Shelf - Best New Version of an IVR or Web Service Solution
Company: Shelf, Stamford, CTA
Company Description: Shelf is redefining the future of support work with knowledge automation, enabling front-line staff and customers to connect with answers they need fast. Our highly-awarded, AI-driven platform revolutionizes how organizations curate and distribute company knowledge.
Nomination Category: New Product & Service Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: IVR or Web Service Solution – New Version
Nomination Title: Shelf Knowledge Automation Platform
Shelf is redefining the future of support work with knowledge automation, enabling front-line staff and customers to connect with answers they need fast. Our highly-awarded, AI-driven platform revolutionizes how organizations curate and distribute company knowledge.
Shelf powers answers for IVR and web service applications across the CCaaS tech stack by linking these solutions with a company’s entire content sprawl, then surfacing contextualized answers to agents and customers, on any channel. Shelf plugs into natural language bots in IVR to transfer intent signals and deliver answers to agents. Those same answers power chatbots (Google CCAI, Lex, etc). In addition, Shelf’s powers self-service portals with Google-like search when customers seek their own solutions.
Shelf’s MerlinAI™ transforms an organization’s legacy knowledge base into knowledge automation by indexing all content, then matching answers to customer intent. Pinpoint search locates exact keywords and phrases within documents like PDFs, Word, PPT, Excel, images, wiki pages, and articles—eliminating time it takes to scroll by jumping straight to the answer. Additional Shelf Supported File Types: Image Types - PNG, TIFF, JPEG; Video Files - MP4, MOV, GIF; even dot-matrix content.
In Shelf, users create or upload content once and publish everywhere, providing knowledge as usable infrastructure that delivers consistent answers across IVR and web service applications. In addition, MerlinAI automates content maintenance to ensure data is accurate and manual effort is minimal. For example, answers proven to help customers are prioritized in search results, and Shelf automatically identifies and recommends content improvements to make answers more discoverable. That’s why Shelf is consistently ranked easiest setup, easiest admin and easiest to use on G2.
Built on an API-first cloud architecture, Shelf integrates within existing agent desktops and workflows, with prebuilt integrations for leading CCaaS, Ticketing, and CRM platforms. For example, a customer submits an inquiry through a self-service portal—Shelf knowledge articles are automatically presented to agents in Salesforce. Ultimately, information gathered based on customer intent can be passed to a Shelf supported web service application to improve agents' speed to answer.
Shelf's open and flexible solution plugs into CX ecosystems to drive consistency, improve customer experiences, and boost productivity.
Shelf uses a continuous delivery model and a cloud-based architecture. Rather than releasing major changes every two or three months, we offer new features and enhancements to our customers on a regular basis. The following description of features and functionality are based on Shelf product releases from July 2019 to December 2021, under the new version category of IVR or web service solution product and service category.
Our growth has been accelerated by the fact that our solution is purpose-built for the contact center. In August 2021, Shelf announced a Series B round of $52.5 million. The company has experienced 4X growth in the last 12 months, zero customer churn in the last three years and a 10X user growth in the last year.
One customer example: Shelf works with HelloFresh, the world’s largest meal-kit subscription provider which was struggling to provide its customer base with the information they needed across 12 disconnected knowledge bases.
HelloFresh sought an AI-driven solution to centralize its content in a single location and seamlessly integrate with Genesys Cloud CX, transforming its knowledge base into a tool for agents/customers to answer questions quickly and accurately.
Results:
-Improved content findability for nearly 7,000 agents.
-Reduced handle times by 20%; improved first contact resolution
-Transformed admin processes so content management tasks are streamlined and automated across the globe.
Another customer is Glovo, a lifestyle/food delivery app operating in 20 countries with contact centers handling millions of interactions per month across dozens of languages. The company’s knowledge bases were siloed, and an influx of new agents were having difficulty finding and sharing correct answers to customers and couriers.
Results:
-Reduced handle times by more than 90 seconds within two weeks of launching Shelf.
-Deployed Agent Assist in Genesys Purecloud, so the team leverages AI to predict and recommend answers, delivered directly into live chats markets.
-Number of users: 2,840+
G2 has recently named Shelf a leader in the Winter 2022 Grid® for Contact Center Knowledge Software. 90% of respondents have rated Shelf 5 out of 5 stars. For the sixth consecutive quarter, Shelf has been awarded Easiest Setup, Easiest Admin, Easiest to Do Business With, and Easiest to Use based on verified user ratings. See Shelf G2 Customer reviews.
In 2021, Shelf received the BIG Innovation Award and honors from Gartner Digital Markets, ranking #1 in their Knowledge Management Category (GetApp), short listed in Capterra and front runners for Software Advice. See Shelf Capterra customer reviews and Advice reviews.
https://shelf.io/video/shelf-overview/ Shelf Product Overview Video
https://shelf.io/guide/roi-of-implementing-knowledge-management-in-contact-center/ The ROI of Answer Automation - includes detail about IVR, Agent Assist, Guided Answers, Training and Self-service ROI explanations
https://shelf.io/webinar/managing-call-center-staff-shortages-with-answer-automation-recording/ Product Demo (CCaaS example) – starts at 11:45 minute mark
https://shelf.io/ Shelf Website
Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout nomination:
https://shelf.io/blog/shelf-leader-in-contact-center-knowledge-space/ Winter G2 Awards
https://supportinfo.deere.com/en/stellarsupporttm-a-t-50c1a6/apex-desktop-software-6ef50d/activate-and-reactivate-apex-f9e4ea Shelf Customer Example of Self service portal (John Deere)
https://shelf.io/partners/integrations/ Shelf Integrations
https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/23/shelf-io-closes-huge-52-5m-series-b-after-posting-4x-arr-growth-in-the-last-year/ Shelf announced a Series B round of $52.5 million
https://www.g2.com/products/shelf-shelf/reviews Shelf G2 Customer Reviews
https://www.capterra.com/p/146524/Shelf/ Shelf Capterra Customer Reviews
https://www.softwareadvice.com/help-desk/shelf-profile/reviews/ Shelf Software Advice Reviews