Small and medium businesses, often called SMBs or SMEs, may have a smaller footprint than their enterprise counterparts, but they have a significant impact. Today, in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, SMBs account for about 99 percent of firms, and 70 percent of all jobs, contributing more than 50 percent of GDP. Looking through a comprehensive, global lens, SMBs account for 90 percent of all businesses. They are vital employers and key to creating jobs — accounting for more than 50 percent of employment worldwide.

The customer experience (CX) has taken center stage for quite some time now as businesses focus on delivering personalized, frictionless experiences. But successful companies quickly realize it’s time for the employee experience (EX) to share some of the spotlights.

Monsoons, volcanoes, wildfires, droughts, hurricanes, and typhoons. Natural disasters have been occurring with more severity and frequency than ever. In 2022, extreme weather events broke records worldwide and are on a dangerous upward trend.

As our world becomes more digitized and daily interactions span multiple channels, customers and employees expect seamless interactions and communications. Whether customers need to chat online after hours with a live service representative or employees need to communicate quickly with a colleague to answer a customer’s questions, a virtual component is a given in almost every interaction.

When people are asked to list the most important qualities of a successful and lasting relationship, trust is often one of the top answers.

I’ve always noted a disconnect between what’s presented at conferences or written in blogs — and what customer experience (CX) leaders tell me as we advise them or as they participate in research interviews about contact center architecture.

These days it takes as much (if not more) effort to keep an existing customer as it does to gain a new one. About half of customers report they would switch to a different brand after just one negative customer service interaction, according to findings from Zendesk.

While a healthcare facility’s chief concern is providing quality medical care, a patient’s guest experience extends beyond purely medical concerns.

In the 20th century, customers had far more limited choices than now. You could shop at the hardware store on the corner or the one miles down the road — provided you were in a big enough city to support two hardware stores.