The News: 8×8, provider of experience communications as a service (XCaaS) has introduced Sales Assist, a solution designed to help retailers provide a smoother interaction flow for both customers and the agents supporting them. More information on 8×8 Sales Assist can be found in this press release.
Sales Assist Launched by 8×8 to Support Retailers with CX Challenges
Analyst Take: 8×8’s Sales Assist is a solution that reaches across the 8×8 portfolio to help retailers provide a great customer experience across digital touchpoints. This product announcement had several facets to it that align well with that goal: choice in interaction channel, self-service and assisted service, metrics and reporting, empowered agents secure payment, and customer feedback.
Sales Assist Helps Smooth Both Sides of a Customer Interaction: CX + EX
Sales Assist gives customers the option to interact with a company using whatever channel works best for them, including web chat, bot, social media, SMS, email, or voice. It also supports movement between channels. Customers can start with AI-supported self-service to answer questions, provide insights, and assist with automation. This AI-driven support can help customers quickly get the answers they need, on their own.
If the customer needs a different level of support or the product or service question is not answered appropriately, they can then move to a live agent. The important part is ensuring that these moves around the touchpoints are seamless and connected. Customer journeys can be quite complicated right now and this connection piece is critical as it can also help support not only smoother interactions but more personalized ones.
On the agent experience side of the equation, if an interaction lands with them, the solution offers a single interface where agents can access the back office, warehouses, suppliers, and retail locations. Additionally, Sales Assist connects the agent to previous experiences and help requests, smoothing out the experience on both sides of the interaction. These capabilities make a contact center agent’s job much easier and will often allow them to get to resolution more quickly. Another piece of component of this solution is the ability to listen and evaluate both digital and voice interactions to get a gauge on where agents might need some improvement or support. This feedback can result in more focused training and coaching and in turn, an improved customer experience.
Metrics, Reporting, and Feedback
Good CX is often powered by data, and using speech analytics, a company can get a view into what the most popular product orders and services requests are, which in turn can help companies tweak inventory level and look at delivery speed and contact center staffing. Automated surveys to gather customer feedback can be sent out and completed using SMS text to gauge how the interaction went. Again, offering the opportunity to identify issues that need addressing or double down on those pieces of the interaction that are going well.
There are always parts of a customer’s journey that are very visible, such as a well-trained contact center agent, an appropriate feedback survey, and the ability to find the right answer to your question quickly. There are also the less visible parts, such as seamless third-party application integration or secure payment technology. Overall, this solution seems to be a good, packaged offering combining many 8×8 capabilities that span many critical components of CX: personalization, customer data and insights, feedback, seamless interactions across channels, and a well-supported agent experience.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
Other Insights from The Futurum Group:
New Video Capability Brought Into 8×8 Contact Center
8×8 Adds Voice to AI Self-Service Capabilities
8×8 Announces Enhancements to Support Better CX and EX
Author Information
As a detail-oriented researcher, Sherril is expert at discovering, gathering and compiling industry and market data to create clear, actionable market and competitive intelligence. With deep experience in market analysis and segmentation she is a consummate collaborator with strong communication skills adept at supporting and forming relationships with cross-functional teams in all levels of organizations.
She brings more than 20 years of experience in technology research and marketing; prior to her current role, she was a Research Analyst at Omdia, authoring market and ecosystem reports on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and User Interface technologies. Sherril was previously Manager of Market Research at Intrado Life and Safety, providing competitive analysis and intelligence, business development support, and analyst relations.
Sherril holds a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from University of Colorado, Boulder and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Rutgers University.
