Sebastian Reeve
The rumours that voice is dead turned out to be a little premature. When they want answers, customers still pick up the phone. Maybe it’s the way they prefer to engage with brands. Maybe they don’t have any other way to get in touch. Or maybe they’ve tried all the other channels and struck out […]
In 2019, Barclays Corporate Banking reported that UK manufacturers could make £13 billion over five years from introducing direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales to their channel mix. But the reality has been far more lucrative. The unexpected and ongoing disruption of COVID gave many manufacturers the opportunity to experiment with D2C as an alternative revenue stream while […]
Can digital customer experiences truly replicate the interactions retailers deliver in brick-and-mortar stores? I recently sat down with Rachel Hicks from Business Reporter to discuss this question and more as part of its “The Future of Retail” campaign. It was particularly interesting to talk about how the role of a brand’s website has changed in […]
In December 2019, PSFK reported that 70 percent of customers expected retailers to offer them the same level of personal service, whether they were shopping online, on their mobile device, or in a physical store. Then the pandemic forced previously reluctant shoppers into unfamiliar online spaces. But once they arrived, they found a range of […]
Did you know that UK’s smart speaker adoption rate nearly tripled over the last two years? It’s estimated that at least 38% of the nation’s adults owned one by the start of 20211. What’s more, Siri alone now fields 25 billion requests each month across the Apple ecosystem2. Such statistics confirm our lived experience: Conversational […]
If you’ve spent any time on the What’s Next blog, you’ll know that teaming up a virtual assistant and a live assist platform can be an inspired move. (Maybe you recently read how Dixons Carphone Group combined the technologies to solve around 80% of its 100,000 weekly customer queries.) That’s certainly been the case for […]
Throughout 2020, we worked closely with companies to ensure they had everything they needed to serve customers on digital channels without any disruption. One of these quick-thinking companies is Dixons Carphone Group (DCG), a market leader in electronic goods and mobile devices across eight countries, with brands including Currys PC World and Carphone Warehouse. As […]
As part of the 2021 AI Business Week Digital Symposium, I joined the AI in E-Commerce and Retail session to give my perspective on how market-leading brands are using AI to thrive in turbulent times. The panel was moderated by Chuck Martin, Editor of Strategic Content for AI Business, with presentations from Eden Zoller, Chief […]
Over the past decade, AI has been a gamechanger for financial institutions. It’s helped support agents during customer engagements by offering them relevant information and suggested next best actions, and perhaps most crucially, it’s enabled a new wave of self-service on digital channels. As the pandemic forced the closure of physical branches across the world, […]
According to a new ContactBabel report, artificial intelligence and web chat will be the technologies most implemented in UK contact centres over the coming 12 months. And it’s easy to see why. 85% of the senior CX and customer contact professionals surveyed believe web chat has a positive effect on customer experience. In comparison, 77-78% […]
A customer’s preferred choice of service channel isn’t set in stone. It changes depending on the issue they’re looking to resolve. And that’s why ContactBabel’s new research makes such interesting reading for CX leaders. For this year’s edition of its regular report, The UK Customer Experience Decision-Makers’ Guide, the analyst surveyed1,000 UK consumers to discover […]
Do you feel like your software and systems are stifling your CX? If so, you’re in good company. In a recent study of UK customer experience and contact centre leaders, approaching half (44%) rated their CX technology as either ‘poor’ or ‘average’, when asked about their organisation’s support for customer experience programmes. What’s more, 73% […]
