AI and the future of customer experience
Today, anticipating which future customers are most likely to embrace is more important in the customer experience and contact centre industry than ever before. Why? Because the industry is in the midst of massive changes.
The fact is, customer support channels are multiplying and at the same time, consumer preferences are shifting. While companies used to focus on single interactions with customers, that’s no longer enough. Instead, businesses must be laser-focused on the totality of the customer journey. At the same time, contact centre employees are also facing tremendous change. Their role is increasing in value – as easier work is automated through artificial intelligence (AI) and more complex situations are left for humans to handle.
In the midst of all of this change, it was heartening to see Genesys positioned farthest to the right – again – for completeness of vision in the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) in North America.
In our opinion, the Genesys position in the leader’s quadrant is the result of our ability to anticipate customer needs in light of current industry changes. In addition, it is testament to our ability to deliver break-through cloud solutions addressing those needs while leveraging a leading-edge architecture and development approach.
The future of the contact centre
The old customer communication methods simply aren’t enough anymore. Businesses have to routinely rethink how they can market, sell and serve their customers using technology. Today, this is the cornerstone for winning new customers and turning existing customers into brand loyalists.
Given this backdrop, it is clear that AI and its many benefits are no longer reserved for enterprises with dedicated engineers devoted to unlocking it’s potential. AI is being democratised, and Genesys is leading the charge. In fact, in the past few years, we have focused on finding new ways to infuse AI, machine learning, predictive analytics, natural language processing capabilities and more across the entire customer journey.
There are major benefits for businesses’ that leverage technologies like these. Chief among them is gaining the ability to connect every moment as consumers move between channels (phone, web chat, text and more) and departments with exponentially better results than previous rule-based technologies.
Helping customers embrace this future
We have built a series of AI solutions that individually provide compelling benefits. However, the real power comes when those solutions are used in tandem. Together, they deliver much better outcomes as a result of greatly enriched data sourced from the entire customer journey from within our AI platform.
Take, for instance, Predictive Engagement. Using machine learning and predictive analytics, the solution enable businesses to engage and intervene in a customer’s journey at precisely the right moment to nurture a lead, advance a sale, pre-empt churn and more. To put it simply, Predictive Engagement gives businesses a real-time, dynamic way to drive targeted business results.
On its own, the solution is very compelling. However, when combined with our AI-based voice, chat and messaging bots, Predictive Engagement delivers even greater performance. By taking every moment, every action and interaction in the customer lifecycle into account, the bots continuously get smarter.
The data derived from the Predictive Engagement solution and our bots can then be shared with our Predictive Routing algorithm to enable optimized customer and agent matches that enhance the likelihood of achieving specific goals. The real power comes from a synergetic approach – where the combined value of the individual solutions is far superior.
Meeting customers where they are
Genesys is leveraging the cloud, microservices and agile DevOps methodology to innovate faster than ever. In fact, we are updating our customer solutions multiple times a day, allowing us to deliver innovations to our customers at a much faster pace than before. With its flexibility, the cloud also dramatically enhances the performance and further proliferates the adoption of AI. And finally, we’re making sure that our innovations work with both our existing on-premises and cloud solutions.
The Information Age is over. Today, we’re living in the Experience Age, when how things happen matters as much as what is happening. Staying ahead of today’s speed of innovation is quite a challenge. And I’m proud to say our ability to anticipate the future is what enables us to deliver cutting-edge solutions. It’s the reason thousands of companies around the world, including 60 of the world’s top 100 brands, have chosen to partner with us.
Gartner’s recognition of Genesys as a Leader is certainly gratifying, but what’s even more pleasing is watching businesses adopt our breakthrough solutions to deliver superior customer value. That is the ultimate reward.
About Adriaan van Staden
Adriaan van Staden is senior sales manager - Southern East Africa at Genesys
