Customer Contact 2023 Preview

Key Themes

As we get ready for Customer Contact 2023, I wanted to take a few moments and share some of the key themes that I will be watching out for in Las Vegas in just a couple weeks. 

1. Generative AI

It does not take a rocket scientist to know that Generative AI will be a hot topic at this year’s conference! The promise and potential that Generative AI represents to every sector is extraordinarily exciting. Specifically, when it comes to customer engagement, I feel the technology will not replace human jobs at scale, but rather, help employees become more efficient and effective at doing their jobs. 

The Harvard Business Review wrote a great piece on Generative AI and the customer service sector. The piece highlights that there are 13 different tasks a customer service representative handles on a regular basis. The introduction of Generative AI led to the full automation of four tasks, while AI  helped human productivity with four other tasks, and the last five tasks were not impacted by AI at all, requiring full human intervention/execution. 

Even with this increased investment into customer service, customers are still not happy with the support they are getting. The high expectations of customers combined with the high volume of calls being placed to representatives makes increasing efficiency a key focus of the customer service industry. Customer service will benefit greatly from the introduction of Generative AI, and embracing this new technology will be a great resource to customer service representatives. 

2. Cybersecurity and Customer Communication

Bad actors are simply getting too good. In the customer communication space, highly sensitive data is consistently shared and the increase of effective fraudsters is having negative consequences both financially and on trust between customers and businesses.

Although regulations and technologies designed to protect consumers have been implemented over time, bad actors continue to adapt their techniques. Specifically, vishing has been on the rise. Truecaller reported 68.4M Americans falling victim to attacks in their 2022 Spam Report, and the FBI’s 2021 Internet Crime Report cited vishing and phishing attacks as the most common type of cyber crime. 

At the end of the day, customers still want to handle their most sensitive issues over the phone with a live representative. Whether it is for healthcare, insurance, or financial matters, consumers willingly share sensitive personal information over the phone every day. I anticipate that there will be serious conversation around this topic at the conference whether it is caller identity, fraud calling, keeping telecom systems secure, and others. 

3. Branded Calling

Building off of the last point, I am expecting there to be a lot of conversation around branded calling. The foundation for Caller ID technology in its current form was developed in the early 80s, prior to the rise of mobile phones, legitimate robocalling campaigns, communications and phone fraud, etc.

As both businesses and consumers continue to feel the pain of negative and potentially inaccurate call reputation, both parties look to carriers, service providers and 3rd party solutions to combat the problem. However, these solutions are outdated, vary greatly from carrier to carrier, and are not effective with VoIP phones which are largely used by modern call centers.

Branded calling and Rich Caller Data solutions provide a verified business identity, combined with customized and detailed display, reputational analytics, and STIR/SHAKEN attestation. All of these features enable consumers to trust in communications and empower businesses to control their reputation and customer perception.

See you out in Las Vegas soon! 

-Wells