2021: The Year Customer Service Embraces Empathy

Customer service has always had something of an identity crisis. But that could be about to change.

We Don’t All Want to Work From Home

Efficiency goes up, but does employee happiness?

Stop Trying to Make Us All Productive

Instead of hyper-focusing on productivity, companies must also consider their workers' well-being

As Agents Already Know, Emotional Work Is Real Work

Compassion fatigue can be a big issue in contact centers

What Post-Pandemic Contact Centers Will Look Like

Will agents return to the office or remain remote? The answer is, likely, yes to both

Empathy Has Its Limits, and It’s Also More Critical Than Ever

Accept that we're all human and let that be your guide, in personal and business contexts

To Succeed in Customer Service, Forget the Rule Your Parents Taught You

Why is my preference assumed to be your preference?

Here’s One of the Best Ways to Make Your Customers Happy

Make your agents happy first—and outsourcers demonstrate innovative ways to do that

Being Insensitive to Customers Is an Odd Business Plan

Some of the travel industry's offers seem suspiciously like extortion

Analyzing CX Means Looking at the High Points, Wherever They Are

How customers feel at the end of interactions is only part of the story, not the climax

The ‘Cost Center’ Notion Must Go (Finally)

Companies claim to be customer-obsessed, but customers themselves feel otherwise. What's not adding up?

To Truly Work, AI Needs to Get Really Personal

Artificial intelligence must do more than reflect back what it thinks it knows about us

Speech Recognition Is Not Speech Understanding

Companies and contact centers strive to communicate with customers across countries and languages, but are their efforts getting lost in [machine] translation?

Yes, Companies Can Influence Customer Emotion

How experiences make customers feel is crucial. Ignore that at your own peril.

Conversational AI Should Speak Plainly and Carry a Big Meaning

Highly technical or lawyerly utterances should be eschewed—in other words, lose the jargon

How Chatbots Can Create a New Kind of Agent

Conversational AI will change customer service, and humans will still matter

AI Isn’t Inevitable—It’s a Choice

Companies should approach automation with judgment and analysis, not resignation

Is Customer Service Ready for the Nonstop Chatter of Messaging Apps?

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro

Where Is Amazon Go-ing With This?

The staffless Amazon Go stores seem like a convenience revolution—though for now, the experience might be beside the point

With Customer Experience, ‘Good’ and ‘Consistent’ Aren’t Always the Same Thing

Experiences that lead to happy customer outcomes can yield less-than-ideal business outcomes