TeamSupport CEO Robert Johnson reveals the company's latest customer support updates and future product plans. Johnson talked about the ability to incorporate video and screen shots into its chat offering, as well as future product plans, such as a more customized Web portal for customer support. (Featured on destinationCRM.com.)
Posted April 04, 2016
Millennials are more likely to file customer complaints than other generations, even Baby Boomers, according to a report from J.D. Power. The study of more than 600,000 consumers revealed that Millennials have a lower tolerance for customer service issues, errors, and delays than Boomers,tend to value effective issue resolution more than their older counterparts, and tend to reward brands that solve customer service challenges with their loyalty.
Posted April 01, 2016
Inbenta, providers of a natural language search platform powered by artificial intelligence, today launched its Hybrid Chat service, which combines Inbenta's self-service virtual assistant support with its on-demand live chat technology.
Posted March 29, 2016
When it comes to poor customer service, 52 percent of consumers have stopped doing business with companies because of it. And once companies have lost those customers, 68 percent will not return, resulting in an estimated cost to U.S. businesses of $1.6 trillion, according to new research from Accenture.
Posted March 23, 2016
Known for extensive regulations and customer processes, the financial services industry has strict onboarding procedures called Know Your Customer (KYC) that add complexity and time to customer experiences. To streamline the process while ensuring that banks continue to observe all required regulations, Pegasystems today introduced a client lifecycle management (CLM) tool that speeds up the onboarding process.
Posted March 21, 2016
InContact, a provider of cloud-based contact center software and cloud workforce optimization tools, today launched its first major release of Customer Interaction Cloud for 2016. The latest release provides omnichannel routing, workforce optimization, voice as a service, and an open cloud platform.
Posted March 15, 2016
At the Enterprise Connect conference earlier this week, Avaya introduced Zang, a cloud communications platform that supports application development, embeds capabilities from outside solutions such as Salesforce.com, and offers a turnkey application called Zang Spaces.
Posted March 11, 2016
LiveOps Cloud today unveiled the next generation of its CxEngage platform, a contact center-as-a-service (CCaaS) solution designed to help organizations provide quality customer service on a global level. (Featured on DestinationCRM.com.)
Posted March 08, 2016
8x8, a provider of cloud-based enterprise communications services, has added to its Virtual Contact Center (VCC) solution with new features that integrate quality management, customer journey analytics, and a prebuilt CRM integration tool that allows contact center managers to configure and tailor the agent and customer experience. The new VCC capabilities will be available in June.
Posted March 08, 2016
Hallmark Business Connections, the business-to-business subsidiary of Hallmark Cards, has launched a customer care solution for businesses that lets contact center employees create meaningful connections with customers through Hallmark greeting cards.
Posted March 04, 2016
For years, Apple has made an effort to avoid establishing a major presence on social media, but on Thursday, the company broke its social silence by launching a Twitter customer support account. The launch comes on the heels of Twitter's rollout of additional customer service tools, as both Apple and Twitter acknowledge the social channel's central role in modern customer service.
Posted March 04, 2016
Microsoft today announced that the spring wave of Dynamics CRM 2016 will be available to online customers in the second quarter of this year. The new release will bring a number of changes, including the addition of field service capabilities and portal solutions.
Posted March 02, 2016
From silly GIFs to sophisticated branded content, video has been exploding online but hasn't really entered the enterprise feedback management space. With its video feedback solution, InMoment is turning video into a key Voice of the Customer (VoC) channel and enabling companies to use customers' video testimonies to gain insight into the customer experience.
Posted February 26, 2016
Verint Systems has acquired Contact Solutions, a provider of cloud-based voice and mobile customer self-service and business intelligence software, from North Bridge Growth Equity, a venture capital firm. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal extends Verint's Actionable Intelligence vision with real-time, contextual self-service software.
Posted February 22, 2016
Twitter's stock is hurting, and CEO Jack Dorsey has been making an effort to set the social network back on course with new features, including a suite of customer service tools that play to one of Twitter's greatest strengths. Earlier this week, Twitter updated its Direct Message capability with deep links, which enable users to send private messages to businesses quicker and more effectively.
Posted February 19, 2016
TeleVoice, a provider of customized call center solutions, including interactive voice response (IVR) and computer telephony integration (CTI), to the financial services industry, has launched TeleVoice Insight, a comprehensive call recording solution.
Posted February 17, 2016
Pegasystems continues to expand its Pega 7 platform with the launch of Pega Field Service CRM, an app for field service agents; it provides on-the-go CRM functionality to professionals who deliver service on site and unifies customer service across the customer journey, from initial call to service delivery.
Posted February 12, 2016
Avaya today launched a pair of multichannel unified communications and contact center hybrid cloud solutions targeted for the midmarket. Called Avaya Midmarket Cloud, the solutions are Powered by Avaya IP Office and OnAvaya-Google Cloud Platform.
Posted February 09, 2016
For the second quarter in a row, L.L. Bean reigns supreme on Stella Service's benchmark report of retailers' customer service performance. Stella Service evaluated retailers by looking at a number of service areas, including the speed with which customer service issues are handled, the efficiency of returns and exchanges, and the amount of missed opportunities for customer engagement. Most notable were L.L. Bean's prompt responses to both phone and email requests, according to the report.
Posted February 05, 2016
Salesforce.com yesterday introduced the next generation of its Customer Success Platform, Salesforce Lightning, and previewed its product strategy for the first half of the year. Included in those plans is an upgrade to Service Cloud Lightning, the company's unified customer service platform and ecosystem.
Posted February 03, 2016
Earlier this week, former Amazon employee Eric Springer shared his recent experience with Amazon customer service, revealing that the e-commerce giant unknowingly gave away his identity to hackers on three occasions. Springer was alerted to the situation after receiving an email confirming a recent interaction with customer service via Web chat that he did not actually have.
Posted January 29, 2016
iQventures, a provider of call center and call intelligence technologies, has joined IBM Watson's ecosystem, where it will leverage Watson's cognitive computing capabilities to bolster its SpeechiQ platform with speech and sentiment analytics.
Posted January 28, 2016
Wise.io, a provider of machine learning applications to help enterprises provide better customer experiences, today launched Wise Auto Response, an intelligent auto reply functionality for customer support organizations. Using machine learning to understand the intent of incoming tickets and determine the best available response, Wise Auto Response automatically selects and applies the appropriate reply to address customer issues without involving agents.
Posted January 27, 2016
With messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and WeChat staking a claim to how consumers communicate on mobile devices, brands are working to get in on the action. Mobile support is becoming a must-have for customer service, but in-app support and service via the mobile Web just aren't cutting it. Joshua March, CEO at Conversocial, sat down with Smart Customer Service to discuss the evolution of social support and how Sprint is tackling the growing demands of the space.
Posted January 22, 2016
Lionbridge Technologies has broadened its GeoFluent real-time translation technology to include new omnichannel customer care features for contact centers. With these new features, customers can deliver real-time multilingual interactions across all communication channels, from virtual and agent-assisted chat to email, in-call voice, social, SMS, forums, knowledge bases, help desks, and ticketing.
Posted January 19, 2016
Customer experience management solution provider InMoment has teamed up with predictive analytics vendor RapidMiner to deliver a more sophisticated Voice of the Customer solution that not only provides insight on what customers are doing at different phases of the customer journey, but also why they're taking certain actions.
Posted January 15, 2016
Businesses are substantially more satisfied with their electricity providers this year, reaching an eight-year high, despite having to call their service providers twice as often and having their issues resolved significantly less often then residential customers, according to the latest J.D. Power 2016 Electric Utility Business Customer Satisfaction Study.
Posted January 13, 2016
NICE Systems is acquiring speech software company Nexidia, which specializes in advanced speech and interaction analytics, for $135 million. Nexidia's analytics products are backed by patents for phonetic indexing and search capabilities, features that will integrate with NICE's existing services to provide enhanced analytics-based solutions.
Posted January 11, 2016
Accelerize and its digital marketing software division CAKE yesterday announced a partnership and technology integration with DialogTech, a provider of end-to-end call attribution and conversion platforms for marketing and customer service.
Posted January 08, 2016
The solution brings real-time customer information and 100 percent call recording to Microsoft's communications system. (Featured on DestinationCRM.com.)
Posted January 04, 2016
Emergency preparedness solutions company Rave Mobile Safety has seen particular success with its Smart911 national safety service. The platform aims to assist 9-1-1 dispatchers in their decisions and cut response times. The service has seen statewide implementation in Arkansas, Delaware, and several other states.
Posted December 29, 2015
Genesys, a provider of omnichannel customer experience and contact center solutions, has acquired SpeechStorm, a provider of self-service applications for mobile, Web, and interactive voice response (IVR) channels. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Posted December 22, 2015
The nonprofit association Jobs4America recorded 22,265 new positions in the U.S. contact center industry in the third quarter of 2015. After subtracting the 5,678 jobs that were cut due to force reductions and closures, the firm recorded a net total of 16,587 new jobs created between July 1 and September 30.
Posted December 22, 2015
Customers who received replies from airlines through Twitter were not only happier with their experiences but also were more willing to pay more for their next tickets and to recommend that airline to others, according to research from Twitter and Applied Marketing Science.
Posted December 18, 2015
Revenue for the North American contact center solutions market indicates a growing preference for hosted services, but while companies are investing in the cloud, they are still relying on on-premises tools, which suggests there is ample room for growth among vendors, Frost & Sullivan finds.
Posted December 16, 2015
Marchex, a mobile advertising analytics company, today launched a major security enhancement to Marchex Call Analytics that enables companies to automatically redact credit card numbers from recorded phone calls in real time.
Posted December 15, 2015
Pages has long been a powerful resource for marketers maintaining a Facebook brand presence, but the social network is launching new capabilities to enhance the platform's customer service features. With better engagement tracking and an emphasis on faster response times, Facebook is enabling brands to deliver an improved social customer service experience in real time.
Posted December 11, 2015
Zendesk today released Advanced Voice, an enhanced version of its phone support offering, embedded directly into its cloud-based contact center software. With it, companies can set up Zendesk phone support in minutes without purchasing extra equipment and can make or take calls from the same multichannel environment in which they manage all other support channels.
Posted December 10, 2015
Thanks to social media, customer reviews, and other tools that give consumers the power to shape brand dialogues, companies have had to improve how they deliver service. Increasingly, expectations for customer service are extending beyond traditional call center and support experiences to include in-store support, delivery, and product consultation. According to a recent report from Constellation Research, five trends are shifting power to retail consumers. These trends have key implications for brands.
Posted December 04, 2015
Marlin Equity Partners, a global investment firm, has acquired LiveOps Cloud Platform, a provider of cloud-based contact center technology. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Posted December 01, 2015
Social customer service provider Sentiment is teaming up with systems integration company IP Integration to help inject social solutions into existing contact centers. As contact center providers rush to offer social tools, Sentiment and IP Integration are working to ensure that social solutions are no longer considered an afterthought.
Posted November 20, 2015
Avaya and Plantronics have started a co-development initiative to simplify communications in contact center and unified communications environments. The first initiative under this expanded relationship is focused on ensuring compatibility and tight integration between Plantronics headsets and Avaya's Chrome-based contact center apps, including Avaya Agent for Chrome and Customer Engagement OnAvaya-Google Cloud Platform.
Posted November 18, 2015
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday right around the corner, companies expect more transactions to occur through mobile devices. Last year, mobile commerce accounted for 22.56 percent of online sales in November and December, and 27.91 percent of Black Friday sales, according to the 2014 IBM Experience One U.S. Retail Online Holiday Shopping Recap Report. This year, the number will likely surpass 30 percent, and as mobile secures its position as a key channel for online retail, retailers should consider stepping up their mobile customer support.
Posted November 13, 2015
Just two weeks after its annual OpenWorld user conference in San Francisco, Oracle has announced further enhancements to its cloud product set. Today, the company introduced Oracle Knowledge Advanced Cloud, a solution that helps facilitate customer service interactions by granting customers and contact center agents improved access to instructional materials.(Featured on DestinationCRM.com.)
Posted November 11, 2015
TouchCommerce, a provider of omnichannel customer engagement solutions, today launched TouchSocial, which enables companies to embed shortlinks into social media posts so that customers can initiate personalized live chat sessions with product or customer service specialists.
Posted November 10, 2015
Support ticket volume has increased in 63 percent of all support organizations, according to a new report by HDI, a membership association and certification body for the technical support industry. This is largely due to an increase in the number of new applications, systems, equipment, infrastructures, and devices that customers are using and a growth in the number of customers at many companies.
Posted November 06, 2015
To the surprise of many, the company that all-but demolished the brick-and-mortar book business debuted its first brick-and-mortar book store earlier this week. With the opening of Amazon Books in Seattle, the e-commerce behemoth is redefining the in-store experience, and it's all about personalized service. On the surface, the store is a condensed, limited version of the online business; digging deeper into its shelves, however, reveals a much more nuanced business model.
Posted November 06, 2015
Enghouse Interactive, a developer of contact center software, yesterday unveiled the latest versions of its five key business communications and customer interaction technologies, integegrating all of them into a unified product suite. These releases include new version of Enghouse Interactive's Contact Center: Enterprise (CCE); Communications Center (EICC); Contact Center: Service Provider (CCSP); Communications Portal (CP); and Quality Management Suite (QMS).
Posted November 05, 2015
At its G-Force summit in Miami this week, Genesys debuted AppFoundry, an app marketplace where developers can design, innovate, and collaborate on customer service solutions. With wide-reaching integrations for on-premise and software-as-a-service solutions spanning from CRM and database applications to sales and e-commerce tools, the marketplace promises to extend Genesys's offerings while maintaining the vendor's commitment to the customer service space.
Posted October 30, 2015
Metrics are the lifeblood of every contact center's performance, yet many of them aren't measuring the right performance indicators, the ICMI determined in a recent study. The findings, announced at the ICMI Contact Center Conference earlier this week, revealed that as contact centers evolve to be increasingly multichannel hubs, companies are struggling to maintain consistency across channels and customer touch points.
Posted October 23, 2015