ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives

Oracle’s Formula for CX Builds on Fusion Service

Posted by Keith Dawson on 02 May 2023

Organizations are increasingly seeing the strategic benefits of enhanced customer engagement. But many are struggling to understand how to put a broader customer experience strategy into practice amid siloed processes and departments. Particularly in contact centers, new technology has to be melded onto existing platforms in ways that enhance experiences without disrupting operations. This... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Contact Center

Customer Feedback Management Goes Way Beyond Surveys for the VoC

Posted by Keith Dawson on 13 April 2023

Contact centers have long collected feedback from customers, usually through short surveys. It is very common for an agent or an automated system to ask for an assessment of the interaction that just occurred, hoping to get the customer's candid, instant view of whether they were satisfied. For the most part, what's learned in those short engagements is very narrow. It can be used for a customer... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, AI

Why Intelligent Self-Service Is the Tip of the Spear for CX

Posted by Keith Dawson on 29 March 2023

Organizations looking to improve the customer experience and contact center operations should closely examine the processes at work in the front-end self-service environment. Technology advancements are converging at this gateway, including artificial intelligence, chatbots and knowledge management. The front end of the customer interaction offers a greater opportunity for customer engagement... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Self-service, Contact Center, Knowledge Management, Chatbots, agent management

Qualtrics XM Platform Zeros in on Customer Experiences

Posted by Keith Dawson on 27 March 2023

Modern business relies on having a clear, continuous understanding of customer perceptions and intentions. That insight is increasingly used to deliver them experiences that they would consider excellent, in turn leading to higher satisfaction and more profitable relationships. Qualtrics, a provider of Experience Management (XM) software, focuses on creating applications that analyze customer... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, agent management

8x8 Pivots to Emphasize Contact Center Technology for CX

Posted by Keith Dawson on 23 March 2023

At its March 2023 analyst conference, 8x8 described a significant pivot in its focus. Going forward the company will be emphasizing the Contact Center (CCaaS) side of its portfolio, which to this point has represented a small portion of its overall sales. It made several product announcements to bolster the argument that it can effectively meet the needs of complex contact center operations while... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Contact Center

Making Automation Easier for Contact Centers

Posted by Keith Dawson on 02 March 2023

Contact centers are very often keen on optimizing their costs through automation. Technology vendors supplying this market have recognized this need, and in the past few years, they have been putting workflow and automation tools front and center in their offerings. This has raised some questions among practitioners about the most effective strategies for implementing automated processes. Based... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Contact Center, agent management

IoT Will Enhance Customer Experiences with Field Service

Posted by Keith Dawson on 02 February 2023

The Internet of Things describes machines and objects that are enhanced with sensors and communication connections, enabling them to report on their operational status, including outages, faults or threshold conditions that require attention. The technology has gradually made its way into business and consumer systems over the past decade. Today, these connected devices are playing an important... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience

The 2023 Value Index for Customer Experience Management: Vendor and Product Ratings

Posted by Keith Dawson on 25 January 2023

I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Value Index research, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2023 Ventana Research Value Index: Customer Experience Management is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research. Drawing on our Benchmark Research, we apply a structured methodology built on evaluation categories... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Subscription Management, agent management

The 2023 Market Agenda for Marketing: Data Takes Center Stage

Posted by Keith Dawson on 24 January 2023

Ventana Research recently announced its 2023 Market Agenda in the expertise area of Marketing, continuing the guidance we have offered for nearly two decades to help organizations derive optimal value from business technology and improve outcomes. By 2025, one-half of CMOs will realize the essential requirement to market their customer experience (CX) as part of the brand values that contribute... Read More

Topics: Marketing, Product Information Management, Digital Marketing, intelligent marketing

All-Inclusive CX Suites Reveal the Big Picture to Optimize CX Management

Posted by Keith Dawson on 19 January 2023

Having just completed the 2023 Ventana Research Value Index for Customer Experience Management, I want to share some of my observations about how the market has developed. We found that there are many tools available for various needs related to customer management and communication, ranging from marketing tools to contact center systems to data and analytics applications. It is rare to find all... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Subscription Management, agent management

The 2023 Market Agenda for CX: Analytics Takes Center Stage

Posted by Keith Dawson on 12 January 2023

Ventana Research recently announced its Market Agenda in the expertise area of Customer Experience. CX has emerged as a way for organizations to demonstrate value and stand out in the marketplace. The technology underlying modern CX is transitioning from tools that are based on communication to those centered on data analysis and process automation. This allows organizations to build great... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, CEM, Self-service, Analytics, Contact Center, agent management, AI and Machine Learning

Verint Bets Big on Engagement Automation and Intelligence

Posted by Keith Dawson on 11 January 2023

Since 2021, Verint’s message to the customer experience community has focused on the “engagement capacity gap,” a way of describing how the available resources for CX clash with the high level of customer expectations. The argument is that efforts to close that gap require a rethink of how contact centers (and their parent organizations) operate and plan. At Verint’s December analyst conference,... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, agent management

The CCaaS Business Case Shifts from Costs to Capabilities

Posted by Keith Dawson on 14 December 2022

The market and buyer landscape for contact center operating services has changed significantly since the onset of the pandemic, now almost three years ago. Three years would have been enough time for some significant shifts, even without the pressure the pandemic put on service operations. Nevertheless, with on-premises systems now taking a backseat industrywide, it’s fair to say that CCaaS,... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, agent management

Optimizing Customer Communication Channels

Posted by Keith Dawson on 09 November 2022

For quite a few years now, two trends have put the contact center on a collision course. First, the technology used to handle customer inquiries has been evolving quickly, moving organizations farther and farther away from the traditional mode of primarily answering voice calls. At the same time, consumers have become much more demanding. There’s no doubt that customers are more likely to use... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, agent management

Contact Centers Should Revisit KPIs for Strategic Relevance

Posted by Keith Dawson on 02 November 2022

Traditional key performance indicators used for performance measurement in contact centers are no longer sufficient. These outdated standards don’t reliably inform mid- and upper-level leadership about the true impact of agent work and behavior. Organizations should begin to expand the notion of what’s important in order to make the contact center a stronger organizational institution, more... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, data artisan, Contact Center, agent management

Technology is Only Part of the Customer Experience Transformation

Posted by Keith Dawson on 06 October 2022

Through 2025, establishing customer experience application suites on a common platform will be the focal point of the drive to optimize customer and organizational engagement. Organizations that are passionate about improving the customer experience are choosing to empower processes and people with intelligence through smarter applications that embrace analytics, artificial intelligence and... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, agent management

Agent Performance Management Changes With the Times

Posted by Keith Dawson on 20 September 2022

Today’s contact centers need to revisit core assumptions around measuring agent performance. Changes in business conditions influencing agent engagement raise new questions about whether traditional performance models are sufficient to address the more complex customer needs that have taken center stage in recent years. In many respects, the nature of the agent’s job has changed. Instead of being... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, agent management

Why Outbound Is a Smart Channel for Customer Communication

Posted by Keith Dawson on 13 September 2022

Outbound communication is used in a number of different contexts. For potential customers, traditional telemarketing still exists, though it is limited these days due to its minimal effectiveness. Instead, many customer-experience planners have substituted digital outbound over voice for lead generation and nurturing campaigns. Customers find text messages in the channel of their choice to be... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, agent management

Zoho One Reaching Needs of Larger Organizations

Posted by Keith Dawson on 07 September 2022

Zoho presented analysts with a deep look at its strategy and roadmap at its July analyst conference, describing how it intends to meld its many business applications together through integration at the level of the platform. The company, which is privately owned and funded, has generally sought to build its own tools rather than buy or partner. This approach has allowed the firm to create a suite... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Data, AI and Machine Learning

Preparing Agents for Success in Automated, Distributed Contact Centers

Posted by Keith Dawson on 04 August 2022

The contact center industry is reexamining how organizations engage with contact center agents. One thing that we learned from the forced movement to work-from-home was that organizations have to provide agents with appropriate tools to collaborate and communicate with peers and supervisors as well as workers in the back office who participate in all sorts of customer-facing or customer-adjacent... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, agent management