Customer Service Solutions
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Podcast
Is Asynchronous Chat The Future Of Customer Service?
Asynchronous chat is poised to proliferate throughout the B2C ecosystem, redefining expectations around customer service. Senior Analyst Christina McAllister joins to discuss the benefits and pitfalls of this technology.
Blog
Oh, What A Crisis Can Do!
It’s not proven that Winston Churchill said “Never let a crisis go to waste.” But whoever said it, they could have been talking about chatbot deployments. Our world is littered with unloved chatbots, useless offerings that deliver horrible experiences and are used by no one. Typically, this is the result of trying to boil the ocean, overthink things, and attempt to create the perfect chatbot right out of the gate. Brands that build their chatbots in response to a crisis don’t have time to overthink anything — they just do it, and this has led to some very successful deployments.
Blog
Concentrix Acquiring Webhelp: Setting The Stage For A Two-Horse Race In Contact Center Outsourcing
Yesterday, Concentrix announced that it is entering into negotiations to acquire Webhelp for $4.8 billion, with the transaction expected to close by end of year. This is, of course, quite the acquisition! Webhelp is a well-established player in the contact center outsourcing space (especially in EMEA) and will provide Concentrix with the global coverage they’ve […]
Blog
AI Reshapes The 2023 Forrester Wave™ Evaluation For CCaaS
In the prior Forrester Wave™ evaluation on contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) providers in August of 2020, AI was mentioned offhand a few times. It was not, however, a factor in the Wave scoring at all. A few years changed everything. AI has taken center stage in this year’s Wave, providing new capabilities across many aspects of a CCaaS vendor’s offerings.
Blog
Customer Service In 2023: CX Front And Center
It’s news to no one that the past few years have been tough. Having only just found some stability post-pandemic, companies are now thrust into a new economic crisis. In times like these, customer service teams are often pressured to cut costs — at all costs. While we don’t expect that to change entirely, we […]
Blog
How To Navigate The Generative AI Hype In Customer Service
Here's what you need to consider as you evaluate solutions for your organization.
Blog
Contact Centers Are Leaving Money On The Table
Empowering your front line could unlock billions. Learn how agent empowerment and accountability drives revenue growth.
Blog
Nailing Chat Is Hard — Here’s How To Get It Right
I have spent the better part of the last decade helping enterprises with their digital channel strategies. Omnichannel transformation is still a phrase on many enterprises’ lips, with companies across industries looking to launch (or, in some cases, relaunch) digital channels to support their customers. Lots of things have changed since the early days of […]
Blog
Announcing The CRM Forrester Wave™ Evaluations — And How To Use Them
The global customer relationship management market is projected to grow from $63.91 billion in 2022 to $145.79 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 12.5%. This second wave that CRM is experiencing is aimed at transforming engagement and business outcomes across an enterprise, surpassing its initial remit of increasing front-office productivity. Companies use CRM to […]
Blog
“You’re Dead To Me,” Said The Patient To Their Patient Portal
Read this blog to understand what precision nudging is and how it will help improve patient communication, engagement, and outcomes.
Blog
Google’s Latest Experiment: What The Future Of Notifications (Could) Look Like
Google’s "Little Signals" aims to alleviate alert overload. What can brands take away from this?
Blog
A Tale Of Two Behemoths
Some years, Enterprise Connect is the place where the world’s biggest vendors make significant announcements in the unified communications or contact center space. 2022 was one of those years, with both Amazon and Google making significant noise in the contact center space. Amazon Let’s talk Amazon first: It announced its new forecasting, capacity planning, and […]
CX Can Thrive In The Downturn
CX leaders can boost their organization's economic resilience. Find out how in this complimentary report.
Blog
Customer Service In 2022: The Times They Are A-Changin’
It’s been two years (!) since the pandemic began, and customer service organizations have managed the impossible: moving thousands of agents home practically overnight and rapidly deploying new digital channels, all while supporting millions of COVID-19-stressed customers. Our world has changed, and customer expectations have changed with it. Customer service leaders must shake off decades […]
Blog
CCaaS Hits An Inflection Point
Rapid Uptick In Customer Adoption With particularly good reasons and with great intentions, contact centers have been one of the last domains within companies to move their core technology to the cloud. As a critical customer-facing function, contact centers have so much at stake that it makes sense for them not to take chances with […]
Blog
400 Million Reasons To Pay Attention To Contact Center AI
Trends in the conversation intelligence market are getting very interesting. Learn more this blog post.
Blog
Cure The Automation Hangover In Customer Service
Close your eyes and I’ll set the scene: It’s 2016. Chatbots are all the rage. News articles are predicting the death of the contact center as we know it. AI, the prophesied hero, powering the agent who doesn’t need breaks and can engage with 100 — no, 1000 — customers at once. Infinitely scalable human-like […]
Blog
Seven Steps To Help Your Customer Service Heroes Through The “Container-Challenged Christmas”
Retail contact center agents (aka customer service heroes) typically deal with stressed-out shoppers during the holidays and the return period that extends through March. The shipping and supply chain crisis, however, will make the interactions of the past a walk in the park compared to what’s to come this season. As the season progresses, expect […]
Don't Be On The Losing Side Of CX Trends
Attend our live predictions webinar for CX leaders to explore the forecasts defining 2023 success.
Blog
“Predictive” Marks A New Era In Customer Experience Management
Forrester has launched a new feature in its FeedbackNow platform that lets brands move into the predictive era of customer experience. Learn more here.
Blog
Cancel The “Cost Center” Culture In Customer Service
In my past 30 years in the contact center industry at organizations such as 8×8, Genesys, IBM, and RingCentral, I’ve watched the same movie over and over and over again … too many contact centers are laboring under the tyranny of being a cost center with schizophrenic goals of making customers happy while “doing more […]
Blog
Agent Desktops: The Silent — And Costly — Tax On Your Agents’ Time And Energy
Coauthored with Kate Leggett. I’ve asked before if it’s a given that employees should use frustrating systems. Should employees be forced to endure extra effort just because they choose to work at a company? Do their managers believe workers have to strain to feel like a full days’ work has been done? Kate lives this […]
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