What does the future of cryptocurrency and NFTs look like in the financial space?

Digital assets—tokens or any kind of data stored on a blockchain, such as images, audio, videos, and other files—are everywhere. NYC’s mayor Eric Adams converted his paycheck to Bitcoin and Ethereum, Nike invested in NFT sneakers for the Metaverse, and El Salvador planned to be the first country to adopt crypto as a national currency.

Users are ready and eager to adapt. But is the CX space prepared?

What are we doing wrong?
The market has already seen challenges, particularly in the financial services space where customers are investing large amounts of wealth, time, and energy into cryptocurrencies. Customers choosing to explore new avenues and sources of wealth crave fast, personal, and secure services.

The problem is a lack of all three attributes in this digital-first space. Platforms that specialize in digital assets are looking toward the future, but they aren’t addressing today’s customer needs that come with exploring new frontier, or how to manage customer and employee stress, inexperience, and eagerness that comes with uncharted territories.

We will address three key areas of concerns for digital assets in the financial services space and how CX leaders today can take a proactive approach.

1. Little to no banking in customer education
Digital currency and investments have seen a rise in popularity from news breaking events such as the Dogecoin explosion in value or the artist Grimes selling millions worth of NFTs. But adoption is still new for investors.

According to Pew Research 86% of Americans said they have heard a little about crypto currencies, but only 16% said they personally have invested in, traded, or used one. For all the exposure digital assets have acquired there is still an overwhelming majority of users who are new to the playing field.

Educational resources must be easily accessible externally for customers and internally for customer service associates. If knowledge bases are inadequate or not readily available, brands risk alienating customers who may resort to risky storage options outside of platforms (think USB sticks) or visiting outside forums like Reddit and Twitter where there is an increased likelihood for scams or misleading information.

Educating customers about investments, trading, self-custody of assets, transformers, and the digital assets space in general is crucial to increasing brand loyalty, customer welfare, and future use.

CX solution:
Associates cannot help customers effectively if there are static systems and disperate sources of information. An innovative knowledgebase needs to capture all the data within your organization to be readily available to associates. A single source of truth, powered by content curation, can equip your customer service organization with highly relevant and up-to-date information. That’s why it is critical to empower associates by automating their knowledge systems.

An automated knowledge systems break down silos and eliminate hierarchical roadblocks to spread information more efficiently with a blend of innovative technology, socially infused processes, and collaborative practices. This empowers assocites by giving them easy access to the information they need to do their job well.

A successful knowledge base for digital asset platforms will let your associates hit the ground running with incredibly accurate information when customers need help.

2. Lack of channel support
Fintech’s often believe that digital-first means a lack of voice. This is not always the case. Customers prefer highly skilled human support for stressful situations that require empathy and urgency. Limiting your customer support to a single automated channel or static FAQs can be a red flag for users who need help immediately.

Customers want to be met where they want, when they want. Businesses need to understand that all channels are not built the same, and when a user’s account is hacked a two-hour wait for email versus a two-minute wait for text can mean all the difference.

CX solution:
Conversational messaging is key for successful omnichannel engagement with digital assets. The non-reversable and sometimes volatile nature of tokens like cryptocurrencies requires a seamless and consistent point of communication for customers.

Human associates that can be reached asynchronously via messaging can also help provide emotionally powerful support when it is needed most while a crisis is being escalated.

But note, while implementing messaging is a sign of good-will it needs to be done purposely and strategically. Technology thrown in for technology’s sake will simply harm a customer service interaction. Instead lead with customer experience strategy and design.

To quote TTEC’s Paul Ignasinski when he debunked messaging myths, “Don’t be so quick to offer a tool to your customers that is not in good hands. Customers use messaging apps because they are easy and familiar to use, so don’t risk your brand’s reputation with a rushed product solution that hasn’t been designed to meet specific customer needs.”

Ask yourself, regardless of the severity of issue, will customers dealing with impactful digital transactions want support now or later? A negative customer experience can severely damage your brand perception and increase customer attrition.

3. Cybersecurity risks
Cybersecurity is a tremendous concern in the digital asset space. The Chainalysis 2022 Crypto Crime Report, stated that cryptocurrency-related crime rose to $14 billion in 2021, up from $8.7 billion in 2020. Fraudulent activity and phishing accounts are constant threats that can harm your customers’ well-being and your brand reputation.

Customers that choose your financial platform to invest in digital assets place faith in your brand security. They expect safeguards in place to prevent the worst from happening and readiness if it does.

CX solution:
Proactively prevent fraud and keep data secured 24/7 by deploying the best of human and technology capabilities. A tacitful approach to fraud prevention involves authentication platforms, AI and machine learning, and trust device identification techniques all working in tandem with human decision-making.

These associates superpowered with resources to identify and act in real-time can help ensure customer safety and cultivate trust with these simple actions:

Prioritize: Automated tools flag risky transactions and interactions based on recency, cost, impact, etc.
Analyze: Complex processes assess critical data elements and uncover patterns that signal fraudulent or offensive behavior.
Investigate: Trained experts scrutinize anomalies and define required actions.
Resolve: Teams take necessary actions to resolve the issue, and machine learning allows automated systems to identify future occurrences.

Prevention will always be key in the security space, especially in a developing field like digital assets, but acting fast and precisely can help minimize customer damage and ensure future trust.

Make humanity + technology your biggest asset
In the financial services space, improving customer experiences has always relied on brand reputation. Users want to trust the brands they do business with and ensure they have a healthy future together.

Brands need to bolster their reputation in an increasingly digital future by acting on communication, accountability, and proactiveness to show customers they care and are ready to guide their growth.

Worried about retaining employees? Embrace a home-based approach

There’s no question: the increase in employer vaccine mandates – or “no jab, no job” policies – is a hot-button issue with strong opinions on both sides. But feelings about mandates aside, employees’ hesitancy to get vaccinated against COVID-19 presents a huge challenge for many brands, making an already-tough labor situation even more difficult.

Even without a vaccine mandate, employers face major hurdles when it comes to luring workers back to in-person work. Research from Prudential, Envoy and Jabra show:

1 in 3 workers don’t want to work for a company that requires them to be 100% in-office
66% of workers are worried about returning to the office
77% of workers want more flexibility in how and where they work

Now, on top of all this, a growing number of companies want employees not only to return to the office but to get vaccinated before they do. A growing number of brands are requiring workers to get vaccinated but many are hesitant – or flat-out refusing – to do it.

If it was hard for companies to get workers back in the office before, mandates are only making it tougher. At the same time, brands still must deliver the amazing experiences customers expect. After all, while so much has changed one thing hasn’t: the need for talented employees to deliver an excellent customer experience.

So, now what?

Look at-home for the long term

If the pandemic has taught anything, it’s that employees want flexible and supportive work environments. By and large, the work-from-home model is here to stay for many contact center associates.

But there’s no need for brands to lose the expertise of long-standing employees, or the seamless CX they deliver, just because those workers don’t want to get vaccinated or return to in-person work. A remote work option is a great solution that has quickly moved from a nice-to-have to a must-have for savvy brands. Companies that don’t embrace work-from-home opportunities risk losing talent to those that do.

That’s where TTEC’s Retain 2.0 solution can help. It lets companies transition associates who previously worked in contact centers to TTEC’s proven @home model.

What does this mean? Companies can retain top talent that may otherwise leave simply by migrating them to TTEC @home. And CX and EX will both improve along the way: customers continue to get the great experiences they expect, from knowledgeable associates who have experience serving them; and associates get the flexible work environment they crave.

The right CX partner is essential

For many companies, the move to work-from-home will mark a big organizational shift. That’s why partnering with experts is key. Why try to do it alone when a partner has the expertise to make the transition seamless for employees and customers alike?

With Retain 2.0, TTEC works with companies every step of the way through – and beyond – the employee transition process.

One of the biggest benefits of Retain 2.0 is that is works quickly. Employees are efficiently transitioned within weeks to TTEC @home and set up for success starting on Day 1. Onboarding ambassadors ensure workers are fully supported and have everything they need to jump directly into the work they do so well – delivering experiences that delight customers.

Another important aspect of Retain 2.0 is the data security it offers. Some companies may be hesitant to transition to a work-from-home environment; they might have concerns about the security VPNs offer, or worry that employees won’t be as careful to mitigate risk at home as they would be in the office. But Retain 2.0 has PCI-compliant processes and checks in place that help ensure security and compliance, while giving employees the flexibility they want.

TTEC @home combines the quality management and security of our brick-and-mortar operations with the flexibility and cost structure of a variable tool. Our partners benefit from the experience and best practices of an industry leader, while cutting costs and improving CX.

For more on how Retain 2.0 can benefit your business, check out our latest strategy guide, “Innovate, engage, retain CX Excellence: Solve the CX talent challenge with flexible remote-work environments.”

Struggling to become digital-first? It’s time to rethink first call resolution vs. first contact resolution

Digital-first: it’s top of mind for many brands that want to meet modern customers’ demands and keep up with (and surpass) competitors. Yet many companies still aren’t grasping what the concept truly means.

One of the biggest obstacles to becoming digital-first is that, at many companies, it necessitates a very different way of thinking. This is especially true when it comes to assessing the value of first call resolution vs. first contact resolution.

Stop relying on outdated metrics

Traditionally, the first call resolution rate has been an extremely important metric for companies, ranking up there with average hold time (AHT) when it comes to assessing associates’ success. If customers’ question or problem gets resolved during their first call to the brand, conventional wisdom says, that results in a good customer experience.

But times have changed and the nuances between first call resolution vs. first contact resolution have never been more important.

As consumers grow increasingly digital, they’re demanding omnichannel experiences from brands. Consider these stats from TTEC’s 2022 CX Trends Report:

90% of customers expect consistent interactions across channels.
Customer retention rates are 90% higher for omnichannel vs. single channel brands.
51% of customers want businesses to be available 24/7.

These days, most customers don’t want to call a company unless they have to. They want to interact with a brand how they want, when they want. They’re far more likely to initiate contact through online chat, SMS, an app, or another channel.

Why is this important? It means many customers calling a company are only doing so because they couldn’t get the answer or solution they needed through another channel first, so the matter has escalated. In short, their first call is not their first contact.

The key difference between first call resolution vs. first contact resolution is that the former focuses on a single channel, while the latter encompasses multiple channels. Companies that rely solely on first call resolution rates are focusing too much on a metric that’s becoming less and less meaningful.

Omnichannel is imperative

A first contact can happen in many ways: a website visit, a chatbot, digital IVR, apps, SMS, email, or phone – so it’s crucial for brands to offer a seamless omnichannel customer journey.

Customers should have an uninterrupted experience across all channels. If a customer identifies himself to a chatbot, for instance, but then needs to speak with an associate for further assistance, he shouldn’t have to re-verify his identity when he gets on the phone.

Many companies new to the digital-first philosophy mistakenly think it refers merely to online chat. But it’s so much more than that. A digital-first approach means acknowledging that a customer experience no longer revolves around a single phone call; an interaction may entail 15 or 20 (or more!) turns. Each turn represents opportunities for brands to cull data and use analytics to provide better experiences.

It’s no longer enough to resolve customers’ issues during the first call. Strong brands know how to resolve issues before customers need to call; and the really savvy ones proactively identify and solve customers’ issues before customers even know about them.

Too many companies rely on old, traditional standards and pride themselves on their customers being able to reach their associates. But the new standard – of being able to reach a brand 24/7, via their preferred channel, and get answers via digital options – is much more meaningful to modern customers.

There’s so much room for growth and improvement when it comes to digital-first customer journeys. The first step is rethinking first call resolution vs. first contact resolution.

Beyond frictionless: Re-humanizing your customer experience

Over the last two years, the COVID-19 crisis has motivated businesses all over the world to jump-start their digital transformations and find ways to better automate their customer experiences.

The result was a dramatically accelerated volume of e-commerce, online communications, and direct-to-consumer transactions, as companies everywhere engaged in a frantic effort to replace the human-to-human, face-to-face interactions that were suddenly no longer possible. And this rapid technological surge proved highly beneficial for most businesses, because the path to delivering an ever more frictionless customer experience involves, first and foremost, flawless automation – streamlining all the business processes so they can serve the needs of each customer, smoothly, routinely, and efficiently.

But as efficient as e-commerce and online interactions are, they cannot fully replace human-to-human, face-to-face exchanges. Any teacher could tell you this, because no matter how good the Zoom connection is, you still can’t engage very well with individual students. You can’t look a student in the eye, or read their body language, or gauge their enthusiasm. And the same limitations apply to a business seeking to better understand its human customers via online clicks and chatbot conversations.

Now that COVID-19 may finally be receding in importance, businesses need to think about how they can best “re-humanize” their customer experience. Yes, by all means we should continue automating and streamlining our routine and repeatable processes, and we shouldn’t let up on our efforts to eliminate any friction or obstacles in the customer’s path. But beyond friction, we should find ways to re-introduce human-to-human interactions, because many of the qualities our human employees bring to the business enable them to engage with customers in a uniquely human manner, and this kind of engagement cannot be automated.

Wisdom and judgment, creativity, empathy, sharing, community, purpose, common sense – all these uniquely human qualities represent vital assets for a business trying to maintain and improve its relationships with individual customers. The objective of re-humanizing our customer relationships should be to connect with each of them emotionally, one customer at a time.

Research has consistently shown that customer loyalty is not well correlated with customer satisfaction, although disloyalty does have a high correlation with dissatisfaction. This is why the first requirement in designing and delivering a high-quality customer experience is to make it entirely frictionless for the customer – an experience that will pose no obstacle and provide no reason for dissatisfaction.

Less well known, however, is that emotionally connected customers are even more valuable to a business than highly satisfied ones. According to one Harvard Business Review study, “On a lifetime value basis, emotionally connected customers are more than twice as valuable as highly satisfied customers.” And a study cited in Forbes found that “Companies that provide an emotional connection with customers outperform the sales growth of their competitors by 85%.”

So while removing friction in the customer experience is an indispensable first step, it is only the first step. Once your customer experience is relatively frictionless, connecting emotionally with your customer is the most effective way to improve the customer’s loyalty and patronage. In a post-COVID world, businesses need to provide their human workers with opportunities to make these kinds of connections – connections that would never be possible for a chatbot, an algorithm, or an AI-driven online interaction.

Naturally, this requires that your employees be engaged in their jobs and enthusiastic about interacting with customers. You want them to be motivated by a strong sense of purpose – and not just a purpose to improve sales or profits, but a purpose linked to some sort of overriding customer benefit. If your employees are truly engaged with such a sense of mission, then you won’t have to require them to connect more emotionally with the customers they serve; just let them.

3 ways retailers are adapting to higher customer expectations

Smiling woman looking at her phone while shopping — Smiling woman text messaging on smart phone. Happy female customer with curly hair is wearing casuals. She is shopping at supermarket.

From a massive ecommerce shift to curbside pickup and store floors converted into fulfillment centers, the retail experience has rapidly changed. In response to these changes, consumer expectations are higher than ever—not just for merchandise but for convenience, personalized customer service, and an excellent customer experience.

At NRF 2022: Retail’s Big Show, retailers and industry experts outlined the future of retail experiences and the challenges they face in meeting consumers’ raised expectations.

1. Evolve stores to complement digital journeys
Even before the pandemic, retailers knew that as digital and physical worlds collided, stores needed to adapt the in-store experience to stay relevant. As retail brands figure out how to adapt their physical spaces to fit in an omnichannel strategy, they should consider what purpose their stores serve, said Jeff Bradbury, senior marketing director at Hughes Network Systems.

“Every brand needs to decide how to [adapt their stores] in a way that’s unique to them,” Bradbury said. “Do you want a high-touch immersive experience or is it about efficiency and convenience, or something else?” The challenge, Bradbury added, is for retailers to not only create digital-enabled stores but to integrate them into buying journeys that work no matter which path a customer takes.

2. Fill labor gaps in non-traditional ways
An army of employees is needed to carry out the tasks that keep the retail experience humming. However, more than 90% of retailers are facing talent shortages. And at a time when there are more job openings than candidates, would-be employees are looking for more reasons to work in retail, noted Best Buy CEO Corie Barry at an on-stage interview.

“They ask, what is my career path? What are my benefits? What does my development look like,” Barry continued. This leads executives to ask, “How do I offer this suite of things to my employees that will help them stay sticky to me as a company?” While Barry did not provide a remedy, she indicated that employee experience and retention were a priority for retailers.

Retailers are also looking into upskilling and/or cross-training employees as another way to increase retention and fill roles. At a breakout session, Will Eadie, CRO of WorkJam explained how companies are doing exactly that.

“One of the things we’re seeing is this idea of employees hiding in our own companies,” Eadie said. “What if we could gigify inside our own stores and distribution centers to fill those gaps? Instead of searching for new employees, by providing more training and flexible scheduling, retailers are beginning to provide part-time employees with more hours and higher wages, for instance.”

3. Scale retail experiences with AI
In addition to finding more innovative ways to hire employees, the future of retail will be increasingly defined by artificial intelligence, according to retail and technology experts. In a keynote session, IBM Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna estimated that even if retailers and other companies hired more aggressively, there still won’t be enough people to fill the roles. Instead, he predicted that companies “will use more automation and AI to take care of repetitive tasks.” Increasingly, the question that companies ask will be, “how do we improve the experience for customers using AI if we can’t find enough people?”

Indeed, the “customer experience that retailers provide needs to be dynamic to adapt in real-time and provide information, products, and services on-demand,” noted Raghu Ravinutala, co-founder and CEO of Yellow.ai. “This kind of real-time personalization can only happen at scale by leveraging AI.”

As an example how retailers are using AI to improve the customer experience, Ravinutala pointed to Sephora. “Sephora launched conversational engagement using AI and beauty assistants collaborating to provide product recommendations [via in-app messaging and platforms like Whatsapp] and now this has become a core channel for customer engagement.”

Future-proofing retail
While retail continues to face numerous headwinds in the form of supply chain challenges, inflation, and labor shortages, the industry has made enormous progress in advancing the customer experience. Customers have more options than ever to purchase and receive products from brands seamlessly through multiple channels. And some trends, such as consumer expectations of inclusive, sustainable brands, are still gaining steam. But as much as things change, some things remain the same. Notably, the brands that succeed are the ones that stay customer-focused, no matter what challenges arise.

Contact center workforce 101: IVR vs. chatbots vs. agents

Customer service interactions can quickly evolve, requiring different channels and tools. A quick live chat with a bot, for instance, can rapidly escalate to an emergency call with an agent, which we refer to as an associate, and vice versa. The same is true for a call that begins with an interactive voice response (IVR) system. Leading contact centers understand that each person and tool has its strengths and weaknesses, and create a better customer experience when combined appropriately.

To better understand this, let’s dive into the human and robotic makeup of a modern contact center.

What is an IVR?

An IVR is an automated phone system technology that allows incoming callers to access information via a selected prompt of prerecorded messages without having to speak to an associate.

This tool is mainly used with touch tone keypad selections or speech recognition to get a call routed to a specific department or specialist. An IVR can also collect information from the caller, saving the associate time during the conversation.

The best fit

During times of high call volumes, for example holiday rushes, an effective IVR system can help avoid hold times by helping customers find answers and perform simple tasks. And in cases where a customer needs or requests to speak to a person, the IVR can route the call quickly and seamlessly to an expert associate.

A well designed IVR can increase customer satisfaction and improve contact center operations and KPIs greatly by decreasing user effort with digital interfaces.

What is a chatbot?

A chatbot is an automated software that simulates a live chat conversation with a user in natural language through messaging applications, websites, mobile apps, or through the phone. It allows customers to quickly receive answers to simple or common questions. Chatbots are primarily text-based and scripted to answer only specific questions.

The best fit

Chatbots resolve simple tasks quickly and save associates time by eliminating manual tasks that can be easily solved by automation (and are low stress for customers). Users don’t always want to speak to a human and being directed to self-service right from the start can reduce unnecessary friction.

Deflecting low tier operations, 24/7, can improve average handle time and customer satisfaction ratings by giving associates more time to tackle complex questions while the easy issues are handled swiftly by automation.

What is a contact center associate?

Contact center associates are the people that make customer service human. Contact center associates or agents manage phone, email, live chat, and support tickets for a variety of industries. These interactions vary from simple transactions to complex support inquiries.

Contact center associates operate in various industries across the globe, whether it be onshore, offshore or nearshore. And the flexibility of at-home work has enabled new members of the workforce to enter the customer service space.

The best fit

A well-trained associate or agent is suited for both simple and complex interactions, but the human touch is always needed for the latter. By the time a customer has reached an associate they may have already bypassed an IVR or chatbot, particularly if the situation is severe, and will want an answer as soon as possible.

In these emotionally charged situations, associates rely on powerful management tools and real-time insights from voice and text analytics to identify trending issues and customer sentiment. All the while the tools mentioned above handle simple, time-consuming tasks, that would eat away at an associate’s ability to focus on understanding and resolving the issue.

Humanity and technology, the best of both worlds

Effective contact centers equip associates with the right technology and tools to handle difficult situations. The key here is to ensure that each tool is connected to a complementary channel creating a symbiotic relationship. Nothing is more frustrating for a customer, for example, than feeling trapped by an IVR or chatbot and unable to speak with a live customer care associate.

Building an empathy-driven customer service organization means knowing that intelligent automation tools can empower the human touch for low- and high tier interactions.

Learn more

Top customer service AI and automation trends for 2022: Discover the trends and innovations for customers and employees with intelligent automation.

5 ways to increase customer satisfaction using IVR: In this tips & takeaways guide, learn 5 ways contact centers can deploy meaningful IVR systems that go from zero to hero.

CX experts share chatbot mistakes (and remedies): Learn key takeaways for AI in this blog covering The CX Tipping Point event.

Outsourcing: Which shore is right for you: Explore this ebook to learn the benefits of recruiting talent across the globe.

4 work-from-home resiliency strategies for the contact center: These takeaways focus on the strategies needed to weather uncertainty and maintain a healthy work environment.

2021 hindsight: What the market got wrong about CX this year

It’s that time of year—to take stock and reflect on the last 12 months and look ahead trying to predict what 2022 will bring.

But if the past couple of years have taught anything, it’s that predictions can be tricky. A year ago, still in the throes of the pandemic, many turned hopeful eyes to 2021 expecting the world—and the customer experience landscape—to largely return to “normal.” With 2022 on the horizon, though, that hasn’t been the case.

Predictions that didn’t materialize
Here are few predictions for 2021 that, in hindsight, missed the mark:

2021 prediction: The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on businesses will end.
What really happened: Despite the vaccine rollout, the pandemic continues to affect people’s—and businesses’—daily lives as we head into 2022. Vaccine hesitancy and the formation of new variants like Delta have kept COVID at the forefront of many conversations and business decisions.

Now, compounding the uncertainty, many companies are grappling with a complex set of logistics around vaccine mandates. Public sector employees and contractors, health care workers, and private-sector workers at companies with more than 100 employees face mandates under which they must get vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing.

This brings an entirely new set of challenges to businesses: Helping employees schedule vaccine appointments, verify whether workers are vaccinated, and comply with testing requirements. It’s also forcing companies to rethink their employee experience models, leading with empathy when it comes to this emotionally charged topic.

2021 prediction: Employees will be eager to return to the workplace.
What really happened: With the devastating financial toll the pandemic took on so many families, including job losses, many expected workers to eagerly return to the workforce—and the office—once it became safe to do so.

Instead, there’s been a Great Resignation. Workers continue to quit jobs in record numbers, in search of opportunities that offer better pay and more flexibility. The pandemic spurred a lot of people to consider whether they were truly happy in their jobs; and for many the answer was a resounding “no.”

Additionally, the pandemic has made it clear that work-from-home options will be here to stay.

Employees enjoy the flexibility and productivity working from home offers, and employers can tap into a larger talent pool when they’re no longer constrained geographically. But this shift means companies now must redefine their employment engagement strategies and invest in tools that make it easy for remote teams to collaborate.

A big question looms for 2022 and beyond: How will employers create a feeling of unity and loyalty among workforces that are no longer coming together to work in the same physical spaces?

2021 prediction: The economy will bounce back post-pandemic, just as quickly as it declined.
What really happened: The V-shaped economic recovery that many forecasted has not come to fruition. Instead, labor shortages, supply chain problems, and rising wages are hindering growth and creating new challenges in many areas.

Businesses find themselves having to manage an increase in contact center volume – when an item is out of stock, for instance, due to supply chain delays – with a smaller workforce, which can lead to frustrating experiences for employees and customers alike. And when new workers are hired, businesses need to ensure they have an easy, agile, and quick onboarding process.

In the new normal, companies must try to prioritize EX and CX while navigating unforeseen market conditions.

Where there’s more work to do
Not all predictions made for 2021 were bad. Some simply have left more work to be done as 2022 begins. Here are a few predictions that weren’t wrong, but weren’t fully realized either:

2021 prediction: Customers will increasingly want digital interactions.
Room for improvement: Consumers’ embrace of digital channels is nothing new, but demand for digital options soared during the pandemic as more customers sought the ease and safety of online, mobile, and chat-based interactions over visiting brick-and-mortar businesses.

Mid-year, 22% of global purchase influencers named accelerating their shift to digital as their top priority, up from 18% pre-pandemic, according to the CallMiner report, “Conversational Intelligence to Shape Your Brand Experience.” But have companies been investing enough in digital, and in the right offerings?

In the same report, more than half of respondents (57%) said their top technology initiative over the next 12 months would be investing in digital experience technologies, which suggests many brands haven’t yet mastered delivering seamless digital CX.

2021 prediction: Artificial intelligence will play a bigger role in CX.
Room for improvement: Embracing automation with a human touch was poised to be a widespread trend in 2021, and some brands have made great strides, but many companies still haven’t harnessed the full potential of this powerful tool.

AI solutions make associates’ jobs easier, which results in better experiences for associates and customers alike. TTEC’s RealPlay bot, for instance, combines AI and machine learning technology to simulate real-world customer scenarios. Employees learn by completing the job and getting real-time feedback and coaching. Tools like RealPlay, which is completely digital, on-demand and asynchronous, will play a major role in the future of CX.

Innovate, adapt, and act in 2022
After the last couple of years, it can feel difficult to predict what 2022 will bring. But some things are clear: Consumer expectations keep growing, and they’re becoming increasingly digital – and the brands that truly stand out will be those that strike the right balance of technology and people to deliver seamless, omnichannel experiences across all points of the customer journey.

A focus on CX and EX helped Citizens Bank thrive amid pandemic

Businesses across all sectors were sent scrambling as the world largely shut down in the pandemic’s early days, but banks – where brick-and-mortar locations historically were the cornerstone of day-to-day business – faced some of the biggest changes and challenges.

As global economic uncertainty began to spread with COVID-19, customers flooded banks with questions about their finances. At the same time, a workforce that was unaccustomed to remote work had to quickly learn how to navigate this new environment and manage volume surges while working from home.

At Citizens Bank the changes spurred by the pandemic, while jarring at first, have led to long-term shifts that company leaders say will benefit customer experience, employee experience and the bottom line for years to come. The evolution is a work in progress, said Citizens Bank Senior Vice President of Business Solutions Jonathan Bicker.

Bicker recently appeared with Chris Condon, TTEC’s senior vice president of business development, at The Conference Board’s Ultimate CX Conference. They spoke about TTEC’s partnership with Citizens and how the right mix of people and technology helped one of the country’s oldest banks deliver amazing customer and employee experiences even through and unprecedented time.

The right technology is key

It’s one thing to know your workforce needs to quickly shift to a work-from-home model; it’s another to have the technology to do it.

When banks were forced to shutter their brick-and-mortar branch locations during the pandemic’s early days, Citizens had to ensure its employees could work very differently than they ever had before. And the change needed to happen; the company was inundated with phone calls and associates couldn’t keep up, Bicker recalled.

“What we needed was more of a multipronged approach,” he said, including additional channels customers could use to engage with the company.

With decades of experience helping financial services clients, TTEC was able to help the company stand up a program in less than a month that diverted many IVR inquiries to SMS, allowing associates to help more customers more quickly. Customers appreciated having the additional option of using SMS, Bicker said, which improved experiences.

With TTEC’s guidance the company also began harnessing the power of artificial intelligence. Based on early successes, Citizens aims to increase its use of AI-enabled chat bots and conversational bots to makes associates’ jobs easier and customer interactions more seamless.

“We are in the infancy of our AI journey,” Bicker said. “It’s still an evolving journey for us.”

With these systemic technological improvements, Bicker said Citizens is now better prepared to function in the new normal. The bank can meet customers where they are, via their preferred channel, resulting in better experiences – and ultimately, a healthier bottom line.

TTEC’s expertise and guidance when it came to identifying gaps and providing scalable solutions enabled the company to adapt quickly, Bicker said.

“Being with the right partner and having the right technology configuration made going into this very easy,” he said.

Intelligent automation can provide many benefits to companies, Condon said, since automating menial tasks free associates up to focus on more complex interactions. But embracing automation doesn’t mean a brand should automate every interaction. Rather, companies should focus on making the customer journey the best it can be, and automate where it makes sense along the way, he said.

Employee experience matters, too

Having the right technology is critical to adapting quickly in a new business landscape, but the employee experience is equally as important.

As soon as COVID-19 struck, Citizens started examining what employees needed to do their jobs well. A big part of that was technology; associates suddenly needed laptops and headsets to enable them to work from home.

But beyond technology, a broader shift in employee experience was jumpstarted. Given the current labor market, bank officials realize that associates want the option of working from home, at least part of the time. Enabling hybrid or work-from-home employment is key to attracting and retaining good talent these days, Bicker said.

“I don’t ever want to lose the rhythm and ritual of being able to have the workforce work from anywhere,” he said. “Today we have a workforce that is primarily work-from-home, but they are equipped to work from either home or office. It’s really been quite the transformation.”

As associates’ work environments and expectations continue to evolve, communication is paramount, he added. At Citizens, associates were used to synchronous chat channels pre-covid, and moving to asynchronous channels was a big change. To help ensure employees were successful and felt supported, supervisors met with associates twice a day to check in and help when needed.

Amid so much change, Citizens also prioritizes retaining the culture of Citizens as much as possible. Supervisors continually check in with their teams via virtual meetings and, after about six months of adjustments, workers soon settled into their new norm, Bicker said.

“Communication is key,” he said, adding supervisors often discuss with their team members “how they can live the brand, and how their contact with a customer can positively impact that customer.”

In today’s labor market, when many people are re-evaluating whether they’re truly happy in their jobs, removing friction from employees’ jobs whenever possible is crucial to finding and keeping top talent, Condon said. Banks, like many brands, face a big challenge: navigating a difficult labor market while, at the same time, customer expectations are growing faster than ever. Companies must evolve to thrive.

“The industry has changed forever,” Condon said.

Watch an on-demand video of Condon and Bicker’s conversation here.

2022 wage strategies: How contact centers can face the Great Resignation

In the face of the Great Resignation, industries across every sector are faced with a harsh reality: give your employees a healthy and productive work environment or they will leave you. And the contact center industry is not exempt.

With several outsourcing contact centers in 2021 reporting training class rates as low as 20% and above average stress levels, it’s no longer a question of how does the industry recruit quality employees, but how does it retain them?

Meeting employee needs and equipping them with the right tools with be critical in 2022. In order to foster and retain talent, here are 4 strategies that can used to create a healthier and more cost-effective contact center environment.

1. Put employee needs on top

The nature of work has changed, but human needs haven’t: technology alone isn’t going to retain your employees, a better and livable wage will.

Your associates are the front line of your business. They are your brand ambassadors who interact with your customers every day. They can make or break customer loyalty and influence revenues, costs, and overall corporate financial health.

If you treat employees as valuable assets with higher pay and a more supportive work environment, you will attract better quality associates, they will stay longer, and they will provide better service. In the long run they will cost you less than if you pay lower wages because they will stay longer and improve their skills over time.

The average wage for a U.S. contact center representative is $14.64 per hour, according to Indeed. In our experience, we have found that even slight increases above market averages will attract better candidates who will be more likely to stay, both in the U.S. and elsewhere. Associate tenure increases, which leads to a range of other performance and customer KPIs.

We see that investing up front in talent is the most efficient way to simultaneously improve your customer experience and your bottom line. Attrition is a profitability killer. If you can stem attrition, you can fund the pay increases easily.

2. Balance automation with humanity

In the years before the pandemic, analysts knew that the adoption of AI, machine learning, and automated interactions were rapidly on the rise, but little did we know how essential these innovations would be in the new-normal. In the summer of 2020, a Harris Poll indicated that 92 percent of business leaders agree that survival post-pandemic includes enabling digital channels and automation in the workplace.

We have reached the tipping point from automation as hype to business-as-usual. The need for rapid information on vaccinations, employment, and government mandates has skyrocketed the need for self-service and deflection to help manage volume surge.

Automation and customer self-service tools can ease the human burden for supporting repeatable, simple, transactional interactions. This will be incredibly important in the upcoming months as vaccine registration cites face overwhelming demands and overcrowding. Give your associates the tools they need for interactions that are complicated, highly valuable, and emotionally driven. The goal is to create “do no harm” automation policies and processes that free up human resources to focus on higher-value interactions. It can’t just be a cost savings decision.

3. Unlock insights with analytics

When margins are tight, the ability to gather insights about associates early on about their future potential is a critical asset. Double this by the fact that our now remote work environment has increased the talent pool to a global level.

From talent acquisition through the employee lifecycle, data-driven insights can fuel employee performance, satisfaction, and retention throughout the associate hiring, training, and development lifecycle. And having happy, knowledgeable, invested employees more easily translates into increased customer satisfaction. Both historical and predictive insight can enhance a company’s ability to create productive, engaged workers.

For example, in the recruitment phase, talent acquisition leaders can determine the most predictive pre-hire characteristics of future employees, based on common attributes of their most successful associates, such as education and high levels of empathy. In the training and development phases, employee or trainer performance metrics can be analyzed to find positive and negative outliers in performance during training and in live environments. The curriculum can be modified based on performance and on how effective the methods are in both training and the live environment.

And retention analysis can help companies focus on the rewards or recognition associates enjoy most (bonuses, days off, longer breaks, control over schedule); who is likely to attrite and when; and where there are training gaps that hinder upward employee mobility.

4. Eliminate waste from operations

Zeroing in on inefficiencies that slow down operations and cause friction in the customer experience can help companies identify areas that constrain to their long-term growth, scalability, and ultimately profitability. The good news for companies interested in improving their operations is that even small, incremental changes can make a big difference.

Call deflection strategies help eliminate “bad volume” by reducing redundant calls or pre-empting calls with proactive outreach before a customer needs to pick up the phone. Frequent caller activity analysis can identify common issues in products, services, or customer experiences that may be fixed to prevent future calls. Simple changes to associate scripts, website text, or app tools may reduce handle time and increase resolution rates. And operational assessments can look at the entirety of the customer interaction to see what can be streamlined.

Taking it a step further, customer journey orchestration programs design, implement, and manage all the steps a customer has with your company, in various channels. Deciding which of these touchpoints can be automated, which can be streamlined, and which can be eliminated will also reduce waste in effort and money.

In 2022 great EX is a priority

Prior to the pandemic, most contact centers operated in the same factory approach they did 30 years ago, even as businesses all around them evolve to be more employee-centric.

In the face of the Great Resignation, the efficiency gained from automation, process improvements, and talent acquisition/retention must be re-invested to retain talent. There will always be a need for humanity in the customer experience space, and it begins with fostering humanity in the workplace.

6 ways to renew (and stick to!) your CX vows

In 2020, brands discovered how empathy can drive profitability and win lifetime loyalty, even during trying times. Fast forward to 2022—successful brands who continue to grow, innovate, and advance in the digital space need to answer the question: Are we sticking to the human side of the experience? Are we keeping our CX vows to customers and employees?

Your brand is your promise to your customers, it’s a pledge to deliver exceptional customer experience. And maintaining this vow demands action and self-awareness.

Invest and act on great customer experience
Understanding the importance of building an organizational CX competency is a crucial first step, but without an executable strategy, organizations will continue to lag industry leaders. Renewing your CX vows begins with the basics. Here’s a refresher of 6 transformation roadmap steps to help deliver exceptional customer experiences and set your brand apart in the marketplace.

Step #1: Understand your current CX state
Your brand needs to maintain and develop a deep understanding of your customers—their basic needs and unique expectations. Data is at the core of any customer experience strategy. Start with research and journey mapping to create a visual representation of the path your customers take when they engage with your brand.

You can also use data collection to build a more nuanced understanding for the “why” behind your customer journey maps. Qualitative research methods—such as customer interviews, focus groups, and even ride-a-longs—can help collect insights directly from the customer. Meanwhile quantitative research methods—including surveys, website analytics and CRM data—can provide broader stroke insights that inform a deeper understanding of customer preferences and receive feedback on your current CX. Remember this step is about establishing a foundation on which you can build phased improvement. It will drive the action steps that come next.

4 questions to ask during this step:

What paths do customers take when they interact with your brand before, during, and after purchase?
What pain points do they encounter during their journey?
What are the moments that really matter in their journey?
What customer experience strategies and channels do we currently have in place? How are they performing?

Step #2: Define your CX north star
Let’s start by understanding what a North Star is. When it comes to creating an exceptional customer experience, your North Star is the focal point or the central CX concept that should be supported by every strategic decision you make. It should embody your brand values and provide a shining example of what exceptional customer experiences should look like in your organization.

Internally, the North Star should serve as the core goal and motivational vision you aim to deliver—from the contact center to your website and in-store or app experience. Externally, your North Star comes to life as your CX promise (vow) and poises your customers to recognize your brand.