Category: Customer Experience

Happy Friday! ‘This week in CX’ brings you the latest roundup of industry news. This week, we’re looking at the latest research studies that are affecting marketers from releasing their creativity into their campaigns, and how they’re adapting to global consumer shifts. There’s also new studies being revealed into broadband providers and the hospitality industry.   Key…
The post This week in CX: shifts and research affecting marketers; plus Gartner & Reputation appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

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No stranger to change, the contact center industry has been ahead of the curve throughout the global pandemic. We consulted nine industry experts to tell us all about it – and discuss the state of the contact center in 2023.
Our influencers also shone a light on the digital transformation, the evolving role of contact center agents, and why you need to take your customer service to social media. The rise of artificial intelligence and its impact on self-service was a huge topic of interest.
Word: Contact centers are technology leaders. The global pandemic made this even more true. As the world was pivoting from on-site to hybrid and remote workspaces, contact centers were also embracing cloud technology and upskilling agents to be among the first-generation of AI-native workers. And not a moment too soon.  Here’s a sneak peek into what our influencers had to say!
State of the Contact Center 2023
Self-Service is Leading the Pack
Over and over again, our influencers flagged self-service as a trend that contact centers cannot ignore. Customers love it. From knowledge bases to chatbots to AI-assisted tools and sentiment analysis, the impact of these tools will be profound.
Chatbots
Chatbots are the first AI tool many contact centers try. Their ability to understand natural language will improve as they gain more knowledge.

“I think we’ll see big growth in self-serve through chat windows. This is beyond just logging on to the brand website and typing into the chat that pops up. Chat will do more.”
– Dennis Wakabayashi, CX Industry Influencer

Knowledge bases
Knowledge bases like FAQs are less flashy than the bots, but these repositories of expertise are key to the success of self-service.
“A knowledge base provides the power behind self-service capabilities. Even though they’re behind the scenes, they’re really important for having a good self-service experience.”
– Blair Pleasant, President & Principal Analyst at COMMfusion
Self-service is empowering
The best self-service empowers agents and creates a positive experience for both agents and customers.

“I think it’s always going to be all about humans — plus AI — when it comes to CX. And we’re just starting to use technologies that can empower those humans rather than just sort of manage and control them in the work setting.”
– Evan Kirstel, Tech Influencer & Analyst

Self-Service Does Not Run Itself
Perhaps one of the biggest surprises is that self-service tools do not run themselves. Plan to assign skilled employees, a budget, and enough time to keep your self-service tools tuned up and working properly.
Developing a habit of constantly evaluating your tools and looking down the road is key to success.

“One important thing to remember about self-service tools and technology is that it’s not about a single vendor, a single tool or a single application. Even if you think you have your self-service technology dialed in perfectly: it requires constantly assessing, evaluating, looking at alternatives, considering the roadmap and talking to new vendors. You have to develop that muscle in order to be competitive today.”
– Shai Berger, CEO & Founder, Fonolo

The Rise of AI
The swift emergence of AI-driven tools early in 2023 made it clear that the AI revolution has arrived. From smart self-service chatbots to real-time agent assist, the impact AI will have on the contact center can’t be overstated. AI-driven tools help create next-level customer experiences where businesses can anticipate customer’s needs before they happen.

“When artificial intelligence listens in on our conversations, we understand the customer better. We know when they called before, how often they call, and why they call. Here’s what’s cool: We can match them up with other customers who are exactly the same as them. Based on all the history we have with these other customers, we will be able to answer questions the customer doesn’t even know they’re going to ask.”
– Shep Hyken, CS & CX Expert, Keynote Speaker, and NYT Bestselling Author

Contact Centers are Becoming Profit Centers
As the first point of customer contact, contact centers are the voice of the brand to many callers. Stack this up with the valuable data that flows through contact centers, and it’s easy to see why some of the biggest companies in the world are showing interest in the call center industry.
First impressions count
Every single interaction at a contact center is an opportunity to create a loyal customer.

“I believe that the contact center should be seen as a profit center, because an agent is typically the first point of contact for a new customer and a lot of relationships are made or broken there.”
– Sue Duris, Principal Consultant at M4 Communications, Inc.
The post Industry Report: State of the Contact Center 2023 first appeared on Fonolo.

If you get a 99% quality haircut or a 99% close-to-perfect meal, it’s better than good.

On the other hand, if the scrub nurse only does a 99% job of disinfecting the tools in the operating room, you’re still going to die of an infection.

Some projects respond very well to ordinary effort and 99% perfect. In fact, the last 1% isn’t worth the time, the effort or the focus.

Others fail if they’re not fully and completely to spec.

Knowing the difference between the two saves everyone a lot of stress and avoids needless cost and avoidable disasters. We come out ahead when we put our energy into the projects that reward our effort and choose to meet spec with the others.

Hey everyone! We are looking for a guest speaker to join us in our upcoming webinar to talk about CHAT GPT. If you are someone who is knowledgeable about this fascinating topic and would like to share your insights with our audience, we would love to have you as our guest speaker. submitted by /u/CXLumoa [link] [comments]

In two weeks, I’ll be hosting a live webinar about my new book, answering questions and connecting people to get serious in discussing the new way of work. The details are here. I hope you can make it.

It’s possible that I’ve now written more bestselling business titles than any other author. Part of that is simply longevity and showing up, but most of it is your doing. The loyal readers of this blog (more than twenty years and still going) are the foundation of my career as an author, and I never forget it.

The realities of the supply chain mean that my publisher needs to make difficult decisions about paper, printing and logistics long before the book ships. Organizing and talking with readers now helps make sure there are enough books in June… and hosting a conversation, QA and celebration always seems like a good idea. Pre-order a book, come hang out online.

I hope you can make it.

Thank you.

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Here’s a breakthrough that’s about to happen somewhere: A GPT that reads every email that anyone in your organization has ever sent and makes it easy to ask it questions about what the entire organization knows.

A person could probably not find the time, bandwidth or privacy constraints to do this.

But this accessible but unembarrassed database tool could quickly become a huge asset for any organization that installed it–even a soloist. Tell me who I know or what I know about XYZ…

Or consider the power of a network. If my colleagues opt in, I can simply ask the AI, “tell me who in my network is the person who knows someone at this organization, or is really interested in that topic.”

Of course, there are huge privacy implications. But your work email has never been private anyway.

Self-service is one of the biggest topics in CX and in the contact center world right now. While the industry is no stranger to new technologies and automation, modern self-service tools have really changed the game when it comes to supporting customers.
You may have already interacted with self-service tools as a customer. Chatbots, FAQs, and assistive AI all fall under this umbrella — with that said, it’s not enough to implement these resources. To work effectively, they need to be integrated into your contact center strategy.
We asked influencers across the CX and contact center spaces to weigh in on the self-service trend. Watch the video or read on for the highlights!
Self-Service is Now a Standard Expectation
Today’s customers are more resourceful than ever. They want the power to solve their own problems, and they expect your business to give them the means to do so. Shai Berger, CEO of Fonolo, points out that self-serve used to be a tactic to deter customers from connecting with an agent.
The difference with this latest trend? Customers are the ones in charge, demanding control over their support experience. “At some point, the plot shifted. Now consumers really prefer and expect self-serve options,” says Shai.

“At some point, the plot shifted. Now consumers really prefer and expect self-serve options.”
– Shai Berger, CEO at Fonolo

Sue Duris, Principal Consultant at M4 Communications Inc., says many businesses misstep by implementing self-service options without giving any real thought to what their customers want.
“The customer voice needs to come into play here to determine what is a candidate for personal touch; to be able to personalize that whole experience.,” says Sue.
Customers Want Self-Service for Easy Solutions
We’ve established that customers want self-service, but as you may have guessed, there’s a catch. They only want these solutions if they make their lives easier.
That brings us to a conversation around friction in the customer experience. David Beaumont is a Customer Support Expert at customerserviceisreal.com. He says customers expect self-service solutions to relieve stress — but a poor setup may achieve the exact opposite goal.
“[Self-service] allows them… to direct that customer to a tool that’s going to help them get their problem resolved,” says David. “But the key to that is, once you direct them to those tools, they have to work.”
Sheri Greenhaus, Managing Partner at CRMXchange, says customers want to use self-service for small, easy queries. But be warned: if their issue is complex, they’ll want to speak to a human.
“Customers want self-service when they can serve themselves… I forgot my password, or what’s my balance?” says Sheri. “But if I’m looking for a mortgage or something that’s going to take a lot more thought, I’ll want to talk to somebody about it.”
Monitoring Self-Service Results is Key
A lot of contact centers will make the mistake of having a “set it and forget it” mindset. True, self-service tools are meant to make the lives of your team and your customers easier, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need management.
Jeremy Watkin, Director of CX at Number Barn and Co-Founder of customerservicelife.com, says monitoring your self-service tools on a daily basis is important. You want to constantly be evaluating your solutions to ensure they are effectively solving customer queries.
“[Self-service is] not going to be something where we can just turn it on and it works. It’s something that we have to babysit and optimize. We have to look at the metrics around it to make sure it’s actually working.”

“[Self-service is] not going to be something where we can just turn it on and it works. It’s something that we have to babysit and optimize.”
– Jeremy Watkin, Director of CX at Number Barn and Co-Founder of customerservicelife.com

Self-Service Will Change Your Agent Experience
Self-service tools are great for improving the agent experience. According to Evan Kirstel, Chief Digital Evangelist and Co-founder at eViRa Health, employee and customer experience are intimately connected. By automating simple tasks and queries with self-service, we can alleviate unnecessary agent stress and improve CX at the same time.
“It relieves the burden of rote and really mundane tasks from the agent, offloads them to the machine, and frees up the agent in terms of time and quality of their work life,” says Evan.
Blair Pleasant is the President and Principal Analyst at COMMfusion, as well as Co-Founder of BCStrategies. She says self-service will help transform the modern agent’s role, as the queries they’ll be handling will be more complex and interesting.
“It’s not the same old boring things like, ‘How do I change my password?’ or ‘When’s my package going to arrive?’” says Blair. “Instead, [they will handle] issues that require empathy and that provide more engagement and job satisfaction for the agents.”The post CX4Now: What Influencers Say About Self-Service in the Contact Center first appeared on Fonolo.