Can you measure CX real-time, in the moment? Are you confident that you have an objective measure of your CX? Can you benchmark your CX with your competitors? In my experience, the answer for most organizations is “No.”. Organizations find themselves anxiously awaiting CSAT and NPS results, investing dollars and time in the process. Don't get me wrong. These KPIs are great metrics. They are common, simple, and easy to understand. MORE
A couple of weeks ago, we were honored to host our inaugural Cyara Xchange conference up in San Francisco. It was such an energizing event where everyone was sharing best practices and war stories from the CX trenches. One of the highlights for me from the three days was the main stage panel titled, “Transforming Your Development Organization to Support an Agile World.” MORE
Our Xchange 2018 conference was a momentous occasion for us as a company, as well as for me personally. This was something I envisioned twelve years ago, so it was with both pride and humility that I took the stage to address our customers and partners. Even more valuable were the conversations we shared — over dinner, in the hallways, and in the breakout sessions where everyone shared their experiences and learnings with each other. MORE
We all know that customers want and expect to have the context of their interactions with an organization carry with them as they move from one channel to another. According to Salesforce, 75% of consumers expect consistency across channels (Salesforce, State of the Connected Customer , 2016). And, 89% of customers get frustrated because they need to repeat their issue to multiple representatives (Accenture). MORE
Keeping on top of your CX requires ongoing monitoring, with robust, flexible alerting capabilities. Today, many CX leaders are monitoring their CX applications with Cyara Pulse, and leveraging our dashboards to make it easy to see at a glance when something needs attention. To make sure our customers find out as quickly as possible when a problem occurs, we have robust, flexible alerting capabilities. MORE
Many organizations around the world are undertaking digital transformations in an effort to move with the times and meet consumer expectations. Working with Cyara's customers, the Domain Consulting team has found that this transformation most often involves a transformation in how they think about technology. In fact, I believe that is critical for achieving a successful transformation. MORE
At Cyara Xchange 2018 in March, I had the great privilege of hearing a presentation by two experts on performance testing of CX applications: Pete Dhadwar of Royal Bank of Canada and Chandra Golla of Cyara. In this blog post, I will share a few of their pearls of wisdom. customer experience automated testing IVR testing contact center cx customer experience issues call center design-driven assurance integration performance testing MORE
71% of organizations say that customer experience is a competitive differentiator ( Dimension Data, 2017 ). That’s why CX Assurance is so important. And that’s why Cyara is laser focused on delivering the best CX Assurance solution available. Cyara 7.2 includes a wealth of enhancements, across the entire platform, that enable our clients to more effectively test and monitor their CX. MORE
Part of our work in the Domain Consulting team is to advise Cyara customers on their Agile/DevOps journeys. Something we've seen among many Cyara customers, and more broadly, is the constant pressure to innovate. MORE
Part of our work in the Domain Consulting team is to advise Cyara customers on their Agile/DevOps journeys. Through this process, we've identified a path to DevOps in the contact center that I'd like to explore in more detail. In this first post of a three-part series, I will talk about putting in the guard rails with design-driven assurance. MORE
We all know how frustrating it is when you can’t clearly hear the person on the other end of the phone line. How many times have you simply hung up on someone and called back to try and get a better connection? Well, it’s one thing to call back your friends, family, or colleagues. But, when you are calling your bank, insurance company or other business, you might lose your patience, hang up and never call back. MORE
Over the past few years, Cyara, like so many other software companies, has moved to a cloud-first delivery model. With the Cyara Cloud, you get an evergreen environment that is constantly on the current release, and has quick access to bug fixes and enhancements, as well as easy access to new product trials. And, with two completely redundant sites per region, our investments in hosting enable us to sustainably deliver less than 0.1% unplanned downtime. MORE
Keeping your finger on the pulse of your customer experience is no easy feat. You have lots of moving parts, and things change rapidly. But at the same time, your CX is critical to your business success. That’s why I am so thrilled about the enhancements we are bringing to market in Cyara 7.1. While this release includes enhancements across the platform, our focus was on the monitoring capabilities found in Cyara Pulse. MORE
More and more Cyara customers are moving to an Agile/DevOps model because it allows them to release features more quickly, among other benefits. As one of Cyara ’ s Cloud Operations Managers, I ’ m tasked with automating operations and bringing together the development and operations teams. So I ’ d like to share what I ’ ve learned from our own Agile/DevOps journey. customer experience automated testing cx customer experience issues agile devops MORE
Even the most thoroughly tested and optimized CX delivery systems are subject to unexpected failures and degradation, and CX monitoring allows an enterprise to detect these before their customers do. As covered in this Cyara Resources article , CX production monitoring is designed to check the performance of your CX delivery systems. Production monitoring can broadly be classified as either active or passive , and it's beneficial for enterprises to use both. MORE
I founded McIntosh & Associates to help businesses improve their customer experience by improving the performance of their contact center. We apply a data-driven approach to identify opportunities for improving contact center performance, and customer satisfaction. One of the thorniest issues we encounter is voice quality. It’s obvious that good voice quality is an important factor in delivering a great customer experience. MORE
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, a day that symbolizes love. And just as flowers and chocolate are the language of love for couples, the language of love between you and your customer is your CX. What does your CX say about you? Do your customers find you CX-y? If you’re like most organizations, you don’t know. You know CX is a priority. You know you’ve invested in redesigning or upgrading your CX. But do you actually know how your customers feel about the CX you deliver? MORE
In our work with Cyara customers, the Domain Consulting team has found many examples of organizations approaching software development the same way: with the business side dictating their requirements to the technology side. But I believe that to encourage buy-in from the technology team as well as a better outcome, the business should be sharing their objectives or outcomes instead. In this post, I will outline my reasons and give some examples as well. MORE
Part of our work in the Domain Consulting team is advising Cyara customers on their Agile/DevOps journeys. Through this process, we've identified a path to DevOps in the contact center that I'd like to explore in more detail. In the first post of this series, I talked about putting in the guard rails with design-driven assurance, and in the second, about accelerating the delivery of value. MORE
I love Nashville. Over the years I’ve been to Nashville for three conferences, all at the Opryland Hotel. If you’ve never stayed at the Opryland Hotel, you’re in for a real treat — it’s like being in a terrarium. Enclosed, lush green grounds with winding paths. Why, there’s even an indoor boat ride! customer experience automated testing IVR testing contact center cx customer experience issues call center design-driven assurance integration performance testing MORE
You probably are familiar with the line “Show me the money!” from the movie Jerry Maguire. In the movie, Jerry’s client asks Jerry, his agent, to show him the money. He doesn’t want his agent to talk a good game or make a bunch of promises, he wants results. That line is now used in pop culture to mean delivering results. How does that apply to your IVR testing ? MORE
We’re all consumers, and we know from our own behavior that our expectations are evolving as technology evolves, which is becoming increasingly rapid. So, it’s not surprising to learn that, according to a. Salesforce study , 58% of consumers believe that technology has significantly changed their expectations of how companies should interact with them. And those expectations are high — 78% expect to leave a service interaction feeling good about their experience. That is why. MORE
Insurance is often referred to as a distress purchase, requiring the consumer to invest considerable time and effort in finding the right policy at the best price. This has given rise to many price comparison websites, which help the consumer find policies online. These sites have increased competition and disrupted the personal insurance industry, especially in the UK. MORE
Over the past few months, Cyara's Domain Consulting team has been sharing insights about DevOps/Agile trends we've identified while working with our customers. We wrote about the goals of CX leaders and identified a DevOps/Agile maturity scale for organizations. In this post, I'd like to cover a trend we've identified around feedback loops in the Agile/DevOps process. customer experience automated testing cx customer experience issues agile devops MORE
Black Christmas is the period that starts when the big UK retail brands decide to launch their Christmas TV campaigns and ends on Black Friday (or Cyber Monday if you have any cash left!). You’ve never heard the term ‘Black Christmas’? That’s because I’ve just named it. So now it’s a ‘thing’ my friends. I’m sure some people love this period – ‘retail therapy’ addicts, serial bargain hunters, or just the Wizzard fans who “ wish it could be Christmas every day ”. MORE
Spectre and Meltdown are the latest in a long list of threats to the security of your IT systems, including those that underpin your CX applications. But your CX applications are particularly critical. Not only are they the front door to your customers, but they also contain valuable, confidential, and private customer information. customer experience automated testing cx customer experience issues patches security MORE
The fact is, there can be many kinds of defects in software. Organizations are constantly working to minimize those defects. But to minimize any sort of defect most effectively, organizations need to look to the source. Most people think software defects come out of development because that is where the design is brought to life. But, is development truly the main source of software defects? MORE
There is so much great content published on CX, Agile and DevOps, and in every edition of our CX Assurance Newsletter , I include a list of interesting articles, videos and other content that are relevant to our readers. I find these pieces in CX industry newsletters, on LinkedIn, and a variety of other places. No matter where I find them, my goal is always to help Cyara's community of CX Assurance professionals deliver the best CX they can. MORE
Digital transformation and improved customer experience are key to survival in our new economy. And DevOps is a proven way to increase value delivery and stay competitive. It enables faster, better, and less risky projects. Because of these benefits, IT teams in organizations worldwide have invested significant time, resources, and funding in the DevOps toolchain, but has it been effective? MORE
Part of our work in the Domain Consulting team is advising Cyara customers on their Agile/DevOps journeys. Through this process, we've identified a path to DevOps in the contact center that I'd like to explore in more detail. In the first post of this series , I talked about putting in the guard rails with design-driven assurance. MORE
For CX leaders who are in the trenches day-to-day, you know that paying careful attention upfront in the design stage can make or break the efficacy of your CX testing, and of course, ultimately the success of your CX. I’ve captured some best practices to keep in mind, start to finish — based on my years of experience as a developer myself, from working side-by-side with many Cyara customers and from a panel discussion I recently hosted with Cyara customers. MORE
I couldn’t be more thrilled about Cyara 7.3. It’s packed with amazing new features aligning with two overarching themes: Personalization: With our new omnichannel testing and test data management features, we make it easier to test personalized customer journeys, ensuring that data and context is passed from one channel to another, and that users can test journeys designed for different segments. MORE
We’re all consumers of health insurance, and we’ve all gone through open enrollment. Every year we face a limited window in which we have to review options and make selections for the coming year. I don’t know about you, but I’m perpetually busy. And, truth be told, this tends to be a task I push out to the last minute. So, like so many others, I end up scrambling to get questions answered so I can complete my selections. MORE
And now, I can say with confidence, so is Cyara with our new global in-country dialing capability. Businesses are increasingly operating in a global economy, and are looking to test and monitor their customer experience in countries around the world. To do that effectively and efficiently, requires the ability to dial numbers locally for the purposes of testing and monitoring. While of course you can dial local numbers internationally, there are some limitations. MORE
In our work with Cyara customers, the Domain Consulting team has found that many organizations are struggling with maintaining alignment between and within their business and IT teams while working to increase the speed of their deployments. This point was reinforced during an Agile-focussed panel at Cyara Xchange 2018 and also in conversations I had throughout the event. In my last post, I talked about ways to get business and IT working from the same CX agenda. MORE
Cyara
SEPTEMBER 12, 2018
Part of our work in the Domain Consulting team is to advise Cyara customers on their Agile/DevOps journeys. Something we've seen among many Cyara customers, and more broadly, is the constant pressure to innovate.
Cyara
JULY 30, 2018
You probably are familiar with the line “Show me the money!” from the movie Jerry Maguire. In the movie, Jerry’s client asks Jerry, his agent, to show him the money. He doesn’t want his agent to talk a good game or make a bunch of promises, he wants results. That line is now used in pop culture to mean delivering results. How does that apply to your IVR testing ?
Cyara
AUGUST 9, 2018
Part of our work in the Domain Consulting team is advising Cyara customers on their Agile/DevOps journeys. Through this process, we've identified a path to DevOps in the contact center that I'd like to explore in more detail. In the first post of this series, I talked about putting in the guard rails with design-driven assurance, and in the second, about accelerating the delivery of value.
Cyara
AUGUST 7, 2018
Digital transformation and improved customer experience are key to survival in our new economy. And DevOps is a proven way to increase value delivery and stay competitive. It enables faster, better, and less risky projects. Because of these benefits, IT teams in organizations worldwide have invested significant time, resources, and funding in the DevOps toolchain, but has it been effective?
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Hear from independent research analyst Jon Arnold and our very own Barbara Gonzalez, VP of Global Business Consulting, on this topic as they discuss the forces driving the move to the cloud and the options for businesses when change becomes mandatory.
Cyara
AUGUST 6, 2018
There is so much great content published on CX, Agile and DevOps, and in every edition of our CX Assurance Newsletter , I include a list of interesting articles, videos and other content that are relevant to our readers. I find these pieces in CX industry newsletters, on LinkedIn, and a variety of other places. No matter where I find them, my goal is always to help Cyara's community of CX Assurance professionals deliver the best CX they can.
Cyara
JULY 10, 2018
Insurance is often referred to as a distress purchase, requiring the consumer to invest considerable time and effort in finding the right policy at the best price. This has given rise to many price comparison websites, which help the consumer find policies online. These sites have increased competition and disrupted the personal insurance industry, especially in the UK.
Cyara
JUNE 20, 2018
We’re all consumers of health insurance, and we’ve all gone through open enrollment. Every year we face a limited window in which we have to review options and make selections for the coming year. I don’t know about you, but I’m perpetually busy. And, truth be told, this tends to be a task I push out to the last minute. So, like so many others, I end up scrambling to get questions answered so I can complete my selections.
Cyara
JUNE 12, 2018
I founded McIntosh & Associates to help businesses improve their customer experience by improving the performance of their contact center. We apply a data-driven approach to identify opportunities for improving contact center performance, and customer satisfaction. One of the thorniest issues we encounter is voice quality. It’s obvious that good voice quality is an important factor in delivering a great customer experience.
Cyara
JULY 12, 2018
Part of our work in the Domain Consulting team is advising Cyara customers on their Agile/DevOps journeys. Through this process, we've identified a path to DevOps in the contact center that I'd like to explore in more detail. In the first post of this series , I talked about putting in the guard rails with design-driven assurance.
Cyara
JUNE 6, 2018
The fact is, there can be many kinds of defects in software. Organizations are constantly working to minimize those defects. But to minimize any sort of defect most effectively, organizations need to look to the source. Most people think software defects come out of development because that is where the design is brought to life. But, is development truly the main source of software defects?
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Transform your contact center to build relationships with your customers that will last a lifetime.
Cyara
JULY 10, 2018
We all know that customers want and expect to have the context of their interactions with an organization carry with them as they move from one channel to another. According to Salesforce, 75% of consumers expect consistency across channels (Salesforce, State of the Connected Customer , 2016). And, 89% of customers get frustrated because they need to repeat their issue to multiple representatives (Accenture).
Cyara
MAY 23, 2018
And now, I can say with confidence, so is Cyara with our new global in-country dialing capability. Businesses are increasingly operating in a global economy, and are looking to test and monitor their customer experience in countries around the world. To do that effectively and efficiently, requires the ability to dial numbers locally for the purposes of testing and monitoring. While of course you can dial local numbers internationally, there are some limitations.
Cyara
FEBRUARY 12, 2018
Many organizations around the world are undertaking digital transformations in an effort to move with the times and meet consumer expectations. Working with Cyara's customers, the Domain Consulting team has found that this transformation most often involves a transformation in how they think about technology. In fact, I believe that is critical for achieving a successful transformation.
Cyara
MAY 10, 2018
The answer is, it depends. The cost of a SEV1 depends on many factors including when the error is discovered and how difficult it is to diagnose and repair. But first, what is a SEV1? Category5 csat cx monitoring NPS active monitoring cx assurance custserv performance testing
Cyara
JUNE 18, 2018
Part of our work in the Domain Consulting team is to advise Cyara customers on their Agile/DevOps journeys. Through this process, we've identified a path to DevOps in the contact center that I'd like to explore in more detail. In this first post of a three-part series, I will talk about putting in the guard rails with design-driven assurance.
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Learn 5 actions your organization can take right now to improve the customer experience.
Cyara
JUNE 15, 2018
For CX leaders who are in the trenches day-to-day, you know that paying careful attention upfront in the design stage can make or break the efficacy of your CX testing, and of course, ultimately the success of your CX. I’ve captured some best practices to keep in mind, start to finish — based on my years of experience as a developer myself, from working side-by-side with many Cyara customers and from a panel discussion I recently hosted with Cyara customers.
Cyara
MAY 14, 2018
In our work with Cyara customers, the Domain Consulting team has found that many organizations are struggling with maintaining alignment between and within their business and IT teams while working to increase the speed of their deployments. This point was reinforced during an Agile-focussed panel at Cyara Xchange 2018 and also in conversations I had throughout the event. In my last post, I talked about ways to get business and IT working from the same CX agenda.
Cyara
MAY 14, 2018
I love Nashville. Over the years I’ve been to Nashville for three conferences, all at the Opryland Hotel. If you’ve never stayed at the Opryland Hotel, you’re in for a real treat — it’s like being in a terrarium. Enclosed, lush green grounds with winding paths. Why, there’s even an indoor boat ride! customer experience automated testing IVR testing contact center cx customer experience issues call center design-driven assurance integration performance testing
Cyara
MAY 6, 2018
At Cyara Xchange 2018 in March, I had the great privilege of hearing a presentation by two experts on performance testing of CX applications: Pete Dhadwar of Royal Bank of Canada and Chandra Golla of Cyara. In this blog post, I will share a few of their pearls of wisdom. customer experience automated testing IVR testing contact center cx customer experience issues call center design-driven assurance integration performance testing
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This cheat sheet covers ten fundamentals of customer service to help your business excel.
Cyara
APRIL 16, 2018
Can you measure CX real-time, in the moment? Are you confident that you have an objective measure of your CX? Can you benchmark your CX with your competitors? In my experience, the answer for most organizations is “No.”. Organizations find themselves anxiously awaiting CSAT and NPS results, investing dollars and time in the process. Don't get me wrong. These KPIs are great metrics. They are common, simple, and easy to understand.
Cyara
APRIL 16, 2018
A couple of weeks ago, we were honored to host our inaugural Cyara Xchange conference up in San Francisco. It was such an energizing event where everyone was sharing best practices and war stories from the CX trenches. One of the highlights for me from the three days was the main stage panel titled, “Transforming Your Development Organization to Support an Agile World.”
Cyara
APRIL 16, 2018
Our Xchange 2018 conference was a momentous occasion for us as a company, as well as for me personally. This was something I envisioned twelve years ago, so it was with both pride and humility that I took the stage to address our customers and partners. Even more valuable were the conversations we shared — over dinner, in the hallways, and in the breakout sessions where everyone shared their experiences and learnings with each other.
Cyara
APRIL 16, 2018
71% of organizations say that customer experience is a competitive differentiator ( Dimension Data, 2017 ). That’s why CX Assurance is so important. And that’s why Cyara is laser focused on delivering the best CX Assurance solution available. Cyara 7.2 includes a wealth of enhancements, across the entire platform, that enable our clients to more effectively test and monitor their CX.
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Tactics for Boosting Engagement and Brand Affinity.
Cyara
FEBRUARY 12, 2018
Keeping on top of your CX requires ongoing monitoring, with robust, flexible alerting capabilities. Today, many CX leaders are monitoring their CX applications with Cyara Pulse, and leveraging our dashboards to make it easy to see at a glance when something needs attention. To make sure our customers find out as quickly as possible when a problem occurs, we have robust, flexible alerting capabilities.
Cyara
FEBRUARY 12, 2018
Even the most thoroughly tested and optimized CX delivery systems are subject to unexpected failures and degradation, and CX monitoring allows an enterprise to detect these before their customers do. As covered in this Cyara Resources article , CX production monitoring is designed to check the performance of your CX delivery systems. Production monitoring can broadly be classified as either active or passive , and it's beneficial for enterprises to use both.
Cyara
APRIL 8, 2018
In our work with Cyara customers, the Domain Consulting team has found many examples of organizations approaching software development the same way: with the business side dictating their requirements to the technology side. But I believe that to encourage buy-in from the technology team as well as a better outcome, the business should be sharing their objectives or outcomes instead. In this post, I will outline my reasons and give some examples as well.
Cyara
MARCH 8, 2018
We all know how frustrating it is when you can’t clearly hear the person on the other end of the phone line. How many times have you simply hung up on someone and called back to try and get a better connection? Well, it’s one thing to call back your friends, family, or colleagues. But, when you are calling your bank, insurance company or other business, you might lose your patience, hang up and never call back.
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Let's look at how the customer experience of an angry customer informs strategy, and how companies can transform frustrated customers into delighted ones.
Cyara
MARCH 8, 2018
Over the past few years, Cyara, like so many other software companies, has moved to a cloud-first delivery model. With the Cyara Cloud, you get an evergreen environment that is constantly on the current release, and has quick access to bug fixes and enhancements, as well as easy access to new product trials. And, with two completely redundant sites per region, our investments in hosting enable us to sustainably deliver less than 0.1% unplanned downtime.
Cyara
MARCH 7, 2018
More and more Cyara customers are moving to an Agile/DevOps model because it allows them to release features more quickly, among other benefits. As one of Cyara ’ s Cloud Operations Managers, I ’ m tasked with automating operations and bringing together the development and operations teams. So I ’ d like to share what I ’ ve learned from our own Agile/DevOps journey. customer experience automated testing cx customer experience issues agile devops
Cyara
FEBRUARY 21, 2018
Keeping your finger on the pulse of your customer experience is no easy feat. You have lots of moving parts, and things change rapidly. But at the same time, your CX is critical to your business success. That’s why I am so thrilled about the enhancements we are bringing to market in Cyara 7.1. While this release includes enhancements across the platform, our focus was on the monitoring capabilities found in Cyara Pulse.
Cyara
FEBRUARY 13, 2018
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, a day that symbolizes love. And just as flowers and chocolate are the language of love for couples, the language of love between you and your customer is your CX. What does your CX say about you? Do your customers find you CX-y? If you’re like most organizations, you don’t know. You know CX is a priority. You know you’ve invested in redesigning or upgrading your CX. But do you actually know how your customers feel about the CX you deliver?
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Take a second to reflect on the brands you love. How do you go about creating an awesome customer experience strategy that works for your own customers?
Cyara
JANUARY 18, 2018
We’re all consumers, and we know from our own behavior that our expectations are evolving as technology evolves, which is becoming increasingly rapid. So, it’s not surprising to learn that, according to a. Salesforce study , 58% of consumers believe that technology has significantly changed their expectations of how companies should interact with them. And those expectations are high — 78% expect to leave a service interaction feeling good about their experience. That is why.
Cyara
JANUARY 18, 2018
Spectre and Meltdown are the latest in a long list of threats to the security of your IT systems, including those that underpin your CX applications. But your CX applications are particularly critical. Not only are they the front door to your customers, but they also contain valuable, confidential, and private customer information. customer experience automated testing cx customer experience issues patches security
Cyara
JANUARY 18, 2018
Black Christmas is the period that starts when the big UK retail brands decide to launch their Christmas TV campaigns and ends on Black Friday (or Cyber Monday if you have any cash left!). You’ve never heard the term ‘Black Christmas’? That’s because I’ve just named it. So now it’s a ‘thing’ my friends. I’m sure some people love this period – ‘retail therapy’ addicts, serial bargain hunters, or just the Wizzard fans who “ wish it could be Christmas every day ”.
Cyara
JANUARY 17, 2018
Over the past few months, Cyara's Domain Consulting team has been sharing insights about DevOps/Agile trends we've identified while working with our customers. We wrote about the goals of CX leaders and identified a DevOps/Agile maturity scale for organizations. In this post, I'd like to cover a trend we've identified around feedback loops in the Agile/DevOps process. customer experience automated testing cx customer experience issues agile devops
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Learn how to walk through your customer's journey in order to improve their satisfaction and engagement
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