FEATURE
CONNECTING WITH ANXIOUS CUSTOMERS THE CASES FOR CAREFUL DEFLECTION , SUPPORTING PREFERRED CHANNELS , AND PROACTIVE OUTREACH .
BY BRENDAN READ , CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE ; Q & A WITH EXPERT PANEL
ILLUSTRATION PROVIDED BY ADOBE IMAGES
Everyone , it appears , is anxious , worried , and fearful . While the economy and employment has picked up , inflation has persisted , leading to feelings of uncertainty . And the superheated political rhetoric in the U . S . elections ( and leading up to next year ’ s Canadian federal elections ) has not helped .
In this environment , customers have less patience for long on-hold times and response times and for incomplete service when contacting organizations . But contact center staffing issues like high agent turnover have made timely connections with agents an increasingly daunting task .
There has been much attention and investment made in artificial intelligence ( AI ) -based solutions to assist with self-service and agent-delivered service across multiple channels .
But will such measures and others help to improve productive and reliable connectivity in the current , and likely future environment ? Will they bolster the customer experience ( CX ) and foster customer loyalty : and sales ?
To find out we reached out to and had virtual conversations with select industry suppliers . They are :
• Catherine Forino , Senior Product Marketing Manager , NICE .
• Jono Luk , Vice President of Product Management , Webex by Cisco .
• Crystal Miceli , Vice President of Product and Industry Marketing , Talkdesk .
6 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE