NICE inContact CXone infuses AI across all areas of the platform—from chatbots and conversational AI, to scheduling and forecasting, sentiment analysis and real-time agent guidance, just to name a few.

Contact centers are often said to be on the front lines of delivering satisfying customer experiences. They fight a well-planned battle every day to provide low queue times, high first contact resolution rates, accurate responses, and engaging interactions guided by high quality agents. What should your contact center do in order to be prepared for anything? Focusing on four key areas will have you well on the way to adapting and thriving in the face of disruptions both large and small.

Life in the contact center can feel like a collective emotional journey, and that was never more true than in 2020. You and your customers rode the waves of the uncertainty that defined the year. There was disruption like never before. Contact centers had to adapt quickly to serve customers who were anxious and seeking help. Contact center traffic was also inconsistent and unpredictable. Combine this with the need to suddenly disperse the workforce to their homes and it was a rollercoaster of a year! Ready to prepare for the unexpected? Here are five ways to plan, prepare and provide for your contact centers, your agents and most of all, your customers.

Aside from the negative outcomes of the past year, there's one shining example of a positive consequence - the seismic shift towards a work from home model in the general workforce and more specifically among contact center agents and staff.

Ringing in the new year provides an opportunity to create a fresh start for your agents and your contact center – even despite the stale circumstances. So while the start of 2021 might not bring the overnight “new year, new you” fix we were all hoping for, here are some workforce engagement ideas to help refresh your agents’ mindset to start the year on the right foot.

​In these challenging times your customer’s voice matters more than ever — but this information can get lost among everything else going on. Even if agents are distracted and issues are coming up, contact centers must provide the same level of satisfaction as they would have before. How can you prioritize excellent service no matter what’s going on in the world? Establish a Voice of the Customer Program.

The story of student loan servicer ECSI is a story of partnership and the sense of a higher mission, one of providing support to colleges and universities and of helping young people and their families navigate financial issues they may be encountering for the first time. It’s a story of building relationships and providing services in meaningful ways to constituents who need them. Above all, ECSI’s story is one of a small business able to perform like a much larger one—all while continuing to grow and provide exceptional experiences with every interaction.