customer-specific information and a behavior-based call to action. No programming or coding experience is necessary to get started, but rich APIs are available for programmers to make the most of SitePal.
It’s no secret that today’s consumers are bombarded with emails. It can be hard to get them to open and read yours. So, engage your subscribers and make your email stand out with SitePal’s talking characters. Sign up for a free trial today.
The key to driving business growth lies in providing an excellent customer service experience.
Ensuring your customers have a positive experience each and every time they interact with your company is crucial to keep them coming back.
It’s not always easy to do, but with the right tools, it can be done. That’s where technology comes in.
Customer service today transcends the personal interaction between company rep and customer. It has expanded to include social media, live messaging, self-help databases, and so much more.
In this guide, we’ll discuss what it takes to become a customer service aficionado, and how your business can achieve it! Let’s begin.
What is Customer Service Experience?
Customer service experience, to put it literally, is what the customer “experiences” when receiving service. It is the customer’s sentiment associated with their interaction with your company. This can include everything from one-on-one support interactions to exchanges on a more public scale, such as social media comments.
The latter is increasingly becoming more common than the former, taking the importance of customer service experience to a new level.
If a company-customer exchange is public, many potential customers can witness how a company interacts with its existing ones. This can shape the public’s opinion and attitude towards the company and it’s products.
Studies have shown that customer service plays a significant role in fostering customer loyalty and support. Companies that provide excellent customer service are more likely to retain customers and encourage them to make repeat purchases.
On the other hand, poor customer service experience can lead to customers abandoning their purchase decisions altogether.
What does it take to ensure the best Customer Service Experience?
1. Ask For Their Opinion
The only opinion that matters when it comes to achieving optimum customer service experience is the customers’. And the best way to determine if they are satisfied? Ask them directly.
Customer satisfaction surveys provide a straightforward way of collecting customer feedback following each customer service interaction. This feedback can be extremely valuable in identifying where improvements are needed in your customer support process. However, just sharing a survey isn’t enough. It’s also important to actually analyze each survey response and make the necessary changes within your operations.
2. Offer Multiple Modes of Communication
Some of your customers may be more comfortable with emailing their queries to you, while others may prefer talking on the phone. Offering more support channels can improve the customer service experience by giving them more options. This strategy can help to increase satisfaction levels and encourage customer loyalty.
3. Make It An Easy Experience
It is often the case that the best customer service experience is the one that goes unnoticed by the customer. Too many businesses end up creating obstacles between themselves and their customers in the form of complicated contact forms, policies, and escalations. By removing these barriers, businesses can provide a much better experience for their customers.
4. Give Quick Responses
The importance of timely responses cannot be understated. In every customer satisfaction survey, customers consistently cite a quick response as being key to a good service experience. Make sure your customers feel like a priority by focusing on reducing first reply time. This is one of the most important things you can do to provide a great customer service experience.
5. Nurture a Culture of Caring in the Company
In the end, delivering an excellent customer experience boils down to the people. If the employees in your organization are not committed and motivated to care for customers, all other endeavors will be fruitless.
One way to encourage a customer-focused mindset among your employees is to launch programs that shrink the distance between customers and employees. When employees have the opportunity to hear how their actions impact customers, they are more likely to be attuned to customer needs and expectations in their daily work.
Improve your customer’s experience with SitePal
For an engaging customer service experience, you may want to try SitePal. SitePal lets you put “virtual employees” on your website who can welcome visitors, guide them, and answer questions.
With SitePal, you can add a human touch to your digital customer service experience with Photo-face 3D characters, and integrate them with your website, marketing campaigns, retail stores, and apps.
The SitePal speaking character (or “Avatar”) can serve as a virtual employee, and speak to and interact with your website visitors or app users. The best part? With SitePal, you don’t need any prior experience in programming. Our intuitive technology is beginner-friendly!
The future of customer service is here – personalized and engaging experiences for your customer at every interaction. So, give your customers – potential and existing – the personalized experience they deserve with a virtual avatar!
