Popular stories shared among agents, business leaders and our loyal readership are on top CX tips, new solutions launched and mergers. Didn’t have a chance to read through them all? Don’t worry, we’ve done the leg work for you and selected our top five popular articles from last week. Enjoy!
Kustomer Partners with Travel Rental Brand AvantStay
Vacation rental brand, AvantStay, has partnered with Kustomer, an omni-channel CX platform, to implement queue rules to analyse customer needs and route convos via chatbots. AvantStay has already seen results in staff productivity, thanks to merging omni-channel comms and leveraging data.
This partnership news is another addition to the larger trend of hospitality brands investing in the sophistication of their platforms, ensuring contactless operations and tech-enabled guest relations amid COVID-19.
O2 and Artificial Solutions Sign Conversational AI Deal
Artificial Solutions, the leading specialist in Conversational AI for the enterprise, today announced that O2, one of the leading integrated telecommunications providers in Germany, have penned a new three year Conversational AI deal for the German market.
Artificial Solutions will provide it’s a cloud-based integrated development environment for Microsoft LUIS’ customers, LUIS^Teneo.
Freshworks Reportedly Planning US IPO
The customer and employee engagement software provider Freshworks has reportedly hired banks in preparation for an initial public offering in the United States, with Morgan Stanley serving as lead.
According to Reuters, the San Mateo, California-based company is eyeing a Nasdaq stock market debut that could see the company valued at around $10bn – with the move expected to happen in the coming months.
Freshworks provides a software as a service suite, with its flagship customer experience product being customer service platform Freshdesk (which the company was previously named after), as well as a chatbot offering named Freshchat and cloud phone system known as Freshcaller.
[24]7.ai Debuts New AI Features for Engagement Cloud
Customer experience software firm [24]7.ai has announced enhancements to its Engagement Cloud suite of conversational AI services.
Designed for experts and non-experts alike, the suite allows for the design of customer service-optimising self-serve interfaces. The software’s latest release includes three new apps: [24]7 Active Share, which enables agents to deliver visual content during calls; [24]7 Voices, an AI-powered automated interactive voice response solution; and [24]7 Journey Analytics to better understand how customers interact and identify any issues.
Cisco to Acquire Indy Startup Socio
Cisco announced that it is planning to acquire privately-held US-based Socio, a modern event technology platform that provides event organisers with everything they need to successfully host in-person, virtual or hybrid events.
The acquisition of Socio will enrich Cisco’s Webex Events beyond meetings, webinars and webcasts to include large-scale, multi-session hybrid events and conferences.
The solution will enable live streaming, sponsorship, networking and advanced analytics, as well as Webex features like polling, Q&A, chat and real-time translation.
