Digital Engagement Blog

The pace of change, and particularly AI adoption, is skyrocketing - moving at a magnitude that enterprises are challenged to meet. Today’s most active digital consumers and largest segment of the workforce, Millennials and iGen, are challenging that rate of change based on their technology adoption, behaviors and preferences. The Blockbuster Video bankruptcy remains a key example of why enterprises must adapt to consumer expectations, and it’s more evident and validated 5 years after their closure. Three critical expectations that impacted the Blockbuster Video failure also influence today’s adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). In this intelligence economy, meeting consumer and employee expectations can mean the success or failure of the business.

On an otherwise normal Friday, one thing happened that shifted the world as we know it.

Though we all knew this day was special, it passed more or less without fanfare. But, looking back, it was the catalyst for how today’s leaders engage with their customers. It changed us all.

It has shaped every day since, and its significance will be felt for decades to come.

On June 29, 2007, the Spice Girls announced their reunion tour.

More importantly? The first iPhone went on sale.

On June 29, 2007, technology started our digital transformation. In time, it made us all feel smarter…act faster…and become FAR less patient than at any time in history.

It opened up a world where continually increasing customer expectations would forever challenge companies to keep up:

• Where technology would expand at a pace few could fathom.
• Where old approaches struggled to address new challenges.
• And where new leaders would rise, replacing the stalwarts who couldn’t…or wouldn’t…adapt.

Which brings us to today.

You could boil the challenges customer service will face over the next five years down to two questions:

• How do we engage customers as they interact across digital touchpoints?
• How do we embed intelligence into servicing applications to take advantage of the ability of algorithms to optimize far beyond what we've achieved to date?

Orchestrating Digital Touchpoints

The move to digital touchpoints, micro-moments of attention, conversational interfaces and messaging-based interactions is causing major challenges for many organizations.  One reason is that customer services apps (and processes) today are designed for single channel, synchronous and dedicated session interactions. 

So orchestration of digital interactions is very difficult... but it's not an option to sit it out because that is where the consumer/customer is.

Algorithms Driving Apps

The shift to algorithms driving interactions might be an even bigger challenge.  It is very likely that this trend will significantly improve servicing benchmarks (costs, CX) and become competitive differentiators for your business.

Again, it's not an option to sit it out because that is where competitors are going and what consumers will expect.

How, then, do you begin to re-constitute every app you run in the contact center to take advantage of new algorithms that drive these apps in real-time?

Chatbots and intelligent messaging solutions can help you deliver smarter customer service with a better customer experience at a very attractive cost per contact.  To achieve the kind of results that get you promoted, it's important to consider a customer service solution in its entirety.  Overlook one key element of the solution stack, and it'll never achieve its natural flow.  

We use the technology stack in this post to talk about goal and transaction oriented Chatbots both internally and with our customers.  You can use it as a checklist to  make sure you're not overlooking a critical part of a Chatbot solution for customer service.  

There is so much buzz and hype around Chatbots it is difficult to understand how to use this technology to create meaningful benefits in an operational setting. 

We've got an option to help you cut through the Chatbot BS.

Forrester just released a report titled "Chatbots 101:  Building a Conversational Interface" which is a great read and tells it like it is.   (You can download the report below).

Chatbots 101 Report

Chatbots 101 report covers the following:

• What is a Chatbot?
• When will Chatbots replace apps... or human?
• When and where are Chatbots a good fit?
• Are Chatbots ready for prime time?
• Four questions to ask before you deploy a Chatbot.
• Four questions to ask before you build a Chatbot.

These are questions you'll need to answer as you build your intelligent assistance strategy.  Chatbots 101 will help you gain clarity on this technology and its best use.

Picture this.

You want to go somewhere.

• Your office.
• A restaurant to meet some friends.
• Aunt Alice’s house for pick any holiday.

So, what do you do?

• You jump in your car.
• You say where you want to go.
• You arrive safely, on-time.

This is the promise of self-driving cars.

And, it’s about to happen...at least that’s what we’ve been led to believe.

But is it?

In this guest blog, Amy Stapleton from Opus Research outlines three ways Intelligent Assistance technologies can work for Marketing.  The post is based on Amy's white paper, Six Perspectives on Intelligent Assistance, which is available at the end of this blog.

Intelligent Assistance Benefits Go Beyond Customer Care

Customer care professionals have been leveraging the benefits of intelligent assistants and similar self-service technologies for many years. On the flip side, most marketing professionals didn’t spend much time thinking about smart self-service solutions in the past. Self-service and marketing wandered down two separate paths. But with the 2016 “Facebook Messenger bot platform announcement” generating excitement around chatbots on messaging platforms, marketing executives are getting into the intelligent assistance game too.