Blog

As I stepped into the Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta in mid-February, I was greeted with the buzz of conversation of hundreds of people, acoustically dampened by the breathtaking 40 story open atrium above me.

Modern call centers are complex hives of data, and the task of mining though it all to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the agents and their processes can seem overwhelming.

Looking back at 2019, one of the underlying debates of the global contact center industry was whether or not voice will continue to have a place in the increasingly digital world of customer service.

The most compelling memorable customer experiences come from the relationships we have with businesses that understand us. That’s why you go to the same coffee shop every morning. The barista knows how you like your latte, they know you like a quick chat about your busy day ahead and they even remember your name. Though these brief interactions might seem insignificant, they’re the reason you become a loyal customer—the barista adjusts the service provided to reflect your likes and dislikes.

Webster’s Dictionary defines effort as “strenuous physical or mental exertion”. If you’ve ever had to call a business multiple times to resolve an issue or wasted precious time being hopelessly lost in a confusing automated phone menu, then you can relate to this strenuous mental exertion. The amount of effort customers experience when interacting with a business directly impacts their relationship. If your organization is losing customers despite having a superior product or service, then customer effort may be the culprit. Harvard Business Review takes it a step further stating that “the #1 most important factor in customer loyalty is the reduction of customer effort.”

The setting of a recent LinkedIn Live from NiCE segment was overlooking the skyline of the great city of New York. A place that 8M people call home and over 800 different languages are spoken! Uncovering this huge diversity in languages was a great parallel for our own Michele Carlson and Andy Traba to talk about the 3 Best Practices to Deliver Personal Experiences for your customers and employees.

Try to recall a recent interaction you had with customer service. Was it a better, more enjoyable experience than previous interactions? That’s the real crux of the question: what makes certain experiences better than others?