Pushing the Boundaries of Exceptional CX with a Trusted Partner
As CEO of Sabio, the conversations I have with our customers and our partners consistently involve us exploring new ways of collaborating, innovating and doing things better – crucially with the mindset of providing brilliant customer experiences.
That was no different in my recent radio interview alongside Dan Bodner, the CEO of Verint as well as a pillar and stalwart of the CX industry and a long-time Sabio partner of more than 20 years.
In a conversation that was not only invigorating but hugely enjoyable, myself and Dan were presented with the opportunity to chat with Eric Kavanagh, radio host of the only show syndicated coast-to-coast across America that focuses on the information economy.
In this particular episode, we discussed all things Contact Centre as-a-Service (CCaaS), the demands on brands to get omnichannel customer service consistently right as well as the benefits that a specialist partner, such as ourselves at Sabio, can bring to the table when navigating the complex CX world that is rapidly changing through AI.
The potential of AI
Entitled ‘What’s the Secret to Exceptional CX?’, we compared perspectives and personal opinions of what we’re seeing in the market today and its future direction, and touched on some great, collaborative anecdotes from our successes over the years right up to the present day. It was great to chat all things CX with such an innovative mind as Dan’s which has witnessed a lot of change since founding Verint in 1994!
Dan provided some colour on the transformative power of AI bots and automation in contact centres – and we align completely on the significance of boosting productivity without inflating budgets, something that is becoming more and more common through the democratisation of AI-powered capability. The tremendous efficiency gains from deploying a properly trained bot / virtual agent for example will allow skilled human agents to focus on delivering individualised service for customers.
That is the key to providing brilliant customer experiences for me - but getting the balance right will be crucial. It’s not about knowing where to automate, but rather when in a customer’s journey, thus removing friction and improving the customer experience seamlessly.
Re-enforcing Sabio’s expertise
In discussing Sabio’s uniqueness as a specialist digital experience transformation services provider, I emphasised our real-world success in applying not just leading technologies, but implementing them effectively for the end user. A key driver of this success is our rigorous user-centred design approach that deeply understands customer needs, preferences and pain points before determining optimal integration of automation.
We conduct extensive upfront research through methods like customer interviews, journey mapping, usability testing and more. This allows us to develop an automation strategy focused on simplifying customer effort and delivering delight. It ensures the right balance between efficient AI-enabled self-service and human support.
Not all projects are the same – indeed I would argue every single project is different complete with varying challenges and nuances, and so you need a specialist, such as Sabio, who has seen it all before to navigate any hurdles (and quickly).
One project that sticks out is a recent success with a global mobile carrier and long-time Sabio customer across various countries. In what was a bespoke AI-powered self-service project, which tapped into our specialist knowledge and in-house capability, they automated 59% of customer calls which led to a dramatic 27-point NPS increase. This is a great example of our specialist skills and knowledge and also shows the value of finding the optimal balance between automation (calls relating to simple, mundane tasks were removed) and human support (human agents could provide a specialist, intimate service).
Data will power differentiation
Our mission at Sabio is to help our customers use our own and our partners’ complementary technologies to deliver efficient and engaging experiences for their customers and employees.
Drawing connections between behaviours, intents and outcomes is the only way to identify creative ways to delight customers. It’s using data-driven insights to maintain brilliant experiences and ultimately strengthen brand loyalty. In our call, Dan concurred that replicating proven CX best practices – and ultimately improving using those real data-driven insights - holds incredible promise. A point I strongly agree with.
Centralised, quality data is crucial for this, but we also recognise the deep organisational knowledge held by frontline staff from daily customer interactions. Their insights are goldmines for enhancing automation with real user perspectives.
Additionally, new opportunities from Generative AI allow us to extract more value from customer data. By thoroughly understanding customers’ expressed needs, we can automate aspects of channels like voice, chat and email to resolve problems quickly. This gives customers seamless, swift resolutions on their channel of choice. Our human-centred automation approach puts user experience first.
This interview provided a great platform to showcase what makes Sabio – and indeed the wider CX eco-system – exciting and special. It was great to chat with both Dan and Eric and I left feeling inspired about the vast potential still untouched in CX, especially as AI capabilities accelerate.
I’m looking forward to the next conversation already...
In the meantime, you can watch the entire interview here.
Or if you’re on the move, have a listen here.
Additionally, why not register for our flagship digital transformation event, Disrupt, which returns to London again this coming March. The event brings together market leaders, technology partners and industry experts to cover topics that drive productive contact centre conversations – such as the ones covered by myself and Dan recently – to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Find out more information, or to register, here.
