6 Of Your Most Burning Questions Answered at CCW Austin

1999 was an eventful year for U.S. pop culture and business technology. Google brought in 16 students to test their search engine for the first time. Bill Gates predicted the rise of social media platforms like LinkedIn in “Business at the Speed of Thought.” Phil Collins blessed us with his Tarzan soundtrack. “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” sparked the emergence of reality television, and hackers revealed the iconic Hotmail security flaw that permitted anybody to log into any account using the password 'eh.’

But most notably (to us at least), the first Call Center Week was born. The eccentric idea was aimed at training call center managers in emerging customer centric technology trends, performance metrics, quality assurance, cost reduction, and company culture. Twenty years later, CCW has evolved from Call Center Week into Customer Contact Week, the world’s #1 event series for customer management leaders. As our 20th anniversary concludes with CCW Austin, the event will feature 80 interactive discussion groups, 7 tracks of unsurpassed content, and an expo hall with nearly 200 customer-centric solution providers, the largest CCW ever. So make sure you come with customer engagement skill sets you wish to improve and questions for which you hope our esteemed faculty will have answers. Here are a few pressing questions we recommend: 

How can we use interaction analytics to improve the CX journey?

Exploiting data to design the ultimate customer experience can be a monotonous and esoteric task. By analyzing all your customer conversations, whether they are on chat, email, phone or social, you can unlock the intel needed to create the FP3 customer experience. Learn how to leverage AI-fueled interaction analytics with Michael Hull, Customer Success Director and Eduardo Von Borstel, Sr. Solution Architect of CallMiner.“[With analytics], we’re able to focus on understandability as a whole,” Emily Deragon of SirusXM, a CallMiner client, told CCW in a recent special report. “Is the customer not understanding the agent because of the dialect or is it because how we’re [as a business] communicating to the customer? We’ve been able to take the understandability category and trend it out as ‘you know what, that marketing really didn’t make sense to that customer;’ as a result, the agent can’t explain it to the customer. How do we improve that?”    

Read more: How to Use Customer Data Insights to Build a Better CX 

What are the best practices for building and maintaining chatbots?

“64% of agents with AI chatbots are able to spend most of their time solving complex problems, versus 50% of agents without AI chatbots” Salesforce stated in a recent article. Building an efficient chatbot can eliminate CX pain points and free up agents to focus on more important tasks like personalizing interactions … if your bot works, that is.  Who better to learn how to build a bot from than the world’s #1 customer service platform!? Salesforce’s design-thinking team and engineers will be hosting a build-a-bot campfire event where you’ll learn how to create visual bot prototypes using Einstein Artificial Intelligence to drive agent productivity and customer satisfaction.

How do we find a balance between likeability and respect in the workforce?

It’s a topic no one talks about but everyone thinks about. How do we earn professional trust and respect from our bosses, co-workers, reports, interns, etc. while still getting invited to the Thursday night kickball tournaments? Join our women’s empowerment program, #CCWomen, where Hui Wu-Curtis, GM, Customer Operations & Strategy at Arizona Public Service will talk about balancing personalities and relationships, leverage differences in the workplace, and embrace being an “only” in the office. 

How do I get my CS team to transform transactions into relationships?

By emphasizing first contact resolution and promoting “frictionless” experiences, we send the message that quickly and accurately solving the problem is the only relevant goal of the customer interaction. It fosters a transactional mindset, even though true customer centricity hinges on building relationships throughout the entire journey. So how can we strengthen human connections without compromising efficiency? Join Scotty Werner, Author of Caddy Tales, to learn the key lessons your CS team needs to hear.

How can my company incorporate reward incentives with agent collaboration?

Connect with ESPN’s Customer Service Operations Manager, Micah Citti, to learn the best practices in combining office synergy with contact center agent incentives. Facing pressure to hit their personal KPIs, it can be easy for agents to fall into the trap of individualizing their day to day tasks. But ESPN has found a way for agents to hit their numbers (and earn incentives) by collaborating in situations that improve efficiency. Join Micah in learning how to improve agent empowerment and transform your customer care team from a cost center to a profit center.

How can I rally the organization behind a customer loyalty program?

Every organization wants to deliver future customer value, but many are intimidated by the risks of remodeling their membership and loyalty programs. Larry Rodgers, Senior Director, Retail Operations at Nike will help attendees rethink their approach to “membership,” while sharing best practices for managing the risks and legal considerations of loyalty programs.