Case Study: Expivia Digital

CUSTOMER PROFILE

Expivia Digital, a spinout of Expivia Interaction Marketing, created a unique integration between CXone and Discord which enables agents working in tandem with Azure-based listening bots to effectively moderate dozens of discussion channels across multiple servers simultaneously.

01 THE BEFORE

Identifying new frontiers

Like many people, Expivia Interaction Marketing CEO Tom Laird had extra time on his hands during the COVID-related lockdown in 2020. One of his learning projects was to research the emerging Web3 and Non-Fungible Token (NFT) market.

Expivia Interaction Marketing’s 600+ agents provide mainstream BPO services to a wide range of clients, but Laird was also excited by what he saw on this new horizon. “I wanted to know what our role could be. I saw NFT projects with 300,000 or 400,000 community members on Discord, with community moderation by volunteers who really only showed up when they had the chance” he said.

02 DESIRE TO CHANGE

Bringing law-and-order to the “Wild West”

Laird pondered directly entering the NFT market but then realized that the best opportunity was closer to home: doing what his company already does best in a growing economic sector with limited exposure to traditional, professional moderation. “It’s the Wild West out there, with a lot of discriminatory or sexist or just outright rude behavior, and a lot of people trying to run scams,” Laird said. “And I realized that this could be our role, to make these intense places better.”

03 THE SOLUTION

A brand-new CXone digital channel

In May 2022, work on what would become Expivia Digital began in earnest. The cornerstone was a new integration between NICE CXone and Discord using the Bring Your Own Channel (BYOC) capability of CXone to allow the creation of new digital channels. “We basically took all the tools we utilize on CXone for other digital channels and integrated them into Discord, creating a full platform to help make things better with more insights into Discord, NFT, and Web3 communities,” Laird said.

This includes API integrations between CXone and listening bots built in the Azure cloud. The bots monitor designated Discord channels for undesirable behavior and language, including profanity and terms associated with the negative pillars of Fear, Uncertainty, or Doubt (FUD). The bots also monitor for behavior and content that trends positively and that could benefit from reinforcement.

Integration with CXone Interaction Analytics helps process and manage the bots’ findings as well as alert human agents of the need for intervention. This integration was a challenge for Expivia Digital because the typical use case for Interaction Analytics covers a customer/agent interaction with a defined beginning and end. Because Discord exchanges are free-flowing and typically lack defined breakpoints, Expivia had to iterate over several approaches to this problem before finding a path forward.

With bot assistance, Expivia Digital expects that a single agent can manage up to four Discord servers simultaneously. When needed they can join any conversation with either public or private messages to encourage or discourage further discussion. Connections between CXone and the NFT project’s social media channels help amplify the live agent’s messages and bolster their credentials.

The solution also adds anti-fraud security to Discord conversations, making it less likely that a moderator’s account or appearance can be used to send spoofed messages or fraudulent links.

04 THE RESULTS

Getting a handle on chaos

Expivia Digital is currently in beta release with three NFT projects which combine to generate hundreds of thousands of interactions. Key takeaways for the early adopters show strong interest in these features and KPIs:

• Customer cards for all Discord server participants, which can be used to quickly identify consistent backers, troublemakers, and high-value influencers with large media followings
• Overall project sentiment rates and trends, similar to Net Promoter Score and CSAT ratings in the traditional enterprise world
• Timely mitigation of negative behavior
• Constant sentiment analysis based on trending keywords and phrases
• Individualized treatment for high-value members of the Discord community, such as personalized greetings for influential new members
• Insights into times when followers are most active and most likely to engage with announcements related to NFT operations
• Fun work options to give variety to CSR responsibilities for contact center professionals

“Crypto and NFT valuations have dropped right now, so it’s the perfect time for a smaller organization like us to take advantage before a huge organization sees opportunity in this space they’re not in,” Laird said. “And CXone was the perfect tool for us because we understand the ins and outs of the platform and know it provides the tools we need to succeed.”

05 THE FUTURE

Live customers ahead

Expivia Digital plans to scale up to 24/7 operations from its current 14-hour daily mode, and to add paying customers soon. Customer demand will dictate the next steps in the evolving integration between CXone and Discord.

Laird is more convinced than ever that the unique opportunity he saw when he first started looking into NFT communities during the pandemic will turn into a viable new market for business process outsourcing. “Starbucks is coming into this space. Budweiser’s coming into this space. There are gaming projects worth $60-$70 million using Discord as their community platform; they can’t have people coming on there and trashing it,” he said.