This article was contributed by Omer Minkara, Vice President & Principal Analyst, Contact Center & Customer Experience Management
Last week I attended NICE’s analyst summit in scenic Jackson Hole. As was the case with many other attendees, this was my first time attending an in-person business event since the COVID-19 outbreak. It was a great opportunity to interact with executive and operational leaders within NICE to discuss the company’s current and forward-looking market strategy. Before sharing my takeaways below, I must note that the events team at NICE has organized an outstanding event with attention to every little detail. All attendees were able to get on-site rapid PCR testing, and masking was a key part of the event. It was a good reminder that while virtual events are convenient, the level of conversations and information-exchange is better in-person.
At the event, NICE executives shared numerous strategic updates and announcements. One of them was the CXi (Customer Experience Interactions) framework. Barak Eilam, CEO of NICE opened the event sharing that only 19% of customer conversations begin in the contact center with remaining interactions beginning in other channels such as the web, mobile app, email, etc. He also noted that the CX challenges firms face are generation-less, meaning that consumers in all age groups have similar expectations such as more personalized and timely service, greater utilization of digital channels, etc. He then noted that many contact centers still operate as if the customer journey has started in the contact center, lacking contextual awareness of the unique journeys of each client.
CXi is a framework that’s designed to help contact centers address the above-mentioned challenges by aiming to bridge the gap between consumer expectations and business activities designed to address these expectations. It’s powered by NICE’s Enlighten AI platform and has five key components:
- Digital Entry Points: Designed to better understand the starting points of each customer interaction to enable contact centers with contextual awareness needed to proactively manage the journey involved as part of the interaction and in the context of the broader customer / company relationship
- Smart Self-Service: Designed to continuously observe self-service activity data to optimize use of existing self-service activities by leveraging data such as repeat contact, effort scores, customer sentiment, etc. in combination with machine learning and analytics. It also includes continuously analyzing interaction data to uncover automation opportunities to boost operational efficiency and customer satisfaction
- Full CX Orchestration: Designed to seamlessly guide the broader customer journey for each customer across all channels. This utilizes knowledge of digital entry points but goes further by also leveraging all the other customer and operational data available to predict customer sentiment and behavior and use machine learning, automation and AI to orchestrate next steps in managing the customer journey so that the firm maximizes the chances of meeting and exceeding buyer expectations
- Prepared Agents: Aberdeen’s research shows that on average, 14% of agent time is spent looking for information needed to serve customers. That’s time agents can use to address client issues as well as receive coaching and training to improve their future skills and performance. This part of the CXi framework is designed to provide agents with next-best action guidance by using machine learning to observe which articles and activities are most likely to address specific customer needs, and then using automation to trigger screen pops on the agent desktop to provide agents with next-best action guidance with that knowledge or process
- Complete Performance: Designed to enable contact center & CX leaders to monitor contact center operations in real-time and use a combination of machine learning, automation, and analytics to improve customer experiences and drive efficiency gains across numerous areas, including quality management, forecasting, scheduling, and routing
Paul Jarman, CEO of NICE CXone also took the stage and discussed the role of digital as a catalyst for market disruption and CX innovation. In fact, he noted that NICE observed over 160% year-over-year growth in traffic from digital channels over the past year for conversations managed through the CXone platform. Barry Cooper, President for Workforce Engagement & CX added that the company has also observed a significant increase in the number of interactions analyzed with Enlighten AI. An important note he shared was that all the data utilized to power the CXi framework comes from the Enlighten data platform where the company integrates customer and operational data for a connected view of the customer journey needed to deliver more personalized and consistent experiences.
Cooper (and other executives at the event) also shared a newer term in the contact center industry: high-stakes agents. This refers to agents managing high-stakes conversations that require agent empathy, critical thinking and knowledge of customer journey insights to address client issues and ensure customer satisfaction. In later sessions at the event, the NICE team added that the ‘prepared agents’ part of the CXi framework is designed to support today’s high-stakes agents while less complex (lower stakes) interactions are increasingly handled by customers themselves via self-service that’s now getting smarter with machine learning, AI and automation capabilities.
On day 2 of the event, John Wilcutts, VP & General Manager for Digital Solutions Group expanded on Jarman’s note on digital being a catalyst for CX disruption and innovation. Wilcutts shared details of the Enlighten XO (Experience Optimization) product that uses machine learning algorithms and established models to analyze customer and operational data within the Enlighten data platform to uncover opportunities for efficiency gains for contact center leaders and provide details of which activities would help the firm improve its KPIs. He also announced CXone Mobile which allows contact center and CX leaders to use mobile apps to deliver more personalized and effortless experiences. There was a demo showing how a consumer can call the contact center, get a personalized text message with a link to download a mobile app which allows firms to authenticate the user (customer) in future messaging conversations that are personalized based on existing customer data and updated in real-time as the firm captures new data in an asynchronous manner through messaging conversations. Wilcutts noted that authenticating customers with the help of the mobile app opens many opportunities for service providers, including processing payment card information, capturing personally identifying information and etc. to deliver more personalized support.
Tim Harris, head of product for CXone later took the stage and shared updates and more details about the company’s CXone product. He highlighted CXone studio allowing firms to design customer journeys with drag-and-drop functionality. He also referred to Enlighten AI as an enabler helping unlock invisible intelligent across the product suite.
To summarize, NICE is making advances across several areas, including digital experience, AI, self-service and flexible work. Barak Eilam summarized the company’s vision driving these advances as: ‘Transforming Experiences to be Extraordinary and Trusted.’ Please share your thoughts / comments on how these activities relate to your current and future plans.
