NICE Interactions Live was one of the biggest customer experience virtual events of the year. Not only because they wrote that it was in the press release they sent over, but it actually was. And here’s why. Held on September 15-16, the free event was a star-studded one full of surprises.
Academy Award-winning actor, philanthropist, and author of the upcoming book Greenlights, Matthew McConaughey, was a keynote speaker. McConaughey shared his passion to reinvent himself. Emmy Award-winning TV personality Martha Stewart, also took the virtual stage, talking to attendees about the empire she’s built over an expansive career. Attendees had lots of material to choose from, as there were over seven tracks and more than 50
sessions focusing on industry best practices. Also, there were several notable analyst firms in attendance including McGee Smith, Forrester, DMG Consulting, Aberdeen, Everest Group, and Saddletree Research. They focused on providing an overview of the CX industry’s status quo, including trends. They even offered guidance on maintaining CX excellence during the COVID-19 period.
There were several awards presented for customer service excellence. In total, there were sixteen award winners across five categories. Each of them – recognized at the company’s first-ever virtual conference. Winners come from a spectrum of backgrounds including financial services, healthcare, insurance, retail, telecommunications, utilities, etc. They are as follows:
- Best Cloud Implementation, Farmers Insurance, HireRight, Trupanion
- Best Business Impact, Banco BMG, Northwestern Mutual, Teleflora
- Best Customer Experience, KeyBank, Michigan Department of State Information Center, Valvoline
- Best Employee Engagement, Sallie Mae, TD Bank, Vera Bradley
- Rookie of the Year, LPL Financial, PSCU, US Bank, Wine Country Gift Baskets
“Innovation is the critical path to success both in dynamic times as well as in measured ones. These organizations define what it means to be CX Agile in ensuring exceptional experiences even as market conditions evolve, and we’re proud to celebrate them,” Barak Eilam, CEO, NICE shared with onlookers.
Another highlight from the virtual event – Barry Cooper, President, NICE Enterprise Group, who gave some real insight into the contact center industry. He noted, between 60 and 80 percent of contact center agents now work from home. He added:
“We expect that at least 30% of those agents will remain working from home even after there is a vaccine for COVID-19”
Cooper acknowledged that maintaining this hybrid model of business operations will require what he called extreme workforce agility. “This requires organizations to enable their entire workforce to work from anywhere, at any time, and on any channel – this is the next frontier of employee engagement.” What’s clear from the work from home trends we’ve seen develop as a result of the pandemic is that the workplace will likely never look the same as it did pre-COVID-19 and that came across in what Cooper told onlookers along with the stats he cited.
NICE is a leading provider of cloud and on-premises enterprise software solutions including advanced analytics to help organizations adjust customer service experiences. I learned that over 22,000 organizations in more than 150 countries, as well as 80 of the Fortune 100 companies across the globe leverage NICE software solutions.
