CUSTOMER MAGAZINE – Q2, 2017

Xerox's Former BPO Effort Goes Independent: What to Expect from Conduent

It's official. The business process practice that was once part of Xerox now exists as its own company.

That company is called Conduent Inc. And it made its debut under the ticker CNDT on the New York Stock Exchange in January...Read More >>>

2017 MVP Quality Awards
In our annual MVP Awards program, CUSTOMER magazine has taken a look not only at how vendors have traditionally approached their business, but how they are evolving over time to meet the needs of today's customers, as well as their employees. - 07/10/2017

2017 Elite Contact Center Outsourcing Rankings
For more than three decades, CUSTOMER magazine has provided a list of customer service and business process outsources based on interaction volumes. In this issue, we present the 32nd annual Elite Contact Center Outsourcing Awards. - 07/10/2017

New Analytics, Machine Learning Tools Enable Better Customer Outcomes
There's lots of talk these days about using chatbots as a means to serve customers. And we typically imagine such interactions taking place without any human intervention. But there's also a great opportunity to leverage artificial intelligence and analytics to assist living and breathing customer service representatives. - 07/06/2017

IoT Will Become Part of Cognitive Computing
Several 2017 predictions have pointed to the increasingly symbiotic relationship between the Internet of Thing and cognitive computing. The artificial intelligence capabilities of the latter are ideal for the speed and size of the former, while the IoT provides the data quantities needed to optimize the value and ROI of cognitive analytics options. - 07/06/2017

News Briefs
Facebook introduced the Messenger platform a few months ago. Since then, we've several big brands leverage it to launch chatbots. Kia Motors is one example of this. The company recently launched its NiroBot, which was developed by Interpublic Group's Ansible. It provides interested parties with details on Kia vehicles and allows them to schedule test drives. - 07/06/2017

How Columbia University Mastered Social Media Management
Each of the university's many schools, departments, and programs have their own social media marketing strategies and objectives. That's a problem that may sound familiar to many business managers. - 07/06/2017

Reaching Customers through Ringless Voicemail: A Legal Perspective
Ringless voicemail technology is a way for businesses to contact consumers without interrupting them on their mobile phones. Also known in the CRM industry as voice drops, v-drops, and direct drops, this technology allows businesses to leave messages on a consumer's voicemail box without ever ringing the phone. - 07/06/2017

The Sorry State of In-App Customer Support: How & Why to Do It Better
Juniper Research has predicted that the market for mobile apps alone will reach almost $100 billion by 2019. Indeed, there are great fortunes to be made in the mobile marketplace. But mobile entrepreneurs are faced with stiff competition from competing brands and organizations. - 07/06/2017

Employee Engagement Starts Long Before You Make the Hire
You probably have employee engagement strategies in place, such as providing professional development opportunities and recognizing accomplishments. However, you may not realize that engagement begins well before the employee's start date. - 07/06/2017

Pokemon Go Paves the Wave for More AR
In the world of virtual reality and augmented reality, the latter has been perceived as the less-glamorous cousin. However, with the stunning popularity of the Pokemon Go launch, which has 20 million daily users in the U.S alone, AR is firmly in the spotlight. - 07/06/2017

How to Create a Call Center Outsourcing RFP
Making the decision to outsource your call center is a difficult and daunting task, but you've decided it's the right path for your company. So, now what? - 07/06/2017

AI, Automation Help Airlines Keep Up During Flight Delays, Cancellations
After an enjoyable break abroad, passengers do not want to experience being stranded at an airport as a consequence of their flight being delayed, cancelled, or rescheduled. The travel industry has to face rising operating costs, evolving customer needs, and global challenges that pose a range of threats for companies right now. - 07/06/2017

Five Steps to Reap the Benefits of a Remote Contact Center Team
Agent engagement and retention is a top challenge for nearly every customer service leader. The average contact center experiences 30 to 45 percent turnover per year, according to the Quality Assurance & Training Connection. That makes it difficult to deliver outstanding customer experiences and meet aggressive performance targets. - 07/06/2017

7 Things Contact Center Pros Need to Know about ISO 9001:2015
Contact centers are often the face of an organization and a critical first point of customer interaction shaping the organization's brand image. At a major telecom organization, for example, a contact center might interact with an average of 95,000 customers daily. So a positive customer experience is crucial. - 07/06/2017

Challenges in Identifying the Customer Journey
Everyone touts the importance of optimizing the customer journey, ensuring the best customer journey, and creating customer journeys that best serve the business and the customers. Despite this, most organizations don't have a handle on what their typical customer journey is. - 07/06/2017