Stretching the Customer Experience Budget

Author: Robin Gareiss, CEO and Principal Analyst

Customer experience (CX) leaders have been turning to technology to improve customer interactions for years. But those initiatives accelerated and became transformative in 2020, as agents moved to their home offices and interaction volume increased or became extremely volatile, according to our Customer Experience Transformation: 2020-21 Research Study of 700 organizations in North America, Western Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

As our research participants—many initially skeptical—realized the benefits of work-from-home (WFH) policies, more than half have decided to continue with WFH indefinitely. Not surprisingly, CX leaders are re-thinking how remote agents can deliver the best possible customer service, particularly with investments in Artificial Intelligence (AI), changes in hiring strategies, sales quotas and other Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and changes in outsourcing of agents.

Spending is another area of consideration, as CX and IT leaders navigate new budgets to support a remote workforce and changing customer needs. Many industries saw drastic increases and volatility in their contact center volume. Consequently, organizations adopted technology to move the needle on business metrics. For example, those who integrated UC and contact center reported a 56.7% increase in customer ratings and a 19.7% decrease in operational costs.

Table of Contents

• Executive Summary
  • Research Success Group
• The Transformed Workplace
  • Changes Resulting from the New Workplace
• Changes in Spending
  • The Spending Predicament
• Technology Drives Efficiency
  • Integrated Interaction Channels
  • Integrated Systems
  • AI-Assisted, Self-Service Knowledge Bases
  • Agent Analytics
  • Customer-Facing Virtual Assistants
  • Customer Ratings and Analytics
• Success Metrics
• Conclusion
• Research Methodology