Text or talk? Voice conversations are still critical, but data shows that the former is becoming a bigger part of customer service interactions. This trend is driven partly by consumer preferences and partly by companies striving to lower costs. Companies are also leaning towards text because of the promise of increased automation, which is easier to do once a conversation has shifted to text.
To facilitate text conversations, you also have to ask the question: “Which channel?” There is SMS, of course. And then there are the big messaging platforms: Messenger and WhatsApp (both from Facebook), Apple’s Business Chat, and Google’s offering called (for now) Google My Business Chat. Among those platforms, a big battle is raging.
Ah, the great outdoors. In Canada, we are blessed with an abundance of wildlife, majestic mountains, pristine lakes, and seemingly endless forests. Since the 1970s, if you were an experienced outdoorsman seeking to explore the authentic, raw, outdoors, then a trip to your local Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) was in order. Customers came to MEC stores to buy the best hiking, rock climbing, and back-woods skiing gear.
Good training teaches employees in the customer service realm how to handle complex customer issues in the most efficient and customer-friendly way possible. This is important, as customer service is the touchstone for all kinds of customer-facing interactions. In training CS representatives, it’s crucial to help them understand a) what they are doing; and b) why they doing the job. It’s also important to encourage them to form strong relationships with customers through consultative communication, and ensure the customer is taken care of through the life of their relationship with a company.
Last week, Fonolo hosted an insightful live discussion on the current state of AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP). The expert panel discussed how NLP relates to the general field of AI, the pros and cons of different approaches to NLP, and more. To save you some time, we’ve extracted video snippets showcasing highlights from the discussion.
Back in 2009, 
Picture it: A young American family booking a flight to a city in another country via Air Canada. Imagine them having to wait for more than 20 minutes before a customer service agent gets on the phone, only to then be transferred to another department.
Six months ago I 
As Harry Truman famously stated, “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” Wise words. Although this is true, how do customer service leaders strategically read to a) learn how to turn themselves into optimal leaders; and b) transform their teams into the high-performing customer service engines they aspire to be?
