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Microsoft in Business Blogs: Customer experience

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Compelling new “realities” impacting healthcare 

The year 2020 and the global COVID-19 pandemic have accelerated technology solutions that make “virtual” the new reality. Most scenarios include using platforms like Teams or Zoom for: “Virtual work” to connect remote workers and customers in collaborative online sessions for business. “Virtual education” to connect students and teachers for distant learning and study groups.

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Better together: Technology partnerships open the doors to open banking 

Customers are increasingly approaching banking with a digital-first mindset: they expect to be able to perform a range of financial activities from any device. Digital disruptors in the financial services space are offering these services, creating new competition for banks. Adoption of cloud technology has created a world of possibilities for banks, allowing a widescale

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A time to pivot: What comes next for retail  

The past year has accelerated the push toward digital transformation for many industries, maybe none more than retail. From operations to manufacturing supply chain to customer experience, there is no facet of retail that is not facing the imperative to pivot or perish. 

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End-user computing: A problem everyone has but nobody wants to own 

You may have recently noticed a number of high-profile articles around governance and risk issues with banks. In talking to my large global enterprise customers in financial services, I am hearing more and more about regulators and internal risk teams requiring mitigation of risks related to data quality, data integrity, and lack of robust controls

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Rising to each new health and life sciences challenge 

Who would have thought when I made my 2020 health trends and predictions in January that our world would be upended by COVID-19? In a year marked by the health and economic crisis posed by a global pandemic, we’ve seen countless examples of the U.S. health and life sciences community rising to each new challenge

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Always-on customer engagement: Better perspectives lead to better insights 

Have you ever thought about what makes a leader different from a manager? Is it skills and experience? Expertise? Natural talent? Think about it this way. Loggers in a forest are working away at their task of felling trees and trying to find the best way forward to clear out their allotted space effectively and

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COVID-19 and the new patient experience 

Today, everyone is digging out from the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, we’re collectively defining a new order for how health and medical services will look and operate going forward.  This effort is not without its challenges. In the United States, hospital operating margins are down 96 percent since the start of the year. Most hospitals run on razor-thin

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Creating personalized customer experiences through intelligent retail 

Ten or twenty years ago, the future of retail was online shopping. Today, it is building seamless connections between physical locations and online stores so that customers can easily shop, order goods, or pick–up items from a store or curbside service. Quarantines and social distancing only highlight the importance of building retail operations that start and end with the customer, online and off.   That is why competitive organizations are turning to “intelligent retail,” where machine

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Always-on Customer Engagement: Call centers and agents play a critical role 

Companies are putting great emphasis on digital or self-service contact channels. The economics of self-service are undoubtedly compelling: Whereas live support channels cost dollars, self-service channels, by contrast, cost pennies per interaction. Also, self-service channels are improving quickly. With the introduction of intelligent chat bots and other AI-inspired innovations, these channels can handle many more types of transactions than was possible even a few years ago.   However,

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The people’s champion: how wealth management firms can win the battle for client trust 

COVID-19 has been a strain on everyone. We’ve all navigated social isolation, uncertain investment projections, and remote work environments to various degrees, but regardless of the experience, this time away has left a haze over individuals and organizations alike. We’re not just unsure what comes next, we’re questioning the very processes we’ve accepted to this

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Always-on customer engagement: customers marching to their own drummers 

It’s a great time to be a customer. Often, companies are finding that they are at product parity with their competitors and thus look to service to be the differentiator. When Allstate introduced accident forgiveness for their auto insurance products, it wasn’t too long before competitors followed suit. Thus, companies are looking to elevate customer

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Improving benefit access with Alluma 

For over twenty years, Alluma has used technology to help connect vulnerable families and individuals with the public services they need, including Medicaid, SNAP, EITC, and more. Now powered by Microsoft Azure, the organization’s new One-X-Connection solution and Quick Screener module merge data, technology, and policy to help applicants qualify quickly and anonymously while simplifying the administrative process for their agency partners.