Cloud 9 Advisers - News #WFM

Supplier Spotlight: Verint

Thu, 27 Feb 2020 21:35:32 -0500

The AI-Powered Customer Journey

Cloud 9 Supplier Spotlight: Verint

Actionable Intelligence

2020 Will Shape Up to Become the Year of the AI-Powered Customer Journey

In the evolving Experience Economy, 2020 is shaping up to become the year enterprises apply the building blocks to enable proactive, personalized experiences at every step of the customer journey. In this dynamic environment, organizations must continuously re-calculate the next-best action for each customer, and at each moment.

This requires a shift from traditional customer journey mapping tools to a more holistic and actionable approach of customer journey management powered by AI and reliant on a foundation of data as an enterprise asset. With this shift, enterprises can track, map, analyze, visualize, and personalize customer journeys in real time.

Journey mapping coupled with natural language processing (NLP), predictive analytics, and machine learning will automate systems that can evaluate the behavioral and transactional factors in customers’ decision-making. These factors contribute to whether people are getting through the process outlined for them, determine the reasons why people falter on some journeys, and orchestrate real-time next-best actions to engage with them at critical moments mapped out in the journey.

Recent Ovum survey data points to continued adoption of journey mapping, AI, and predictive analytics to ensure more actionable customer journeys. According to ICT Enterprise Insights 2019/20 – Global: ICT Drivers and Technology Priorities, 24% of respondents have strategic investments planned for customer journey mapping and 37% have minor investment planned.

Additionally, 26% have strategic investments planned for predictive analytics in the area of customer engagement, and 37% are planning minor investments. In terms of AI adoption, 19% of respondents reported having fully deployed packaged AI for the enterprise, 32% are trialing, and 27% were planning to deploy packaged AI.

As these functions inevitably converge, the utilization of AI and machine learning will give context to customer journeys, helping enterprises understand the significance of the events that shape a customer’s behavior. Proactively responding to such key moments will enable true personalization to take hold throughout the digital customer journey. That requires an awareness of both the customer journey touchpoints and their corresponding customer behaviors.

The power of AI-enabled customer journey orchestration is that it can sift through a larger and more complex data space and thereby uncover many more business opportunities and prioritize the insights. It finds every single relationship in the data and predicts the likelihood of future behaviors with high accuracy, while simultaneously identifying the drivers and inhibitors of customer performance.

It also provides important quantitative data to determine the impact of any obstacles along the customer journeys on business objectives, as well as the effectiveness of any remediations. Armed with that information, enterprises can do more than find the “next best action” or the optimal audience. They can take action on data regarding each portion of the journey, measure its impact to advance prediction models, use the results of that analysis to drive better and more predictive models, and even serve as customers’ personal “concierge” for interactions with their brands.

As the quest for connected, intelligent customer experiences accelerates, AI-powered journeys will naturally take the spotlight. But enterprises must first build upon core data integration use cases and start investing in the systems and integrated technologies that will enable them to create precise audiences for activation.

Making the right investments in AI and embedding it across applications will build a foundation to optimize customer experiences that will set enterprises apart from their competition and drive future growth.

By Mila D'Antonio, Principal Analyst, Customer Engagement, Omdia (formerly Ovum), see the original here

Leading brands rely on the Verint Cloud to engage with customers and power more than 3 billion customer interactions per year. The result? Amazing customer experiences. Drive deeper loyalty, enhance business performance and set your organization head and shoulders above the competition. The future of customer engagement is here today.

Contact Cloud 9 Advisers and talk with our verndor-neutral contact center experts to see if Verint is right for your contact center team and organization.

Learn more about Verint

Learn more about Contact Center Solutions

Learn more about Verint

Supplier Spotlight: Five9

Mon, 24 Feb 2020 09:34:50 -0500

5 Great Benefits of an Omnichannel Contact Center

Cloud 9 Supplier Spotlight: Five9

The Intelligent Cloud Contact Center

5 Great Benefits of an Omnichannel Contact Center

But first, what is omnichannel?

For the skeptics, it’s yet another buzzword and for the perfectionists, it’s a seamless way to deliver CX perfection across all available touchpoints, with full systems integration and incredible speed of response. Needless to say, we fall into the latter category. You’re probably wondering why?

Well, would you pay for a house where you have to go outside before moving from the kitchen to the living room? Would you enjoy going to a drive through where you have to order your fries and burger from two different windows? Unless you enjoy unnecessarily wasting your time, I guess you answered ‘no’ to both questions. Drawing on this analogy, omnichannel is synonymous to a seamless flow across all customer touchpoints. The transition is smooth and natural - from social, to chat, to phone - just like a conversation between long-time friends.

Now that we’re on the same page on what omnichannel means and stands for, let’s talk about the benefits.

1. It’s all about integration

Omnichannel is all about keeping the interaction and content flowing through different channels. Web, phone and social interactions are not siloed anymore. They are linked in the same way the pages of a book are put together to tell a story. In that same way, omnichannel connects user applications to create customer dialogues and experiences that flow naturally.

2. Nothing gets lost in translation

Because of the almighty integration, nothing is lost and consumers can pick up from where they left off. Besides saving the customer’s time, brands will also convey the feeling that every interaction matters and every customer’s problems and queries are acknowledged and kept on file for future reference.

3. Breaking down the walls between online and offline

This is generally true for brands which also have physical locations. Even as our customers leave the virtual space for face-to-face interactions, it is important to feel that, however they choose to interact with their chosen brand, they receive a personalized experience. If you purchased that nice sweater online, but you decide to return it in store, you would expect in-store staff to be able to access online channels and replace, exchange or even make recommendations.

4. Personalization, at last

As consumers, we all like that Starbucks cup of coffee with our name on it, or are more prone to open that email with our name in the subject line. That’s because we see ourselves as unique individuals with distinct needs. And we expect that same treatment from the brands we choose. Omnichannel equips organizations with the right tools to offer customers personalized experiences and, more importantly, reinforces their individuality.

5. Last but not least, it’s easier for everybody!

It takes two to tango: brands and customers. As soon as the customers choose your brand, you know you have to wow them to retain them. Everything from the systems and technology you use, to the agents who pick up the phone, all must be level pro. And providing an omnichannel experience - beyond offering customers all of the above - helps your workforce to be more effective, efficient and engaged. It’s almost like going to an exam and being prepared. You feel confident and you know you’ll do well. It’s exactly the same for your employees. No matter if they are online or offline, being equipped with the right tools that deliver information about the customer in a seamless way makes the process enjoyable for everyone involved.

Done the right way, it will improve the customer journey and it will elevate the customer experience. Omni, derived from the Latin ‘Omnis’, means all. And we can definitely say omnichannel is not an oversell. In a world constantly on the move, where most users spend less than 15 seconds on a webpage, you need to know how to interact quickly and efficiently, while making your customers feel that it is your daily mission to know them and to serve them in order to keep them.

By: Andra Marin, Marketing Programs Manager - EMEA, Five9. See the article here

Contact Cloud 9 to learn more about Contact Center solutions and to see if Five9 is the right contact center company for your needs. Our vendor-agnostic and impartial contact center experts will help your organization design the right solution and map out a path to improve your customer's experience and overall customer journey.

Contact Cloud 9 to learn more about Omnichannel Contact Center solutions and to see if Five9 is the right contact center company for your company's needs. Our vendor-agnostic and impartial contact center experts will help your organization design the right solution and map out a path to improve your customer's experience and overall customer journey.

Learn more about Five9

Learn more about Contact Center solutions