Amazon Web Services (AWS) yesterday released its long-awaited Amazon Connect, a suite of cloud-based contact center services that leverage the artificial intelligence powering Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant to handle contact center calls and texts.
Posted March 29, 2017
The trio of solutions gained during its Interactive Intelligence purchase, composes an expanded customer experience platform. (Featured on DestinationCRM.com.)
Posted March 28, 2017
Chatbots on Messenger may be a breakthrough for customer service on Facebook, but they're far from perfect. For the time being, they're hard to find via search, and for many companies, the functionality is limited. Still, there are already some brands that are getting it right. Here are five companies delivering solid service through the emerging channel.
Posted March 24, 2017
Linc's new chatbots operate on the Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Apple iMessage platforms and also offer voice assistance through Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple's Siri, along with enhanced email, web, and text capabilities.
Posted March 22, 2017
Amazon has a reputation for continually innovating to make the service experience better and easier for customers. Soon other companies may be able to quite literally borrow from Amazon's playbook, as the e-commerce giant is rumored to be developing a suite of cloud-based call center tools based on its own proprietary call center technology.
Posted March 17, 2017
The technology helps agents personalize contact with customers across different channels. (Featured on DestinationCRM.com.)
Posted March 14, 2017
inContact, a provider of cloud contact center software, has introduced the Spring 2017 release of its Customer Interaction Cloud, which features comprehensive omnichannel journey management, analytics-based routing, and cloud storage of customer interaction data.
Posted March 10, 2017
8x8 today launched Communications Cloud, which combines unified communications, team collaboration interoperability, contact center, and real-time analytics in a single, open platform.
Posted March 08, 2017
NewVoiceMedia, a provider of cloud contact center and inside sales technology, today introduced its Spring '17 release, with major enhancements to its intelligent communications platform for optimizing contact center management and operations.
Posted March 08, 2017
Customer engagement platform provider Pegasystems has added artificial intelligence-powered capabilities to its CRM solution, Pega CRM. The new tools are built to improve customer service agent performance by pulling insight from desktop solutions that agents rely on and identifying any processes that slow down daily activities.
Posted March 03, 2017
Zoho PhoneBridge accelerates delivery of solutions integrating call management with Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk.
Posted March 01, 2017
Twitter has become a staple part of many companies' customer service strategies because it provided an easy route for getting in touch with businesses directly. With the introduction of chatbots and automated responses, however, companies run the risk of losing that level of authenticity. But now, Twitter is updating its direct messaging with Custom Profiles, enabling brands to differentiate automated responses from human responses during interactions with customers.
Posted February 24, 2017
The Marketplace aims to help businesses customize their help desks with apps they can find under one roof. (Featured on DestinationCRM.com.)
Posted February 23, 2017
The feature uses artificial intelligence to analyze browsing history, determine a customer's immediate needs, and serve them in the moment. (Featured on DestinationCRM.com.)
Posted February 21, 2017
Most consumers have come to expect being able to reach a company's customer service team by phone, so what happens when a company offers no dedicated service line? In Facebook's case, this spells trouble. According to firsthand research conducted by NPR reporter Aarti Shahani, conducting a Google search for "Facebook Customer Service" does indeed produce a number to call, except that number is fake and leads callers right into the hands of scammers.
Posted February 17, 2017
Deeper integrations between the vendors' contact center solutions aim to help agents improve customer experience.
Posted February 16, 2017
Salesforce.com today launched Service Cloud Einstein, an intelligent customer service platform connected to CRM data across sales, commerce, marketing, and more.
Posted February 13, 2017
Chipotle CEO Steve Ells is making good on his promise to improve the company's customer service by implementing a new compensation system for its employees: Moving forward, employees will be paid based on how effectively they deliver customer service.
Posted February 10, 2017
The newest addition to Masergy's unified communications-as-a-service offering supports intelligent call routing and compatibility with Salesforce.com.
Posted February 07, 2017
Apple and IBM teamed up to build mobile apps for the enterprise back in 2014, and now United Airlines is finally getting ready to roll out some customer service apps that show off the fruits of their labor. United Airlines announced on Thursday that the company is working with both IBM and Apple on several apps designed for the 50,000 iPhone and iPads that its employees currently use.
Posted February 03, 2017
Aspect Software has launched its new cloud-based customer engagement center, Via, available immediately in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Via will be available to customers in Europe in the second quarter. Aspect first previewed the Via product last May.
Posted February 01, 2017
Pronexus, which has provided interactive voice response (IVR) solutions for more than 20 years, this week launched VB Voice 10.1, a program that will allow users to access both voice recognition and visual customer service through smartphone or HTML 5-enabled browser.
Posted January 30, 2017
According to Salesforce.com's annual State of Service survey, customer service is no longer an afterthought for companies, meant only to support the business after the important part—the sale—was already complete. Increasingly, customer service is becoming a central component of the company's strategy and initiative. More than 68 percent of the service teams surveyed say they're the ones leading customer experience efforts.
Posted January 27, 2017
Telecommunications company Avaya today filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and began formal proceedings to restructure its balance sheet to better position itself for the future. The company's foreign affiliates are not included in the filing. The company is assuring customers that it will continue normal operations.
Posted January 19, 2017
Your goal should be to turn customers into advocates, says the service guru and author in his new book, Kaleidoscope: Delivering Innovative Service That Sparkles.
Posted January 13, 2017
NICE has released its Nexidia Analytics solution, offering interaction analytics via omnichannel "listening" to know what customers and prospects are saying and then analyze those conversations to tailor experiences to their stated needs.
Posted January 10, 2017
This year will be the "year of purpose," according to customer experience research firm Temkin Group. Though many trends have carried over from last year, the differentiating factor in 2017 will be maturation. "There are not a lot of new things on the list because the story this year will be adoption and operationalization. Companies aren't playing around with emerging tools anymore—they're using mature and powerful technologies," says Bruce Temkin, managing partner at Temkin Group.
Posted January 06, 2017
MegaPath, a provider of voice, data, security, and cloud services to North American businesses, today announced a partnership with Tenfold, maker of the Phone Intelligence Platform, designed to support service agents and sales reps during customer calls. (Featured on DestinationCRM.com.)
Posted January 03, 2017
According to findings from the 2016 Consumer Experience Index survey by Aspect, 44 percent of shoppers prefer to use chatbots rather than speak to a live agent, assuming that the automated assistant is capable of handling the request. Forty percent of those surveyed also said that assuming the quality of the experience and privacy are preserved, they would like to use services such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Snapchat to communicate with companies; this is up from 33 percent last year.
Posted December 16, 2016
We live in an era where messaging programs have overtaken phone calls for personal interactions, so why shouldn't companies be able to interact with their customers the same way? This question was the impetus for LiveMessage, announced today by Salesforce.com as a new addition to its Service Cloud. LiveMessage allows companies to engage with customers using the messaging platform of their choice, including SMS, text, and Facebook Messenger.
Posted December 13, 2016
At a Barclay's investors conference earlier this week, Chipotle founder and co-CEO Steve Ells admitted the company has underperformed in customer service, with roughly half of its 2,100 restaurants receiving C grades for service. Ells explained that after the company's recent E. coli contamination crisis, Chipotle shifted its focus to food safety and neglected service. To turn this around, Ells said Chipotle is devoting "laserlike" attention to the situation, retraining employees and making customer service a key priority again.
Posted December 09, 2016
Social media is an important aspect of marketing and communication for many organizations, but it is also becoming a necessary channel for providing top-tier customer service. To support customers' desire to take to social media when they need help, Verint Systems has enahnced its Social Engagement solution.
Posted December 06, 2016
Avaya today introduced IP Office Contact Center 10, the latest version of its contact center platform specifically geared toward midsized businesses but with the same advanced tools as its enterprise-level product.
Posted December 01, 2016
Speech and natural language technology vendor Interactions has added voice biometrics to its Intelligent Virtual Assistant application, allowing companies to offer seamless caller authentication and identification using the unique characteristics of each human voice. Interactions Voice Biometrics can also be added to new or existing customer care applications. (Featured on SpeechTechMag.com.)
Posted November 25, 2016
It's no secret that when used effectively, social customer service can work wonders for companies. It's cost-effective and has the potential to directly link companies with their customers. But according to a recent report on the state of social customer service, from social customer service provider Conversocial, there's still a long journey ahead before customers fully trust social media as a primary channel for support.
Posted November 18, 2016
Oracle has launched IoT Accelerator, an integration package to allow companies to leverage insights gathered from the Internet of Things (IoT) via the company's IoT Cloud and Oracle Service Cloud.
Posted November 16, 2016
Known for offering top-notch in-store support at its Genius Bars, Apple is rolling out an app to offer iPhone and iPad support directly on the devices. Up until now, support was available on Apple's website, but the introduction of an app makes the experience more user-friendly for iPhone and iPad users. The app offers troubleshooting suggestions, connects customers with agents via phone, and enables live chats between customers and Apple's support team.
Posted November 11, 2016
Actionable customer experience research depends not only on gathering data for focused insight but being able to access and deploy that insight efficiently and then benchmark results. Often the barriers between technology and insight have made this a daunting task, one that Forrester and Verint Systems hope to address with a partnership announced today.
Posted November 07, 2016
After securing $55 million from Sequoia Capital India in a round of funding earlier this week, Freshdesk is continuing to expand its solutions beyond customer service. Its recently launched CRM tool, Freshsales, and mobile-first support platform, Hotline, are big areas of excitement and growth at the moment, according to company executives.
Posted November 04, 2016
Twitter today introduced two new features to help companies create better conversational experiences with customers via Direct Messages on the social media site.
Posted November 01, 2016
Zendesk today launched a redesigned company brand and an expanded product family focused on building better customer relationships. Zendesk also introduced Zendesk Connect and Zendesk Explore, two products that create more personal connections between customers and organizations through customer intelligence and deeper analytics.
Posted October 28, 2016
Customer experience management company Medallia acquired customer feedback capturing technology Kampyle earlier this week and rolled it into Medallia Digital—a combined feedback management and data analytics solution. Together, the two solutions will deliver more omnichannel insight into the customer experience because it will take both offline and online data into account.
Posted October 21, 2016
Microsoft has chosen CafeX Communications, a supplier of mobile and web customer engagement solutions, as its preferred solution provider for real-time customer assistance within Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Service.
Posted October 19, 2016
With rumors swirling about a possible acquisition, Twitter's future is uncertain, but the company's role in enabling brands to deliver customer service remains solid. Earlier this month, Twitter released findings from a customer service study, an effort the company expanded from the airline industry alone to the quick service restaurant and telecom industries as well. The findings revealed that the manner in which customer service is delivered on Twitter plays a significant role in how much consumers spend.
Posted October 14, 2016
Agent.AI, a provider of mobile customer service technologies, today released its CRM software platform, which includes intelligent tools designed to streamline customer support interactions for live chat agents.
Posted October 13, 2016
Atlassian this week released an upgraded version of its JIRA Service Desk to help companies group their customers so they can view and share each others' requests. The latest version also allows for greater internal and external collaboration.
Posted October 12, 2016
Helpshift, a customer service platform for in-app support, is now offering Campaigns, a feature that arms companies with a more proactive approach to in-app customer service. The company already delivers in-app support but is now making it possible for brands to message their customers directly before a specific customer service issues arises. The new tool lives at the intersection of customer service and marketing, Abinash Tripathy, CEO of Helpshift, says.
Posted October 11, 2016
Monday, Oct. 3, marks the start of National Customer Service Week, an initiative that was started by the International Customer Service Association back in 1984. The weeklong dedication to customer service is an opportunity for brands to treat customers to surprises, perks, and other engagements, but the event is about more than just customer appreciation—it should be about employee appreciation as well.
Posted September 30, 2016
NICE yesterday released Evolve WFM, a continuous delivery workforce management solution with advanced capabilities like analytics-based forecasting and user-defined scheduling in an elastic cloud-based deployment model.
Posted September 28, 2016
Customer service solutions providers Cisco and Salesforce.com announced a strategic alliance earlier this week that brings together their respective customer service solutions. The two companies worked on deep integrations of Cisco's collaboration, Internet of Things, and contact center platforms with Salesforce Sales Cloud, IoT Cloud, and Service Cloud. The goal for both companies is to augment each other's offerings for a more holistic slew of services.
Posted September 23, 2016