The cloud has transformed the contact center infrastructure market. It has energized a tired and dated on-premise market by introducing new competitors who are hungry for business and making major investments in their solutions. Despite the marketing, which makes many of the cloud-based contact center solutions sound as if they are functionally the same, there are substantial...

A technically sophisticated contact center can have more than 45 different systems and applications to optimize its performance. These systems typically break down into three product categories: Contact center infrastructure – automatic call distributor (ACD), dialer, universal queue (UQ), computer telephony integration (CTI), interactive voice response (IVR)/voice prompter Customer relationship management (CRM)/servicing applications – sales, customer service,...

In this age of digital transformation, customers and prospects must be able to easily access an enterprise from any channel – phone, self-service (websites, interactive voice response (IVR) systems, intelligent virtual agents (IVAs), email, chat, co-browse, SMS, social media and video. Contact center agents, and other company employees, must be able to deliver a consistent, personalized customer...

Digital transformation is a “hot” topic today for enterprises that are striving to deliver an outstanding customer experience cost effectively. A growing number of enterprises have acknowledged the need to change the way they do business if they want to continue to be relevant to their customers. Many of these companies are not exactly sure what they...

This is the third in a series of blog posts focused on creating a customer service social media strategy. The first entry talked about the social media customer service experiment. The second post in the series provided detailed guidance on building a social media communications strategy for your organization and customer service or contact center. This post...

This is the second post in the customer service/contact center social media blog series. This post is intended to provide guidance in building a social media communications strategy for your organization and customer service or contact center. An important aspect of rolling out social media is deciding which channels to use. Below is a list of the...

This is the first in a three-part series on the changing needs and expectations for customer service. "Going social" is more than a way to share thoughts and ideas; it is a new way of communicating and interacting that is impacting and influencing all aspects of our lives. A majority of enterprises now accept that they need...