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The AI revolution is here. It’s happening. And CX leaders are under pressure to tap into it.

While early discussions around the new wave of AI technology hitting the market focused heavily on its potential, the discourse in 2024 has shifted towards tangible results. AI has crossed that nice-to-have threshold into must-have territory as more and more success stories come to light.

Not many companies are fully equipped for this transformation, though. Implementing AI poses numerous challenges on technical, regulatory, data, and workforce fronts. The rapid evolution of the technology requires businesses to adopt robust digital frameworks and conduct comprehensive risk assessments to protect their brand reputation.

So, just how are brands getting their AI journey started? Where are they investing in AI technology? What impact have existing investments already made? How prepared are their respective workforces? What are their biggest concerns around AI integration?

This report offers some answers.

Based on insights gathered from a survey of more than 100 customer management executives from the CCW Europe community, it provides a broad picture of a perpetually changing, highly nuanced space.

Key findings include:

• A massive 73% of respondents report that investing in CX-focused AI technology is high on the agenda of their C-suite, with more than one-fifth (21%) saying it is “very high”.
• 30% plan to deploy a new AI tool within the next six months; 24% plan to do so within 12 months; and 28% plan to do so within two years.
• 9% report they are all in on “transformative AI” - the type of AI that solves problems and anticipates customer needs before they are even articulated.
• Implementation and management costs, a lack of internal skills, and data security risks are among the top AI-related concerns for CX leaders.

To get more insights and explore some actionable AI takeaways that can empower you to lead your team confidently into the AI-powered future, download the report in full.

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Question: Name something that no business has complete immunity from.

Answer: Customer complaints.

Indeed, it’s an inescapable truth. No matter how well-polished your products and services and customer experience are, there will always be moments that slip through the cracks. That’s not to say all complaints represent bad news, though. Of course, the business of handling and dealing with complaints is never going to be easy or enjoyable for anybody involved. Yet they do harbour an untapped goldmine of opportunity for learning that can power real, meaningful organisational change. The brands that overlook these opportunities risk falling out of touch with their market and the expectations of their audience.

For BT Group, this is never going to be a problem. And in this interview, BT Group’s Head of Complaints Operations Rebecca Harvison tells us why. She speaks with our Industry Analyst Simon Hall about an assortment of topics including the training she offers her frontline staff, how and where her team fits into the larger customer strategy at BT Group, the technology journey she’s on, and the make-up of her award-winning Abusive Customer Programme.

For brands today, crafting great customer experiences in complex, multi-channel environments is all about the human element: putting your audience right in the centre of your organisation’s attitudes and actions.

It’s easier said than done, of course, but it is increasingly a business differentiator. Many leaders struggle to even get the process off the ground because they quickly become hamstrung by the myriad of challenges that come with driving transformation and consolidating a customer-centric culture across disparate internal teams. A failure to stay the course, though, is to run the risk of profound reputational fallout.

The good news is that successful use cases are emerging, and they tend to abide by the same principles – a crystal clear vision from the top, an agile approach to change, and transparent communication (that’s not to mention relevant products and services). Here, we speak with Abdul Khaled about how he has approached the concept of customer centricity in his role as Head of Digital at E.ON Next.

We get granular around:

• The strategies he uses to keep a customer-centric focus through turbulent times
• How he uses data to empower decision-making when it comes to the customer experience
• How he sees AI fitting into his digital ecosystem
• The trends he predicts will come to the fore in 2024 and beyond

Explore how intelligent automation (IA) is serving to improve customer and employee experiences, stronger customer relationships, reduced churn, and a profitable future for UK contact centres.

Download your copy to receive key industry insights and learnings on:

• How to break away from industry challenges.
• Leading business initiatives for improving customer management and exclusive insights from CCW Europe’s community.
• How to deploy, embrace, and scale IA to maximise return on investment.
• How IA works in practice to overcome leading industry challenges with featured case study examples. 

Ready to learn how to improve customer experience? 

Employees are sharing a common sense of disruption from worldwide national crises and political unrest, and some are beginning to re-evaluate what work means to them as a result.

Companies that offer an excellent employee experience (EX) programme that considers what employees truly value, incorporates workplace flexibility, and provides employees with purpose, make for attractive propositions.

CCW Europe provides insight into how UK businesses are achieving the EX-factor and in turn retaining employees, enhancing innovation, and exceeding financial targets.

Download the infographic to receive:

• Three proven ways companies in the UK are enhancing EX.
• Insights to promote digital dexterity that will allow any organisation to better adapt to change.
• An understanding of how to maximise employee satisfaction, performance, and productivity.
  

In today’s fast-paced, swipe-right, instant messaging world, customers expect the efficiency that they’re used to accessing in everyday life to be just as prevalent when communicating with brands, products and services.

We asked four industry experts for their advice on introducing chat bot technology into your service offering. Together, they explore the importance on doing so with purpose as well as how to use this as an opportunity for human agents to provide a more value-adding customer service experience.

Welcome to the Customer Contact Content Hub! Gain exclusive and actionable insight from customer contact leaders hailing from some of Europe's leading organisations. Download now to get access to the following interviews:

• How Audible is Creating a 'Culture of Listening' with insight from Tom Vickers, UK Customer Service Country Manager, Audible
• How Diversity is Helping Businesses Deliver Great Customer Service with insight from Helen Gillett, Managing Director, Affinity for Business and Petra Mengelt, Head of B2B Business Relations, Mash Group Plc
• How Chatbots are Driving Vodafone’s Omni-Channel Customer Experience with insight from Kevin Knowles, Head of Contact Automation, Vodafone Group
  
  

In the lead up to this year’s edition of CCW Europe, we sat down to talk all things customer contact with a few members of the event’s advisory board and esteemed speaker line up. 

Spanning topics from new technology, changing customer demands and the evolving role of the customer service agent, these conversations helped to paint a picture of what CCW Europe’s event attendees can expect to uncover in greater depth between the 5th to 8th of October in Barcelona. 

Here, we explore a few the key points and actionable takeaways gained from the speakers’ exclusive insight

Whether by phone, email, Twitter or WhatsApp, it is becoming increasingly common that customers are able to make contact with businesses via the same channels that they use on an everyday basis. Omni-channel experiences are soon to be there new norm, and here, in an interview with Kevin Knowles, Head of Contact Automation at Vodafone Group we explore how chatbots are helping this leading telecommunications company offer a consistent experience when and wherever their customers need them.

Download this exclusive content piece to uncover:

• How TOBi, Vodafone’s chatbot, serves their customers at numerous touch points
• The greatest challenges and lessons experienced during the rollout of chatbot technology
• How TOBi is impacting the role of Vodafone’s human agents

Onno Hoffmann, heading Special Operations & Innovation at Deutsche Telekom’s Customer Service in Germany and Dominik Bauersch, who is responsible for Digital Business & Transformation, are at the forefront of the company’s mission to offer personal and tailormade services in a digital world. Here, we explore some of the key talk points and achievements of this transformation as well as some actionable tips for making this a reality in your organisation.

In the lead up to Customer Contact Week Europe, we explore how chatbot technology is prompting us to reimagine the future of the customer service agent and, with insight from the CCW Market Study and Dr. Nicola Millard, Head of Customer Insights & Futures at BT, reveal how industry leaders are preparing for the next stage of this digital journey.

Explore how championing a culture of diversity and inclusion can contribute to the creation of exceptionable customer service experiences. 

What does it really mean to listen? In the world of customer contact, never has it been more important to create service experiences that resonate with the customer on a genuine, human level. In conversation with Tom Vickers, UK Customer Service Country Manager for Audible, we explore how the audio entertainment brand is creating a culture that enables its agents to initiate and engage in natural interactions through the art of listening. Download this exclusive content piece to uncover:

• How, as an Amazon company, Audible makes its ‘customer obsession’ a reality
• How Audible’s agents are relearning the rules of  customer interaction in favor of a human-centric approach
• How to bridge the cultural differences that can occur with the use of offshore customer contact centers
• Why traditional KPI’s should be exchanged for more subjective measures of success

The goal, above all, is to make meaningful connections with customers. Customer contact leaders reveal a lingering passion for the human touch. They will leverage new technology to augment human connections, drive agents to become partners and evaluate customers as multi-faceted, emotion-heavy individuals. CCW Digital's Market Study on the Future of Contact Centre explores this research, ultimately revealing that the best way forward is to make sure the heart of customer centricity is not left in the past. Download the report to find out the key findings.

As 2019 arrives it is time to put the customer at the centre of your technology investment strategy. This briefing will help empower the transformation. Download to explore all the bonus case studies from the Market Study.