Digital Engagement Blog

The velocity of technological change is accelerating. New technologies are emerging that will reshape customer service as we know it today.  Many of these technologies are being tested and even deployed as part of the contact center stack by leading companies.  And these technologies are already driving significant benefits for early adopters.

Forrester Report

To help us understand these changes, Forrester Research recently released a report entitled “Plan Now For Customer Service In 2021. “  This report (on our recommended reading list) explores five technologies that are expected to transform customer care over the next five years.  

How do you make customer service effortless, fast and efficient?  It's not by talking to a live person!

As a company whose mission is to provide the best possible self-service, we understand the good, the bad and where the industry is going. And we’ve also seen that most customers will self-serve over talk to an agent.  Even Dave Pell avoids agents.

Is mobile customer care something you should pay attention to or can you ignore it for now?  Here are 5 red flags that help you decide if you can wait any longer. 

1) You got a high percentage of mobile calls coming into the contact center

A high percentage of calls coming into your contact center from customer on mobile phone suggest your customers have made a shift.  That shift is one to greater expectations for speed, ease and experience that mobile brings to the table.  Of the 1.5 billion calls we process through our IVR every year, a typical client sees 70% of the calls coming from mobile devices.  The expectation of these callers has rapidly changed and your enterprise needs to be ready service them on their terms.  You get one red flag for thinking mobile calls can be treated like a regular call.  And a bonus additional red flag for not knowing percent of inbound customer service calls come from mobile devices.

There has been a lot of talk these days about mobile customer care or mobile customer service.  But what is it and why is it important?

Three years ago we started to investigate how care was provided by an enterprise to their customers who where on their mobile phones.   So we decided to ask the big industry analyst firms about mobile customer care.

It’s My Way Day!

My Way Day was ignited by the inspiring events that happened in the world based on someone’s new and innovative idea. The concept is simple: today you should do things exactly the way you want to because you never know what genius idea will come from it. (We’re sure your boss will understand).

When it comes to customer experience, we believe that every day should be My Way Day. We think that the ability to interact with enterprises and resolve discrepancies or problems should be convenient for the consumer -- possible on their own time, using whatever channel that suits them best in the moment they need help or support. In honor of this momentous holiday, we thought we’d share a few of the reasons we know it is important to make sure your customers have the capability at hand to interact their way.

Let’s face it. We all know what it feels like to have a horrible customer service experience. So, in honor of #OppositeDay we thought we would provide a few of the worst social customer care practices – the opposite of what you should be doing - and offer recommendations on how to avoid them.

A couple of months ago, we wrote a blog post about ridesharing innovator Uber, discussing the company’s brilliant idea to partner with nearly a dozen companies to allow users to directly order rides from within their apps.

In part two of this mobile-first customer care series, we discussed how smartphones have changed customers’ expectations – essentially creating a “mobile mind shift” -- and we touched on the five pillars of mobile-first customer care. The mobile mind shift means customers today expect to be able to do anything via their wireless devices in their moment of need. Smart companies will travel ahead of customers and identify these “mobile moments” and find a way to service customers through them in a way that delights them.

Quick: why do you own a cell phone? Is it to play Candy Crush or Angry Birds? Is it to update your Facebook profile with the proud news that your theatrically gifted seven-year-old has been cast as the third tree from the left in the school’s production of the Wizard of Oz? Is it to peek at football game scores during the interminable condo association meeting?  It might be for all of these things, but it’s primarily for convenience. If you’re old enough to remember a life before mobile phones, you’ll recall that making calls while on the go involved finding a phone booth and a quarter and pretending not to notice the highly questionable substance sticking your shoes to the floor.

Imagine this phrase uttered in a bored tone by a cashier, and it might take you back to the last time you made a complex purchase in a brick-and-mortar store. Armed with product knowledge, you entered the store and found a sales person and explained what you wanted. If that person wasn’t helpful, you were referred to a manager, and you explained what you wanted all over again.