Are you helping your organization drive toward the Next Big Thing?In Ryan Hollenbeck’s recent blog called Trends Worthy of Your Attention in 2016 he discusses how a new market called “Customer Engagement Optimization” continues to emerge from the convergence of workforce...Read More

Now that I’ve graded my performance on my predictions for government and public sector customer service in 2015, it’s time for my Top 5 predictions for 2016. Enjoy!1. Digital First Software Rationalization2015 was meant to be a year of optimism but economic difficulties in countries...Read More

Almost a year ago, I made some predictions for what would take place in government and public sector customer service in 2015. Now that we have moved into 2016, it’s time to take a look at how I did. I’ll review each prediction and give it a grade (on a scale of 1-10, with 1...Read More

As the world celebrated the New Year, safety was on people’s minds around the world. Many took time to review some of the events that helped define 2015. The Paris attacks, the university shooting in Kenya and the violence associated with Charlie Hebdo further...Read More

With the beginning of a new year fast approaching, your organization may be deciding where to focus its energy on emerging industry trends. As a starting point, we know from recent industry analyst research that a new market called “Customer Engagement Optimization” is emerging...Read More

This is the time of year that many of us start to wonder what the year ahead holds for the contact center industry.This year, instead of wondering, pondering, guessing and speculating about what could happen in 2016, we decided to take a more scientific approach to our conjectures. This approach...Read More

Enterprise feedback management (EFM) is an essential function that all organizations should perform, regardless of their line of business. While there are a number of applications that can provide an understanding of customer needs and wants, the simplest and often most effective way to determine...Read More

In this intensely competitive and disruptive environment, the need for outstanding customer service has never been more critical. With its role in contributing to a company’s brand promise, it is simply too important to be left to a single department.Outstanding customer service can only be...Read More

In a previous post “Knowledge Management: How Do I Know I’m Doing It Right?” we explored some of the key outcomes one should see evolving from good KM. We’ve also explored benefits and new capabilities for customers, employees and the organization itself.So now, how do we...Read More

Digital disruption is here to stay—as are expectations of near instantaneous answers and action. So, navigating digital disruption is forcing organizations to be more focused and responsive to the needs of customers than ever before.With infinitely more choices at their fingertips...Read More

Whether it’s a phone conversation with an insurer, a live chat with the cable company, or a conversation at your bank branch, there are really just two fundamental things a customer wants: better outcomes and less effort.Better OutcomesThe goal of any customer service interaction is to...Read More

We’ve probably all heard that context is king. In the realm of understanding customer needs in an increasingly complex world, the importance of this phrase cannot be underestimated. Are you mining the wealth of data in customer analytics to improve your customer relationships?I recently...Read More

In previous posts we’ve examined the value of effective knowledge management (KM) on customers and on the organization. What about employees? Does it matter whether they have a knowledge base or not? Are there specific identifiable drivers of value for support agents through KM?The value of...Read More

Customer Service Week is one of my favorite celebrations of the year! It gives us the opportunity to show our pride in our customer service professionals. If you are like me, there are many times you see an email from a customer talking about the exemplary service they received from one of our...Read More

There’s a lot of talk about “the Millennials” these days—how they live and work and interact in a digitally disrupted world. As a Sociology major, I find it fascinating. As a 55-year-old high-tech professional, I find it nauseating. Like I don’t use a smart phone and...Read More

Recently I was reading a great article by Paul Greenberg titled “The clarity of definition: CRM, CE and CX. Should we care?”. As I read through the piece, which does a great job at boiling down how customers can think of these three areas, all I could think about is how confusing the...Read More

My team recently examined the key indicators related to knowledge management enabling support—everything from increasingly leveraging knowledge on different channels to higher-quality service interactions. It’s clear enough that good KM delivers value. What are the key benefits, then,...Read More

Consumers today expect financial institutions to provide the products and services they need, when and how they want them. The personal connection—or relationship—between consumers and their financial institution has been largely lost as a significant number of transactions and day-to...Read More

Verint's acquisition of Telligent, a leader in software for customer support, underscores the growing importance of customer and employee communities as an important part of customer engagement and employee collaboration.Long before the emergence of digital media or electronic communications...Read More

Innovation among retail banks is a slow-going, yet essential part of keeping up with market trends. Currently, Celent is conducting a series of surveys with a selected panel of banking professionals to investigate if and how branch channel transformation is taking place among various retail banks...Read More

At a recent Verint Americas Customer Advisory Council (CAC) meeting, the agenda included introducing new members, reviewing the 2015 member profile survey, and reviewing “creative practice” presentations from two CAC members. Both presenters discussed customer experience excellence...Read More

Banks around the world are urgently redefining the role and value of the bank branch in response to changes in consumer channel preferences, particularly digital growth. As a result, banks are transforming how branches are used to support their customers. Ovum recently conducted a survey of...Read More

Recently, I presented a webinar on how customer journey mapping can drive optimal business processes that impress customers and, ultimately, drive your organization! You can view the webinar here. I’ll share a few highlights.One thing we can count on to affect our organizations is...Read More

For more than 20 years, enterprises have downplayed the importance and contributions of their back-office operating groups. These departments are an integral component of the overall customer experience and are involved in many steps throughout the customer journey. While their responsibilities...Read More

Services organizations employing strong knowledge management programs aspire to empower, delight and enhance their customers’ experience through better knowledge. But what does the customer think? Does it matter to a customer if an organization is pursuing good KM practices? And how would...Read More

Banks are painfully aware of the urgent need to redefine the role of their branches—particularly in response to tremendous growth in consumer use of digital channels that is taking place in parallel with a significant rise in consumer expectations.Ovum recently conducted a global survey of...Read More

It seems as if everyone has embraced today’s mobile and digital revolution. Many of us access goods and services online from practically anywhere at any time, and increasingly via a smartphone or tablet device rather than a traditional desktop computer or laptop.Government and public sector...Read More

More and more consumers are turning to communities to seek insights about products, services, support and other topics of interest. As they continue to seek perspectives from their peers before making decisions, the importance of social communities continues to grow.With the demand for more real...Read More

“Digital” is critical in financial services, but defining the term is difficult. At Celent, we believe that digital requires a structural change in the financial institution. Our framework illustrated below makes it easier.Digital in banking begins with the customer. Banks should be...Read More

I’m sure by now many of you are aware of the recent social media event involving a picture of a dress. You may remember that dress—the one that triggered a social media debate over its colors. Some of us saw the dress as blue and black, while others saw it as white and gold.The reason...Read More

In a recent feature, Speech Technology spotlighted Verint’s announcement that it has released the Verint Identity Authentication and Fraud Detection solution to provide a faster and more seamless approach to customer authentication.According to Verint’s Steve Williams, vice president...Read More

Your organization works hard to collect customer experience data in the constant quest to earn customer loyalty. Have you consistently collected this data but then struggled to translate the resulting insights into long-term advantage? This challenge is more common than you might think.In a 1 p.m...Read More

Knowledge management has come of age. Organizations in every area of the marketplace are building and leveraging knowledge tools to help empower their customers, their employees and their business. The business value in reducing training costs, driving self help, infusing service interactions...Read More

Verint completed our most successful global customer conference ever this summer, with more than 1,000 customers and partners joining us in Las Vegas, Nevada. Following this conference, I attended the Glastonbury festival in the U.K., one of the largest music festivals in the world and home to...Read More

How to best analyze and understand customer calls in order to serve customers better and help keep them loyal is an ongoing challenge for organizations. Verint has made that easier with its cutting-edge advancements to the Verint Speech Analytics™ solution, part of the Verint Customer...Read More

Customer journey mapping is growing increasingly popular as a way to gain powerful insights into customer behavior.Verint’s Nancy Porte, vice president, global customer experience, spoke to 1to1 Media recently about the evolution of journey mapping, noting that it was initially used to '...Read More

Can caller verification really become “frictionless”? Spending 45 seconds answering security questions is friction that can turn off customers and add to agent handle time. To aid in the reduction of friction and cost, mining phone calls for actionable intelligence can help easily and...Read More

Part one of this blog series introduced the lesser known benefits of gamification. In this post, we’ll explore how gamification can actually help create happier, more engaged employees. Employers are looking for ways to create more satisfied employees. That helps with customer experiences...Read More

The U.K. government has been delivering on its Government as a Platform initiative for the past few years. But what exactly is it?The official definition is "Government as a Platform is a new vision for digital government; a common core infrastructure of shared digital systems, technology and...Read More

Recent research has highlighted the enormous impact that people in organizations can have on customers. Engaged employees are at the heart of every thriving business and every customer-centric initiative. For all the (welcome and needed) advances in self service over web and mobile, when a...Read More

Local governments are generally not considered “early adopters” when it comes to technology. Citizens tend to be the ones who use the latest technology, then almost have to force local governments and agencies to finally begin using it. But, government adoption of technology always...Read More

Most people, when asked, will say that gamification is about using badges and points—and that employees will compete against each other to get the best result. Competition-driven gamification is indeed the crux of conventional wisdom about gamification.However, conventional wisdom isn&rsquo...Read More

The forces of digital disruption and the shifting work styles of young employees are pressuring organizations to become increasingly responsive to both customers’ and employees’ needs. With all the talk about “outside in” and “customer centricity,” it’s...Read More

In a recent survey by Ovum, executives were asked to describe the primary objectives of the back-office areas within their businesses. (Click here to download the Ovum report.) They had two primary concerns: execute work at the lowest cost and improve customer service.These objectives mirror the...Read More

By now, we probably all recognize that the nature of banking is changing fairly dramatically. Routine transactions are shifting away from the branch as digital channels grow in popularity, thus reducing branch visits—and more significantly for banks—reducing the face-to-face sales and...Read More

Verint took part in Forrester’s Forum for Customer Experience Professionals in New York City over the past two days. Objectives of the conference included offering attendees a comprehensive look at how to help improve customer experience quality and increase customer loyalty. Areas of...Read More

Earlier this month, I attended the Digital Transformation Executive Dinner presented by IDC in London. During that event, IDC’s Lionel Lamy, Associate Vice President, European Services, mentioned a startling statistic during his presentation titled “IoT - Your Customers’ Next...Read More

Part one of this blog series discussed keeping your data story simple by applying the ARC approach: Actionable, Relevant, and Consumable. I’ll now highlight the importance of understanding the push-pull impact on your data.While Sir Isaac Newton predates the age of big data, we can learn a...Read More

I’m going to share my top three tips for making data actionable and helping all levels of your organization understand the story the data is telling. These tips include how to:Filter big data for the relevant data pointsCreate a framework to “operationalize” the dataIdentify the...Read More

A Forrester Research, Inc. report from November 2014 (“Better Customer Relationships Require Trusted Data” by Michele Goetz and Kate Leggett) pointed out the vital role of data quality in the success of CRM delivery, which, in the “age of the customer,” is intrinsically...Read More

Following the launch of Verint’s next-generation customer engagement optimization platform last year, it added more major enhancements in March. The new platform represents a significant lift from traditional workforce optimization platforms, which are often more limited in their...Read More

A recent Gallup opinion poll made for some fairly grim reading for global organizations. It found that 70 percent of American workers are either “Not Engaged” or are “Actively Disengaged” from their workplaces. In Europe, the situation was even worse, with the highest...Read More

Now more than ever before, people are the most important asset in your contact center. It’s true that technology has advanced to the point where most simple issues can be resolved digitally without an employee’s involvement. However, this means that when a customer does need to speak...Read More

The explosion of marketing technology tools and software gives marketers innumerable opportunities to engage consumers and provide excellent customer experiences. In fact, 89 percent of marketers expect to compete primarily on the basis of customer experience by 2016, according to Gartner. But...Read More

In my last blog, I highlighted government’s challenge of understanding and using the huge amount of data they are bombarded with daily to make better decisions and better serve their citizens—and how one city was empowering its citizens to gain intelligence from this data and...Read More

In part one of the Safe City blog series, we examined some of the many threats cities face around the world. Today, we’ll take a closer look at the concept of situational awareness and how it helps city officials deter, detect and respond to crime, vandalism, terrorism...Read More

Have you considered that employees are likely the most important investment your organization makes in customer satisfaction? After all, we all know that employee disengagement is expensive and does not help the customer experience.This week Verint announced the addition of gamification to its...Read More

As an industry analyst, I speak and write about a number of significant trends in the financial services industry. And lately that means covering “big” topics like core banking replacement, digital channels and the need for customer (re)engagement. These are all important discussions...Read More

In a feature earlier this month, Biometric Update put the spotlight on Verint’s announcement that it has added voice biometrics capabilities to its enterprise workforce optimization solution—one of many significant enhancements and advancements that extend the company&rsquo...Read More

As consumers, we’ve been taught that bigger—or more—is always better. More money. Bigger houses. Larger data plans. All-you-can eat buffets.However, this is not true when it comes to today’s banking branches—bigger is not always better. In fact, it’s not the...Read More

You may have heard the story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job...Read More

In our first blog discussing the webinar we held earlier this year with Harvard Business School Professor Francesca Gino, Debunking Employee Productivity Myths, we addressed two decision-making biases that impact employee productivity: A bias for action and a bias for completion.This...Read More

It seems like everything is getting smarter—smarter phones, smarter cars, smarter appliances, and the list goes on. More and more, the machines we use—more precisely, the software applications running on them—are better at meeting our needs and our desire to get something done...Read More

Government organizations are bombarded with huge amounts of data on a daily basis. But do they understand and use this data to make better decisions and better serve their citizens? Or, in Verint terminology, can they turn this information into Actionable Intelligence®?Broadly speaking, two...Read More

Is your city safe?Many cities are asking this question. Safe City initiatives are on the rise around the world due to unique, ever-evolving and complex threats. As populations grow, so do the size and intricacy of the infrastructure required to support them. Municipalities must be able to respond...Read More

Many of today’s banks may not immediately associate the call center with billions of dollars in online and mobile fraud losses. However, banks and card issuers might be surprised to learn that a non-trivial percentage of that fraud may actually involve the call center.Here’s a...Read More

Last week Verint took part in the 2015 CIO Summit of America at the Harvard Club of New York City. The summit was attended by more than 300 CIO/IT leaders who took part in interactive sessions on topics including strategy, process improvement and alignment, customer focus, and business...Read More

According to Forrester Research, organizations in industries ranging from airlines to health insurance have the potential to gain hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue when they provide a better experience for their customers. This revenue is typically driven by increased purchases, reduced...Read More

Organizations around the world face a complex set of threats—and for many, new security challenges emerge every year. As the global landscape evolves, so do the technologies that are designed to deter, detect and investigate incidents of crime, fraud, violence and terrorism.Physical...Read More

We live in a digital world where you can access information and complete tasks online whenever and wherever you want. We’ve all gone online to do some shopping, download music or stream our favorite TV shows.The good news is that government and public sector organizations have largely...Read More

I was recently listening to a customer explain how they developed their processing time standards for their back-office employees. He made a very interesting point: “Why would you want to manage to the average?” In the rest of our lives, would we be happy with just average?Managing to...Read More

Keeping customers satisfied is growing more important every day. Today’s on-the-go customers are connected almost around the clock—via multiple channels—to their preferred companies and brands.Organizations must rapidly shift their strategies to keep up with these evolving...Read More

It’s time to look ahead to see what 2015 has in store for the world of customer service. Here is what I foresee happening this year.Service is the new marketing.This has never been truer than now and will accelerate in 2015. It is critical for an organization to sustainably meet customers...Read More

With today’s housing market being significantly driven by government regulations, mortgage operations executives are consistently challenged with finding the right balance between “the 3 Cs:”Customer Experience, Compliance & Capacity.Customer Experience: Today’s...Read More

In a blog post last week titled The Role of People in the Digital World, Verint's Steven Thurlow, vice president and global practice leader, engagement management, discussed how companies and organizations have adapted to a digital world, allowing customers to research, shop and get help...Read More

During the Great Depression of last century, “Brother, can you spare a dime” became a commonly heard phrase in the U.S., and eventually went on to become the title of a song written in 1930 and famously recorded by Bing Crosby, Al Jolson and Rudy Vallee. The song talks about the...Read More

Not long ago, video surveillance was used primarily for a couple of very distinct purposes—mainly capturing evidence of a crime or another incident such as a slip and fall. But today, video cameras and associated analytics deliver a much broader set of benefits. Organizations are using...Read More

Now that I’ve graded my performance on my predictions for government and public sector customer service in 2014, it’s time for my Top 5 predictions for 2015. Enjoy!1. Customer experience becomes strategic for governmentGovernment and public sector organizations will...Read More

A customer engagement strategy is rapidly turning into a must-have. Recently Verint’s Ryan Hollenbeck, senior vice president, marketing, spoke with John Ragsdale of TSIA (Technology Services Industry Association) about how more and more B2B companies are embracing the importance of such a...Read More

Continuing on the delivery of the early insights into the third version of the customer service adoption and usage study we are conducting with our friends at KANA®, A Verint® Company (the summary of early findings ishere), I’d like to explore the rise of chat in contact...Read More

There’s been lots of talk recently about defining the new omnichannel experience.  Perhaps the best way to explain it is to provide a real-life example of what it’s not.My cable company called me over the holidays, offering an exciting new promotion – “Get two premium...Read More

You may remember that I made some predictions for what would take place in government and public sector customer service in 2014. Now that we have moved into 2015, it’s time to take a look at how I did with my predictions. I’ll review each prediction and give them a grade...Read More

Ahhh, holidays. I use that word in both senses: a break from regular working life usually spent with friends and family that often involves travel—and the traditional celebrations occurring near the end of the calendar year. They are both often full of fun, relaxation, stress and conflict...Read More

Continuing the series of blog posts examining the early results of the customer service channels adoption and usage study generously sponsored by KANA®, A Verint® Company (read the summary and the previous entry on social, and watch this blog for the next entry in a...Read More

Most organizations today want to demonstrate that their dollars are buying valuable solutions and services. Budgets are scrutinized; complex issues abound—and results are usually demanded quickly.Therefore, more than ever, choosing a business partner that’s a proven leader in their...Read More

According to the December 2014 blog post Framing the House of Customer Engagement Optimization by Verint’s Scott Hays, vice president, global solutions marketing, a complete customer optimization strategy requires enriched customer interactions, improved business processes, and an...Read More

As I promised earlier this year, I conducted the third run of the channel adoption and usage study (focused on customer service) that my friends at KANA®, A Verint® Company, continue to generously sponsor.Truth be told, it took a little longer than expected to get to the right number...Read More

The quality of work in your back office can heavily influence the quality of work life for your front-line contact center agents. Your agents may be receiving customer calls that could likely be avoided altogether if back-office inefficiencies were addressed.To meet that need, Verint recently...Read More

Over the past decade or so, financial services companies have faced considerable challenges. From Wall Street scandals and tough economic conditions to rapidly increasing regulatory requirements, significant shifts in customer expectations, and more—times are changing.All of these...Read More

As part of the mandate to improve the federal customer experience, government agencies are hiring Chief Customer Officers (CCO) to lead the way. In general, a CCO is an executive responsible for the total relationship with an organization’s customers and to provide a single vision across...Read More

Could you spend US $150,000 per second? That’s the list price of a commercial during Super Bowl XLIX ($4.5M for a 30-second spot, just doing the math for you.) There is a lot of money at stake, not just for the network that broadcasts the game, but also for the players...Read More

Forrester recently published a report (access requires subscription) about U.S. government customer experience performance, which states that “Federal agencies are failing the administration’s mandate to offer customer experiences (CX) that match the best of the private...Read More

Across the world, video surveillance is booming—and it’s getting smarter with each passing year.The global intelligent video surveillance market is experiencing a significant period of growth as organizations more fully realize the benefits offered by video analytics, object...Read More

A recent Forrester report1 (access requires subscription) by Rick Parrish says that initiatives put in place by the U.S. government to improve the customer experience “will start to bear fruit in 2015, as agencies finally break out of their find-and-fix cycle and start making...Read More

The Verint team—and the industry at large—sees the year ahead as a dynamic one, with security intelligence solutions experiencing continued growth through 2015 and beyond.2014 was a strong year for the physical security market overall, with the global industry topping $25 billion...Read More

In retail and banking organizations, there have been significant efforts to use video analytics and exception reporting to better detect malicious activity in stores and branches. And with every new innovation, security technology helps end users get another step ahead of the bad guys.In retail...Read More

Have you ever remodeled a home where you wanted to remove a wall, only to be told by the contractor that it was a “load-bearing” wall? That bit of news can sometimes blow a budget, but it’s reassuring to know that the home has structural integrity and that you can keep it intact...Read More

I love to read—I’m voracious. From the sides of the morning cereal box, to magazines, to books, to blogs, to tweets, and back again—I’m reading. If I have more than 30 seconds between tasks, you’ll find me head-down reading on my iPhone. No shock, then, that I...Read More

Around the globe, new Safe City programs are being initiated every year. Cities both large and small are looking at ways in which they can unify the efforts of various public agencies, such as police and transportation, while also maximizing the usefulness of video surveillance, GIS mapping and...Read More

Shakespeare once suggested that the labels we give things don’t really matter. While it is futile to word-duel with the Bard, I suggest he may be wrong. The words and the labels we give things matter.For example, take the name of a common workplace in our industry.  For many of you...Read More

It is becoming increasingly clear that the need to deter bad behaviour on the trading floor is intensifying. In an October 27 online Reuters article, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England stated that financial market scandals are not limited to a few “bad apples”—but...Read More

Research has shown that companies with highly engaged employees perform better financially and have higher customer satisfaction. Yet many organizations fail to provide employees with the four key elements for meaningful engagement:1. Clear goals that are role-specific yet still tied to company...Read More

The leaves are falling, it’s getting colder and the Halloween decorations are everywhere. If you’re like many of us, it’s also the time of the year that we begin to panic and say “How is it almost November? What happened to summer?”At home, we’re trying to...Read More

I was recently taken with one organization’s description of how they view their business—through the 5 Vs:Volume: The business unit of this large financial services firm dealt in billions of transactions.Velocity: Due to the nature of the transactions, 70 percent of them are required...Read More

National Customer Service Week 2014 is a wrap!It’s always good to take a week to focus on how well we (that's the royal "we") serve our customers and future customers—after all, it’s the most important thing any organization does. In keeping with that, we hosted a live one...Read More

How is your National Customer Service Week going? I know that mine started off with a flood of customer-centric activities and is going to end with our live one-hour “Tweet Jam” on Friday, October 10 at 1 p.m. ET. I’m really excited to get to co-host this event with my...Read More

Every successful organization maintains a focus on one priority above all others over the long run: serving their customers. In honor of those who serve customers, Verint celebrates National Customer Service Week during the week of October 6-10. This week-long event is dedicated to acknowledging...Read More

Within the security industry, threats and the technology used to detect them constantly evolve. In one of the most recent evolutionary steps of security technology, end-users have become increasingly drawn to solutions that integrate multiple disparate systems and sensors to provide comprehensive...Read More

Not long ago, people-counting technology seemed straight out of a sci-fi movie. But these days, the software is fairly common—used by a wide range of end users, especially those in the retail and banking markets.As people-counting technology continues to evolve, its capabilities...Read More

No one will argue that change is hard. We can also all agree that to survive, we have to change and adapt.One healthcare insurer was struggling with balancing employee autonomy with cost and service efficiencies. This insurer had a number of policies that gave employees flexibility in their...Read More

Every once in a while something comes along in the contact center industry that makes you scratch your head and wonder why it took so long. Speech analytics comes to mind as a good example of this phenomenon. With tens of thousands of recorded customer conversations sitting in storage, why did it...Read More

We live in a time of unprecedented amounts of data—more accessible and varied than ever before. In their book “Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think,” authors Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier estimate that the amount of...Read More

A colleague of mine has a pet peeve: customers who purchased a workforce management (WFM) solution years ago and have gradually stopped using it for schedule optimization. In his view, lots of companies today use WFM forschedule management, and not enough use it for schedule...Read More

Homeland security initiatives are on the rise, thanks in large part to a growing concern over terrorist activity, according to a new report by Transparency Market Research.The global homeland security market was valued at more than $245 billion in 2013, according to the report. With a steady...Read More

I recently had the opportunity to spend a couple of days at the Professional Planning Forum’s (PPF) annual conference in Brighton. This year’s theme was "Bridging the Gap – People Build Success” and focused on the importance of engagement in order to drive improvements...Read More

As organizations strive to make sound decisions to stay competitive, gaining helpful insights from data becomes more important than ever. How comfortable are you that your organization’s data can paint an accurate picture of what’s really happening?Verint’s Nicole Nevulis...Read More

Recently, I was speaking to a customer about their enterprise-wide operational excellence improvement initiative. They broke down their approach into three phases:1)      Capture employee activity data to improve low productivity and reduce “unplanned” events2...Read More

Gallup, Inc. research has concluded that a lack of recognition or praise for doing good work is responsible for a 10 to 20 percent difference in revenue and productivity. What's more, employees who report that they're not adequately recognized at work are three times more likely to...Read More

In our previous blog, we introduced two ways that your financial institution could transform its branches into more proactive sales engines. Let’s briefly review them before diving into our next tips. First, begin by conducting a sales productivity assessment and then implement Desktop...Read More

The trend toward bringing the management of the front office and the back office together in the enterprise continues to gather momentum as evidenced by the year-end numbers gathered by Saddletree Research in conjunction with the National Association of Call Centers (NACC), the not-for-profit...Read More

Organizations worldwide are increasingly looking for ways to engage their employees, encourage their feedback and increase their loyalty. Cynthia Clark’s recent 1to1 media article, Six Ways to Keep Score of Employee Contributions, focuses on how business leaders can elevate...Read More

Are you helping your organization drive toward the Next Big Thing?In Ryan Hollenbeck’s recent blog called Trends Worthy of Your Attention in 2016 he discusses how a new market called “Customer Engagement Optimization” continues to emerge from the convergence of workforce...Read More

Now that I’ve graded my performance on my predictions for government and public sector customer service in 2015, it’s time for my Top 5 predictions for 2016. Enjoy!1. Digital First Software Rationalization2015 was meant to be a year of optimism but economic difficulties in countries...Read More

Almost a year ago, I made some predictions for what would take place in government and public sector customer service in 2015. Now that we have moved into 2016, it’s time to take a look at how I did. I’ll review each prediction and give it a grade (on a scale of 1-10, with 1...Read More

As the world celebrated the New Year, safety was on people’s minds around the world. Many took time to review some of the events that helped define 2015. The Paris attacks, the university shooting in Kenya and the violence associated with Charlie Hebdo further...Read More

With the beginning of a new year fast approaching, your organization may be deciding where to focus its energy on emerging industry trends. As a starting point, we know from recent industry analyst research that a new market called “Customer Engagement Optimization” is emerging...Read More

This is the time of year that many of us start to wonder what the year ahead holds for the contact center industry.This year, instead of wondering, pondering, guessing and speculating about what could happen in 2016, we decided to take a more scientific approach to our conjectures. This approach...Read More

Enterprise feedback management (EFM) is an essential function that all organizations should perform, regardless of their line of business. While there are a number of applications that can provide an understanding of customer needs and wants, the simplest and often most effective way to determine...Read More

In this intensely competitive and disruptive environment, the need for outstanding customer service has never been more critical. With its role in contributing to a company’s brand promise, it is simply too important to be left to a single department.Outstanding customer service can only be...Read More

In a previous post “Knowledge Management: How Do I Know I’m Doing It Right?” we explored some of the key outcomes one should see evolving from good KM. We’ve also explored benefits and new capabilities for customers, employees and the organization itself.So now, how do we...Read More

Digital disruption is here to stay—as are expectations of near instantaneous answers and action. So, navigating digital disruption is forcing organizations to be more focused and responsive to the needs of customers than ever before.With infinitely more choices at their fingertips...Read More

Whether it’s a phone conversation with an insurer, a live chat with the cable company, or a conversation at your bank branch, there are really just two fundamental things a customer wants: better outcomes and less effort.Better OutcomesThe goal of any customer service interaction is to...Read More

We’ve probably all heard that context is king. In the realm of understanding customer needs in an increasingly complex world, the importance of this phrase cannot be underestimated. Are you mining the wealth of data in customer analytics to improve your customer relationships?I recently...Read More

In previous posts we’ve examined the value of effective knowledge management (KM) on customers and on the organization. What about employees? Does it matter whether they have a knowledge base or not? Are there specific identifiable drivers of value for support agents through KM?The value of...Read More

Customer Service Week is one of my favorite celebrations of the year! It gives us the opportunity to show our pride in our customer service professionals. If you are like me, there are many times you see an email from a customer talking about the exemplary service they received from one of our...Read More

There’s a lot of talk about “the Millennials” these days—how they live and work and interact in a digitally disrupted world. As a Sociology major, I find it fascinating. As a 55-year-old high-tech professional, I find it nauseating. Like I don’t use a smart phone and...Read More

Recently I was reading a great article by Paul Greenberg titled “The clarity of definition: CRM, CE and CX. Should we care?”. As I read through the piece, which does a great job at boiling down how customers can think of these three areas, all I could think about is how confusing the...Read More

My team recently examined the key indicators related to knowledge management enabling support—everything from increasingly leveraging knowledge on different channels to higher-quality service interactions. It’s clear enough that good KM delivers value. What are the key benefits, then,...Read More

Consumers today expect financial institutions to provide the products and services they need, when and how they want them. The personal connection—or relationship—between consumers and their financial institution has been largely lost as a significant number of transactions and day-to...Read More

Verint's acquisition of Telligent, a leader in software for customer support, underscores the growing importance of customer and employee communities as an important part of customer engagement and employee collaboration.Long before the emergence of digital media or electronic communications...Read More

Innovation among retail banks is a slow-going, yet essential part of keeping up with market trends. Currently, Celent is conducting a series of surveys with a selected panel of banking professionals to investigate if and how branch channel transformation is taking place among various retail banks...Read More

At a recent Verint Americas Customer Advisory Council (CAC) meeting, the agenda included introducing new members, reviewing the 2015 member profile survey, and reviewing “creative practice” presentations from two CAC members. Both presenters discussed customer experience excellence...Read More

Banks around the world are urgently redefining the role and value of the bank branch in response to changes in consumer channel preferences, particularly digital growth. As a result, banks are transforming how branches are used to support their customers. Ovum recently conducted a survey of...Read More

Recently, I presented a webinar on how customer journey mapping can drive optimal business processes that impress customers and, ultimately, drive your organization! You can view the webinar here. I’ll share a few highlights.One thing we can count on to affect our organizations is...Read More

For more than 20 years, enterprises have downplayed the importance and contributions of their back-office operating groups. These departments are an integral component of the overall customer experience and are involved in many steps throughout the customer journey. While their responsibilities...Read More

Services organizations employing strong knowledge management programs aspire to empower, delight and enhance their customers’ experience through better knowledge. But what does the customer think? Does it matter to a customer if an organization is pursuing good KM practices? And how would...Read More

Banks are painfully aware of the urgent need to redefine the role of their branches—particularly in response to tremendous growth in consumer use of digital channels that is taking place in parallel with a significant rise in consumer expectations.Ovum recently conducted a global survey of...Read More

It seems as if everyone has embraced today’s mobile and digital revolution. Many of us access goods and services online from practically anywhere at any time, and increasingly via a smartphone or tablet device rather than a traditional desktop computer or laptop.Government and public sector...Read More

More and more consumers are turning to communities to seek insights about products, services, support and other topics of interest. As they continue to seek perspectives from their peers before making decisions, the importance of social communities continues to grow.With the demand for more real...Read More

“Digital” is critical in financial services, but defining the term is difficult. At Celent, we believe that digital requires a structural change in the financial institution. Our framework illustrated below makes it easier.Digital in banking begins with the customer. Banks should be...Read More

I’m sure by now many of you are aware of the recent social media event involving a picture of a dress. You may remember that dress—the one that triggered a social media debate over its colors. Some of us saw the dress as blue and black, while others saw it as white and gold.The reason...Read More

In a recent feature, Speech Technology spotlighted Verint’s announcement that it has released the Verint Identity Authentication and Fraud Detection solution to provide a faster and more seamless approach to customer authentication.According to Verint’s Steve Williams, vice president...Read More

Your organization works hard to collect customer experience data in the constant quest to earn customer loyalty. Have you consistently collected this data but then struggled to translate the resulting insights into long-term advantage? This challenge is more common than you might think.In a 1 p.m...Read More

Knowledge management has come of age. Organizations in every area of the marketplace are building and leveraging knowledge tools to help empower their customers, their employees and their business. The business value in reducing training costs, driving self help, infusing service interactions...Read More

Verint completed our most successful global customer conference ever this summer, with more than 1,000 customers and partners joining us in Las Vegas, Nevada. Following this conference, I attended the Glastonbury festival in the U.K., one of the largest music festivals in the world and home to...Read More

How to best analyze and understand customer calls in order to serve customers better and help keep them loyal is an ongoing challenge for organizations. Verint has made that easier with its cutting-edge advancements to the Verint Speech Analytics™ solution, part of the Verint Customer...Read More

Customer journey mapping is growing increasingly popular as a way to gain powerful insights into customer behavior.Verint’s Nancy Porte, vice president, global customer experience, spoke to 1to1 Media recently about the evolution of journey mapping, noting that it was initially used to '...Read More

Can caller verification really become “frictionless”? Spending 45 seconds answering security questions is friction that can turn off customers and add to agent handle time. To aid in the reduction of friction and cost, mining phone calls for actionable intelligence can help easily and...Read More

Part one of this blog series introduced the lesser known benefits of gamification. In this post, we’ll explore how gamification can actually help create happier, more engaged employees. Employers are looking for ways to create more satisfied employees. That helps with customer experiences...Read More

The U.K. government has been delivering on its Government as a Platform initiative for the past few years. But what exactly is it?The official definition is "Government as a Platform is a new vision for digital government; a common core infrastructure of shared digital systems, technology and...Read More

Recent research has highlighted the enormous impact that people in organizations can have on customers. Engaged employees are at the heart of every thriving business and every customer-centric initiative. For all the (welcome and needed) advances in self service over web and mobile, when a...Read More

Local governments are generally not considered “early adopters” when it comes to technology. Citizens tend to be the ones who use the latest technology, then almost have to force local governments and agencies to finally begin using it. But, government adoption of technology always...Read More

Most people, when asked, will say that gamification is about using badges and points—and that employees will compete against each other to get the best result. Competition-driven gamification is indeed the crux of conventional wisdom about gamification.However, conventional wisdom isn&rsquo...Read More

The forces of digital disruption and the shifting work styles of young employees are pressuring organizations to become increasingly responsive to both customers’ and employees’ needs. With all the talk about “outside in” and “customer centricity,” it’s...Read More

In a recent survey by Ovum, executives were asked to describe the primary objectives of the back-office areas within their businesses. (Click here to download the Ovum report.) They had two primary concerns: execute work at the lowest cost and improve customer service.These objectives mirror the...Read More

By now, we probably all recognize that the nature of banking is changing fairly dramatically. Routine transactions are shifting away from the branch as digital channels grow in popularity, thus reducing branch visits—and more significantly for banks—reducing the face-to-face sales and...Read More

Verint took part in Forrester’s Forum for Customer Experience Professionals in New York City over the past two days. Objectives of the conference included offering attendees a comprehensive look at how to help improve customer experience quality and increase customer loyalty. Areas of...Read More

Earlier this month, I attended the Digital Transformation Executive Dinner presented by IDC in London. During that event, IDC’s Lionel Lamy, Associate Vice President, European Services, mentioned a startling statistic during his presentation titled “IoT - Your Customers’ Next...Read More

Part one of this blog series discussed keeping your data story simple by applying the ARC approach: Actionable, Relevant, and Consumable. I’ll now highlight the importance of understanding the push-pull impact on your data.While Sir Isaac Newton predates the age of big data, we can learn a...Read More

I’m going to share my top three tips for making data actionable and helping all levels of your organization understand the story the data is telling. These tips include how to:Filter big data for the relevant data pointsCreate a framework to “operationalize” the dataIdentify the...Read More

A Forrester Research, Inc. report from November 2014 (“Better Customer Relationships Require Trusted Data” by Michele Goetz and Kate Leggett) pointed out the vital role of data quality in the success of CRM delivery, which, in the “age of the customer,” is intrinsically...Read More

Following the launch of Verint’s next-generation customer engagement optimization platform last year, it added more major enhancements in March. The new platform represents a significant lift from traditional workforce optimization platforms, which are often more limited in their...Read More

A recent Gallup opinion poll made for some fairly grim reading for global organizations. It found that 70 percent of American workers are either “Not Engaged” or are “Actively Disengaged” from their workplaces. In Europe, the situation was even worse, with the highest...Read More

Now more than ever before, people are the most important asset in your contact center. It’s true that technology has advanced to the point where most simple issues can be resolved digitally without an employee’s involvement. However, this means that when a customer does need to speak...Read More

The explosion of marketing technology tools and software gives marketers innumerable opportunities to engage consumers and provide excellent customer experiences. In fact, 89 percent of marketers expect to compete primarily on the basis of customer experience by 2016, according to Gartner. But...Read More

In my last blog, I highlighted government’s challenge of understanding and using the huge amount of data they are bombarded with daily to make better decisions and better serve their citizens—and how one city was empowering its citizens to gain intelligence from this data and...Read More

In part one of the Safe City blog series, we examined some of the many threats cities face around the world. Today, we’ll take a closer look at the concept of situational awareness and how it helps city officials deter, detect and respond to crime, vandalism, terrorism...Read More

Have you considered that employees are likely the most important investment your organization makes in customer satisfaction? After all, we all know that employee disengagement is expensive and does not help the customer experience.This week Verint announced the addition of gamification to its...Read More

As an industry analyst, I speak and write about a number of significant trends in the financial services industry. And lately that means covering “big” topics like core banking replacement, digital channels and the need for customer (re)engagement. These are all important discussions...Read More

In a feature earlier this month, Biometric Update put the spotlight on Verint’s announcement that it has added voice biometrics capabilities to its enterprise workforce optimization solution—one of many significant enhancements and advancements that extend the company&rsquo...Read More

As consumers, we’ve been taught that bigger—or more—is always better. More money. Bigger houses. Larger data plans. All-you-can eat buffets.However, this is not true when it comes to today’s banking branches—bigger is not always better. In fact, it’s not the...Read More

You may have heard the story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job...Read More

In our first blog discussing the webinar we held earlier this year with Harvard Business School Professor Francesca Gino, Debunking Employee Productivity Myths, we addressed two decision-making biases that impact employee productivity: A bias for action and a bias for completion.This...Read More

It seems like everything is getting smarter—smarter phones, smarter cars, smarter appliances, and the list goes on. More and more, the machines we use—more precisely, the software applications running on them—are better at meeting our needs and our desire to get something done...Read More

Government organizations are bombarded with huge amounts of data on a daily basis. But do they understand and use this data to make better decisions and better serve their citizens? Or, in Verint terminology, can they turn this information into Actionable Intelligence®?Broadly speaking, two...Read More

Is your city safe?Many cities are asking this question. Safe City initiatives are on the rise around the world due to unique, ever-evolving and complex threats. As populations grow, so do the size and intricacy of the infrastructure required to support them. Municipalities must be able to respond...Read More

Many of today’s banks may not immediately associate the call center with billions of dollars in online and mobile fraud losses. However, banks and card issuers might be surprised to learn that a non-trivial percentage of that fraud may actually involve the call center.Here’s a...Read More

Last week Verint took part in the 2015 CIO Summit of America at the Harvard Club of New York City. The summit was attended by more than 300 CIO/IT leaders who took part in interactive sessions on topics including strategy, process improvement and alignment, customer focus, and business...Read More

According to Forrester Research, organizations in industries ranging from airlines to health insurance have the potential to gain hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue when they provide a better experience for their customers. This revenue is typically driven by increased purchases, reduced...Read More

Organizations around the world face a complex set of threats—and for many, new security challenges emerge every year. As the global landscape evolves, so do the technologies that are designed to deter, detect and investigate incidents of crime, fraud, violence and terrorism.Physical...Read More

We live in a digital world where you can access information and complete tasks online whenever and wherever you want. We’ve all gone online to do some shopping, download music or stream our favorite TV shows.The good news is that government and public sector organizations have largely...Read More

I was recently listening to a customer explain how they developed their processing time standards for their back-office employees. He made a very interesting point: “Why would you want to manage to the average?” In the rest of our lives, would we be happy with just average?Managing to...Read More

Keeping customers satisfied is growing more important every day. Today’s on-the-go customers are connected almost around the clock—via multiple channels—to their preferred companies and brands.Organizations must rapidly shift their strategies to keep up with these evolving...Read More

It’s time to look ahead to see what 2015 has in store for the world of customer service. Here is what I foresee happening this year.Service is the new marketing.This has never been truer than now and will accelerate in 2015. It is critical for an organization to sustainably meet customers...Read More

With today’s housing market being significantly driven by government regulations, mortgage operations executives are consistently challenged with finding the right balance between “the 3 Cs:”Customer Experience, Compliance & Capacity.Customer Experience: Today’s...Read More

In a blog post last week titled The Role of People in the Digital World, Verint's Steven Thurlow, vice president and global practice leader, engagement management, discussed how companies and organizations have adapted to a digital world, allowing customers to research, shop and get help...Read More

During the Great Depression of last century, “Brother, can you spare a dime” became a commonly heard phrase in the U.S., and eventually went on to become the title of a song written in 1930 and famously recorded by Bing Crosby, Al Jolson and Rudy Vallee. The song talks about the...Read More

Not long ago, video surveillance was used primarily for a couple of very distinct purposes—mainly capturing evidence of a crime or another incident such as a slip and fall. But today, video cameras and associated analytics deliver a much broader set of benefits. Organizations are using...Read More

Now that I’ve graded my performance on my predictions for government and public sector customer service in 2014, it’s time for my Top 5 predictions for 2015. Enjoy!1. Customer experience becomes strategic for governmentGovernment and public sector organizations will...Read More

A customer engagement strategy is rapidly turning into a must-have. Recently Verint’s Ryan Hollenbeck, senior vice president, marketing, spoke with John Ragsdale of TSIA (Technology Services Industry Association) about how more and more B2B companies are embracing the importance of such a...Read More

Continuing on the delivery of the early insights into the third version of the customer service adoption and usage study we are conducting with our friends at KANA®, A Verint® Company (the summary of early findings ishere), I’d like to explore the rise of chat in contact...Read More

There’s been lots of talk recently about defining the new omnichannel experience.  Perhaps the best way to explain it is to provide a real-life example of what it’s not.My cable company called me over the holidays, offering an exciting new promotion – “Get two premium...Read More

You may remember that I made some predictions for what would take place in government and public sector customer service in 2014. Now that we have moved into 2015, it’s time to take a look at how I did with my predictions. I’ll review each prediction and give them a grade...Read More

Ahhh, holidays. I use that word in both senses: a break from regular working life usually spent with friends and family that often involves travel—and the traditional celebrations occurring near the end of the calendar year. They are both often full of fun, relaxation, stress and conflict...Read More

Continuing the series of blog posts examining the early results of the customer service channels adoption and usage study generously sponsored by KANA®, A Verint® Company (read the summary and the previous entry on social, and watch this blog for the next entry in a...Read More

Most organizations today want to demonstrate that their dollars are buying valuable solutions and services. Budgets are scrutinized; complex issues abound—and results are usually demanded quickly.Therefore, more than ever, choosing a business partner that’s a proven leader in their...Read More

According to the December 2014 blog post Framing the House of Customer Engagement Optimization by Verint’s Scott Hays, vice president, global solutions marketing, a complete customer optimization strategy requires enriched customer interactions, improved business processes, and an...Read More

As I promised earlier this year, I conducted the third run of the channel adoption and usage study (focused on customer service) that my friends at KANA®, A Verint® Company, continue to generously sponsor.Truth be told, it took a little longer than expected to get to the right number...Read More

The quality of work in your back office can heavily influence the quality of work life for your front-line contact center agents. Your agents may be receiving customer calls that could likely be avoided altogether if back-office inefficiencies were addressed.To meet that need, Verint recently...Read More

Over the past decade or so, financial services companies have faced considerable challenges. From Wall Street scandals and tough economic conditions to rapidly increasing regulatory requirements, significant shifts in customer expectations, and more—times are changing.All of these...Read More

As part of the mandate to improve the federal customer experience, government agencies are hiring Chief Customer Officers (CCO) to lead the way. In general, a CCO is an executive responsible for the total relationship with an organization’s customers and to provide a single vision across...Read More

Could you spend US $150,000 per second? That’s the list price of a commercial during Super Bowl XLIX ($4.5M for a 30-second spot, just doing the math for you.) There is a lot of money at stake, not just for the network that broadcasts the game, but also for the players...Read More

Forrester recently published a report (access requires subscription) about U.S. government customer experience performance, which states that “Federal agencies are failing the administration’s mandate to offer customer experiences (CX) that match the best of the private...Read More

Across the world, video surveillance is booming—and it’s getting smarter with each passing year.The global intelligent video surveillance market is experiencing a significant period of growth as organizations more fully realize the benefits offered by video analytics, object...Read More

A recent Forrester report1 (access requires subscription) by Rick Parrish says that initiatives put in place by the U.S. government to improve the customer experience “will start to bear fruit in 2015, as agencies finally break out of their find-and-fix cycle and start making...Read More

The Verint team—and the industry at large—sees the year ahead as a dynamic one, with security intelligence solutions experiencing continued growth through 2015 and beyond.2014 was a strong year for the physical security market overall, with the global industry topping $25 billion...Read More

In retail and banking organizations, there have been significant efforts to use video analytics and exception reporting to better detect malicious activity in stores and branches. And with every new innovation, security technology helps end users get another step ahead of the bad guys.In retail...Read More

Have you ever remodeled a home where you wanted to remove a wall, only to be told by the contractor that it was a “load-bearing” wall? That bit of news can sometimes blow a budget, but it’s reassuring to know that the home has structural integrity and that you can keep it intact...Read More

I love to read—I’m voracious. From the sides of the morning cereal box, to magazines, to books, to blogs, to tweets, and back again—I’m reading. If I have more than 30 seconds between tasks, you’ll find me head-down reading on my iPhone. No shock, then, that I...Read More

Around the globe, new Safe City programs are being initiated every year. Cities both large and small are looking at ways in which they can unify the efforts of various public agencies, such as police and transportation, while also maximizing the usefulness of video surveillance, GIS mapping and...Read More

Shakespeare once suggested that the labels we give things don’t really matter. While it is futile to word-duel with the Bard, I suggest he may be wrong. The words and the labels we give things matter.For example, take the name of a common workplace in our industry.  For many of you...Read More

It is becoming increasingly clear that the need to deter bad behaviour on the trading floor is intensifying. In an October 27 online Reuters article, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England stated that financial market scandals are not limited to a few “bad apples”—but...Read More

Research has shown that companies with highly engaged employees perform better financially and have higher customer satisfaction. Yet many organizations fail to provide employees with the four key elements for meaningful engagement:1. Clear goals that are role-specific yet still tied to company...Read More

The leaves are falling, it’s getting colder and the Halloween decorations are everywhere. If you’re like many of us, it’s also the time of the year that we begin to panic and say “How is it almost November? What happened to summer?”At home, we’re trying to...Read More

I was recently taken with one organization’s description of how they view their business—through the 5 Vs:Volume: The business unit of this large financial services firm dealt in billions of transactions.Velocity: Due to the nature of the transactions, 70 percent of them are required...Read More

National Customer Service Week 2014 is a wrap!It’s always good to take a week to focus on how well we (that's the royal "we") serve our customers and future customers—after all, it’s the most important thing any organization does. In keeping with that, we hosted a live one...Read More

How is your National Customer Service Week going? I know that mine started off with a flood of customer-centric activities and is going to end with our live one-hour “Tweet Jam” on Friday, October 10 at 1 p.m. ET. I’m really excited to get to co-host this event with my...Read More

Every successful organization maintains a focus on one priority above all others over the long run: serving their customers. In honor of those who serve customers, Verint celebrates National Customer Service Week during the week of October 6-10. This week-long event is dedicated to acknowledging...Read More

Within the security industry, threats and the technology used to detect them constantly evolve. In one of the most recent evolutionary steps of security technology, end-users have become increasingly drawn to solutions that integrate multiple disparate systems and sensors to provide comprehensive...Read More

Not long ago, people-counting technology seemed straight out of a sci-fi movie. But these days, the software is fairly common—used by a wide range of end users, especially those in the retail and banking markets.As people-counting technology continues to evolve, its capabilities...Read More

No one will argue that change is hard. We can also all agree that to survive, we have to change and adapt.One healthcare insurer was struggling with balancing employee autonomy with cost and service efficiencies. This insurer had a number of policies that gave employees flexibility in their...Read More

Every once in a while something comes along in the contact center industry that makes you scratch your head and wonder why it took so long. Speech analytics comes to mind as a good example of this phenomenon. With tens of thousands of recorded customer conversations sitting in storage, why did it...Read More

We live in a time of unprecedented amounts of data—more accessible and varied than ever before. In their book “Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think,” authors Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier estimate that the amount of...Read More

A colleague of mine has a pet peeve: customers who purchased a workforce management (WFM) solution years ago and have gradually stopped using it for schedule optimization. In his view, lots of companies today use WFM forschedule management, and not enough use it for schedule...Read More

Homeland security initiatives are on the rise, thanks in large part to a growing concern over terrorist activity, according to a new report by Transparency Market Research.The global homeland security market was valued at more than $245 billion in 2013, according to the report. With a steady...Read More

I recently had the opportunity to spend a couple of days at the Professional Planning Forum’s (PPF) annual conference in Brighton. This year’s theme was "Bridging the Gap – People Build Success” and focused on the importance of engagement in order to drive improvements...Read More

As organizations strive to make sound decisions to stay competitive, gaining helpful insights from data becomes more important than ever. How comfortable are you that your organization’s data can paint an accurate picture of what’s really happening?Verint’s Nicole Nevulis...Read More

Recently, I was speaking to a customer about their enterprise-wide operational excellence improvement initiative. They broke down their approach into three phases:1)      Capture employee activity data to improve low productivity and reduce “unplanned” events2...Read More

Gallup, Inc. research has concluded that a lack of recognition or praise for doing good work is responsible for a 10 to 20 percent difference in revenue and productivity. What's more, employees who report that they're not adequately recognized at work are three times more likely to...Read More

In our previous blog, we introduced two ways that your financial institution could transform its branches into more proactive sales engines. Let’s briefly review them before diving into our next tips. First, begin by conducting a sales productivity assessment and then implement Desktop...Read More

The trend toward bringing the management of the front office and the back office together in the enterprise continues to gather momentum as evidenced by the year-end numbers gathered by Saddletree Research in conjunction with the National Association of Call Centers (NACC), the not-for-profit...Read More

Organizations worldwide are increasingly looking for ways to engage their employees, encourage their feedback and increase their loyalty. Cynthia Clark’s recent 1to1 media article, Six Ways to Keep Score of Employee Contributions, focuses on how business leaders can elevate...Read More