Reports, White Papers and Latest Resources

This eBook explores what digital motivation can do for frontline employees and their managers, from real-time performance management to learning, coaching, and recognition.

Channels like surveys, while valuable, only offer a glimpse into positive or negative reactions, leaving a whole middle ground of feedback untapped – many shaded or grey in between the black and white.

This guide takes a detailed look at the main contact centre pain points and issues that affect the industry UK wide.

Customer experience (CX) has become extremely challenging as companies face the perfect storm of increasing call volumes, talent shortages, and rising customer expectations.

As customer demands and behaviors continue to change at a breakneck pace, delivering top-notch support feels like more of a moving target than ever before.

We'd love to tell you that setting up your Workforce Management system is a complete walk in the park, and you can do it in two clicks, but... we'd simply be insulting your intelligence as a Workforce Manager, Operations Director or IT Manager.

Many brands view customer service as a cost centre – a necessary function charged with fielding customer enquiries and complaints. But that perspective couldn’t be further from the truth!

Customers look for businesses to communicate with them in a proactive fashion to inform them of potential issues that may affect product/service experience and advise on the steps the company is taking to mitigate.

It’s no secret that today’s contact centre advisors are under immense pressure.

Your customers WANT to use your chatbot - it is easy to chat anytime, anywhere on any topic. And sometimes, chatbots get it right. The challenge is that almost 40% of the time, businesses fail to deliver positive chatbot experiences. This leaves customers unsatisfied and sometimes reluctant to try again after a poor experience.

As we head into 2023, companies face difficult crossroads with increasing economic uncertainty which is poised to affect the CX industry.

This webinar shared actionable advice from our workforce engagement experts, so you can get the very best results out of your workforce.

An excellent customer experience (CX) can not only influence how a customer feels about your brand, but also the bottom line.

What is customer experience (CX)? It is the perception that your customers form of your organization from the interactions they have throughout their journey with you. Think about companies that have given you a great customer experience and how you recommend them to your friends.

There are few departments who have felt the rise of remote and hybrid work more than the contact centre: with 73% of agents wanting to continue working remotely into the future. However, the most innovative organisations are those that understand how omnichannel conversation analytics can help them adapt, and excel, in the face of change and uncertainty.

Cloud transformation has the potential to bring about rapid change, a deeper understanding of your customers, and better working practices for your agents.

Today’s chatbots are sophisticated software applications built on conversational AI. Unlike older chatbots, these new bots learn and grow based on experience. The more conversations they have with humans, the smarter they become.

Forecasting is complex with many moving parts. It is one of the most challenging parts of the workforce management cycle. Without a clear process, a lot can go wrong. However, with careful planning, you can master the art of accurate forecasting with five fundamental steps.

The compliance and risk landscape for organisations has become increasingly complex when it comes to consumer protections. Today, there are many factors that are driving global regulatory demands.

The role of AI does not stop at self-service and agent support.

As customer and employee expectations evolve, contact centers must adapt by providing intelligent customer service technology.

Todays’ CX teams can’t afford to remain isolated in their separate contact centre, service desk or CRM camps. The pressure for brands to differentiate via their customer experience now makes any CX technology decisions taken more important than ever.

Contact centers that want to make a seamless leap to the cloud can’t get there by brute force alone. They need a testing process that’s up to the task. And that means replacing old, scattershot methods with fluid, continuous testing.

Today, many global organisations are managing a rise in remote and hybrid work – and few departments have felt the impacts of that more than the contact centre.

Agent attrition has always been a challenge in the contact centre industry but growing pressure from the way contact centres operate and the demands of customers have increased even further since the pandemic, reducing retention and increasing disengaged agents.

AI has been at the forefront of transforming everything from the way we work, to the way we handle customers and the customer experience. But the business benefits of AI often remain elusive because so much emphasis has been placed on the merits of the technology versus the positive business outcomes the technology enables.

An effective automation and AI solution can transform your business. For your customers, it means a smoother and more effortless experience. For your advisors, thanks to AI’s ability to listen in to customer interactions, augmenting the experience and equipping advisors with key contextual insights.

In their efforts to deepen customer relationships in the face of economic uncertainty, many forward-thinking brands have transitioned from helping customers in an efficient, yet seemingly transactional way, to understanding and engaging with each customer as an individual.

When it comes to contact centre operations, there’s a certain level of automation that drives efficiency. However, there are specific interactions – such as those with a vulnerable customer or a complex issue – that still require the human touch, and always will.

Reducing contact centre abandonment is key to maintaining customer experience. It is also very important to consider how to reduce abandonment. Customers often abandon due to long wait times, but there are other factors that lead to abandonment.

Natural language processing (NLP) has evolved as a revolutionary technology in the field of AI for CX. But it’s not a plug-and-play solution.

More than ever, customer experience (CX) is shaping the competitive landscape and providing a significant advantage for organizations that make it the cornerstone of their business strategies.

2022 has seen the world attempt to return to the new normal and continue to adapt to the ongoing impact of the past two years.

Vulnerable customers are at a greater risk of harm due to financial, health or capability constraints. It is vital that every contact centre knows how to identify vulnerable customers and tailor services accordingly to minimise the risk of harm.

Simply resolving issues and delivering customer satisfaction is no longer enough. But by consistently offering a great customer experience, it can deliver huge strategic value for your business. This has been backed up by recent Watermark Consulting research which states CX success 'builds value, while a poor customer experience erodes it’.

Customers are regularly contacting you and explaining how a product didn’t work or when a service didn’t meet their expectations.

AI is now recognized as a key component of any digital transformation, especially in the customer experience sector. It will, in fact, help to open up the organization and to reinvent business processes.

Contact center managers have access to more data than ever before. As a leader, it is important to set your organization and business up for success by engaging in benchmarking to determine best business practices, critically evaluate your business and implement necessary changes has become essential for the success of any contact center.

Believe it or not, there are five generations that make up today’s workforce. Each of these generations has different ways in which they communicate and different preferences in the ways they like to be communicated to. Understanding how each operates in your workplace can be invaluable when it comes to delivering highly personalised, effective feedback and coaching.

As the cost of living crisis continues and bills continue to soar, contact centres are facing an increase in vulnerable customers who are seeking support.

Knowledge has never been more important in the contact centre. Or more difficult to manage effectively. For this reason, companies must ensure they have a knowledge management strategy in place.

As the Great Resignation continues, contact centre leaders must be creative to attract and keep the necessary staff to serve their customers. Agents want to work for employers who treat them more like customers.

The past couple years have posed major challenges for retailers, with a pandemic, inflation, rising interest rates, economic uncertainty and ongoing global supply chains issues. With customers starting to return back to brick-and-mortar stores, many retailers are still uncertain about how and when behaviours will shift yet again.

Contact centers are often under-prioritized assets. They have been measured and managed as necessary, but unremarkable elements of the business, plagued with legacy on-premises solutions and KPIs aimed at productivity and volume.

As CX organisations shift into the post-pandemic era, several key trends are here to stay. Workers are demanding flexibility, control over their schedules, and learning and career development opportunities.

According to Gartner, most customer experience strategy documents they receive from their customers for feedback fail to capture the ‘essence’ of a good CX strategy.

B2C retailers are facing unprecedented market conditions as the industry undergoes a massive transformation.

At MaxContact, our mission is to help improve the lives of those that interact through customer engagement software – and that’s why we’ve launched a podcast, Talk Time with MaxContact.

Over the next several years, a presence in the virtual world, known as the metaverse will likely become as common as having a website. While still in its early days, this emerging channel is even now attracting a wide array of visitors eager to connect, recreate previous experiences, or try new ones.

Statistics show the number of smartphone users, volume of apps downloaded and the value of mobile transactions are rising so quickly that they would be out-of-date before you finish reading this report.

Today’s customers and employees expect faster, more accurate, effortless service. Every day, they experience the benefits of innovative technology with brands that have taken the lead on automation and AI-enhanced self-service experiences.

The Essential Guide to Auto-QA has been written as too many organisations have missed out on the benefits of Conversation Analytics over the years.

As contact centers become more digital and more intelligent, agents are juggling more channels and handling ever-more-complex issues. The contact centers that effectively engage and empower these “super agents” are realizing superior CX results, operational efficiencies, and financial outcomes.

Not all research studies are created equal.

Customer experience personalisation is no longer a “nice-to-have.” In today’s digital-first world, it’s now a “must-have.”

It’s difficult to measure soft skills—but not impossible.

Now in its sixth year, the Customer Service Index provides data and insights to help you better meet your customers’ changing needs and expectations.

Calabrio surveyed 500 contact centre managers and consumers in the UK, US, DACH and the Nordics, to uncover key expectations, misperceptions, and emerging strategies around contact centre experiences. And the results revealed a fundamental truth: Without the human element, no amount of technology can hold a brand experience together.

It’s reported that an eye-watering 97% of consumers say that customer service is crucial to retaining their loyalty.

As a contact centre leader, you may not realise that your agents’ happiness and sense of purpose directly translates to what customers experience from your business.

Enterprises that embrace digital platforms infused with artificial intelligence (AI) and automation can maintain and ultimately exceed customer expectations as they adapt to the new normal and innovate beyond the old ways of working and doing business.

If you’re not already exploring how to use intelligent virtual assistants in your contact centre, you soon will be. The case for enabling customers to complete interactions without speaking to an agent keeps growing.

Customer interactions with vulnerable individuals include a host of valuable intelligence that can be used to drive a more empathetic customer experience, and transform how enterprises operate.

IDC, in conjunction with Sabio, set out to better understand how digital innovation is evolving in the contact centre space. They spoke to five companies with significant contact centre operations in the process of introducing digital innovation.

If you’re like most contact center leaders, you have separate platforms or tools to measure voice, chat and IVR. The owner of each typically monitors and optimizes their respective channel, hoping this improves overall performance.

Customer demand is driving digital adoption, and the financial services sector can be congratulated for leading the way in certain areas of customer experience (CX).

Talkdesk have been named a Leader in the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CCaaS for the 4th consecutive year.

This report explores how poor mental health of employees is costing UK contact centres almost £1 billion each year, and what you can do about it.

Evolving customer expectations, the shift to remote work, and staffing challenges don’t have to slow your business.

Being a contact centre agent has never been more difficult. Digital self-service options haven’t fully relieved the pressure, either. Without additional support, these conversations can be daunting to manage. In some cases, they can even lead to costly complaints or customer churn.

Ever-changing customer expectations, talent gaps, low employee morale, and an increased level of competition in the market are some of the primary stumbling blocks to delivering best-in-class customer service.

This guide walks you through how to get more strategic with your data. Connecting systems for a 360-degree view of the customer enables better customer journeys. And it’s a lot easier to connect and exchange data when it’s done on a composable platform.

Knowledge management is the process of continuously creating, optimizing, and extending the content your customers and agents need to make their journeys successful. From search engine queries to chatbot messaging to agent interactions, knowledge is how you ensure your customers get the right answers in the moments that matter most.

Having empathy for your customers and employees is now more important than ever. Despite this there is a real empathy gap between customers and the brands with which they interact, and most businesses are still falling short of demonstrating the empathy customers seek.

Modern contact centres are increasingly moving to cloud-based solutions, with more than 75% making full or partial transitions already. Among these contact centres, cloud-based solutions have proved to be technically flexible, scalable and financially beneficial.

CX leaders recognize the potential of AI to improve the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of customer service and are planning to expand investments in it accordingly.

To create amazing customer experiences and lifelong customers, you need to understand all of the digital touchpoints along their journey. This guide from ContactBabel, is designed to help you do just that.

With continued monitoring and maintenance of your virtual agent, you can increase customer self-service rates and customer satisfaction, as well as reduce interaction handle times and the cost per contact.

Up until very recently, the majority of UK contact centres worked in a traditional, centralised model, with fewer than 4% of agents working remotely at home on a permanent basis. This has all changed thanks to the global pandemic.

How can insurance companies unlock the power of data and derive business value from it without compromising on security?