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Category: Consumer Services

West Corporation

Posted on May 3, 2017 by West Corporation 


Intelisys Mindshare

Seeing the Bigger Contact Center Picture in the Channel

Bruce Pollock, VP of Strategic Growth and Planning, West

As people evolve in step with the technology they touch, cloud-based solutions provide the flexibility and agility organizations need to respond to them effectively. But. The right technology is just one piece of the puzzle.

By 2020, if not before, Customer Experience (CX) will become more important to customers than price or product as a key brand differentiator. As such, a set-and-forget technological mindset that companies have used in the past is dangerous. As expectations climb, organizations that fail to ground technology in thoughtful strategy will struggle to connect meaningfully and effectively with customers. Without forethought, interactions become siloed across channels and departments, customers repeat themselves as they are passed from agent to agent, and the company’s top and bottom line suffers.

So how can you help your clients avoid these commonplace contact center pitfalls? Let’s look at a few inbound strategies that are essential to success in today’s CX landscape. Read More >

West Corporation

Posted on April 27, 2017 by West Corporation 


West Research Report

West Provides Key CX Performance Rules in CCW Research Report

West collaborated with CCW Digital—a prominent community, resource hub and advisory for customer management practice, call center and customer experience professionals—on their Performance & Agents Executive Report. This report addresses the goals, challenges and solutions that organizations should address in the pursuit of a result-oriented customer experience function.

Within the report, West’s “Practicality Guide: An Illustration of Improved Performance,” offers up 5 Rules of Customer Experience Performance (starting on page 25). You can read more about these best practices in the full write-up here.

Read More >

West Corporation

Posted on April 5, 2017 by West Corporation 


CRM Service Leader Award Contact Center

West’s Contact Center Infrastructure Recognized as One of Industry’s Best by CRM

West is proud to receive a 2017 CRM Service Leader Award for Contact Center Infrastructure. Recognizing the major role the contact center plays in a company’s customer experience and bottom line, West designed its contact center offering with the intent to connect interactions across multiple channels, boost agent productivity, increase connection rates and build long-term brand advocates.

CRM recognized West for the depth of its Cloud Contact Center’s functionality and addition of multichannel capabilities, network-based queuing, and preview, predictive, and progressive dialing modes that provide artificial intelligence to manage dialer pacing in real time. It also attributed much of West’s success to a number of strategic business decisions, including divesting its agent services back in January 2015. Click here to read the full write-up. Read More >

West Corporation

Posted on March 23, 2017 by West Corporation 


CX Considerations

5 Major CX Considerations to Think Through Now

By Dan Gordon, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Development

Consider this: By 2020, customer experience (CX) will overtake price and product in terms of overall value to brand differentiation. Why? Because in today’s mobile world, solid CX represents real money. More than ever before, customers are turning to the Internet to self-serve and conduct research before ever reaching out to your brand. Now, by the time they pick up the phone and dial your IVR or send a text message, they are operating from a level of understanding that requires you to know more too — specifically about them. And if you don’t, they will take their business elsewhere and find someone who does.

As customers continually evolve and fluidly define the types of customer experiences they expect, even some of the most well planned CX game plans are destined to fail because they lack a coherent investment strategy and the necessary resources it will take to execute.

Listen to this recording of my recent CRM Xchange presentation to learn more about what it takes to stay ahead of the curve. Then, check out these five steps to start immediately optimizing your CX: Read More >

West Corporation

Posted on March 14, 2017 by West Corporation 


Cloud Tech for Utilities

Regulators Open the Door for Utility Investment in the Cloud

By Chandler Harrison, Sales Executive, West Interactive

As technology evolves and changes the way we live our day to day lives, expectations for agile customer service are ever-rising. As a result, customers demand the same speed and personalization from your utility customer experience (CX) as that of their favorite retail company.

Cloud-based technology can provide the flexibility and data-informed insights that utilities need to get ahead of today’s fickle utility customer. Traditionally, utilities have been unable to rate-base associated costs in the same way they can when it comes to on-premises software. In a nutshell, utility leaders would rather (understandably) realize a regulated rate of return from capital expenditures on in-house technology, rather than invest in the cloud and miss out. But things are changing… and fast. Read More >

West Corporation

Posted on February 10, 2017 by West Corporation 


Natural Language

Natural Language and Your CX: The Perfect Match?

Finding the right combination of communication solutions to drive the ideal customer experience (CX) can feel a lot like getting back into the dating pool… exciting, confusing, intimidating. To pursue or not to pursue? That is the question. This is especially true when checking out a speech-enabled Natural Language (NL) application.

NL is gorgeous on the outside looking in, but a fickle mistress to organizations that jump into the relationship without getting to know the deeper nuances. Luckily, companies thinking about introducing a NL solution to their IVR can avoid a disastrous blind date: Click here to learn When to Use Natural Language – and When to Avoid It. Read More >

West Corporation

Posted on February 8, 2017 by West Corporation 


inbound contact center

The 10 New Rules of the Inbound Contact Center

Things have changed in the contact center. Customer experience is no longer bound by the limitations of legacy on-premises system capabilities. In their place, new cloud-based solutions offer a more flexible and agile approach, resulting in considerably more rewarding customer interactions.

But while new cloud-based technology can play a major role in an organization’s ability to deliver a more effective customer experience, it needs to be grounded in solid strategy. “The 10 New Rules of the Inbound Contact Center” provides a playbook through which any brand can get the most from their cloud-based platform: Read More >

West Corporation

Posted on January 25, 2017 by West Corporation 


CX consumer survey

Consumer Survey Offers Key Insights to Improve CX

Not long ago, grocery shopping happened solely in-store and banking was done with the help of a human teller. But in the blink of an eye, the internet, social media and mobile devices changed the relationship between company and customer as we knew it. Now, the quality of every interaction with a brand plays into a larger customer experience lifecycle that evolves with every conversation, across multiple channels.

– 89 percent of customers have switched brand loyalties due to poor CX. 69 percent will pay more for products and services from brands with a good CX reputation.

West surveyed more than 500 U.S. consumers to understand how they define high quality CX, gauge how communication preferences shift across self-service and proactive interactions, and identify which industries are leading and lagging in CX delivery. Download this whitepaper to explore customer expectations for your CX and learn: Read More >

West Corporation

Posted on January 6, 2017 by West Corporation 


machine-learning

The Future of CX: Machine Learning Will (Finally) Make Business Personal

Greg Ablett, SVP of Utilities and Business Support at West, offers insights into how businesses in every industry can prepare for the future impact machine learning will have on the customer service industry in his article published by Data Informed, a leading resource on data analytics and management strategies.

“Business analytics and, specifically, machine learning are turning the proverbial ‘dating’ game between businesses and consumers on its head. Instead of assembling interactions based on preconceived notions about how consumers want to be treated, machine learning enables companies to deliver truly personalized communication based on up-to-the-moment data…”

Click here to learn what steps Greg recommends companies take to stay ahead.

West Corporation

Posted on January 5, 2017 by West Corporation 


SaaS vs Managed Services

SaaS or Managed Services: Which Contact Center Option Fits Your Needs?

You’ve made the big decision. You know you’re going to update—or even upgrade—your contact center with a cloud solution. But there are more choices you need to make. One of the first and most important choices about a cloud solution is whether to choose Software as a Service (Saas) or Managed Services.

Each option has its advantages, but your ultimate decision will depend on several factors. These include the depth of your in-house resources, your desired level of support and your outlook on a strategic partner that will continually optimize your business. To see the features and differences between SaaS and Managed Services, view this helpful infographic describing the benefits of each. It covers what you’ll need to consider about:

  • Staffing
  • Configuration
  • Support
  • Analytics
  • Channels
  • Cost

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