Verint Engage 2023 Day 1 Recap – 5 Key Sessions
Keynote Session
Verint Engage 2023 kicked off in the heart of the Bellagio with 1000 people from 20 countries coming together to celebrate The Art of Innovation and the huge steps Verint is making with their product suite.
The keynote session shed light on the changing environment in which brands operate and emphasised the importance of closing the engagement capacity gap through the application of technology.
One key theme that emerged from the session was the customers’ desire for short-term return on investment (ROI). It was revealed that businesses globally spend a staggering $2 trillion annually on human customer service, highlighting the need for solutions that deliver tangible and measurable benefits.
The concept of “Open” CX was introduced, advocating for platforms that go beyond mere API integrations and instead promote seamless data sharing to drive automation. The speakers emphasised that siloed data limits the depth of insights an organization can derive. At the same time, a data hub at the core of the customer experience (CX) enables a holistic view and facilitates informed decision-making.
The session highlighted that achieving a best-in-class CX often involves complexity, which may intimidate some organisations. However, Dan Bodner stressed that embracing this complexity can create significant ROI. They emphasised the importance of freedom, flexibility, and future-proofing when considering CX solutions.
Of course, you can’t go anywhere in tech without mentioning AI and the role of bots in enhancing CX was also heavily discussed. Kelly Koelliker and Jaime Meritt emphasised that “bad bots” do not have access to valuable data or try to do too much. Instead, organisations should deploy specialised bots that excel at one specific task, such as providing interaction summaries to help agents quickly understand customer interactions. The goal is to empower agents to perform at a superhuman level, supported by intelligent tools.
To enhance customer interactions further, a Knowledge Suggestion Bot was introduced, which dynamically updates a sidebar in real-time, listening to ongoing conversations and providing relevant suggestions to agents. Additionally, an Interaction Wrap-Up Bot was showcased to streamline post-interaction activities.
The Engagement Data Hub took centre stage during the keynote, representing a critical component of an effective CX strategy. This hub acts as a central repository where various customer touchpoints, such as voice calls, are transcribed, tagged, and analysed for sentiment and Net Promoter Score (NPS). The data hub enables organisations to gain valuable insights and keep pace with the rapid innovation in artificial intelligence (AI).
A noteworthy feature highlighted during the session was the availability of out-of-the-box automation workflows, simplifying implementation and enabling organisations to quickly leverage the benefits of the solution. Building on this, the Da Vinci technology seamlessly integrates with commercial AI platforms like ChatGPT and was emphasised as a powerful tool to enhance workflows.
Finally, the speakers stressed the ability to add capabilities without adding complexity. They stressed the importance of deploying specialised bots that excel in specific tasks and the value of these bots working together harmoniously to deliver an enhanced CX experience.
Knowledge Management User Group
The Knowledge Management User Group led by Jon Chmaj provided valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities surrounding knowledge management (KM).
During the session, the attendees discussed the hardest types of content to manage, including information scattered across multiple locations, which makes keyword searches challenging.
The session showed the need for a dedicated team to support KM efforts, with one example mentioning a team of ten managing 35,000 documents. But it was highlighted that many organisations rely on a single person to handle knowledge management, raising concerns about the impact if that person becomes unavailable due to sickness or leaving the company.
We tackled issues with dealing with long documents and the need for an auto-summarize bot to address this challenge effectively (Hey, like Verint announced in the keynote!). Tagging content for different business roles was also discussed as a necessary practice to ensure relevant information reaches the right individuals.
The measurement of return on investment (ROI) obviously reared its head, but we will find out more about this in later breakout sessions.
Overall, the Knowledge Management User Group session provided a platform for knowledge-sharing and discussions on the challenges and aspirations surrounding KM. For further opportunities to explore this topic, you can join KM user group events scheduled for September 14th, November 9th, and February 15th.
Community Client Round Table
The Community Roundtable at Verint Engage was the perfect opportunity for Verint Community customers to hear from each other and share how they have solved similar challenges. We sat at the User Experience (UX) and Global Community Challenges tables, providing valuable insights and discussions on these topics.
Regarding UX, the session emphasised the importance of designing user interfaces (UI) to be intuitive and easy to navigate while maintaining the consistency of branding. We discussed the process of familiarising themselves with styling, CSS, and how widgets render—even if just a basic understanding to help understand how pages work.
In terms of generating community engagement, an interesting suggestion was to utilise interactive games, such as a hidden image treasure hunt, to encourage participation and interaction among community members.
The session also addressed global community challenges, specifically focusing on moderation policies. It was acknowledged that moderation can sometimes go wrong, and the importance of striking the right balance was highlighted. Customers discussed a new role for VIP users, allowing them to bypass moderation as an exception.
ChatGPT of course came up, but community managers were concerned about bot content making its way into the community and using bots to bypass moderation.
Regarding analytics, some participants expressed dissatisfaction with Verint Analytics and preferred using Google Analytics instead, citing better performance and functionality.
Overall, the Community Roundtable at Verint Engage allowed community managers to share their experiences and insights using a robust community platform.
AI-Powered Real-Time Customer Engagement
The AI-Powered Real-Time Guidance session at Verint Engage showcased the possibilities of leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) in contact centres to enhance customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX). The session was led by Donna Fluss and Daniel Ziv, who explored the transformative potential of AI-based platforms and applications in the fast-paced AI world.
The key highlight of the session was the concept of real-time guidance (RTG) and virtual assistants that actively listen to both sides of a conversation, automatically providing agents with the necessary guidance and information to exceed customer expectations.
Additionally, an AI-powered real-time speech analytics application was introduced, utilizing solutions like GPT-4 from OpenAI to create automatic after-call summaries, shaving huge time off agent write-ups and further enhancing CX and EX.
Donna emphasised the importance of starting small and implementing AI-powered solutions in stages, allowing for seamless integration and gradual adoption within contact centres. The democratization of tools was also highlighted, enabling wider accessibility and empowering agents to utilise AI-driven guidance effectively.
Another significant aspect discussed was call centres identifying problems that should have been resolved through self-service options but weren’t. By applying post-interactions with speech and text analysis, organizations can uncover and address areas where self-service solutions are falling short.
Concerns were raised about the potential for bots to provide incorrect guidance, but this highlighted the importance of developing robust AI models and continuously monitoring their performance to ensure accurate and reliable assistance.
The session concluded with customer case studies showcasing real-world implementations of AI-powered real-time guidance, highlighting the proven return on investment (ROI) achieved through these innovative solutions.
Channel Automation: How Data Can Shape Your Conversational CX Strategy
Jason Valdina shed light on the challenges faced by brands when it comes to investing in bots and AI for customer engagement. Despite the significant shifts in consumer preferences and the rapid growth of digital channels, many brands admit to struggling with initiating their journey into this domain.
The session focused on leveraging intent data to guide customer self-service strategies effectively. We also learned about identifying common customer inquiries ripe for automation and understanding which agent tasks can be augmented to improve team efficiency.
A key theme discussed was the importance of embracing data-driven solutions and finding the right balance between automation and human interaction. Participants were encouraged to break down organizational silos and leverage engagement data to shape their conversational strategy for customer experience (CX), typing back to The Engagement Data Hub which took centre stage at the keynote.
The session also highlighted the value of summarizing data and extracting key points of interest to act upon. By analyzing historical and current customer engagement data, businesses can identify which tasks frequently require escalation and proactively address those issues. Neglecting these critical attrition moments could lead customers to seek alternative options elsewhere.
