Understanding and addressing customer intent is paramount for delivering seamless and personalized experiences. With vast amounts of unstructured data from contact centre transcripts, reviews, and social media often going untouched, Voice of the Customer (VoC) data is often relied upon. Combining VoC data with unstructured data gives more visibility into customer needs and desires and illuminates opportunities for service improvement.

Powered by AI algorithms tapping into structured and, critically, unstructured data, sentiment analysis offers contact centers and CX professionals invaluable insights into customer emotions and preferences, enabling them to anticipate needs and proactively address potential pain points in the customer journey.  

Bank-al-Etihad, recognized for leading CX innovation in the MENA region with a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of over sixty, exemplifies this approach. The bank measures extensive customer data, including every interaction, online reviews, and social media feedback. This unstructured feedback, paired with tens of thousands of survey responses, forms a 360-degree view of the customer, highlighting CX improvement opportunities and facilitating deeper customer relationships. By centralizing this data, Bank-al-Etihad ensures all stakeholders have access, promoting a customer-centric culture. 

In this session, we are joined by Ledi Lapaj, Director of Customer Experience at Bank-al-Etihad, who will delve into the transformative potential of sentiment analysis in deciphering customer intent and facilitating recommended actions to ensure a fluid and enriching customer experience. 

Attendees to this session will learn:

• How sentiment analysis can optimise CX: Gain a comprehensive understanding of how sentiment analysis technologies leverage natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to analyze customer interactions and unstructured data in real-time, deciphering underlying emotions and intentions to drive actionable insights for contact center agents.
• Strategies for integrating sentiment analysis into customer service workflows: Explore practical approaches for seamlessly integrating sentiment analysis tools into existing contact center systems and processes, leveraging customer sentiment data to inform agent interactions, personalize engagement, and prioritize responses based on customer needs and urgency.
• Leveraging sentiment-driven insights to drive continuous improvement: Discover how contact centers can harness sentiment analysis data to identify trends, patterns, and pain points across customer journeys, enabling them to iteratively refine service offerings, optimize operational processes, and cultivate deeper customer relationships over time.

Ledi Lapaj

Director of CX
Bank-al-Etihad

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In the era of generative AI, organizations are actively exploring avenues to incorporate this cutting-edge technology into their CX and contact center operations, aiming to streamline processes, enhance customer service efficiency, and drive cost savings. CX Network research found that conversational AI and virtual assistants are a top investment priority in 2024 for one third of CX practitioners. The topic is pervasive, with vendors consistently emphasizing their numerous benefits to CX decision-makers across multiple industries.

Yet, there is what seems to be an ever-rotating showreel of businesses putting their faith into AI-driven chatbots, only to have the technology backfire spectacularly. The reputational impact can be significant, with customers delightedly sharing the many ways they have duped chatbots into everything from giving away products for free to disparaging the companies they serve. Understandably, this has led to reticence among business leaders to take the leap and unleash the power of generative AI on their customers.

In this session, CX Network brings together top minds from the world of CX to debate the key question: is generative AI suitable for customer contact?

We will discuss:

• The potential benefits of leveraging generative AI in customer contact: Beyond streamlined operations and improved service times, explore how generative AI can enhance personalization, foster customer engagement, and drive revenue growth through proactive recommendation engines and predictive analytics.
• Navigating practical considerations: The technical complexities and implementation challenges associated with deploying generative AI in customer contact scenarios, including data privacy concerns, model accuracy and reliability, integration with existing systems, and ongoing maintenance and optimization requirements.
• Addressing ethical quandaries: A thought-provoking discussion on the ethical implications of AI-driven customer interactions, including issues surrounding transparency, bias mitigation, consent management, and the potential for unintended consequences or harm to customer trust and loyalty.

Big Bus Tours has revolutionized its contact center operations, transforming a traditional service model into a dynamic profit center. By adopting a hands-on approach with its BPO 'Hub' and integrating cutting-edge generative AI technologies, Big Bus Tours has not only streamlined customer service but also enhanced sales capabilities and agent satisfaction.

Ollie Wildeman, Customer Satisfaction Manager at Big Bus Tours, will share insights on how a core team of 20 agents, augmented with temporary staff during high season, has evolved beyond just handling customer service. With dedicated sales training and a commission structure, agents are now empowered to drive revenue directly from the contact center.

The implementation of generative AI has been a game-changer. By deflecting 80% of inbound calls, primarily straightforward queries about timetables, Big Bus Tours has significantly reduced spending on productive hours while simultaneously increasing sales from the contact center. This session will delve into the challenges and successes of this transformation journey, offering practical insights for other organizations looking to optimize their contact center operations.

Attendees will learn:

• Integrating sales into customer service: Learn how to develop and incentivize your contact center team to handle both service and sales, driving additional revenue while maintaining high customer satisfaction.
• Leveraging generative AI: Understand the benefits and implementation challenges of generative AI tools, and how these technologies can deflect routine queries, reduce operational costs, and enhance agent efficiency.
• Achieving seamless AI rollout: Gain insights into the phased rollout process of AI integration, including the necessary testing, platform rebuilding, and strategies to ensure agent and customer buy-in.

Ollie Wildeman

Customer Satisfaction Manager
Big Bus Tours

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In recent years, the importance of digital accessibility has become increasingly evident, with businesses facing a surge in lawsuits and ethical scrutiny for neglecting accessibility obligations. The staggering number of digital accessibility lawsuits in the US alone—more than  4,000 in 2023—underscores the urgency for businesses to prioritize accessibility initiatives. As revealed in CX Network’s Global State of CX 2024 report, accessibility of contact channels has emerged as a top 10 spending priority for CX practitioners, reflecting a growing recognition of its impact on customer engagement and brand reputation.

In this session, we will delve into actionable strategies for enhancing digital channel accessibility, empowering CX practitioners to expand their customer base and cultivate a more inclusive brand image.

Attendees will gain insights into:

• Assessing accessibility across channels: Methodologies and key metrics for evaluating digital accessibility, including compliance with WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards, usability testing, and user feedback mechanisms.
• Implementing effective accessibility strategies: Practical techniques for optimizing website navigation, content structure, multimedia elements, and interactive features to ensure compatibility with assistive technologies and accommodate diverse user needs and preferences.
• Fostering an accessibility-conscious company culture: Explore strategies for integrating accessibility considerations into product development processes, training programs, and corporate policies, fostering a collective commitment to accessibility as a core business value.