Critical Issues
Navigate the future of customer engagement with confidence.
2021 Critical Issues
Each year, Council members in North America and Europe vote on the most important issues facing the customer service industry, in their region of the globe. The annual Critical Issues become the key areas of focus for member discussion and Council events throughout the year.
Enabling First-Class Self-Serve
Areas of Focus:
- Facilitating customer adoption of self-service capabilities and driving self-service utilization
- Integrating new digital tools into your self-serve strategy to drive CSAT
- Creating effortless feedback loops from customers to increase participation in surveys and glean insights on the self-serve experience
Leveraging Data-Driven Insights
Areas of Focus:
- Improving qualitative data components to ensure you have the right content for your CX strategy
- Developing dashboards to uncover customer insights, determine priorities and convey the value proposition to key stakeholders
- Using data to reassess targets, services and uncover new business opportunities in response to changing customer behavior in the COVID-19 environment
- Aggregating and accessing data from disparate sources
Optimizing the CX Journey
Areas of Focus:
- Enhancing the digital journey based on customer behavior
- Finding efficiencies within the customer journey
- Differentiating the customer experience from the contact center in the eyes of the organizational ecosystem
Navigating Workforce Trends and Disruptions
Areas of Focus:
- Coaching and training for both technical and emotional intelligence
- Sustaining a team culture in a virtual environment
- Embracing and expanding on WFH & hybrid models for efficiency gains and ease of use
- Managing agent performance in a virtual environment
Achieving Digital Transformation
Areas of Focus:
- Disruptive digital technology and it’s transformational impact across traditional and new channels
- Balancing inflexible legacy infrastructure with the need for digital transformation
- Staffing and training for the shift to digital channels
- Building the business case, including cost/benefit analysis, for investment in digital transformation
Driving Operational Efficiency and Effectiveness
Areas of Focus:
- Standardizing and empowering thinking about process improvement opportunities by all employees across the enterprise
- Leveraging automation opportunities in the contact center to empower agents to focus on the customer