As we sail from January into February, the chatter from the world of CX is getting louder by the day. Prominent stories being shared among locked-down agents, business leaders and our loyal readership are acquisitions, launches and trends in the contact centre stratosphere. 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!
AI and Empathy – an Unlikely Team in the Contact Centre
CX Today sat down with Amanda Halpin, Genesys’ EMEA Strategic Solutions Lead, for a virtual chat about how AI in the contact centre is driving the upward trend of empathy. She told us about Genesys’ recent focus on their flagship solution, Genesys Cloud, which acts as a one-stop-shop for businesses looking to interact with their customers using more empathetic software. Halpin added that it was vital businesses do not make the mistake of believing chatbots are essentially live agent replacements and that they serve the purpose of working alongside agents to create a seamless customer journey.
Talkdesk Addresses Major Post-Covid Challenges
The cloud contact centre is pushing to overcome two obstacles brought on by the virus – Paycheck Protection Programme (PPP) loan distribution and similar small business relief programs worldwide. Tiago Paiva, chief executive officer, Talkdesk, said: “Large financial institutions, community banks and even fintechs have the opportunity to rescue small businesses and save the economy through PPP loan distribution. A restart of the economy and return to a level of pre-COVID normal life faces its own challenges – ensuring the rapid dissemination of emergency capital to struggling businesses and efficient vaccine distribution to a vulnerable population. Talkdesk explained that despite the urgency for organisations to get in line amid the COVID-19 pandemic, current customer service processes are often inadequate to successfully execute critical programs of this logistical magnitude.
Applause for Avaya’s One Cloud
The company scooped it’s 600th contact centre innovation patent by the US Patent Office last week. Avaya delivered the future of CX with its OneCloud CCaaS portfolio, powered by AI, automation and machine learning. Avaya was awarded the patent for ‘chatbot socialisation’ technology, which uses artificial intelligence to efficiently build virtual agents capable of interacting across voice, text and chat channels to respond to customer inquiries and requests.
Our Guide to Moving Apps to the Cloud
Incompatibility, security and adoption issues are the three major challenges faced by business leaders when it comes to moving apps over to the cloud. We featured a report from IDC Group that revealed around 54.9% of all enterprise collaboration applications start their life in the workplace as “unauthorised” tools. This is before companies create a plan for taking collaboration and apps into the cloud, which offers a flexible way to keep everyone connected, wherever they might be.
Channel Experimentation is Paving the Way for Better CX
Out with the old and in with the new, as they say. Or at least Rachel Lane, Solution Principal at Medallia said in her exclusive chat with us last week. She told us why it’s so crucial that organisations resolve channel silos to allow for a far better CX. Customers are experimenting with new channels. This follows the emergence of brand new engagement modes such as video, within many sectors such as patient healthcare, personal banking and online learning. Web and digital channels were core benefactors of this shift from the traditional to more advanced online behaviours previously, she said.
