Gartner Unveils Top Predictions for Customer Service and Support Leaders in 2021 and Beyond By 2025, 80% of customer service organizations will have abandoned native mobile apps in favor of messaging for a better customer experience, according to Gartner, Inc. Digital transformation for service organizations initially focused on websites for desktop users but shifted to enterprise-native mobile app experiences with the proliferation of smartphones and tablets. However, despite significant investment and promotion, most…

Company's total fundraising surpasses $100 million as market goes mainstream Glia, a leading provider of Digital Customer Service, announced that it has raised $78 million in Series C funding, bringing Glia's total fundraising to $107 million. This round was led by existing investor Insight Partners and Glia was advised in the transaction by Cooley LLP. Glia grew by more than 150% in 2020 as the pandemic forced businesses to reimagine how they guide and connect with customers in a digital world. The investment will allow…

Cresta, the real-time intelligence platform for customer conversations, announced the launch of Cresta for Customer Service, designed to enable customer care teams to deliver more personalized customer experiences. Cresta’s real-time AI coaching solution is for companies seeking to deliver the best possible service and support experience to their customers. Cresta’s AI continuously learns top-performing service behaviors and puts those insights into action with real-time assistance and personalized coaching, resulting in…

Uniphore, an early leader in Conversational Service Automation (CSA), announced results from its latest COVID-era survey that underscores how challenges facing customer service centers are resulting in increased consumer frustration and missed opportunities for brands to build trust and loyalty. The report also shows consumer acceptance for new technology that can help call center agents and better serve the immediate needs of the customer. Marketing Technology News: Unity and Snap Inc. Partner to Extend Ad and Tech Reach…

Guide details benefits, best practices, and pitfalls of customer service automation Astute, Inc. (“Astute”), a leading customer engagement and Voice of the Customer (“VoC”) platform, released its Definitive Guide to Customer Service Automation. The guide covers the key drivers behind customer service automation trends, the benefits of automating, best practices, and common mistakes to avoid. “Customer service automation technology has tremendous potential to improve outcomes for customers, business leaders, and agents…

Inbenta, a global leader in Symbolic AI-based Customer Interactions applications, is excited to announce the launch of their new podcast designated for the customer service industry. Marketing Technology News: FedEx to Acquire ShopRunner to Expand E-Commerce Capabilities Inbenta launched “Future of Customer Service”, a weekly podcast hosted by Andrea Palten, Inbenta's marketing and content specialist. Each episode includes a customer service expert to offer context of the news, struggles, and wins of the customer support…

Hiver on Tuesday announced the launch of a slew of productivity features, including new Automations, Workload Distribution, and an all-new Mobile App. Hiver is the only helpdesk in the market that operates out of Gmail and boasts of such powerful functionalities. Recommended: MarTech Primer: Advertising Technology and Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) Talking about the launch, Niraj Ranjan, the CEO, and Co-founder of Hiver, said: "We shifted our focus from the shared inbox market to the customer service helpdesk market…

The global pandemic is continuing to reshape the retail sector, fueling $189B in anticipated online holiday sales and forcing brands to wage a virtual battle for customer loyalty. Retailers that enter 2021 with a tailwind will be those that elevate their customer service, according to a survey of 750 consumers conducted in October 2020 by Simplr, in which 90 percent of consumers who shop online said exceptional customer service is important when choosing where to shop. That loyalty translates into revenue, as six in 10…

TCN, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based call center technology for enterprises, contact centers, BPOs, and collection agencies worldwide, celebrates the success of serving the AIM Media companies. AIM MEDIA companies include AIM Media Texas, LLC, AIM Media Indiana, LLC, and AIM Media Midwest, LLC. Collectively they publish 28 daily newspapers, several weeklies, and other media-related businesses in four states. The organization has selected TCN to provide Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Agent Gateway solutions to…

Vonage, a global leader in cloud communications helping businesses accelerate their digital transformation, has been chosen by global appliances manufacturer, Fisher & Paykel, to drive customer service communications for customers in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Fisher & Paykel is using Vonage’s Messages API to provide instant maintenance support notifications via SMS and enhance post-sale services. The Vonage Messages API embedded within Fisher & Paykel’s…

CallMiner, the leading provider of speech and customer interaction analytics, announced that African Bank has selected the CallMiner Eureka platform to better extract and operationalize insights from voice-based customer interactions. “With CallMiner, we will be able to create an even stronger customer experience by analyzing what our customers need, how they feel, and what we need to do, to deliver exceptional value and service,” said Basani Maluleke, CEO of African Bank. “African Bank is fast becoming a pioneering…

More than two-thirds of U.S. consumers expect to do their holiday shopping online this year, while 60% also anticipate hitting brick-and-mortar stores, reflecting a preference to use multiple retail channels, according to an SAP SE sponsored survey by online market research firm Dynata. Consumers Want the Freedom to Control Their Own Brand Experiences With the rise of digital channels and self-service options, shopping has become more complex, and consumers have increasingly taken charge of their experiences with brands.…

New research from Hiver highlights how consumers perceive customer support in 2020, and the cost of sub-par customer support As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, more than 80% of consumers in the US expect customer support to get more empathetic or more responsive, and in some cases, both, according to the findings of the report 'Customer Support Through The Eyes of Consumers in 2020' published by Hiver. Hiver, a global customer service solution, surveyed 1000 respondents in the US to give organizations insights into…

Teleperformance recognized globally as "outsourcing titan" Teleperformance, a leading global group in digitally integrated business services, announced it has been recognized as a global leader in the latest Forrester report on global omnichannel customer services outsourcing which evaluates the top 10 most significant industry players. The Forrester Wave™: Global Omnichannel Customer Services Outsourcers comprehensively evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of each company against 29 separate criteria on a completely…

Voice-Based Conversational AI Champions CX Challenges; Enables Greater Customer and Employee Satisfaction Through Automation, Improving Accuracy, Efficiency Cognigy, a global leader in Conversational AI, announced the release of Cognigy Voice Gateway (VG), an artificial intelligence voice solution, which deploys virtual agents (naturally-conversing voice bots) for automated inbound and outbound voice calls, whether via phone, web or mobile. Cognigy VG is designed to empower enterprises to automate high volume customer…

Customers can now simplify and enhance customer experience with Mindsay’s Customer Service automation solution Mindsay announced the launch of its Customer Service Chatbot on Salesforce AppExchange, empowering companies to automate and enhance customer experience through conversational AI. Mindsay’s chatbots give brands the ability to automatically resolve a variety of customer requests, from simple FAQs to complex transactions. Marketing Technology News: Marketing Industry Veteran Jeff Stelmach Joins Stadiumred Group as…

3CLogic, the leading provider of cloud contact center solutions for ServiceNow, announced the adoption of its natively integrated voice platform by a major U.S. retail chain. The solution includes integration with both ServiceNow ITSM and CSM to meet the new remote work demands brought about by the impact of COVID-19, while replacing the existing on-premise Asterisk system to facilitate greater administrative flexibility and richer feature capabilities. Supporting over 150 owned retail locations (including grocery stores…

SugarCRM Inc., the innovator of time-aware CX, announced the launch of SugarLive, a new integration with Amazon Connect voice, chat and text messaging for omnichannel customer service and support. SugarLive seamlessly embeds Amazon Connect’s advanced, omnichannel contact center capabilities into Sugar Serve’s intuitive Service Console, empowering teams with powerful tools for routing, tracking, prioritizing and solving customer service interactions. The increase of distributed workforces and reliance on digital channels…

8 in 10 consumers felt more confident making high-stakes purchases online when given a clear option to speak with a live agent; 1 in 3 will find a new brand when they run into website trouble There's no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our lives: it is changing the way we work, how we interact with family and friends, and the way we shop. A new report from Invoca, "High-Stakes Purchases and Consumer Confidence in the COVID Era," highlights data from a survey of 500 U.S. adults to understand specifically how…

New integrations between Oracle Cloud CX and Sprinklr help marketing and customer service professionals make every customer interaction matter Sprinklr, the Customer Experience Management (CXM) platform for modern enterprises, announced a new integration with Oracle Fusion Cloud Customer Experience (CX) that will help organizations deliver personalized and connected experiences for customers. The new integrations help marketers reach audiences on social media and other messaging channels at any point in the customer…