Customer service enterprise software specialist NICE is holding a two day virtual customer experience event, Interactions Live, starting today. Hosted by James Corden and featuring discussion on industry trends and CX excellence from the likes of Gartner, McGee Smith, Forrester, DMG Consulting, Aberdeen, Everest Group and Saddletree Research, we spoke to Chris Bauserman, Vice President, Segments and Product, to find out more about what the event entails.
What can attendees expect from Interactions Live 2021?
“At Interactions Live, attendees will have the chance to gain insights from industry-leading companies on real-world use cases of AI, automation, cloud, and analytics technologies to help them meet evolving customer expectations and deliver next-generation customer experience (CX). Attendees can also benefit from industry analysts who will be sharing their insights on what the future holds for the CX space. We’re looking forward to helping the tens of thousands of registrants who have already signed up for the event in their mission to level up their CX and build long-lasting customer relationships.”
It comes after a seismic year – to what extent have business/customer relationships changed and how will the event reflect that?
“The last twelve months have certainly reminded all of us how vital customer service is for every business. Over the past year, both the need for customer service and experience expectations have increased in tandem – and show no sign of slowing. It has exposed how important it is for organisations to offer a new standard of customer experience via all service channels. According to our 2020 Benchmark survey, while 92 percent of contact centres reported an increased volume of interactions of all types, 62 percent reported an increase in digital interactions specifically. Today’s reality necessitates that organisations of all sizes meet their customers in new, digitised ways. But, more important still, customers are craving the kind of personalised experiences offered by family and friends via these channels.
“Organisations must innovate faster than ever to deliver this new standard of customer experience. Events such as Interactions Live 2021 enable them to learn and apply lessons from leading companies. These novel best practices employed by some of the world’s leading organisations have delivered measurable business results, and they can help attendees to better understand what’s next for the CX industry and help propel service teams to not only address today’s customer needs but also prepare to meet tomorrow’s expectations.”
What do you see as the top customer experience trends that will be touched on at the event?
“There is a new generation of consumers on the scene and, as such, a new standard of customer experience is being demanded to keep up with their rapidly shifting expectations. These consumers have grown up in a digital world and are used to navigating it independently. When they reach out, they want an experience that’s familiar, personal, and able to meet their immediate needs – not unlike that offered by family and friends.
“At Interactions Live 2021, we will touch on how to cater to this next-generation consumer extensively as well as the technology trends that must be realised today for success. For example, adopting a cloud native open architecture to offer that next-gen customer experience. We truly believe that embracing the cloud in the contact centre is a vital place to start on any company’s journey towards greater agility and, ultimately, long-term success. It opens a world of flexibility and functionality that, in turn, drives brand loyalty. Cloud contact centre platforms put the business in the driver’s seat – in control of innovation speed, cost, and scale. And when unpinned by AI, it can inject innovation along every aspect of the CX process, including agent soft-skills detection, data, and knowledge-driven intelligent bots, smart routing algorithms and many others.
“We’ll also discuss the move from pursuing convenience to a frictionless reality. Today’s consumers understand the importance of optimising their daily experiences – driving the move for ease and convenience. Next-gen consumers take this one step further, finding elements of friction in their daily experiences intolerable. This trend means automation must be front-of-mind for businesses and embedding AI throughout every customer experience process paramount. Advisors will need bots to inject the right information at the right moment of the customer journey, leading to faster service, a seamless experience, and the personal attention that customers crave.”
