Customer Service Solutions

Let’s just get it out of the way at the start of this blog: COVID-19 has remade retail and has forced a rapid shift toward digital customer service interactions. And now the holidays are nigh, and e-commerce seems to be the order of the day (or the “plague year”). To help with this rush of […]

Since the start of the pandemic, customer service organizations are doubling down on their investments in knowledge management because these solutions: Empower customer service agents to deliver successful outcomes. One of the top three drivers of customer service success is agent knowledge. The early days of knowledge management focused on streamlining access to curated content. […]

Phone experiences are increasingly becoming suboptimal as more and more customer service journeys begin before customers pick up the phone. This is because most companies deploy their communication channels in silos, which means that: (1) Agents have no knowledge of the customer’s prior digital interactions and (2) they cannot easily understand a customer’s prior actions […]

There is no single customer service solution that is ideal for all sizes of organizations, all industries, or all business models. For example, many companies selling and supporting higher-value, considered purchases have complex customer service processes that require collaboration between the account and customer service organization. Each customer interaction is also an opportunity to nurture […]

More customers are using self-service as a first point of contact during the pandemic. Learn how companies are working to improve the experience.

Twenty-two customer service executives shared their victories and challenges during the coronavirus pandemic. Read key takeaways from this conversation about customer service during COVID-19.

More and more customer service organizations turn to robotic process automation (RPA) to make agents more effective. The technology offloads repeatable tasks from agents, enforces compliance to process and policy, and allows agents to focus on work that matters. Yet contact centers often don’t see the initial ROI of RPA play out as they scale […]

Before we drown in dashboard dystopia, let’s swing the pendulum back to create meaningful metrics and measurement that will move your business forward and at the same time drive the outcomes that your customers want. At Forrester’s Customer Experience North America virtual event on June 16–18, we have an entire track dedicated to meaningful measurement where we’ll explore how both CX professionals and marketers can up their measurement game across six dimensions.

Learn why now is the right time for brands to move to a work-at-home model for contact center agents.

RPA (robotic process automation) is a tactical, short-term fix to digitize common, reproducible agent tasks in the contact center. It’s an easy overlay to your existing technology ecosystem and extends the life of the contact center applications. Forrester data shows that over 44% of organizations are already using RPA. There are two forms of RPA. […]

Will contact centers soon be whittled down to a single all-knowing chatbot? Sorry, not quite. But AI will remake customer service, starting from the outside in. Discover the contact center of the future on this week’s What It Means with Principal Analyst Ian Jacobs.

As AI and automation move deeper into customer service, new areas will be impacted including staffing, processes, and culture.

AI and automation are already reshaping call centers. Get your customer service organization prepared with these talent acquisition tips.

Customer service organizations use robotic process automation (RPA) as a tactical and short-term approach to digitize common agent tasks. There are two forms of RPA: unattended and attended RPA. A task can start with an agent and be supported by attended automation, which can kick off unattended RPA to complete the process. Customer service leaders […]

AI will change how organizations staff, run, and manage their customer service teams. Read Forrester's 2020 customer service predictions to learn more.

Customer service organizations turn to robotic process automation (RPA) to provide tactical and short-term fixes to digitize common, reproducible agent tasks. There are two forms of RPA: Attended mode RPA. These bots target the front office. They are invoked by agents in the flow of their work. In the case of an exception, the bot […]

In this short video, I ask a simple question with no simple answer: How can customer service organizations avoid wild swings between a focus on experience and a focus on efficiency if macroeconomic conditions deteriorate? Let me know your thoughts on what your organization is doing to avoid this oft-repeated behavior. Email me at ijacobs@forrester.com. […]

Salesforce continues its fast and furious acquisition spree by picking up ClickSoftware for $1.53 billion to beef up its field service capabilities. Field service is a rapidly growing area in CRM. Growth is fueled by the demand for: 1) differentiated customer experiences, which extends to a field worker showing up at a customer or a […]

Not all customer service vendor solutions are a good fit for your organization, and choosing the right one depends on the number of agents you have, your growth projections, your business model, the type of industry you are in, and whether you are looking for a standalone customer service solution or one that is part […]