Awaken to AI Neil Titcomb, Head of Global Sales at Awaken, led nicely in from Chris with his insights on elevating contact centre performance by transforming the agent experience. Interestingly, Neil’s insights proved that today’s customer interactions are longer and becoming more complex, and hence the need for experienced agents is more pressing than ever. The amount of applications that an agent currently uses within a call means that organisations are making life hard for their agents, making them prone to walk away. Generally, there has been a systemic lack of investment in the contact centre and as Neil puts it “customer conversations are a goldmine to transform any business”. Awaken’s approach is to listen to every conversation, understand with AI in real- time and act to improve agent and customer experience, all the time driving commercial results. Sharing Awaken’s case study with the delegates helped bring the issues to life. Achieving AI outcomes Tony Degruttola, Director of Solutions Consulting EMEA at Verint, took to the floor and gave us poignant information about how far and fast the market is moving. Verint’s research shows that AI will have the biggest impact on any organization’s CX automation efforts during the next twelve months, but somehow organisations are not achieving AI outcomes – nearly half are not effective at providing self-service on digital channels “What an event – and what a venue! It was great to see what goes on behind the scenes at the iconic St. Mary’s Stadium, home of Southampton Football Club. Southampton and the surrounding area have seen a lot of large-scale businesses and companies making an impact, so it’s good to be able to meet with them, see what their concerns are and learn from them around what sort of customer experiences they deliver and what challenges they face. The blend of thought- leadership sessions, practical guides and networking conversations, reflected many of the issues we know are giving CX experts and CIOs sleepless nights. It’s relentless for them at the moment, between tight budgets and multiple demands from both internal stakeholders but also external parties like their customers. What really stood out to me was the mix of where companies are on
their CX journeys- and by extension, their employee experience - journeys. Some feel that they’re really good at it while others accept that they still have quite a way to go. What was fascinating to see though was that all of them felt that they needed to improve what they do. There was a strong curiosity and willingness to learn more. That’s a real win because ultimately it’s their customers who will benefit from that willingness to improve. The audience really challenged our expert to zero in on what is possible now. Conversations weren’t just about what’s coming in five years, it was about the things that can be achieved now - how AI can make a difference and what it can’t do, how people are reacting to AI in the contact centre, the trends we’re seeing. There were a lot of really good, high-level conversations” or at using AI to augment the human workforce. Tony shared that data availability and exploitation remained an issue, with as many as 40% of all organisations not effective at removing data silos between customer- facing departments. Frustrations remain when delivering the Omni-channel service – for example Tony shared that research found 60% of agents cannot work across multiple channels, this fact amongst a number of other insights Verint found when compiling the “ The Open CCaaS Advantage: Future Proofing the Contact Center with CX ” report. Verint focuses on helping brands close the engagement capacity gap and Tony took us through the Verint Open Platform. To increase CX automation, and therefore off-set costs, organisations should consider investing in an open platform, AI powered bots and data- driven operations. Tony had time to introduce us to the Verint TimeFlex Bot and delighted us with ways it can be integrated in all sectors of an organisation, giving us lots of examples of it in action – even on 8x8’s Agent Mobile App.
Chris Angus VP Contact Centre Solutions
8x8.com
As many as 40% of all organisations are not effective at removing data silos between customer- facing departments.
UC Advanced will cover Huw’s Fireside Chat with 8x8 in another issue. If you missed CX South 2024, we are hoping that 8x8, together with sponsors Verint and Awaken, bring another CX event to an area near you. The depth of the content and the insights were phenomenal, and it is highly recommended that you get in touch with any members of the teams if you are looking to enhance and improve your CX offering.
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