Biometric

Unearthing the Most Important CX Initiatives for 2021 Requires Going Far Beneath the Surface

It’s always been a tried and true topic for seminars and webcasts to divine the most significant changes and new directions in a specific industry. Until now, when someone set out to predict what the major trends might be in the following year, they could often just look at what was being forecast in the previous year and update the syllabus of such educational offerings by integrating any new ideas that may have been introduced in the interim.

Of course, viewed through the prism of the world we are now living in, that notion seems like a quaint anachronism, as irrelevant as the Jetson’s 1960s vision of a future of flying cars that fold into briefcases. The clichés used to describe the current situation in the CX/contact center world are mounting …the world has been turned upside down, the way we do business has changed forever, we are living in a new normal, etc. But however tired we may be of seeing these aphorisms, they reflect an undeniable reality. Organizations of all types must find and implement innovative methods to address customers’ momentous needs today to build enduring relationships in the era when Covid-19 is just a jarring memory.

Simply stated, the pandemic has triggered a re-evaluation of the meaning and purpose of customer care. Over the past few months, the emphasis on complex examinations of customer journeys and satisfaction metrics have been supplanted by a focus on the gravity of ensuring that consumers can get the information they need when they need it. Consequently, businesses are now changing the way they will measure and deliver the customer experience in 2021. The sudden transition calls for a new perspective that extends beyond familiar metrics, existing processes, and technology silos.

With the disruption in the workforce due to the lockdowns and furloughs, can businesses be counted on to provide service which makes empathy, understanding and concern integral elements of every interaction? Can CX leaders rapidly reposition themselves to react to the likely long-term alterations in consumer behavior that will undoubtedly come about from this crisis? The challenge is to pivot, innovate and transform operations in a way that enables organizations to not only stand out from the competition, but create new standards of service that truly address the evolving needs of the customer.

In this environment, any educational program that attempts to identify the most critical developments in the next year of the customer experience universe must take a totally fresh approach. On Tuesday, August 11th at 1:00 PM ET, CrmXchange offers a complimentary Best Practices Roundtable discussion that will provide an in-depth examination of the elements that have now become front and center in importance. “CX Megatrends to Watch in 2021” will be presented jointly by experts from two solution providers with demonstrated expertise in revamping contact center operations. Steve Chirokas, Director, Product and Channel Marketing, CallMiner, and Laura Bassett, Senior Director, Product Marketing, NICE inContact, will team up and tap their extensive backgrounds in providing guidance and strategic direction to industry leaders.

The topics to be discussed include:

  • Why Work-from-Home affects the customers’ perception of a brand and the ways that getting it right can positively influence loyalty
  • How to manage remote workers for increases in productivity and enhanced CX
  • In what ways can customer insight, using emotional metrics combined with AI agility, aid agents in taking the next best compelling action
  • How to build momentum toward in-the-moment voice of your customer insight and ensure that responses make for dynamic personalization
  • How to recognize and prioritize digital strategy
  • Specific reasons why moving to the cloud decreases uncertainty during a pandemic

Register now for this enlightening roundtable discussion that will give you updated guidance on what lies ahead. If you can’t attend the live presentation, a link to the recorded webcast will be provided 24 hours after it has been completed.

Biometric Authentication and AI Technology: How Companies are Keeping Customers Satisfied and Safe from Fraud

With the constantly increasing need for customer service and sales support, contact center operations continue to expand, generating over $300 billion in revenue each year according to JLL Research. Given the vast amount of sensitive data that flows through contact center environments, security -including insidious insider threats – has become a serious concern. According to a recent report by UK-based Contact-Centres, the rate of contact center fraud has gone up dramatically over the past four years, increasing by 350 percent. This has created what Gartner calls “an epicenter of vulnerability.”

In the US, as many as 1,300 breaches were tracked last year by the Identity Theft Resource Centre1. Fraud perpetrators are becoming more sophisticated, leveraging today’s omnichannel shopping techniques. For example, a fraudster can employ social engineering to reset a password on a victim’s account, using information now easily found via social networks and Google searches to obtain usernames, passwords, and other personal data. Criminals then employ that newly reset password to hoodwink a live agent into giving away additional information and sometimes even performing fraudulent financial transactions.

For contact centers, finding effective methods of tackling this daunting challenge calls for a multi-faceted approach, including ways to prevent attacks emanating from both outside and inside the company. That means identifying dishonest individuals who call in masquerading as legitimate customers, or try to hack into contact center data, as well as keeping dishonest agents from stealing customer information. The caveat is that contact centers need to implement such security measures without creating barriers to a positive customer experience for honest consumers.

One method now coming into widespread use is biometric authentication to verify customer identity. Some solution providers offer tools that support self-service interactive voice response (IVR) via voice and face recognition and when the customer is using a smartphone, can even support fingerprint authentication. Others offer voice biometric identity verification which relies on more than simply the physical characteristics of a voiceprint when authenticating end users. An advanced voice biometrics engine can also account for how a user speaks and what is said. taking note of variations in the pitch and tone of a customer’s voice.

So, how can forward-thinking organizations take the right measures to adapt to this new reality and protect their customers from fraud without negatively impacting satisfaction ratings? On Tuesday, December 10 at 2:00 pm ET, CrmXchange is offering an complimentary, in-depth webcast entitled “The Biometrics Win-Win – How Leading Brands Are Beating Fraud While Improving CX.”

The session is sponsored by Nuance, named a leader in Conversational AI for Customer Service, including voice and speech engines, human/AI blending, omni‑channel delivery and security and authentication in the in Q2 2019 Forrester New Wave. The presenters are established authorities on improving contact center security: Simon Marchand, Nuance’s Chief Fraud Prevention Officer, and Dima Cichi, Senior Principal Product Manager, Security and Biometrics for Nuance. Among the topics addressed will be:

  • How the fraud battle lines are shifting and why AI tech can help win the fight in the contact center and beyond
  • Enabling stronger authentication to co-exist happily with exceptional customer experience
  • A first-hand look at how combining voice, behavioral and other biometric modalities deliver a powerful cross-channel defense
  • An examination of the latest Nuance innovations for authentication and fraud detection
  • The benefits both large and small organizations are realizing from faster, stronger authentication and real-time fraud detection

Register now for this eye-opening session: if you can’t attend the live presentation on December 10, it will be available for download 24 hours after it is completed.