Customer service and contact center
Customer service refers to the support organizations give customers after a purchase, and contact centers are the points where organizations can manage these interactions. Keep tabs on the evolution of customer service and contact center technologies and best practices to maintain service strategies properly.
Top Stories
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News
14 Nov 2024
CallMiner CEO talks generative AI, conversational intelligence
When everyone's contact center now has a CX platform, specialists like CallMiner have to make implementation more straightforward for users, said CEO and founder Jeff Gallino. Continue Reading
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Tip
14 Nov 2024
Pros and cons of a hybrid contact center architecture
A hybrid cloud architecture can provide modern capabilities to legacy contact centers. Explore the benefits and challenges of adopting a hybrid contact center. Continue Reading
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Tip
20 Nov 2020
8 customer service metrics to measure call center success
Measuring call center metrics and KPIs benefits organizations by showing where issues occur. Average handle time, service level and cost per call are a few metrics to start with. Continue Reading
- E-Zine 17 Nov 2020
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News
10 Nov 2020
Zendesk, WhatsApp cozy up with co-development partnership
Zendesk and WhatsApp team up to break bottlenecks in customer service conversations over Facebook messaging apps -- including Instagram -- by building it into Zendesk Support. Continue Reading
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Feature
09 Nov 2020
7 ways to avoid remote work burnout in call centers
Many factors contribute to remote work burnout, including juggling too many tasks, isolation and a work-life balance. Here are some tips for managers to help minimize burnout. Continue Reading
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Tip
28 Oct 2020
5 benefits of developing diversity in customer service
Creating an environment of diversity and inclusion within customer service teams is essential in today's market. Here are some ways that businesses can benefit. Continue Reading
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Guest Post
26 Oct 2020
Mobile wallet mania: Contactless payments are here to stay
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected a lot of B2C industries and one aspect of customer experience that is likely permanently shifting is the increase in mobile wallet adoption. Continue Reading
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Infographic
21 Oct 2020
The evolution of customer service
Today's customer service meets the consumer where and when it is convenient for them, with multiple contact channels, self-service and always-on coverage. Continue Reading
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News
20 Oct 2020
Salesforce Work.com gets customer, employee experience tools
Salesforce continues to build out Work.com as a place for broadcasting pandemic-specific employee and customer communications, as well as to enable remote work. Continue Reading
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Feature
08 Oct 2020
Call center customer experience ROI is more about metrics
When measuring contact center ROI, don't get caught up in dollar signs. Focus on CX metrics, including the length of customer calls, wait times and net promoter scores. Continue Reading
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News
08 Oct 2020
Twilio adds video developer tools, field service app, Flex apps
The developer-centric UCaaS vendor Twilio offers users new tools to support video chat, field service workers and aggregation of customer activity data. Continue Reading
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Tip
29 Sep 2020
AI improves customer experience, call center efficiency
Customers and employees can benefit from the use of AI in contact centers. Businesses can use AI to provide customer self-service options and help make agents more productive. Continue Reading
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Tip
08 Sep 2020
Evaluate call center outsourcing costs and benefits
Outsourcing call center operations can take some financial burden off businesses -- depending on what partner they choose. But there can also be some drawbacks. Continue Reading
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News
03 Sep 2020
Emerging Genesys cloud strategy makes Amazon friend and foe
Amid a leadership change, Genesys retools cloud strategy, adds partnerships with Infosys, Adobe and others as its relationship to Amazon and AWS veers toward 'co-opetition.' Continue Reading
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Tip
31 Aug 2020
How video chat improves customer service and engagement
As restrictions continue due to the COVID-19 crisis, many organizations adopt video chat capabilities to continue business operations and keep customers engaged. Continue Reading
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News
28 Aug 2020
Twilio Flex deployed for COVID-19 contact-tracing agents
Tech teams supporting agents working remotely on COVID-19 surveillance efforts in several U.S. cities and the state of Illinois eschew traditional IT and opt for cloud platforms. Continue Reading
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News
25 Aug 2020
Zendesk Support, Sunshine CRM expand data sharing, analytics
New Zendesk Explore Enterprise analytics and data visualization tools enable small and midsize users to create dashboards to share across organizations. Continue Reading
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Guest Post
07 Aug 2020
What to consider for a contact center remote working strategy
Colin Taylor suggests 11 areas that a good contact center work-from-home policy should address, including who provides equipment, workforce management, coaching and more. Continue Reading
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Tip
07 Aug 2020
Average handling time calculation is critical to contact centers
Knowing how to calculate average handling time is an essential component of contact center management, as it helps to determine proper staffing levels within the department. Continue Reading
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Tip
27 Jul 2020
A look at contact center technology and support costs
With so many technology options available to contact centers, per-agent spending can vary greatly. It's up to businesses to figure out what technology matters most to them. Continue Reading
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News
14 Jul 2020
Broken Pega RPA bots can heal themselves with new AI feature
Pegasystems robotic process automation tools, popular in contact centers, add AI capabilities that allow some RPA bots to fix themselves. Continue Reading
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Feature
04 Jun 2020
10 ways to improve CX when developing virtual agents
Consider these 10 methods when building new virtual agents for your clients to help balance design, user experience, technical feasibility and business value. Continue Reading
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Tip
28 May 2020
How data from APM tools helps businesses improve CX
Businesses have many options when it comes to analyzing customer experiences. APM tools can help contact center leaders improve agent experience, as well as CX. Continue Reading
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Feature
27 May 2020
4 best practices for call center management
An effective contact center is a result of strong management and knowledgeable agents. Management teams must invest time and energy in training their employees properly. Continue Reading
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News
15 May 2020
Talkdesk adds virtual agents, rebrands CCaaS suite as CX Cloud
Talkdesk refocuses it CCaaS suite on customer experience by adding 20 features, including virtual agents and remote work features for contact center agents. Continue Reading
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Tip
12 May 2020
How speech analytics can benefit call centers
Speech analytics software in call centers helps organizations pinpoint areas of weakness to address in an effort to improve customer experience and efficiency. Continue Reading
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News
08 May 2020
Pega adds unified messaging to customer case management
Pega Customer Service Unified Messaging Edition, built from last year's In The Chat acquisition, adds omnichannel messaging to the company's customer support cloud platform. Continue Reading
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News
05 May 2020
ServiceNow CSM navigates pandemic, partners with Adobe
ServiceNow connects its Customer Service Management environment to Adobe Experience Manager to improve support experience through deeper personalization. Continue Reading
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News
04 May 2020
Customer service agents, chatbots dial up empathy in pandemic
AI virtual assistants can provide help for embattled customer service agents during the pandemic, but adapting them to changing customer needs and new business models isn't simple. Continue Reading
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News
01 May 2020
Conversational AI to help with high demands in contact centers
Replicant and Nuance Communications have announced tools aimed at curbing the influx of calls during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has limited the number of customer service reps. Continue Reading
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Tip
23 Apr 2020
How remote contact centers benefit businesses, employees
As businesses move to remote contact center models amid the COVID-19 crisis, they're finding benefits in the form of real estate cost savings and happier employees. Continue Reading
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Tip
17 Apr 2020
Renewed focus on contact center trends in 2020
As contact centers move from office settings to remote work environments, businesses renew push for sustainable work-at-home programs, enhanced AI and cloud technologies. Continue Reading
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Tip
15 Apr 2020
6 tips for handling emergency calls in contact centers
Many contact centers do not have a procedure for handling emergency calls, but they should. It is important for agents to know how to react to emergency situations. Continue Reading
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News
15 Apr 2020
LogMeIn launches CCaaS platform to complement GoToConnect
LogMeIn releases GoToConnect call center as a service features during a high-demand period for supporting remote customer service work amid COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. Continue Reading
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News
06 Apr 2020
Pivot to remote call centers difficult for some; others roll with it
Remote contact center tech easily supports agents working from home, experts say. It's the culture of each team that determines success in the current national health crisis. Continue Reading
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News
26 Mar 2020
Kansas City Royals spin up cloud contact center
The Kansas City Royals closed its offices, but a telephony switch helped the call center address ticket holders' anxieties over baseball games affected by coronavirus shutdown. Continue Reading
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Tip
26 Mar 2020
Tips for creating remote call center programs amid COVID-19 pandemic
To create a sustainable work-from-home contact center program, businesses need to adjust a number of processes, including, hiring, training, supervision and technology. Continue Reading
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News
24 Mar 2020
Zendesk Relater primes customers for remote call center work
Zendesk focuses on fledgling Sunshine and Sell CRM platforms, as well as helping its well-established customer service base switch to remote call center work. Continue Reading
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Tip
23 Mar 2020
Businesses move toward UC and contact center integration
Integrating unified communications and contact center software is trending and it can provide a number of benefits to both business employees and customers. Continue Reading
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Tip
16 Mar 2020
Tips for call center crisis management amid coronavirus pandemic
Call centers can receive an influx of calls from customers during times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some steps businesses can take handle the call volume. Continue Reading
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News
06 Mar 2020
Amazon chatbots to employ neural networks for CX
Amazon tests neural network bots to help site customers and human agents more quickly identify answers to refund and order-cancellation questions. Continue Reading
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Tip
21 Feb 2020
AI in customer experience: Key benefits
Incorporating AI in customer interactions enriches the customer experience in multiple ways, builds brand loyalty and boosts efficiency. Learn about three ways AI improves CX. Continue Reading
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Tip
19 Feb 2020
Best practices for using AI-enabled self-service
AI in customer self-service is right behind robotic process automation in terms of growth. Here are some best practices to implement the technology in your organization. Continue Reading
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News
13 Feb 2020
Google's Meena AI chatbot to eventually find its way into CX
Experts say Google's Meena chatbot is a leap forward in conversational AI. But using it for websites and customer service will require all-new deployments and training methods. Continue Reading
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News
07 Feb 2020
Salesforce Trailhead Playground launches starter app to help users
The new starter app features tips for new Trailhead Playground users, along with an easier way to install packages from AppExchange and receive login credentials. Continue Reading
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Answer
03 Feb 2020
What are some benefits of SSO in contact centers?
Contact center agents often need to remember a number of passwords to log in to multiple applications. Single sign-on can alleviate that pain point and increase productivity. Continue Reading
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Feature
27 Jan 2020
4 contact center trends that drive customer experience
Modern contact centers are making a variety of improvements, such as incorporating AI and chatbots. Learn about four contact center trends that are poised to improve CX. Continue Reading
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Feature
22 Jan 2020
5 common call center terms to know
Businesses interact with customers in a variety of ways, including via phone calls and chatbots. Here are some call center terms that define these interactions. Continue Reading
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Tip
20 Jan 2020
5 ways a chatbot for the contact center can help workflow
AI and chatbot technology are constantly changing and gaining capabilities. Companies need to determine how to best use chatbots for their contact centers. Continue Reading
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Tip
08 Jan 2020
Video conferencing adoption a growing trend among businesses
B2B and B2C video conferencing is on the rise as businesses strive to provide exceptional CX to customers. Nemertes shares some of its research results. Continue Reading
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Tip
19 Dec 2019
Strategize a smooth contact center migration
Companies are migrating from on-premises contact center software to the cloud. But before making the move, organizations must approve it from a strategic and practical perspective. Continue Reading
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Tip
12 Dec 2019
4 steps to successful contact center technology implementation
Before starting implementation of any new technology in a contact center, it is important to have a strategy to ensure both employee and customer satisfaction. Continue Reading
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Answer
03 Dec 2019
What chatbot evaluation metrics do you use to measure performance?
Chatbots are an important contact center component -- as is measuring their performance. Learn how to measure chatbot performance in your organization. Continue Reading
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Answer
27 Nov 2019
How can you best use contact center AI?
While AI is still an evolving technology, agent assist benefits contact center employees by improving agent efficiency improve the overall customer experience. Continue Reading
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Tip
18 Nov 2019
Contact center agent experience needs massive overhaul
Research shows several areas in which contact centers are failing their agents and what changes organizations are making to improve the experience and reduce turnover. Continue Reading
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News
10 Oct 2019
Calabrio rolls out contact center self-scheduling technology
The new technology aims to enable flexibility in scheduling for contact center agents and to reduce managers' workloads in monitoring and requests handling. Continue Reading
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News
08 Oct 2019
New website helps identify use cases for Salesforce AI
Einstein's Guide to AI Use Cases is designed to help people identify use cases and Salesforce products for AI in different industries by determining which KPI is most important. Continue Reading
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News
16 Sep 2019
Nectar launches Customer Experience Assurance platform
The new product includes features like auto-discovery and real-time alerting intended to enable contact center teams to test and discover network issues in a timely manner. Continue Reading
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Feature
12 Sep 2019
Upselling customers adds ROI gold to contact center channels
AI, analytics and customer service technologies can predict behavior and secure brand loyalty, but generating impulse buys adds a new ROI wrinkle to the evolving contact center. Continue Reading
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Tip
04 Sep 2019
The difference between autodialers and predictive dialers
Some people don't know that a predictive dialer is a type of autodialer. There are, in fact, five broad categories of autodialers contact centers need to know about. Continue Reading
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Tip
28 Aug 2019
8 live chat best practices for organizations to consider
Organizations find that live chat can be a means to improve customer experience -- when implemented correctly. Here are some best practices to put into action. Continue Reading
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Feature
27 Aug 2019
SAP CX tools evolve in the face of data privacy, AI
'Experience data' from Qualtrics will help SAP boost its customer experience offerings. The company is also considering how AI can help and where privacy concerns fit into the CX landscape. Continue Reading
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News
19 Aug 2019
LivePerson Inc. adds new capabilities to Maven AI
Maven AI's updates are aimed at enabling new conversational commerce use cases. The new capabilities include Maven Assist, Maven AI-Powered Routing and Maven Developer APIs. Continue Reading
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Tip
19 Aug 2019
10 things to know about Google Cloud Contact Center AI
Google has partnered with more than 90 different companies to roll out its contact center AI. This article lists 10 important things you need to know about the program. Continue Reading
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News
12 Aug 2019
Conversica AI platform receives upgrades for productivity
Conversica's AI platform, Conversica AVA.ai, received upgrades that are intended to personalize communication with customers and improve productivity. Continue Reading
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News
09 Aug 2019
Planned $1.35B Salesforce ClickSoftware buy beefs up field service
Salesforce's ClickSoftware acquisition is aimed at improving Salesforce's field service management offering against SAP and Oracle. Continue Reading
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News
06 Aug 2019
Twilio Conversations, SendGrid Ads broaden cloud CX platform
Twilio extends its customer communications platform to support MMS, SMS and WhatsApp chat, as well as to support ad campaigns for Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Continue Reading
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News
06 Aug 2019
CX product changes on tap at Salesforce, LogMeIn, Adobe
CX products to watch for the rest of 2019: Adobe's planned CDP offering, Salesforce features from the Tableau acquisition and LogMeIn's AI-powered agent-assist tools. Continue Reading
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Guide
25 Jul 2019
Customer service technologies revolutionize CX engagements
This Essential Guide examines the strategic and multidimensional role customer service and its technologies now play in personalized customer experiences over multiple channels. Continue Reading
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Tip
17 Jul 2019
Customer service vs. customer experience: What's the difference?
Customer service is an age-old concept, but where does it fit into the customer experience? Here's how the two are different and where they intersect. Continue Reading
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Feature
16 Jul 2019
Customers stay connected with Talkdesk 100% uptime SLA
Talkdesk customer Cognosante sees 50% cost savings after switching to the vendor's contact center software and, so far, has seen no interruptions in service. Continue Reading
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Tip
16 Jul 2019
3 call routing methods to consider in your contact center
Contact center call routing methods include next-available agent, skill-based and predictive; however, each strategy has pros and cons. Learn what is best for your business. Continue Reading
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News
15 Jul 2019
TechSee Smart uses AI vision to aid contact center support
TechSee Smart aids live agents in contact centers by using AI and deep learning to analyze customer product images, identify issues and guide customers through the resolution process. Continue Reading
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Feature
03 Jul 2019
Contact center AI: Agents may be training their replacements
The goal for software developers training sophisticated agent-assist AI tools for contact center software platforms could be 'superbots' far smarter than today's chatbots. Continue Reading
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Feature
01 Jul 2019
Autonomous, self-service technology can't replace human touch
Self-service and autonomous technology can be found in any number of businesses, including hospitals, restaurants and retail -- but they are not a substitute for human interaction. Continue Reading
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News
27 Jun 2019
Verizon CX boss: Bots slash costs, but humans build brand loyalty
CX automation can build speed and process efficiency. But, a Verizon consumer survey reveals, brands that continue staffing call centers with humans build better relationships. Continue Reading
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News
27 Jun 2019
8x8 Contact Center launches as a stand-alone CCaaS offering
8x8 Contact Center is a stand-alone, cloud-based contact-center-as-a-service offering, aimed at organizations that feel restricted by legacy contact center infrastructure. Continue Reading
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News
25 Jun 2019
New upgrades added to Ujet customer service platform
Ujet has added a handful of new features, such as workforce management, quality management and CRM to its Customer Support Platform. Continue Reading
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Feature
24 Jun 2019
The evolution of call centers to experience centers
The call center has evolved over the years, moving from phone-based systems to multichannel contact centers. The next move is toward a customer experience center. Continue Reading
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Tip
21 Jun 2019
Best practices for creating chatbot scripts
The rules of good chatbot scripting are similar to those of application coding. Here are some best practices to creating a chatbot that users will approve. Continue Reading
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News
20 Jun 2019
Ada looks to improve chatbot handoff with AI-powered Ada Glass
To improve chatbot customer experience, Ada introduced Glass to its platform. Ada Glass connects customers with live agents directly within Ada's interface, according to the vendor. Continue Reading
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News
20 Jun 2019
Assist acquisition advances Conversocial chatbot service
Conversocial had rudimentary chatbots before acquiring Assist earlier this year, but now can deploy chatbots to take on more sophisticated customer engagements. Continue Reading
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News
19 Jun 2019
Helpshift launches omnichannel communication platform
Connected Customer Conversations is an omnichannel communication platform where a customer's information follows them from channel to channel for customer support. Continue Reading
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News
17 Jun 2019
CoreMedia launches omnichannel content creation platform
CoreMedia Content Cloud-Marketing Connector enables omnichannel content creation. It also gives customers access to CoreMedia Content Cloud content management capabilities. Continue Reading
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News
13 Jun 2019
Zendesk Duet ties sales, service platforms together
Zendesk courts enterprise customers with a chatbot SDK that extends self-service tech into internationally popular chat apps, while Duet bundles Zendesk Support and Sell platforms. Continue Reading
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News
07 Jun 2019
Companies entrust CX to customer service chatbots, but only so far
Depending on the vertical, chatbots can relieve human agents of simple, repetitive customer-support tasks. But brands await smarter tech to fully trust them with CX. Continue Reading
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News
03 Jun 2019
Pega Customer Service adds digital messaging capabilities
Pegasystems users can now offer their customers support through text messaging and will be able to develop apps more easily with a new low-code platform. Continue Reading
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Feature
29 May 2019
Contact center-as-a-service platforms here, but face hurdles
Cloud contact center platforms offer promise, migrating agents into a flexible environment. Contact centers, a long-established on-premises IT world, are slowly starting to adopt them. Continue Reading
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Podcast
21 May 2019
Replacing contact center platforms poses big dilemma
CX expert Scott Sachs discusses the various dilemmas posed by migrating legacy on-premises contact center platforms to the cloud. Continue Reading
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Feature
21 May 2019
Cattlemen group uses Google AI to build a chatbot
Wondering 'where's the beef?' Ask Chuck, a chatbot created by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association -- one of hundreds of bots being deployed thanks to AI tools. Continue Reading
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News
20 May 2019
Sparkcentral virtual agent framework blends AI, live agents
Bring Your Own Bot, Sparkcentral's virtual agent framework for chatbots, blends live agent and virtual agent assistance to augment the customer experience. Continue Reading
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Tip
20 May 2019
6 live chat benefits to consider in a CX strategy
Live chat enables customers to solve problems quickly and agents to multitask, but it also can be difficult to implement well and requires synchronous communication. Continue Reading
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News
14 May 2019
CX initiatives driving contact center technology trends
Making contact center agents more present across all channels is a new focus, as tech vendors rush to give customer service operations more tools to improve customer experiences. Continue Reading
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News
06 May 2019
ICMI co-founder on contact center technology trends
Contact center technology stacks now include pervasive AI and CX-oriented tools, enabling agents to do a better job more efficiently, said ICMI co-founder Brad Cleveland. Continue Reading
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News
03 May 2019
Google launches CallJoy small-business phone service
Google has launched CallJoy, a new cloud-based phone service that provides small businesses with automated phone agents for customer service for $39 per month. Continue Reading
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News
11 Apr 2019
Google Cloud for Retail debuts, Contact Center AI makes inroads
Google takes on cloud competitors by making an AI-rich home for online and bricks retailers with new suite. Also: Google Call Center AI extends to Genesys, Avaya, Salesforce, more. Continue Reading
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Answer
04 Apr 2019
How do you determine the right point for chatbot-human handoff?
Customer experience can be adversely affected when chatbots don't transfer the call to a live agent at the right time. Here are some guidelines and best practices for initiating that handoff. Continue Reading
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Tip
01 Apr 2019
Gaming company boosts call center employee engagement
Gaming company Electronic Arts boosts customer experience by using a design thinking strategy to improve the employee experience in call centers. Continue Reading
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Feature
08 Mar 2019
AAA discovers benefits of Salesforce Service Cloud software
Using Salesforce Live Agent and Salesforce Service Cloud, AAA Carolinas increased member engagement by 330% and reduced service response time by 54%. Continue Reading
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News
06 Mar 2019
SurveyMonkey acquisition of Usabilla adds website feedback
SurveyMonkey, by adding website and app feedback capabilities from Usabilla to its survey software platform, now has a more robust offering for enterprise customers. Continue Reading
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Feature
28 Feb 2019
Liferay digital experience platform helps company improve CX
Jack Maina, group chief operations officer of Britam, talks about how the financial services group rebuilt the way it interacts with customers and partners using Liferay. Continue Reading
