Get the conversation right: Chatbot vs. messaging

Customers want to reach brands on their own terms, whenever, wherever. Chatbot and messaging capabilities are the essential tools needed to provide this 24/7, personalized customer service. But these two platforms aren’t interchangeable.

Chatbots and messaging each serve a vital role in the overall customer journey, and contact centers need to know when is the right moment to deploy an automated or human response. Let’s explore their differences to find the right fit for customer needs.

What’s a chatbot?

A chatbot is automated software that simulates a chat conversation with a user in natural language through messaging applications, websites, mobile apps, or through the telephone. Chatbots are primarily text-based and scripted to answer specific questions.

In most cases it’s an artificially intelligent virtual agent that greets users in the corner of the screen with the option to continue the conversation with the AI or transfer to an agent. Chatbots perform an important role in the omnichannel ecosystem, but chatbot platforms often keep the customer glued to one channel. They are typically a web-based option that occurs in a pop-up screen where both parties must be logged in to continue the conversation.

Chatbot CX wins

Chatbots resolve simple tasks faster and eliminate the manual associate responsibility to resolve issues by directing customers to self-service right from the start. Self-service is powered by intelligent automation capabilities that deliver seamless support, with skills-based routing to contact center associates only when needed.

For your contact center operations, this can be beneficial by deflecting lower value Tier 0 and Tier 1 interactions, while also delivering 24/7 customer support at scale. At the same time, the faster resolution times chatbots can accomplish for simple tasks, such as resetting a password, can help improve overall contact center KPIs such as average handle time and customer satisfaction ratings.

What is messaging?

Messaging is a text-based, two-way conversation between a customer and a live associate that usually occurs on a mobile device or platform like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS text messaging, or within an app. Messaging is asynchronous, meaning users don’t need to stay in a session to send or receive messages.

Messaging takes the idea of web chat, simplifies it, and moves it to where consumers already spend their time – on their smart devices.

Messaging CX wins

Messaging is an excellent channel for real time consumer conversations on smart devices, which work best when it’s quick, authentic, and personal. When an issue is stressful, such as a lost order, consumers want to contact a live person who can provide empathy, navigate complexities better than a bot, and resolve their problem.

Asynchronous communication across platforms like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and SMS text messaging allow for flexible and effective conversations for customers on various devices, whether on the go or at-home. Messaging provides features and services throughout the customer life cycle from the acquisition phase of discovering and exploring to the retention and support phase.

Find the right mix of technology and humanity

Technology should never be introduced for technology’s sake, and neither should a human be introduced to a problem that can be solved in mere seconds with a bot. Effective contact centers understand the right moments to introduce chatbot or messaging capabilities into a conversation to meet customer expectations every time.

Learn more about messaging and chatbots today

The ultimate business case for messaging: Read this white paper to learn why messaging is an essential channel and next steps on how to add and optimize it in your company’s contact centers.

Guide to effortless omnichannel experiences: This guide walks through 4 key strategies to hit the right notes for effortless omnichannel CX throughout the customer journey.

Customer Assist bot to the rescue: Learn how basic inquiries handled by associates were reduced through deployment of AI-powered Customer Assist, freeing up time to focus on more complex interactions.

A humanized approach to automation yields positive results: Discover essential robotic automation applications your organization needs to deploy to create effortless employee and customer experiences.

6 proven ways to win with messaging: Discover and explore why your customers want to message you, the best ways to implement the evolving channel, and 6 key steps to achieve CSAT success.

3 ways to turn first-time electric vehicle owners into loyal customers

Instead of gasoline-guzzling vehicles, more consumers are driving electric vehicles (EVs) off the dealership lot than ever before. EV sales are growing at a rapid clip as consumer interest in sustainable products and air quality increase and automotive manufacturers deliver a wider range of EVs at different price points. In addition to zero tailpipe emissions, EVs offer more efficiency than traditional vehicles, lower energy costs, and require less maintenance.

Driving an EV is one thing—but the purchase and ownership experiences are another. Many consumers need help navigating the different electric makes, models, and vehicle types, not to mention learning how to charge the vehicle. The current customer journey is complex with many different parties involved and has multiple handoffs, points of friction, and potential points of failure.

This is a prime opportunity for car manufacturers and other automotive players to improve the EV customer journey and build strong customer relationships. The companies that are proactive in delivering an excellent customer experience during and after the purchase process will have the advantage as EV adoption grows. Here are 3 ways to help potential owners get comfortable with EVs as a viable long-term option.

EVs are hitting the road
Annual global EV sales reached 3 million in 2020—a more than 40% year-over-year increase—with 46% of fiscal-year sales coming from Europe, 39% from China, and 12% from North America, according to the World Economic Forum. Favorable government policies and growing consumer concerns about climate change were the primary drivers. Complementary markets such as the charging market are also experiencing rapid growth. The UK’s EV charging market is expected to grow by 29% year-over-year through 2030 according to Delta-EE, an energy market research consultancy.

While consumers are quickly warming up to the idea of driving an EV, there’s a learning curve to setting up the right environment for owning and maintaining one. Common steps include getting a home charging station installed, locating local charging stations, and troubleshooting potential issues, such as a defective battery.

Drivers will expect customer support specialists to provide the advice they need to solve their problem quickly and concisely. Not having the tools or processes to provide the right support is frustrating and could undermine the auto brand and profitability. This is where auto companies have an opportunity to be the hero in delivering a seamless omnichannel, end-to-end experience across the full customer lifecycle.

1. Make the post-sales experience effortless
Most companies understand the importance of providing ample assistance during the pre-sales and sales stages. Where OEMs and others stumble is not delivering an equally effortless post-sales experience. This is a lost opportunity, especially when many EV car owners are requesting assistance.

We see more complex EV post-sales calls into the contact center among our clients compared to calls about traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. EV calls are largely about cost of ownership, batteries and charging (installation and maintenance of home charging points), and vehicle range queries.

What’s more, EV post-sales calls take 2.2 times longer on average than their ICE counterparts. For EV we are seeing charging/connected inquiries at 900 seconds versus 400 seconds for an ICE vehicle. This perhaps is not surprising, as most auto manufacturers will expect to receive calls not just about their car but about troubleshooting problems with charging infrastructure, for example. What is notable is that the percentage of EV calls containing negative sentiment is 50% lower than ICE calls. This means that EV drivers are not necessarily calling with a complaint; many are looking for a trusted advisor—a prime opportunity for OEMs and dealers to earn customer trust and goodwill.

Simplifying the post-purchase customer journey by reducing effort, such as by making it easy for customers to receive prompt support at their convenience, is key to providing an exceptional experience. Also, by building partnerships with energy and charging point providers, OEMs can provide customers with convenient access to a broad network of maintenance options while serving as the central contact for managing any issues they experience. Helping EV drivers solve problems and issues as easily as possible will be critical in building loyalty and advocacy among current and future drivers.

2. Ensure customer support teams have the right training and knowledge
Knowledgeable and empowered associates are integral to delivering superior customer support. In the relatively new EV market, drivers will be contacting customer service agents for assistance with a wide range of issues, from troubleshooting problems with charging infrastructure to determining the car’s range and more.

The relationship between human associates and technology has never been more critical. Customers will expect a seamless experience across the different channels that they utilize for support, including phone, chat, messaging, and sometimes the vehicles themselves. Data integration and an omnichannel strategy are key to ensuring that when customers interact with the auto company via multiple channels such as a messaging app, email, and phone, the associate (or bot) can quickly identify the issue and provide the right solution.

Having systems in place that automatically collect data from both vehicles and customers (for example a bot could ask a caller preliminary questions) will also save time and increase productivity. This way, associates can run diagnostics and provide specific advice to customers efficiently and effectively.

A robust knowledgebase and training are also essential to delivering smooth support. Comprehensive training combined with a knowledgebase that is regularly updated are necessary to ensure associates stay abreast of new developments in the rapidly growing range of technologies involved in EVs.

3. Proactively educate and allay customer concerns
EVs offer a host of new customer touchpoints from the pre-sales to post-sales journey. Delivering valuable information and proactive support at those touchpoints is a smart way to build strong customer relationships.

For most consumers, this will be their first EV. Act as an advisor by providing info sheets on what to know about the car’s battery and charging equipment, as well as what to do if a problem arises. Providing an overview of the vehicle and customer analytics, along with decision-making tools that proactively maximize vehicle uptime (i.e. help the car run longer) also reassure customers that they’re not alone once they drive the car off the lot. Explain how utilizing data to identify issues as quickly as possible and proactively solve the problem will also reduce customer effort and impact.

Allaying customer concerns and equipping them with the right tools and contact points delivers a more positive overall conversation for EV customers as they navigate a new environment. Proactively educating customers about EV ownership could also help reduce the complexity and duration of calls as consumers become more knowledgeable.

Own the EV road
EVs represent a new chance for auto manufacturers, dealerships, and other automotive players to build relationships with drivers, but there isn’t much time. Companies need to move fast to deliver standout experiences that turn customers into brand advocates before their competitors do. Reducing customer effort via omnichannel support and knowledgeable associates from the pre-sales stage through post-sales creates a differentiated experience that drives loyalty—today and in the future.

Align sales and marketing to gain customers, drive growth

Marketing and sales teams have traditionally had two separate objectives in most organizations: the marketing team works to get leads and fill the top of the funnel, while the sales team focuses on the bottom of the funnel and closing those leads.

But these days, the old way of doing business doesn’t cut it. Customers are savvier, in more of a hurry, and increasingly want their interactions to be omnichannel. To deliver great sales experiences, contact center associates need to have the right information at their fingertips at the right time, and they must know how to use it quickly.

Against this backdrop, the traditional method of keeping sales and marketing teams siloed isn’t just inefficient – it’s fundamentally flawed, said TTEC Chief Marketing Officer Nick Cerise.

Cerise and Jeff Far, TTEC’s group vice president of customer growth services, recently led a webinar where they discussed trends and emerging opportunities to gain traction in a post-pandemic market.

The key, said Cerise, is to integrate sales and marketing into one fully aligned, unified team with shared goals.

“Now, all of a sudden, these roles must converge,” he said. “It really does require brands to rethink all aspects…rethinking your people, rethinking your process, and rethinking your technology – and how they all align across the entire organization.”

The right people matter

To truly align marketing and sales teams, team leaders must be committed to – and see the value in – working together, said Farr. It all begins with leadership.

It’s helpful to have people who sit at the intersection of what would typically be sales and marketing – but who aren’t part of either team – and to task them with focusing entirely on continuous improvement, Farr said.

At TTEC, those people are strategic marketing managers (SMMs), or data scientists. Unbeholden to sales or marketing, they focus on aligning the funnel top to bottom, Farr said. They gather associate metrics, coach on best practices, and use historical data to create targets. They listen to calls and comb through data to glean what’s working and what’s not. They report what they learn to leadership and associates, informing future trainings and strategies.

Lead prioritization is another people-based way brands can boost sales. Consider regularly ranking associates based on their performance and giving the highest-quality leads to the best performers.

Continually examine processes

“Sometimes there are elements of the CX process that are just better to partner with a provider on,” Cerise said. But companies that want to do it on their own should begin by assessing what’s working and what’s not.

Contact center automation can improve productivity, customer experience and employee engagement – not to mention bottom lines – by making it easier for associates to do their jobs well. Often, associates spend too much time on process that would be better spent on selling.

When so many different applications are needed, the process usually involves a lot of cutting and pasting, such as copying information from a CRM into a fulfillment engine. Through robotic desktop automation, “process genies” can be embedded on associates’ desktops to find out where mundane and repetitive tasks are slowing down the sales process – and identify how automating those tasks can save time, money, and headaches.

“Often times, it’s not something that a company will even look at or think about, but when we see the data they have one of these ‘Aha’ moments,” Cerise said. “It’s critical, and it’s something we love to do with clients just to sort of open their eyes.”

Data can provide powerful insights when it comes to assessing processes, Farr said. One TTEC client, for instance, had a longstanding five-call sales model but data showed that conversions rarely happened on the fourth or fifth calls. Based on that data, the company changed its model to three sales calls, worked on improving those three interactions, and saw better success rates.

Processes should make selling easier, not harder. They should create the ideal cadence for the sales journey – the optimal number of attempts, the length of time a sales call lasts, the best number of days between attempts, and other factors. Use data along the way to inform all these decisions.

Make the most of technology

It’s one thing to invest in great technology; it’s another to use it to its full potential. Sometimes, well-meaning companies fail to fully capitalize on a technology’s capabilities because it isn’t integrated into the CRM or marketing automation platform.

When choosing what tech to embrace, Cerise said, start with the data.

“If you don’t have a fully integrated and aligned view of your customer personas, of that target addressable market, and an aligned scoring methodology, you’re kind of set up for failure. This is a must,” he said.

These days, it’s also essential to choose technology that lets work-from-home associates access all the sales engagement platforms and get answers to their questions remotely whenever they need to.

“Let sellers sell and find sales administrators to help work the administrative and support functions, whether that’s digital or a human workforce,” he said.

Artificial intelligence can also play a key role. RealPlay, TTEC’s award-wining AI-enabled contact center training service, improves associate performance through video role playing. The program listens to calls and interactions in real time, scores and gives personalized feedback, and offers strategies for improvement.

Fully aligning sales and marketing can bring many benefits to a brand – to customers, employees, and balance sheets alike. But it’s an ongoing process and there’s always room for improvement and innovation.

“Never be satisfied,” Cerise said. “Always be optimizing.”

Watch the full TTEC and Marketing Dive webinar, “Top Growth Strategies to Gain Customers Now.”

Outsourcing vs. managed services: Knowing the difference will save you time and money

Outsourcing and managed services are appealing options for many companies at a time when workforces are stretched thin. But don’t be fooled—these terms aren’t interchangeable. Both involve receiving business services from a third party but determining which of the two options is the better fit could make the difference between a thriving company versus just staying afloat.

What is outsourcing?

Although managed services and outsourcing both involve hiring a partner organization, they encompass different levels of work. Outsource firms provide services for narrowly defined business processes. For instance, a company may want to outsource specific tasks such as handling payroll or tier 1 help desk calls to a partner. With outsourcing, business leaders select specific services and business needs that can be handled by an external partner. There are also different types of outsource partners including onshore, offshore, and nearshore partners.

What are the top reasons to use outsourcing?

Outsourcing business processes and tasks can free up employees to focus on more complex or valuable work; it can extend resources, such as sales support, for targeting new or underserved markets; support new product and service rollouts; and provide expertise within a specific industry focus. An outsource partner can also give companies access to digital systems and software services without paying for maintenance fees.

What are managed services?

In comparison to outsourcing, managed services take a more holistic approach to supporting a company’s business needs. A managed services provider offers a comprehensive range of services within one or several areas, such as IT or ERP. Instead of supporting a few business processes, a managed services provider provides end-to-end operational support and enhancements for a seamless end-user experience.

For example, Customer Experience as a Service (CXaaS) is a cloud-based customer solution for planning, designing, and executing activities that encompass all parts of the customer experience. CXaaS operations are typically managed by a third-party partner on behalf of a brand. A CXaaS managed services provider offers end-to-end management of CX and employee experience operations and continuous optimization for global talent (e.g., recruiting, onboarding and training), technology, consulting and implementation services.

What are the top reasons to work with a managed services provider?

For companies that are looking to integrate different solutions, service providers, and technology platforms with a unified plan, a managed services provider is the better choice. A good managed services provider will perform an assessment of the current infrastructure and operations to understand the pain points. The partner will determine whether any operations are compromising performance and create a plan for immediate improvements and long-term enhancements, in addition to providing skilled staff to support the company’s business needs. A skilled managed services provider will also proactively share best practices and suggest ways to increase savings and trouble-shoot problems before they arise.

Whether you are looking for an outsource or managed services provider, working with the right partner can propel a business forward faster and more effectively than doing it alone. The key is to define your business needs: do you want to outsource a specific business process or do you need extensive support? Next, find an external organization that always has your back. Look for a partner with in-house specialists in a wide range of technologies and skillsets, an extensive partner ecosystem of their own, various support models, and the flexibility and scalability to meet your enterprise needs.

Learn more about outsourcing and managed services from these resources:

Inside sales outsourcing: 11 ways to grow your business: learn how outsourcing inside sales can increase customer lifetime value well beyond times of uncertainty.

4 questions to decide if contact center outsourcing is right for you: Not every organization needs a contact center partner. To make the decision process easier, ask yourself these questions first.

The case for a contact center carve-out: Digital transformation around the customer is a strategic challenge. It needs a strategic solution.

Agile outsourced support from day one: A case study on end-to-end outsourced support that delivers best-in-class results.

B2B sales will never be the same

The sales world is forever altered, thanks to pandemic-fueled digital transformation across entire enterprises. In the B2B space, where relationships reign supreme, sales organizations found effective and efficient ways to conduct business with a digital-first approach that’s efficient, effective, and won’t go away any time soon.

In-person meetings have nearly disappeared, replaced by Zoom meetings, webinars, virtual trade shows, online wine tastings, and cooking demonstrations. Many sellers found success in these digital introduction, education, and nurture activities, thanks to the relaxed nature of connecting with people in their homes in an informal, authentic environment.

In its research, “The Forrester Tech Tide™: Sales Technologies, Q1 2021,” Forrester finds that digital “front doors” are now the primary way that sales prospects connect with brands—80% of B2B sales will take place in remote and digital settings, elevating the roles of data insight, digital content, and inside sales in the sales process.

The convergence of digital channels, buyer control, and deeper relationships means the old way of making sales won’t cut it anymore. Sales teams still relying on “old school” strategies and tactics will only go so far.

B2B sellers understand they need to change yet face challenges to creating successful digital-first sales experiences. As we emerge into a post-COVID sales environment, the buyer’s table adds more seats, decision-making takes longer, and sellers find it hard to stand out in a virtual environment. Today’s sellers need deeper, faster, more personalized data and insight, as well as the right tools to foster engagement and relationship building. They need to show their value to the buyer more quickly and digitally in order to build strong human connections. It’s a tough balance.

6 sales technologies to support digital-first sales
To succeed in today’s sales world, new technologies are needed. In the same Tech Tide report, Forrester recommends six technologies where sales organizations should invest to keep up with the changing sales landscape.

1. Conversational intelligence
According to Forrester, conversational intelligence tools, like speech & text analytics and other voice-of-customer technology, “use natural language processing to capture unstructured data from remote spoken conversations between sellers and buyers. Embedded AI analyzes the data and surfaces insights to support executive-level decision making, inform management coaching, and inspire reps to adopt best practices.”

There is tremendous insight to be gleaned from unstructured data. Keywords and trends, customer sentiment, and process analysis can help improve sales engagements and improve future interactions on the phone or through digital channels.

2. Customer success
Customer success (CS) solutions are used by brands to monitor the health of their customer relationships by keeping track of customer satisfaction and churn across their products and services. Forrester calls this a “high-potential category that is evolving quickly.” If used correctly, CS solutions enable proactive engagement with customers to ensure they realize the full value of their purchases and derive value from the brand.

As the space evolves, automation, AI, and advanced analytics tools are helping companies drive better engagement, higher revenues, and lower defection from their customer success activities.

3. Revenue intelligence
Revenue intelligence is a dynamic, developing category, using technology to “capture engagement activity between buyers and sellers and automatically upload that data to CRM systems,” Forrester writes. As automatic data capture and CRM uploads of buyer and seller activity data become commonplace, AI-generated insights from a range of revenue cycle activities offer significant potential to influence decision making. The AI engine analyzes data to deliver insights; provides dynamic guidance; and supplies inputs on deal management, forecasting, and other revenue generating activities, Forrester notes.

4. Sales engagement
According to Forrester, sales engagement (SE) platforms “help sales, marketing, and post-sales personnel manage their omnichannel touchpoints at all stages of the buy cycle.” Leaning on automation and orchestration of simple, repetitive tasks, SE platforms deliver efficiency and effectiveness gains. Embedded AI can help users understand preferred engagement channels and surface missing contacts.

5. Sales training and services
To win, you must train; that’s where sales training and services come in. Providers in this space help businesses increase sellers’ effectiveness and align sales execution to strategic business goals. With them, sales enablement leaders improve sellers’ skills, increase cross-functional collaboration, and embrace modern selling methods.

6. User-generated video
User-generated video allows sellers and other users to create, edit, and share dynamic and personalized video content over email or within social channels. They are prevalent in the B2C world, but with so much B2B buying and selling happening remotely now, Forrester predicts asynchronous video messages “will be an essential arrow in the seller’s quiver in 2021 and beyond.” There is also great potential for user-generated videos among sales teams and other internal groups.

Success story: Sales incubator boosts revenue and wins back customers
A leading bulk oil, fuel, and lubricants distributor wanted to enhance, expand, and evolve its inside sales approach while improving efficiencies and leveraging more insight. TTEC’s sales incubator program included growth services expertise, robust digital products, and experienced at-home inside sales experts. We deployed salesforce’s CRM platform for more visibility into the entire sales funnel. Now, it was clearer at which stage each account was, how many “touches” each account had received, and other reporting insights. This empowered the sales team to make more informed decisions from an account level as well as optimize their go-to-market strategy in a virtual setting.

Utilizing TTEC’s Inside Sales Playbook (a database of more than 400 different inside sales best practices) our sales experts conducted lead generation activities to prospect, cold-call, and qualify leads. We shared numerous industry best practices and sales exercises such as Win Back Wednesday to motivate and engage the sales teams. On one Wednesday of every month, we focused on winning back customers that no longer had an active status.

As a result, the company achieved a 12% increase in revenue in 3 months, reactivated 33 accounts in five weeks, and generated >$20k in win-back account revenue.

Move the ROI needle with human experts
While technology has its merits, it will not solve sales challenges on its own. Behind every great technology are people to realize the potential that’s specific to the needs of the business. Human experts can leverage the power of these technologies to achieve maximum ROI and deliver amazing experiences along the way. Some ways that humans can help make the most of sales technology include:

Focusing on a consistent customer experience and measuring longevity
Evaluating current tools and optimizing usage
Testing and measuring digital tools
Working with partners who can lend a helping hand

After all, a truly good sale is about relationships, not products. While that adage still holds true, cultivating and developing strong sales relationships now begin with digital. Where you go from there is up to you.

How to retain employees during the Great Resignation

Success is the result of hard work — Portrait of a young man standing in an office with colleagues in the background

A record 4 million people quit their jobs in the spring, reported the Department of Labor. There are lots of reasons so many workers are seeking new jobs—a trend that economists are calling the Great Resignation. For some people, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a shift in priorities, spurring them to pursue a “dream job,” or become stay-at-home parents. But for others, the decision to resign was in response to how their employer treated them during the pandemic.

Heather Younger, author, CEO, and founder of Employee Fanatix, an employee engagement, leadership development, and consulting firm, explains why employee retention is more critical than ever. We spoke with Younger to learn what employers should do—and not do—to retain talented and valuable employees. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Customer Strategist: Why are so many people quitting their jobs at this time, and what does it mean for employee retention?

Heather Younger: There are myriad reasons why people are leaving, but I think a major factor is that many people became comfortable working from home and their employers reassured them that it was fine. And so now, when employers are looking at the amount of real estate that they have and informing employees that it’s time to come back to the office, employees would rather resign and find another job that’s a better fit.

Customer Strategist: You wrote a book, The Art of Caring Leadership. Can you share the definition of caring leadership and how it benefits businesses?

HY: Caring leadership is taking daily actions to show concern and kindness to those you lead. It’s behaviors, it’s actions—it’s not just the words or what we think we are. The strategies that I talk about in the book aren’t new. They’re just restated and based upon evidence. A few of the strategies are based on this idea of leading the whole person. This is a big one and it’s even more important because of the pandemic. We learned so much about those that we lead that we didn’t know when we were physically together in the workplace.

Now, we go onto these Teams calls and these Zoom meetings, and we see each other’s home environments. Employees might even feel more comfortable telling us more about their mental health or about their aging parent. So, this idea of ‘leading the whole person’ is really critical. It was already important, but now it’s even more so because employees know that leaders know more about them and they expect them to show empathy, compassion, and connect with them at deeper levels. And if we can’t give that to them because we don’t have the desire or willingness to, we’re going to lose them.

Customer Strategist: What changes in the workplace do you think are temporary and which ones are more likely to remain for the long run?

HY: That one’s hard. Some of it is driven by what employee demand is but…I think it’s going to depend on how much companies are in it for the long haul. Also, is the board driving [changes in the workplace]? Is the market driving it? Are the changes financially justified? Organizations are driven by profits and the need to make money. Something I really want to highlight here is you can show care and make money at the same time. But I think in the end, it’s going to be driven by a lot of factors, including some that are outside of an employer’s control.

Customer Strategist: What common trends are you seeing in what employees are looking for in their new workplace? What do they want now?

HY: What I alluded to earlier was that there was actually quite a bit more connection that was going on during the pandemic. We almost had no choice but to learn about and get to know our employees. When I say we, I’m talking about the kind of organizational leaders who have the power to change the employee and the customer experience. These are both tied together. And in this case, we had no choice but to see and get to know our employees and customers, because we wouldn’t get anything done if we didn’t. So, we had to learn to show empathy and compassion. We had to ask good questions. We had to lean in to listen to stories and to listen to scenarios. And we had to learn to jump into action, to help, or again, we wouldn’t achieve any goals.

It was an environment that just required it. So, I think what our team members realize is that’s the kind of place they want. They want to have that connection [with an employer], and they want their leaders to ask them questions and lean in with empathy and compassion. And so that puts leaders in a position where now, there’s a lot of reinvention on their part and they have to figure out how to avoid compassion fatigue, how not to overdo themselves, and find that proper balance between [making demands] and showing compassion.

Customer Strategist: This reminds me of business leaders who believe surprising and delighting customers is the best way to increase loyalty when showing that you understand the customer is actually more important. Is the same true for employees?

HY: Yes, absolutely. I do think it’s about understanding and consistency. Surprise and delight are nice, but if it only happens once and there are a whole bunch of other things that aren’t delighting [employees], the interplay or the net result is not going to be as positive. It’s about understanding them. Leaning into what employees’ needs are and then being consistent. And when employers do mess up, it’s about admitting their mistake and asking, what can we do to make the experience better? It’s the exact same interplay, whether it’s the external customer or the internal customer.

Customer Strategist: Are there any pitfalls to companies doing more to retain their employees?

HY: I think the biggest thing is that not everybody’s built to lead with empathy and compassion. They’re just not naturally there. And so, the pitfalls would be, like I said, becoming fatigued. It’s starting to drag some [leaders] down because it’s not who they naturally are. Organizations are made up of people and everyone differs in how they communicate, how they behave, how they understand people, how they need to be understood.

And so, understanding that all of those things are going on… it’s not really a downfall as it is more of the complexity involved. How do we now manage this new kind of leadership realm where now I have to lean in further, do even more to consider the whole person more so than I did before and the impact it has on me emotionally, because I wasn’t prepared to do that before. So, I think that would be one of the things that we would see.

Customer Strategist: So, in order for businesses to thrive and retain their employees, they need to communicate with their employees to understand what their needs and expectations are, be consistent in their strategy and their interactions, and be flexible—is that correct?

HY: Yes, I would say those would be the three really big things they’ll have to do. And when I talk about listening strategy too, it’s a multi-focus thing; it involves making sure that you’re acting upon what you hear and that you communicate back to the people who lent their voices to you, to give you their feedback. You’re communicating back to them about what it is you plan to do, what you’ve done and how it relates to what they told you they wanted. Leaders should constantly be doing that.

I would say that this new way of leading in the next three to five years is probably going to take a lot more energy on the part of leaders. Passive leadership will no longer be allowed. It’s no longer going to produce results that we want. We’re going to have to be very actively engaged, super focused on the pulse, and lean in a lot more than we did before in order to get what we want.

5 retail strategies that are here to stay

At the 2020 National Retail Federation, on the eve of the pandemic, our writers noted that the future of retail was about removing barriers. Among so much change this much remains true, but how do we make retail experiences as easy and enjoyable as possible in our post-COVID world? How do we make interactions ‘effortless’ for customers?

The modern retail customer craves personalization, seamless conversations, and communication at every point in the journey. These roll up into what we call ‘effortless’ experiences, which will define the new age in retail.

Meeting these challenges while reducing cost to serve will require a digital-first, customer-centric approach. More often we are seeing digitally transforming legacy support systems as a key to meeting modern expectations.

To better understand this, let’s explore the 5 retail strategies that are defining the industry and unlocking success on all fronts.

1. Tap into the power of remote work

The unprecedented product and human demands that came out of the pandemic tested retailers’ resources. With post-pandemic online shopping increasing and deals running longer and earlier, consistent quality and service levels are essential to keep operations running smoothly and customers happy. Mishaps like delays, data breaches, product recalls, and inclement weather will continue to effect retail surge volumes. But as many retailers saw, the value of remote support can help ease the burden.

Innovations in knowledge, messaging, and security helped retailers achieve great results from a remote model that could maintain service levels, and ultimately drive customer loyalty by replicating the brick-and-mortar values customers love digitally.

Post-pandemic success rides on flexibility. At-home hiring lets retailers dip into a wide talent pool of a diverse and highly skilled workforce when needed to support customer service and sales inquiries. The scalability and efficiency of at-home employment allows retailers to easily to accommodate fluctuating interaction volumes during peak seasons, a perk not easily available through traditional means.

2. Optimize the cloud for omnichannel support

Shopping channels are no longer static—customers can switch from voice, to chat, and messaging in just one interaction. Retailers need to remain nimble. Unfortunately, legacy systems are often overwhelmed and there’s no integration among disparate channels. Retailers during the pandemic realized the value of holistically interacting with customers in the channels they prefer while optimizing technology, processes, and people.

Cloud contact centers provide many benefits, such as increased flexibility, cost savings, and the ability to support customers from virtually anywhere. By focusing on omnichannel routing, interactive voice response (IVR), and CRM integration you can direct customers volume to the best communication channel for them. Intelligent routing of calls can also improve customer experiences, average handle time, and call center agent performance.

3. Combine automation & empathy for a total shopping experience

Customers will always need information about store hours, return policies, and delays, among other topics. Answering these simple but time-consuming inquiries while also handling more complex conversations can slow agents down immensely.
Repetitive, simple tasks can be alleviated with automated customer self-service capabilities. Digital transformation powered by intelligent automation helps ease the effort needed by both your agents and customers during busy surge hours where the human touch is needed most.

Retailers who deployed Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Robotic Desktop Automation (RDA) offerings helped free employees up for more nuanced interactions that impact brand loyalty and customer happiness. Intelligent automation solutions such as these improve CX and drive bottom-line results, reduce average turnaround time, and resolve issues anytime.

Remember, if a retail journey starts slow, your customers will go elsewhere. Automation can provide customer self-service and alleviate processes that eat up time with virtual assistants. RPA and RDA software works in unison to minimize disruption and facilitate more efficient CX delivery from first-impressions to checkout.

4. Hit me up on text

Texting is quickly becoming the preferred customer communication channel. In retail, customers want to be updated about availability and delivery dates at every point of the journey. Retailers can quickly reassure customers with updates and delivery notifications that reduce customer effort to locate purchases and help them relax, thereby increasing brand loyalty.

Unlike web-based chat that occurs in a pop-up screen where both parties must be logged in, messaging is asynchronous, meaning you don’t need to stay in a dedicated session to send or receive messages. Messaging takes the idea of web chat, simplifies it, and moves it to where consumers already spend their time—on their phones.

Asynchronous messaging capabilities allow customer service to more than double the number of interactions they can handle concurrently on the channels customers prefer to keep them updated before a product even reaches their doorstep.

5. Seamlessly connect the entire retail customer journey

Retailers can’t create seamless experiences without first knowing the level of effort that goes into each retail interaction. Understanding where and why different customers interact with their brand allowed retailers to orchestrate better journeys that delivered personalized experiences and anticipated demands.

Converting data into insight by deploying technologies like voice of the customer and speech analytics to evaluate daily interactions and pain points for the customer is an incredibly powerful took. These insights help enhance customer journeys and further develop associates’ ability to create meaningful moments for customers.

Rather than trying to make blanket improvements, a narrow focus can illuminate which areas will drive the most CX improvement and ROI. Prioritize and act on the most common call types or frustration points for customers with data analytics. These tools will continuously spot business trends and react swiftly to reputation issues, assortment opportunities, and supply chain activities.

Usher in an age of ‘effortless’ customer (and employee) experiences

Retailers that persevered through the pandemic didn’t survive on deals alone, they stood out because they showed that they knew their customers. Organizations that utilize the best of people and technology from these five strategies can cultivate loyalty, revitalize sales, and maintain the agility to match customer expectations at every point of the journey.

Back office vs. front office: how to boost efficiency and productivity between both offices

An organization’s front and back office functions are fundamental to any great customer experience. That’s why it’s critical to keep both front and back office operations running smoothly and effectively. Yet, in many businesses, there is often some overlap and confusion over what defines the roles of a front office and back office, making it difficult to prioritize an area for greater efficiency and productivity. Have no fear, we’ll review the definitions of and use cases for the essential components of a business – the front office and the back office.

What is the front office?

The front office refers to the customer-facing section of a firm. For example, hotel receptionists, bank tellers, and other customer service and sales associates who directly interact with customers are considered part of an organization’s front office operations. Other front-office departments may include public relations, marketing, and the contact center. Front office employees play an important role in communicating with customers and ensuring they’re satisfied with the product or service provided. Since customer satisfaction is mostly tied to the front office, this area is a significant revenue-driver for organizations.

What is the back office?

The back office represents the part of a company that is non-client facing, such as administration and support departments. The back office is sometimes used to describe jobs that don’t directly generate revenue. Don’t be fooled by the name, however. Even though the back office isn’t visible to customers, it provides many critical functions including accounting, IT services, forms processing, claims adjudication, regulatory compliance, and more. Back-office employees enable and equip front-office employees to perform their client-facing duties and together, deliver an excellent customer experience.

How can the front and back office be automated intelligently?

Many front and back office functions are intertwined and directly impact each other. For instance, disorganized back office practices lead to slow responses and excessive rework that result in increased average handle time in the contact center and other errors that directly impact efficiency and customer satisfaction. This is where intelligent solutions that blend automated rules-based processing and human intervention can save time and deliver better outcomes.

For example, in the front office, many customer interactions are high-volume and repeatable, which can be handled in channels like chat, messaging, IVR and others that lend themselves to be easily automated. Reducing human dependency along these parts of the customer journey helps to drive down costs and errors while at the same time increase process compliance and interaction speed.

Unattended Robotic Process Automation (RPA) removes humans completely to speed up efficiencies and makes contact center agents available for more complex customer centric interactions. A one-time password (OTP) option—a component of RPA—for instance, enables customers to authenticate their account without human assistance.

The OTP option is received by the user on a registered email address or cell phone to authenticate the transaction initiated by the customer in order to reset a password, authorize a financial charge on the card, or make an online payment. Attended RPA, meanwhile, is used to assist contact center associates to help them make better, quicker decisions when dealing with customers or administrative tasks.

Artificial intelligence is also reinventing the back office by freeing up employees on the operations side to work on complex and meaningful tasks while automation caters to the easier work. For example, as part of a review and audit process, a bot could input the details related to a transaction and a human checker will validate the entry. This can help reduce manual efforts by up to 50 percent.

The front and back office both represent essential functions that make up a business. Understanding how these areas intersect and how they can be optimized is critical for a business’s future success. And increasingly, a seamless integration of various front-end and back-end systems with automation and human intervention is the key to enabling greater efficiency, accuracy, and productivity than ever before.

Learn more

Here are additional resources about the front office and back office.

4 best practices to redefine back office services – Here are four best practices around training, operations, quality assurance, and automation to create exceptional services.

Digital transformation powered by RPA/RDA – Learn how a leading telecom improved the efficiency of its customer-facing and enterprise back-office operations.

Breaking down backlogs with back-office accuracy and speed – Here’s how an agile team cleared a health insurer’s report backlog in record time.

How to maximize your back office in 4 steps – Organizations that value customer experience know their back-office services provide invaluable support.

4 CX changes to prepare for as the public sector embraces the cloud

Customer experiences have transformed seemingly overnight, with enhanced digital tools and technology, work-from-home operations, and empowered customers. These changes, while led by private industry, are now expected in government services as well.

Many government agencies are being asked to add more digital channels, flexibility and speed to public-facing operations while also maintaining strict levels of security and compliance. Every sailor, soldier, airman and their family members trust government agencies to protect and secure their information, whether it’s through a self-service channel or speaking with an agent. That’s why it’s critical for agencies to ensure that their constituent data is secure from top to bottom and everywhere in between.

As more government organizations move citizen services to mobile and cloud-based platforms, virtual systems and remote workforces open up security vulnerabilities. The responsibility of safeguarding citizen information requires superior omnichannel cloud contact center solutions with stringent security and reliability assurances.

In a recent 930gov webinar, TTEC Chief Information Security Officer Kip James and Vice President of Public Sector Steve Parowski highlighted CX trends that public sector agencies must prepare with a balance of ease and security.

Digital-first experiences: Digital transformation is no longer optional. Government agencies must utilize automated capabilities to streamline processes so that employees can focus on the human touch for empathetic interactions.
A distributed workforce: Agencies with only a few centralized brick-and-mortar locations or those with limited remote capabilities are prone to disrupted critical operations.
Channels for all citizens: From proactive outreach to urgent responses, agencies must leverage multiple traditional and digital channels that boost citizen engagement, including chat and SMS messaging.
Re-think security and fraud: As remote work becomes more common, security and policy factors need to be reviewed and adjusted to protect sensitive citizen information and comply with different work scenarios.

“The global pandemic taught us many things,” Parowski said. “One highlight was the speed at which mission-critical agency applications and technologies could be made available for consumption in an elastic secure cloud-based model. What once typically took three months to implement was condensed to weeks and days.” He added that cloud services provide agencies with the business continuity and security needed to meet the moment quickly and effectively.

“The goal of using cloud is to make an organization very agile so they can stay focused on their core mission,” added James. “We’re providing the phone, the chat and other channels, which allow agencies to reduce facilities costs while getting best-of-breed secure, authorized technology.”

How fast is your move toward cloud contact centers?

James discussed the “walk, run, sprint” maturity model being used across U.S. government agencies as they upgrade to cloud contact centers.

Walk: An agency hands over the technology, with federal implementation of security controls and validation.

Run: A hybrid cloud solution where services are provided by a cloud solution that has been an agency ATO, which is going through this FedRAMP process.

Sprint: A fully compliant system, a full stack service stack for the contact center, all contexts in our services, in a cloud-based environment.

The benefits of cloud are easy to see, based on evidence from government agencies that have implemented it. “Clearly what we’ve seen in the last five years as more agencies adopt cloud solutions is that their total costs of ownership is going down and they have a much higher return on investment than traditional government owned or contractor operated premise-based solutions,” Parowski said.

Watch the full webinar, “How to combine security and citizen centricity for cloud contact center success” to learn even more about the move to cloud in the public sector.

Here’s how Retailers are Shifting from Surviving to Thriving in a New Normal

Shop owner helping customer — Smiling shopkeeper helping client at counter in boutique

Retail has been altered in ways large and small since the COVID-19 pandemic began 16 months ago.
Businesses had to quickly adapt and find new ways to connect to their customers while maintaining operations. And it’s not over. At NRF Retail Converge, retailers weighed in on the consumer habits that they anticipate will outlast the pandemic, changing business models and the customer experience.

What customers want from the new physical store
The National Retail Federation announced in June that it expects retail sales to jump between 10.5% and 13.5% to more than $4.4 trillion this year compared with last year. “Americans are shopping—but HOW are they shopping?” asked Lee Petersen, EVP of thought leadership and marketing at WD Partners, a strategy and design firm.

Social distancing requirements, lockdowns, and store closures accelerated services that had been in the works prior to the pandemic—buy-online-pickup-in-store (BOPIS), dark stores, and delivery posts, to name a few—that customers now expect, he continued.

The pandemic “changed the way that consumers shop and retailers will have to adjust to these changes for good,” he said. In a survey of 2,500 consumers conducted by WD Partners, 84% indicated that they used BOPIS in the last 3 months and 86% said it was a “top digital physical tool.”

At the same time, a majority (48%) of consumers said that an excellent in-store experience was still very important. So, what do customers want from an in-store experience? According to several consumer focus groups, the following store concepts resonated the most:

Experience: A store where consumers can socialize as well as shop, think a store with a coffee bar and lounging area next to merchandise.

Dark stores or micro-fulfillment centers: Stores that only offer delivery and pickup services for online orders.

Hybrid: A store that offers curbside pickup as well as the opportunity to browse.

Big box store brands such as Target, Walmart, and Whole Foods already offer some of these services, placing them at an advantage, Petersen noted. “I never thought I’d say this but big box stores are obviously emulators now. They are way ahead of the game and they’re studying the way consumers shop, so I would look to them going forward.”

Social commerce heats up
Newer subsets of ecommerce such as mobile commerce and social commerce went into overdrive in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. C&A Brasil, for example, the Brazilian arm of a European chain of fast-fashion clothing, saw purchases through its WhatsApp channel grow exponentially during the pandemic. In addition to making purchases through its website or at a store, customers can interact with a fashion consultant on C&A Brasil’s WhatsApp channel and have a delivery sent to their home or pick up the item in a store.

Prior to the pandemic, “we had about 500,000 monthly average users [on WhatsApp], said Paulo Correa Jr., CEO of C&A Brasil. “Now we have seven times that in less than one year.” Scaling the channel with adequate support and data in a short amount of time wasn’t easy, he added. “Leveraging data and CRM possibilities in order to really become more relevant and interesting for the customer was a stretch for us, as well as developing that type of ability among our sales associates.”

Social selling offers exciting opportunities to better connect with consumers, Correa said. The “combination of new channels and new data really bring the customer relationship to another level—that’s one of the key legacies for us.”

Conrado Leister, country managing director of Facebook Brasil, agreed. “I believe that the main opportunities for companies will come from two areas, which we call discovery commerce [finding a new brand or product via a social platform] and conversational business [when businesses connect with people via chat or messaging],” he said. “It’s a massive personalization opportunity.” The key takeaway is that consumer behavior and expectations have evolved—and will continue to do so. The pandemic made it clear how critical it is for businesses to have the infrastructure in place that allows them to not only meet current needs but be more flexible in their operations, customer support, merchandising, and marketing as new changes arise.

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