Anyone who works in the customer service arena has witnessed an explosion in the hype surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP). Why is this the case? Popular AI tools like chatbots use NLP (or, the ability to understand human language) to interact with customers on a more sophisticated level than the IVRs of old. There is no doubt that these technologies will play an important role within the industry in the years and decades ahead. However, as the hype grows, and the bandwagon gets bigger, it’s easy to become confused.
Big question: How should text-based communication work alongside voice for customer service? In the dark ages, the only answer to this was email, in its own silo, and a call center, in its own silo. Then real-time chat came along. And then messaging, powered by massive platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp, made an appearance. Meanwhile, driving in its own lane, is good ‘ol SMS.
With the powerful tool of social media, customers everywhere now have an expansive platform with which to voice their feelings about their customer service experiences. This puts a huge amount of pressure on call center agents to perform. Of course, companies hope that their customers use these social platforms to sing the praises of their brand. But, of course, this is not always the case: An IBM study found that customer service operations are often both pricey and inefficient. Companies spend $1 trillion on 265 billion customer service calls each year and 50% of the complaints were unresolved.
Now that Game of Thrones has ended, you’re probably thinking, “What should I do with all of the extra time I have now?” Allow me to suggest something: It’s a great time to catch up on industry reading. There’s a large (metaphorical) stack of reports to go through here at Fonolo HQ, so let’s dive in!
It seems like, every month, Apple is coming out with a new product or service for its customers to take advantage of, a gadget or a gizmo to “improve” their lives. A steady stream of people visit Apple stores to view, purchase, or try out some of its convenient gadgets hands-on. If you’ve ever walked through a mall where an Apple Store is present, you’ve seen the phenomenon: A mass of people congregating within its glass walls, standing at the product kiosks, handling items with interests and speaking with customer service professionals about the latest and greatest in Apple technology. When you have hundreds of people walking through the doors at any time, one can only imagine the demand on its customer service professionals.
Call center executives are constantly under pressure to find cost-savings. Yet, according to the 
Contact center software and CRM software have been on a slow collision course for decades. It’s not hard to understand why: They both deal with customer communication so the boundary was destined to get blurry. Now that both worlds are increasingly cloud-based, the collision is accelerating.
