Menu

Category: Professional Services


West CorporationBlogInteractive ServicesProfessional Services

Category: Professional 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 19, 2017 by West Corporation 


How Utilities Should Respond to the Mobile Shift

Doug Thompson, Director of Product Development

According to Google, 87 percent of people now have their phones by their sides at all times.[i] Despite many utilities recognizing the need to address ever-rising customer mobility with newer, more proactive communication strategies, they still fail to make it a priority.

In my recent article published in CS Week’s Spring edition of Newsline Magazine (Page 3), I explore the customer experience (CX) challenges today’s utilities face, and offer my take on how utilities can capitalize upon the “mobile shift” that has gradually seeped into the industry. 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 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 December 9, 2016 by West Corporation 


directed-dialog-and-natural-language

The Right Speech Fit: Directed Dialog or Natural Language?

One of the biggest hurdles companies must face when interacting effectively with today’s evolving customers is supporting automated care that feels natural. This obstacle becomes especially pronounced when customers reach for the phone — hoping to connect with an agent but getting an IVR system instead.

When implemented with the proper forethought, automated speech recognition applications offer an intuitive way for brands to create more organic IVR interactions than typically possible with touchtone (DTMF) alone. (Certain tasks are simply too cumbersome to key into your phone!) But to avoid blindly rolling out a sophisticated voice application and making a poor long-term investment, companies must keep in mind that the speech solutions at their disposal are not interchangeable.

Check out these Directed Dialog vs. Natural Language tips, to discover the key differences between the two types of applications, and consider how DTMF can intelligently fit into your CX ecosystem when speech really isn’t the best option for your brand’s needs. Read More >

West Corporation

Posted on November 18, 2016 by West Corporation 


voice recognition

Speaking Your Customers’ Language with Voice Recognition

Face it: As the world “texts” away and 35 percent of people take to social media for expedient customer care[i], picking up the phone often means a customer has already exhausted a variety of other self-service options. As a result, customers have been conditioned to loathe your company’s interactive voice response (IVR) system from the get-go – and who can blame them. But it’s not IVR itself that customers truly despise; rather, they’re frustrated with its capacity to understand and help them self-serve.

Luckily, speech recognition applications, like Natural Language and Directed Dialog, are helping brands reclaim IVR as a cost-effective and rewarding communication staple when they recognize its role as “One Piece of the CX Puzzle,” as West’s Dan Gordon published in the Winter Issue of Speech Technology Magazine.
Read More >

West Corporation

Posted on October 31, 2016 by West Corporation 


Looking Inside-Out to Drive CX Maturity

It’s no secret that customers call the shots. With their livelihoods teetering upon 5-star ratings, brands understand the importance of providing a customer experience (CX) that not only meets, but exceeds expectations. Yet even with this understanding, many struggle building a sustainable strategy to deliver.

What’s a common misstep companies make in their pursuit of CX excellence? Read More >

West Corporation

Posted on by West Corporation 


cloud contact center

Inbound and Outbound Campaign Strategies for an Improved Contact Center

There are many strategies you could implement to run a more efficient, more productive contact center. When it comes to inbound, you should implement multiple channels to ensure you can provide the best customer experience, no matter how your customers prefer to communicate. Then, you can prioritize your contacts by those various channels. And you should provide a dashboard that allows your agents a single view of all of those channels and how your customers are using each at any given time.

For outbound, it’s important to ensure you have enough data—and that the quality of your data is superior. You should also establish the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and use multiple channels in your outbound strategies whenever possible to increase your likelihood of reaching your KPIs.

Finally, consider having a multi-channel contact center —the most effective strategy for an improved customer experience.

For more information on these strategies, download our slideshow on effective inbound and outbound strategies, as well as the benefits of a multi-channel contact center.

Blog Categories

  • Unified Communications Services

West Corporation

utility-side-menu