Articles about Customer

Artificial intelligence is having an impact on more and more areas of our lives. In the customer service field it's increasingly being used to improve customer experience and create more effective interactions.

But how good is AI at dealing with customers? And are businesses using it effectively? We spoke to Josh Kim, co-founder and CEO of AI-based chat and customer experience platform Channel Talk, to learn more.

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Conversational AI has seen great advances and a massive increase in adoption in the last year or so such that it’s increasingly finding its way into our everyday lives.

We spoke to voice AI industry expert PolyAI's co-founder and CEO, Nikola Mrkšić, to discuss how the technology is shaping customer service and reducing costs, as well as where generative AI tools fit into the picture.

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New research finds that 69 percent of British adults will contact a business via phone call first before trying other methods when seeking assistance.

The study from telecoms company Gamma Communications shows 38 percent of 2,000 people surveyed say direct phone calls are their preferred method of communication with businesses over other channels such as emails, web chats, social media and video calls.

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Increasing customer loyalty in today’s difficult economic times might seem impossible, but the rewards are well worth the extra effort and commitment. According to Forbes, customer-centric companies are 60 percent more profitable than companies that don't focus on their customers. This statistic on its own is probably enough to bring customer satisfaction and retention to the forefront of most C-suite agendas, if it wasn’t a priority already. However, there’s much more value that happy customers can bring to a business than profit alone.

By creating an engaged customer community, companies can also become more innovative and competitive, speed up new product development, and grow their customer base through referrals. Building such a community requires planning and patience, and is a balancing act between efficiency and resources. Its success relies on defining the best communication channels, at the right cost, to connect with customers.

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Building products quickly to meet customer needs is more important than ever, especially as customer expectations continue to evolve. According to a recent study from Zendesk, 70 percent of consumers spend more with companies that offer fluid, personalized, and seamless customer experiences. For IT leaders, it’s not sufficient to focus on building things as required, their first focus needs to be on building the right thing. This means establishing a customer-centric product development process that supports discovering what customers really need and bringing a valuable product to market that meets their needs.

The most effective way to bring customer-centric products to market is to develop them incrementally and iteratively, with experimentation to discover how to best fulfill customer needs and with fast feedback to improve the quality of the product.

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Most businesses now offer their customers multiple means of getting in touch, with many providing online chatbots as a customer service channel.

But new research released by Twilio shows that without taking advantage of first-party data to understand their customers and personalize their approach, businesses are missing key opportunities to engage.

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The pandemic led to a boom in online commerce, but as it fades away enterprises are keen to find new ways to understand and reach their customers, at the same time as addressing increasing privacy concerns.

Customer experience company Acquia commissioned Vanson Bourne to seek the views of 2,000 consumers and 200 marketers in the UK and the US on the digital marketing landscape.

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With the rapid advancement in technology, organizations are constantly grappling with challenges in effectively retaining and increasing their customer base. This challenge is compelling progressive organizations to embrace the best customer relationship management (CRM) strategies for success. 

Despite the focus on customer needs and customer-centricity, many organizations worldwide continue to take a reactive approach to customer needs. They, therefore, miss out on creating a long-lasting, partner-like relationship with them. Given the level of competition in the market today and the infinite options customers have, making customers a business priority is highly critical to satisfy and retain them and drive the required levels of trust and loyalty. This means clearly understanding their actual pain points and developing solutions that resolve those pain points – instead of trying to fit them into your service.

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