Asia-Pacific banking outlook: Compliance culture depends on innovation
Banking institutions are risk engines. Customers know this. Bankers know this. Financial regulators know this.Although no one likes to be turned down for a loan, risk due diligence is actually a good thing. The global financial crisis of 2007-2008 proved that risky practices of the past were not good for the economy, for society, or for confidence in the sector as a whole.The challenge is finding the balance to meet responsible lending criteria while ensuring consistent customer satisfaction. Perhaps the answer lies in looking at risk management in a different way—through the lens of automation and transformation.“In a world of unprecedented disruption and market turbulence, transformation today revolves around the need to generate new value—to unlock new opportunities, to drive new growth, to deliver new efficiencies,” Deloitte noted in one of its transformation reports.The financial services industry needs to transform now, more than ever.Digital banking transformation and complianceBanks know that transformation is critical. However, as they look to transform from legacy models to new digital offerings, a big factor holds them back: governance, risk, and compliance.In a highly regulated industry, there are a number of compliance issues that banks need to focus on. These include responsible lending to small businesses, enforcement and monitoring of loans to businesses, and the way products and accounts are administered, among others.It's very important for banks to be able to demonstrate due diligence compliance practices while providing excellent customer experience. That’s why compliance has a crucial role to play across all types of regulation—and why technology needs to enable organizations to make this a reality.Banks are changing. As Matt Baxby, CEO of Revolut Australia, says, “We will see a generational transition from trust in banks as a driver of loyalty. Trust in financial services used to be about safety and security—banks were the bedrock—there to keep your money safe.“Now it is just as important to demonstrate you are acting in the interest of your customers, transparently and protecting their data and privacy. That will be an enduring legacy of the Royal Commission, which will only amplify with time.”The key to redressing these trust issues lies in how financial institutions can make the digital experience seamless, effective, and efficient for all those involved.Risk: The center of everything the organization doesIn such a highly regulated market, risk, controls, and compliance need to be embedded within day-to-day activities. Imagine if it were possible to automatically detect risks and controls within the system. Rather than being seen as a separate function, they could be embedded within the front-line processes while servicing customers.With increasing digitization and competitiveness within the financial services sector in Asia, it’s imperative for organizations to drive toward enhancing and uplifting a risk, resiliency, and compliance culture. This first line of defense is the beacon of good risk management through a singular focus on the user experience and high user adoption of integrated risk management technology.Taking this approach would avoid and prevent breaches, fines, or risk events. It would also reduce customer financial claims and, ultimately, loss on the income statement. Improving the digital experience reduces riskThere’s a perception that demonstrating compliance and due diligence requires a lot of time, effort, and resources that can take banks’ attention away from pursuing their innovation goals.That’s not true.In fact, embedding risk controls into the front, middle and back-office processes removes the reliance on onerous checklists and referring documents, manuals, and banker handbooks. At the same time, it accelerates institutional learning and banker time to competency. It also creates a digital audit trail across all value chains.In fact, when financial institutions improve the digital experience, it benefits three groups: Customers – who can easily get service and advice while protecting their data Employees – who can be armed with modern technology and connectivity Regulators – who gain assurance that banking and financial services are safe and secure Transformation needs to be handled carefullyImproving the digital experience does require transformation. As we observed above, this can be a risky initiative in itself. When handled incorrectly, technology can cause errors and frustrations that diminish the customer experience while introducing risks.Inconsistent data structures and taxonomies between source systems create alignment and reconciliation issues and impede the ability to quickly assess and manage the impact of obligation changes.Reliance on manual provision of data across functions, fragmentation of data sources, frequency of policy changes, and limited quality and level of granularity of data capture within some data sources results in increased manual effort and risk of errors within reporting and analytics.The lack of integration between systems and workflow tools within and across processes produces many manual touch points. This prevents entire processes form being automated to improve both controls and process efficiencies.4 steps for transformational successWhen handled well, financial services transformation enhances compliance while reducing risk. Embedding risk and compliance automation controls across your front, middle, and back office gives you a foundation to meet the evolving expectations of both customers and regulators.Taking an automated and integrated approach toward business resiliency and third-party risks will be key. It enables your organization to reduce risk, noncompliance, and underperformance through more informed and faster decision-making at every process.LIKE.TG can help reconcile data, streamline customer experiences, and future-proof financial services in an era of rapid transformation and changing market dynamics. By following a four-step process for transformational success, it’s possible for financial services institutions to be compliant by design: Build a solid foundation across IT and operations. Expand to continuous monitoring for governance, risk, and compliance. Expand to front-to-back intelligent servicing. Deliver differentiated customer experiences. Following these steps can help you become intelligence-led; achieve real-time, digitized risk and compliance processes; and leverage the power of AI and machine learning.Risk and compliance should be built inRisk and compliance visibility is critical for the survival of financial organizations. Risk and compliance managers across all domains need a central platform to help regularly monitor and assess risks. This platform should easily provide reporting to executive leaders vertically and horizontally across the organization.LIKE.TG can take you through these processes. We understand the products and services that are being distributed: from event and agreement data to machine learning decisions and actions, communication and other inputs into assurance, audit and compliance processes. LIKE.TG also knows the activities the banker carries out, the conversations bankers have with customers, and how they’re linked together.More importantly, we’re able to take a front-and-center approach to risk: ensuring we don’t just address it head-on, but that we build it into the system.Risk and compliance shouldn’t be seen as a separate function in every part of the business, or as a competing priority with transformation inside the bank. It should be embedded in everything a bank does and exist within a single, integrated business environment.Learn eight steps to automate governance, risk, and compliance.
At Grace Hopper, women expand their network—and their brand
A conversation with LIKE.TG's Vice President of IT Strategy, Planning and Business Operations Patricia Grant“I was blown away,” recalls Patricia Grant of her first time attending the Grace Hopper Celebration. It was 2006, and 1,346 women from the tech world gathered in San Diego. “The theme was ‘Making Waves’ and it was very inspiring.”For the past two decades, Grant—head of IT strategy, planning and business operations at LIKE.TG—has made her own waves in the tech industry. She has overcome entrenched bias and other obstacles to advancement in prior leadership roles at PeopleSoft, Oracle, and Symantec before joining ServiceNow.Grant’s career has flourished in step with the Grace Hopper convention. Last year, attendance at surpassed 20,000, making it the world’s largest networking confab for women. As she heads to this year’s GHC in Orlando Oct. 1-4, we talked to Grant about the challenges facing women in tech today, her personal and professional journeys, and her advice for the next generation of women considering or starting careers in tech.How did you first become interested in computing?After I graduated from college, I bought my first IBM PS1 computer. I got a printer and I was trying to figure out how to make it work. I remember calling tech support and they said, “You have to connect the cable and the LPT1 port.” I'm thinking, “I have a degree in communication and I have no idea what you're talking about.” Believe it or not, that was a pivotal moment. Months after that, I went back for a second bachelor's degree in computer science. During your early days in IT, what forms of sexism did you deal with?My first job was at a steel company working on the networking side of IT. I can't tell you the number of times somebody said to me, “Can you go get me coffee?’ or “Get me something off the printer.” And I'd say, “No, I'm here to fix your server.” I started getting frustrated with it and taking a broader look around the company, and I realized that there weren't any women in leadership positions.I was also constantly tested by my peers. I would have these two guys come up to me—I still remember their names—and they’d do a little comedy skit testing my knowledge. “Patricia, we have a question for you. How would you…” Talk about a sense of not belonging. I wasn't one of the guys and I definitely felt I didn't belong there. It was time for me to move on.It wasn't until I joined PeopleSoft that I really saw my career take off. I saw a company with diversity, women in leadership positions and felt that sense of belonging. I had growth opportunities, promotions and felt supported by my CEO.What lessons can you share for women starting a career in tech?One bit of advice I give to those early in their career is, “It's okay to be driven, but don't forget to enjoy life along the way. Balance your life with friends and family.” I was so driven to prove wrong the people who didn’t believe in me and pushed myself hard. I would go above and beyond all the time, seven days a week, to the point that it became muscle memory. Today, that muscle memory still exists, but I can remind myself to set boundaries. Work will always be there. Remember, life is too short, so enjoy it.Put yourself out there. Take risks. Find a mentor early on. I always tell interns, “As an intern, you are empowered to go talk to anyone in the company. Take advantage of it. No VP is going to say, ‘I'm not going to talk to a young intern or recent college grad who's looking for career advice.’”Build and recognize the power of having a network of work colleagues and peers who will help you as your career continues. I'll look at interns’ LinkedIn profiles and constantly remind them to “connect” with others, but do it with a personal message, not just the basic request. The goal is to stand out from everyone else.And a key thing that a lot of people, even at my level, need to do is invest time in building your own personal brand. Who are you? What are you known for? No one's going to promote your own brand and career other than you, so go out there and do it. It is uncomfortable for most people but it will only help in the long run.As you head to Grace Hopper, any reflections on what the event has meant to you?I'm still amazed every year by the sheer number of women attending. I love seeing all these women getting together, networking, and looking at who they are going to be in their lives and their careers.I’m even more amazed with the women that I talk to about career opportunities at ServiceNow. Their drive, their ambition, their background—wow, just amazing. This is a huge recruiting event and you will find the most talented women here who are ready to take on the world, and I applaud each and every one of them.I didn't really have a Grace Hopper when I was starting out. I felt like I had to figure it out on my own. I remember early in my career, reaching out to female leaders for advice and mentoring and surprisingly I did not get the support from them that I was hoping for, which was disappointing.Those of us who are moving up the corporate ladder owe it to younger women to give back, guide and mentor. Even though my schedule is busy, I have to remind myself, “Hey, I was there too, looking for somebody to guide me or give me advice.” We can make such a big impact by just grabbing lunch with someone looking for some career advice. We all need to eat, right?My advice to those still early in their career is to be bold, take risks and don’t take no for an answer. For those of us who have overcome challenges and risen up in the ranks, my ask is to take time to commit to giving back. Be a mentor to someone. Trust me, even during any of your busiest days in the office, taking time out to mentor someone really teaches you a lot and reminds you of your own career journey. It reminds you to be human. I find it very humbling.
At the Tech Lounge, the human touch makes all the difference
In the middle of preparations for a LIKE.TG product release, Roni Fontaine’s work calendar shut down. The marketing operations director couldn’t book meetings, and colleagues couldn’t invite her to any. Her calendar looked completely greyed out.So Roni, who works in the Santa Clara headquarters, paid a visit to the Tech Lounge. The technicians were initially stumped. The email program wouldn’t load sufficiently for them to see the problem. Resetting Roni’s password, profile and reinstalling the app didn’t help, either.Tech Lounge technician Darpan Patel contacted Systems Engineering, which helped him open a case with the vendor. After further diagnosis, Darpan saw that one of Roni’s meetings had been scheduled 70,000 times. Just syncing the meetings was hogging all of the calendar’s resources.As Darpan explains, this was one of his most challenging and puzzling cases he has encountered recently. He wound up manually deleting all 70,000 meetings to get Roni’s calendar working again—and her attention back on the release. “We both wanted to get my email working as quickly as we could, so I could keep up with all the deadlines for the upcoming release” she says.This is what the Tech Lounge aspires to be, says Director of IT Service Management Mirza Baig—a space where employees get personalized attention on complex tech issues. As LIKE.TG works on automating many common requests and providing easy to find, self-service options, the IT Support technicians have more time to focus on the tough cases. That makes their jobs more challenging--and fulfilling.“I have a pretty lofty goal of having all employee requests solved via self-service,” says Mirza. “Anything that’s more complex, time-consuming, or consultative in nature—that’s when we want employees to go to the Tech Lounge for help.”Automation frees up agent brainpowerSeven global LIKE.TG campuses now have Tech Lounges, which handle 30% of IT cases. It’s a physical space where employees can meet face to face with technicians to fix issues, add software, or request hardware. They can make an appointment, request the next open appointment (and be notified when to walk down to the lounge), or work in the area while they wait for assistance. Employees generally wait less than 15 minutes to get help.The concept is working. The Tech Lounges received a 98% CSAT (customer satisfaction) score by employees, a jump of five points from last year.The role of the Lounge is continuing to evolve , thanks to IT’s efforts to automate basic services. If an employee has issues with conference room hardware or software, they can scan the room’s QR code. IT is automatically notified and starts on a fix within 15 minutes. If you need extension cords, chargers, and other accessories, you can visit a vending machine in the lounge. Among other services, IT technicians spend time educating employees on how to set up two-factor authentication on a new device, so they show can do it on their own the next time. Personalized consultationsSharron Dawes knows the San Diego Tech Lounge well. Sharron, who was previously a neuropsychological researcher at UC San Diego, is LIKE.TG’s only dedicated statistician on the Core Platform/Machine Learning team.“My needs from the Tech Lounge and Help Desk have been a little unusual,” she says.Sharron recently needed to upgrade her standard-issue laptop. She works on HealthScan, software that assesses the health of LIKE.TG cloud instances to spot performance issues. A typical analysis might involve 140,000 rows of data and more than 3,000 variables. To handle that level of data crunching, in her first months on the job, Sharron was working with three laptops: two for analyses and one for email.“It was taking me 10 hours to do an analysis that should have taken six minutes,” says Sharron. “We had to find a faster, more efficient way.”Enter the Tech Lounge, where Sharron worked with techs to find a better computer. The technicians researched the options and ordered her a Lenovo P52 gaming laptop.“The promptness of replies, willingness to go above and beyond, professionalism, and attitudes were just fantastic,” says Sharon of her friends at the Tech Lounge. “They made it a pleasure to interact with them.”The biggest payoff: she can run analyses in minutes, not hours.Automating the routineThe role of the Tech Lounge will continue to evolve, says Mirza, as more automation comes into play. For example, when VPN connectivity issues became a common issue—draining productivity and creating frustration—IT got busy looking at how it could proactively fix this issue, a hugely complicated process involving multiple vendors.Using machine learning and AI, the AIOps team designed a workflow that automatically identifies VPN issues as they occur, creates a ticket, and notifies a technician. Technicians, like Darpan, then reach out to the affected employee via instant message to resolve the issue. If multiple tickets about an issue like VPN begin popping, they are automatically combined into a parent incident and the appropriate teams are notified.Automation is even changing how employees get new applications. Instead of requiring a technician to log in as an administrator, employees can install the software with a simple challenge code from the technician, minimizing time spent in the Lounge downloading software.“We are always finding new ways to improve how and where employees work,” says Mirza. “That translates to happier employees and technicians, who can then focus on other things, like educating employees new technologies like the Now mobile app and the desktop chatbot.”
Australia customer service spotlight: The power of AI
Australia has a customer service problem. The nation is stuck on hold. Wait times skyrocketed to more than 107 million cumulative hours in 2023, an 11% increase over 2022 (96.5 million hours), according to the annual LIKE.TG Customer Experience Intelligence Report.The friction is driving more consumers to demand better customer experiences. The majority (82%) of Australians say that because of rising costs, they have less patience to deal with bad service.This isn’t just frustrating; it’s hurting the economy—to the tune of $1.28 billion in lost productivity, according to the research. Meanwhile, Australians are forced to manage their service issues during work hours because 24/7 service support isn’t widely offered by businesses. That means employees are taking time from their jobs to sit in customer service queues.Why are businesses losing customers?According to our research, 94% of Australians say they’ll change their spending habits as a result of sky-high prices and poor service. Three in five Australians will spend less (60%) or search for better offers (55%).When a transaction goes wrong, Australians are giving businesses less time to make things right. More than half (59%) of survey respondents say they’ll take their business elsewhere after waiting two to three days to have their issues resolved.It’s currently taking businesses one workweek (5.1 days) on average to resolve customer issues. What does good customer service look like?Good customer service comes down to three things, according to the research: speed, ease, and accessibility.More than half of Australians rank quick issue resolution (66%), fast human connection (58%), and a single agent (56%)—rather than multiple people—as the most important factors in good customer service.Can AI help improve productivity?Achieving good customer service takes effort. Today’s customer journey is highly fragmented, with disconnected systems, multiple platforms of engagement, disparate information, and siloed front, middle, and back-office teams. Organizations are under pressure to remove process bottlenecks and connect every customer touch point.Analyst firm IDC predicts that “by 2026, to differentiate and drive loyalty, 30% of organizations will undergo structural and technological changes to deliver value outcomes, shifting focus from providing experiences to value parity.”1AI can help reduce wait times by contributing to a consistent and unified customer experience. Nearly two-thirds of Australians believe AI will improve customer service speed and efficiency, and 70% expect AI to help bring about the added benefit of after-hours service. What about the human element?Some organizations are wary of losing the human element of customer service. They need not fear. One of the major advantages consumers see with AI is its potential to serve deeper insights, context, and solutions to human service agents so they can resolve issues faster.Automation, better self-service options, and increased digital customer services can help augment the workload for human service agents, freeing them to focus on providing empathetic interactions and solving more complex issues.“Reliability, empathy, and responsiveness are critical areas of customer service quality where automation can be employed to great effect in closing gaps with customer expectations,” says Linus Lai, vice president of digital business, trust and services, at IDC Asia/Pacific.Digital platforms can help organizations make their teams more effective, reconnect with customers, and grow their businesses. AI-powered digital transformation is the key to delivering 24/7 customer service and outstanding self-service and boosting first-touch resolution.Gain more insights in the LIKE.TG Customer Experience Intelligence report.1 IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Future of Customer Experience 2024 Predictions, October 2023, Doc #US50111423
Australia outlook: Automation will protect jobs, not take them
Australia faces significant economic headwinds thanks to inflation, supply chain disruptions, and the increasing likelihood of a global recession, according to the Australian government. The tough times ahead give leaders an opportunity to make work better.Automation used to be a dirty word, associated with predictions about widespread job losses. But in the face of critical skills shortages and advances in artificial intelligence, Australian firms are realizing the benefits of outsourcing work to machines. Identifying opportunities now can protect revenue and help avoid workforce reductions if a recession hits.Investing in automation promises productivity gains that will keep firms competitive and insulate against reactionary cost-cutting measures.Automation uplifts employeesToday, employees have a greater appreciation for technology taking on repetitive tasks that are a distraction from more important work. We waste more than a day a week on administrative tasks, according to Deloitte. Many of us can relate to getting bogged down by responding to requests, waiting for approvals, or searching for information required to do our jobs.Automation will replace a lot of that work—and that’s a good thing. Eliminating tasks that are done more efficiently by technology is the hallmark of human progress. We’ve seen whole classes of jobs disappear, from typists to telephone operators. More recently, email administrators, a subgroup of IT professionals, were rendered obsolete by cloud-based platforms. Many have retrained in emerging areas of IT, such as user experience design and cybersecurity. This evolution is echoed by World Economic Forum research, which predicts automation will create more jobs than it replaces.In almost every enterprise and government agency in Australia, we’re already seeing automation handle tasks such as reviewing and responding to requests. Virtual agents and software can collate, categorize, and complete basic tasks that would take people hours of repetitive work. Employees in areas such as IT, customer service, procurement, and HR have more time to spend on higher-value work as a result.Reaping automation’s benefitsThese innovations don’t just transform office roles. In Australia’s strained hospitality industry, automated ordering systems are helping restaurants manage significant staff shortages and keep their doors open.By 2025, the World Economic Forum predicts “employers will divide work between human[s] and machines equally.” This may sound like a dystopian future, but it’s a reality. Take Officeworks, for example: By introducing LIKE.TG Virtual Agent, the office supplier saved more than AUD$1 million in one year.Even better, the company’s chatbot colleague, named Penny, helps in-store employees answer questions fast so they can spend more time with customers. Support teams can concentrate on more complex tasks instead of answering the same requests. It’s a win-win-win.The time to automate is nowAs the global economy weakens, leaders must weigh risks and rewards. Short-term thinking will see some businesses cut costs via workforce reductions. But saving your way to success is a flawed strategy.Organizations that invest in automation and human capital today will be better positioned to survive the headwinds. “A 1% increase in investment into future of work technologies will boost productivity by two percentage points,” according to a World Economic Forum white paper.Further, 66% of employers expect to experience a return on upskilling and reskilling current employees within a year. As Australia’s hospitality industry has proved, automation can save jobs. Realizing this opportunity requires an understanding of what’s at stake. Both public and private sectors need to think seriously about retraining schemes, change management programs, and workforce redesign. Employees will do well to consider where they add the most value and focus their efforts on developing in-demand skills, such as analytical thinking, creativity, and digital literacy.Out of the starting blocksThe most successful firms will start small, transforming tasks that have a measurable benefit and can be scaled. Encouragingly, many organizations in Australia have begun this journey. The Department of Industry, Science, Energy, and Resources (DISR) recently implemented the LIKE.TG Protected Platform to automate and streamline administrative tasks.Those prepared to tackle these challenges head-on and embrace automation can turn tight times into a rewarding future. By planning today, organizations can weather the storm and emerge stronger—protecting jobs in the process.Find out more about how automation and AI are helping Australian organizations gain a competitive edge and build resilience.
Australia spotlight: Why business leaders need to measure ESG impact
Nearly two years of pandemic chaos have given us plenty of time to think about how we live and work. As the world waves goodbye to pandemic restrictions, attention is shifting to action on climate change.Corporate responsibility is now one of the defining issues of our age. From Business Roundtable redefining the purpose of corporations to benefit all stakeholders, to growing numbers of consumers demanding change, the environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts of companies now face intense scrutiny.At a minimum, investors, employees, customers, and partners expect transparency and action. Organizations that respond will reap multiple benefits: Improved talent attraction and retention Increased shareholder value Decreased operating costs Higher growth potential That’s before considering increasing regulations. In 2020, 206 new ESG rules were introduced globally. Government and industry bodies alike are creating ambitious targets with new implications for executive teams and boardrooms across Australia.The call to measure ESGThe clock is ticking on common standards for measuring sustainability. Double materiality rules have gone into effect in Europe, requiring public companies and investors to disclose the risk their operations pose to people and the planet, alongside profitability.At the same time, the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council specified 21 core “stakeholder capitalism” metrics to guide executive teams and boards as they embrace these changes.ESG disclosure developments like these are quickly reverberating across corporate Australia. Stakeholder pressure for organizations to do what’s right and reliably report on progress is impacting every industry.
Australian cyber resilience: How to keep your customers from leaving
The increasing frequency and cost of hacks across industries in Australia has made cyber resilience a top priority for businesses and governments. It’s also made consumers more aware of risks to their data: The 2022 LIKE.TG customer experience (CX) survey found 64% of respondents trust organizations less than they did a year ago to keep their data secure.Cybersecurity can directly affect your bottom line. Australia’s telecommunications sector is a good example. After one of Australia’s largest firms was hacked, 10% of its customers walked away, according to news.com.au. Another 56% indicated they were considering leaving.Similarly, the LIKE.TG CX survey found 59% of Australians will stop doing business with a company if it gets hacked and loses their data. Nearly half (47%) of survey respondents view organizations keeping their personal information safe as a critical factor in good customer service.Organizations must maintain a strong security posture to keep all their digital assets and IT systems protected. Those that don’t will likely see customers take their business elsewhere.The changing cybersecurity landscapeHacks are on the rise for many reasons. The threat surface—the number of potential entry points or vulnerabilities that can be targeted—has increased as new technologies and digital business models have become more widespread. The rise of remote working, cloud computing, and the internet of things (IoT) means security measures must extend far beyond office walls.The IBM Security Cost of a Data Breach Report 2022 found a cyberattack costs an Australian business on average AU$4.29 million, with the largest expense associated with detection and escalation.1 It took 70 days on average to resolve a hack.Meanwhile, a 2022 cybersecurity study from ThoughtLab, co-sponsored by LIKE.TG, found more than 40% of businesses fear their cybersecurity efforts aren’t keeping pace with digital transformation. Remote work has only increased the risks. 3 ways leaders can prioritize cybersecurityCustomer service is uniquely vulnerable to a data breach, as it’s where most customer data flows into a business. Every employee, regardless of their role, should think about security, but good cybersecurity practices need to be a leadership priority. CX leaders should be especially alert.Here are three ways organizations can help ensure their leadership prioritizes cybersecurity:1. Create a steering committee for cybercrime, gathering stakeholders from different parts of the organization. The members of the committee can include the chief operating officer, chief information officer, general counsel, and division leaders, as well as board members.This committee should conduct planning exercises and bring together cross-functional teams to map business functions and the threat landscape.2. Think like an attacker. Make plans around likely incidents that are relevant to your sector and business. Look at what assets or teams would be most affected and how much your business, staff, and customers would be damaged if the worst happens.3. Plan your response to a hack. If it takes 70 days to resolve an attack, that’s 70 days your business won’t function properly and customers won’t be served. Practice your action plan and rehearse restoring your systems and data from backups.The customer reward from secure systemsThe recent Australian hacks have put cybersecurity front and center. They’ve also led to a mindset shift for customers. Investing in cyber resilience preserves future revenue by helping to ensure customers don’t walk if a breach happens.Breaches will become more common. Concepts such as privacy by design that build security into every stage of your products and services can be competitive differentiators.Find out how LIKE.TG helps organizations improve cyber resilience and vulnerability management while speeding response times.1 IBM Security, Cost of a Data Breach Report 2022, July 2022
Automated Ticket Routing: Benefits, Tips, and More
In today’s fast-paced and technology-driven business environment, customers expect swift and effective support from the businesses they engage with.Routing tickets to appropriate support agents quickly and accurately is a common challenge.However, like for other system management procedures, using the appropriate ticketing software eliminates the need for doing this manually.Investing in ticketing software system with automated ticket routing improves workflow, eliminates bottlenecks, speeds up responses, and ensures smoother operations. What is ticket routing?Ticket routing refers to the systematic process of assigning incoming tickets submitted by users to the most appropriate support individuals or teams within an organization.Ticket routing can be conducted manually, which involves the physical assignment of support tickets to specific agents by hand. However, this manual approach to ticket distribution can be monotonous, inefficient, and prone to mistakes due to human oversight.If you are overseeing the creation or expansion of a support system, it would be advisable to consider automating your ticket routing.What is automated ticket routing?Automated ticket routing is the process in customer support help desk systems where incoming support tickets are automatically assigned to the most appropriate agent or team for resolution.Automated routing systems sometimes use artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to interpret the content of a ticket and route it accordingly.More commonly, the routing is based on predefined criteria, such as the nature of the issue, the skillset or expertise of the agent, the urgency of the ticket, or the geographic location of the customer.This automation helps to streamline the support process and enhance the overall customer experience by providing timely and accurate responses.How automated ticket routing worksAn automated ticket routing system is a modern technological solution that efficiently manages and directs incoming tickets within an organization.An automated ticket routing system operates by:First, receive incoming tickets through various channels such as email, phone, or live chat. These tickets may be for customer inquiries, technical issues, or any other type of request or problem that requires attention.Second, the system’s algorithms analyze ticket content, considering factors like the nature of the issue, request urgency, and required skills.They make intelligent decisions based on predefined rules set by the organization.Once the system has determined the most appropriate destination for each ticket, it automatically assigns and routes the ticket to that department or individual.This ensures that tickets are promptly and accurately directed to the right personnel, minimizing delays, and ensuring efficient resolution.How to automate ticket routing for your businessAutomated ticket routing operates based on predefined rules and algorithms. Here are some tips for setting up your system.Choose round-robin ticket distributionUse round robin logic to distribute simple tickets that any support agent can resolve evenly.A round-robin system:Automatically assigns tickets to agents, which saves supervisors time.Checks the availability of agents before making an assignment, thereby preventing ticket assignment to agents who already have a heavy workload.The basic functions of automated ticket routing are cutting down on the need for manual ticket assignment, reducing the risk of human error, and enabling a more smoother workflow.The foundation of this is a smart round-robin method.Set up an SLAAs some tickets take more time to resolve than can be anticipated, round-robin distribution will never be perfect.One way to mitigate this weakness is to set your system up with a service-level agreement.SLAs are used to establish a more reliable workflow, including for ticket rerouting.First, reminders are sent to support agents if due dates set by the service-level agreement are imminent.If the agent knows they can’t meet the SLA requirement, they can have the ticket reassigned to someone else.If the support agent fails to respond to or resolve a ticket within the SLA time limit, it will be considered a breach of the SLA.The ticket will be automatically escalated to the designated supervisor, so they can reassign the ticket. Analyze ticket dataHelp desks commonly feature advanced analytics and reporting capabilities.The analysis of ticket data provides us with a comprehensive understanding of how well the automated routing system is working.By looking at metrics for how well your team is adhering to the SLA and how often rerouting is required, we can see how well the automated routing is working and adjust it, or other processes, as needed.For example, if tickets requiring specific knowledge are frequently breaching SLA terms, this may indicate that another team member needs to be trained in that specific knowledge.Have tickets auto-assigned even during non-business hoursSome smaller companies don’t have the capacity to provide 24/7 support. In this case, make sure to set up your automated ticket routing to continue to function outside business hours.This may take some adjustments, though, like setting up notifications to be sent to managers for any tickets that could be considered emergencies.This will allow support teams to address the tickets submitted during nonworking hours efficiently and still head off major trouble.Automate ticket event executionEvent-triggered automation performs actions based on specific events. This is how you accomplish some of our other suggestions, and how you can speed up your workflow.If an incoming ticket meets a particular condition that means, for example, that a manager needs to be notified, you can set triggers to do this automatically.Some of the ticket events you can trigger include:Set statusAdd tagsRemove tagAdd watcherAdd CCRemove CCSet subjectSet prioritySet assigneeSend email to usersSend email to groupGive priority to tickets based on their urgencyMost support systems allow businesses to prioritize tickets according to their urgency or severity.Instead of setting up your support team to do tickets first-come-first-serve, higher priority tickets should be completed first to ensure that critical issues are promptly addressed and resolved.Your SLA can often be set up to have different deadlines for different priority levels.This sometimes is a balancing act, as low-priority tickets still need to be completed in a reasonable time.When your department receives a surge of high-priority issues, you should have a protocol in place to ensure both that all tickets are eventually addressed and that supervisors don’t spend all their time reassigning tickets that become overdue.Benefits of automated ticket routingImplementing an automated ticket routing has many advantages for your business:Balances workload among support agents: Automated ticket routing enables organizations to make the most efficient use of their resources.Distributes tickets intelligently to prevent backlog and ensure all tickets are resolved.Prevents support teams from cherry picking the tickets: This minimizes the chances of tickets being overlooked, thereby improving overall ticket management efficiency.Reduces the need for manual intervention: The fundamental purpose behind automated ticket routing is to reduce the need for manual involvement in ticket allocation drastically, reducing the chance of mistakes and increasing productivity.Reduces ticket resolution time: Implementing automated ticket routing streamlines internal workflows, reduces effort spent on ticket distribution, and promotes collaboration, thereby improving ticket resolution times.Enhance customer satisfaction: Automated ticket routing increases swift, accurate, and punctual responses for customers, leading to a gratifying user experience.In conclusion, the satisfaction of your clients and productivity of your support team will both improve with an automated ticket routing feature.Boost customer satisfaction with the ticket routing systemStatistics from Zippia show that after experiencing excellent customer service, 93% of customers are inclined to make repeat purchases from a company.When customers receive quick replies to their inquiries, this great service enhances their trust in the company or organization.By embracing automated ticket routing, organizations can significantly improve their ticket management processes, resulting in enhanced customer satisfaction and a streamlined workflow.LIKE.TG simplifies it all, making it easier for you to assign tickets automatically to qualified support agents and reduce response and resolution times.Check out our free trial, where you will see how LIKE.TG’s automatic ticket routing feature can enhance your support process. Or contact us to book a live demo and see how you can customize LIKE.TG to meet your business needs.For any questions regarding LIKE.TG, feel free to reach out to the LIKE.TG support team.Related articlesTop 7 SLA Practices to Improve Customer Service5 Important Reasons Why an Automated Ticketing System Is Good for Customer Service5 Best Ways to Build and Organize a Customer Support Team
Automating common LIKE.TG-Microsoft workflows just got easier
IntegrationHub spokes accelerate LIKE.TG-Microsoft workflow automation One of the features of the Now Platform Paris release is built-in Microsoft Azure Active Directory integrations that simplify common workflows in LIKE.TG Onboarding and Software Asset Management (SAM).Onboarding integration with Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) automatically launches the proper onboarding workflows when a new employee profile is created in Azure AD or an HR system, provisioning the right set of resources and applications. New hires get the information and systems access they need to be productive from anywhere; HR leaders, hiring managers, IT teams, and many others get a simple, quick way to give new employees a great first-day experience.LIKE.TG Employee and SAM Workflow product teams used the IntegrationHub Azure Active Directory spoke to speed time to market. IntegrationHub spokes are run-ready, no-code connectors built by LIKE.TG on the Now Platform.In the same way, low code developers at customers and partners can use IntegrationHub spokes for Azure AD and many other Microsoft solutions to quickly incorporate LIKE.TG- Microsoft workflow automation into Creator workflows.Spokes are added to flows in Flow Designer with clicks instead of code, removing integration complexity and friction. Spokes replace custom scripting, which frees up scarce professional developer resources, boosts developer productivity, reduces technical debt, and makes upgrades a breeze. IntegrationHub spokes are available to automate many common LIKE.TG-Microsoft use cases:
Automating the employee offboarding experience
For the past year, the unprecedented movement of workers leaving jobs and switching career paths (aka the Great Reshuffle), has been top of mind for most organizations. Although losing talent is largely inevitable and a natural part of any company’s ongoing evolution, many organizations are recognizing the velocity of employee exits as one of the greatest risks they face today.To assess your organization’s risk, answer these questions: Does IT deactivate an employee’s user credentials but miss local logins or other sensitive systems, leaving the organization wide open to unauthorized access? Can an employee exfiltrate company secrets on their way out? Are final paychecks paid accurately and on time? Are laptops recovered from exiting employees in a timely manner and restored appropriately? At LIKE.TG, we identified offboarding as an opportunity for improvement. A patchwork of manual processes involving multiple teams and multiple handoffs exposed us to risk. We saw that the offboarding process could be automated across the enterprise. Taking it a step further, we wanted to deliver an offboarding experience as good as the onboarding one and address the needs of both remote and in-office employees.Simplifying offboardingFor us, the employee journey is a series of moments that matter. We invest heavily in our employee onboarding, ramp-up period, and training and development. But we hadn’t made an employee’s last weeks at the company as constructive and meaningful as their first.Our people team collaborated with our digital technology (DT) team to design the LIKE.TG offboarding experience and automate the entire process for our departing employees, their manager, and supporting team members. The people team can now centrally track tasks, helping to ensure nothing is missed. DT, finance, security, and workplace services receive the information they need when they need it. The employee, their data, and LIKE.TG all remain secure and protected.We created the process to be as easy and frictionless as possible, whether the employee is on-site or remote. Automation makes a complicated process across functions easy and intuitive, ensuring the right people receive the right offboarding notifications at the right time while keeping the employee’s data secure.For example, an employee confirms their personal details, including their preferred method for returning their computer equipment and receiving their final paycheck. Managers no longer need to collect information and documentation and confirm offboard details via email. The information is automatically updated in the appropriate systems of record.Providing a consistent experience was important to us. We use our HR Service Delivery solution out of the box to deliver a uniform global experience regardless of: Role – manager or individual contributor Location – US, Germany, Japan, or elsewhere Workplace – remote, office, or flexible Workflows trigger specific tasks, depending on the departing employee’s country of work and worker-specific details. For example, we provide e-signature software for signature validation across the globe but can also share country-specific exit documentation as needed.Employees with mobile numbers can opt to keep or cancel the mobile number; their info is automatically sent to our mobility team. Remote employees may have different tasks than those located on-site, but the experience is the same.Building a positive end-to-end experienceWe centrally measure and track offboarding data. Based on our initial projections, we expect to see a 70% decrease in offboarding time and a 73% drop in cost per offboard. These positive results are primarily due to the reduction and elimination of manual tasks involved in the exit process.All system access is now automatically removed on the employee’s last day of work. Addresses for final paychecks are automatically updated instead of requiring a manual cut and paste. Managers have transparency into all offboarding tasks, avoiding confusion. One of my favorite stories about the impact of offboarding occurred the day of our internal launch. Before we had even communicated availability of the offboarding experience, six exits had been initiated with no help at all. That’s an intuitive user experience.The hiring landscape is exceptionally competitive. Although no organization wants to lose employees, people switch careers, go back to school, take time for themselves and their families, and retire. We want employees to leave with a positive experience as they transition to what’s next in their lives.With our new offboarding experience, employees, managers, and the people team can take care of basic tasks and focus on what really matters during an employee’s last weeks with us.Learn more at the Knowledge Digital Experience. Registration is free after selecting your time zone. Once logged in, visit the Library and search for: Now on Now: Using the CHRO Dashboard to make the best decisions for our people (SES1267) Now on Now: Safe, agile, and convenient: Our new world of work (SES1269)
Automation and low-code: Setting the stage for ongoing innovation
Digital transformation is a term you hear a lot these days, but it’s not always clear what a business means by it. For companies using the Now Platform to reinvent how they work, it has a pretty clear and compelling meaning.LIKE.TG customers are using the Now Platform to expand their automation initiatives beyond department-specific, isolated tasks to include processes that cross organizational boundaries. After all, the typical business process doesn’t stay within a single department. It affects other areas of the enterprise, feeds other workflows, and involves multiple systems.Let’s take a look at some of the ways customers are integrating those islands of automation for greater efficiency and smoother workflows.Prioritizing automationSmart, qualified, and capable people are always in demand. One of the challenges for business leaders is how to create a rich and rewarding work environment that makes the best use of talent so that the business realizes the most value from employee skills.Today’s workforce is often overwhelmed with routine and repetitive tasks that eat up a lot of the workday—leaving little time for creative problem-solving and innovative thinking. Automation tools can help teams and individuals accomplish more, fast by orchestrating people, processes, and systems across all areas of the business.LIKE.TG can bridge the incompatibilities between legacy systems and automate the manual and repetitive user actions that keep business processes running. With robotic process automation, for example, software robots can perform a repetitive sequence of actions across multiple apps on a Windows desktop and copy data from one system to another.Technologies like these give the human workforce more time to serve customers, find new solutions to age-old problems, and develop new products that help a business stand out. Empowering business with low-codeIn every business, you’ll find people who are experts in how a process works and how their department functions. They know where the bottlenecks and inefficiencies are, and they have great ideas for how things could work better. But they don’t always have the technical skills to turn that expertise into a more efficient digital solution.The burden of creating a new app or workflow falls to the IT team, which already has a long to-do list. As a result, the pace of innovation slows, leaving a business less efficient and less competitive.With low-code application development tools, more people can turn their expertise into solutions on their own, without adding to IT’s workload.Enforcing governance, encouraging transformationIt’s great to unlock creativity and equip more people in the enterprise to develop their own apps. But businesses also have a vested interest in maintaining standards, enforcing security, and staying in compliance. To be effective, low-code development and automation tools need guardrails and controls to help workers channel that creativity and innovation in a disciplined way.Increasing innovation and creativity doesn’t have to mean increasing risk. With LIKE.TG, you can centralize governance policies and deploy them across the entire enterprise, powered by a robust low-code and automation platform.You get the best of both worlds: the freedom to open innovation opportunities to more people within the business and the ability to safeguard enterprise standards and compliance.Find out more about how companies are creating a foundation for greater innovation and competitiveness in our Book of Knowledge: Hyperautomation and Low-Code.
Automation is opportunity for a career shift into tech
Automation will displace millions of workers, according to the Brookings Institution, particularly in the areas of retail, healthcare, accounting, and finance. These displaced workers have valuable experience and skills that can be adapted, augmented, and applied to tech jobs to help address the labor shortage. RiseUp with LIKE.TG can help workers pivot to new careers through reskilling and transition support.Teresa Ko is an excellent example. After working more than 20 years in customer service, running a call center, and operating her own restaurant, she had developed broad skills, including project management and customer service. Although her resume didn’t show it, she had an interest in tech and took time to learn from the IT teams in her workplaces, such as how to build simple websites.Ko considered making a career shift, but she didn’t want to go back to school or lose income to do so. “You get to a point in your life where you’re like, it’s too late for me to change because I’d have to start all over again,” she says.Then she heard about RiseUp with LIKE.TG, a program to skill 1 million people from all backgrounds, experiences, and career paths on the Now Platform by 2024. A tech career seemed possible after all.Real-world experienceKo signed up for the LIKE.TG NextGen Professionals Program, which provides skills training and certifications, combined with on-the-job work experience and job placement. She jumped at the chance to work and learn simultaneously, excited at the opportunity to change careers while keeping her bills paid.Close to finishing her NextGen program, Ko has found the experience invaluable. She especially appreciates the on-the-job training. “Being able to work in a real company with real clients on real projects has been, I think, the best part of being able to learn,” she says. Kabria Holmes has a similar story. Working as a contract executive assistant and program coordinator while earning her bachelor’s degree in business administration, she too had an interest in tech but no formal training. Then she heard about a free LIKE.TG boot camp hosted by TechBridge, part of the NextGen program, and eagerly enrolled.In the four-month course, she learned LIKE.TG fundamentals, implementation, and IT service management—just what she needed to kick-start her IT career. Holmes’ newly developed tech skills, along with her previously gained business skills, helped her land a job at NewRocket, a LIKE.TG Elite partner, as a LIKE.TG business analyst.Today, Holmes helps clients make their businesses run more smoothly and gets a lot of fulfillment out of it. “I feel like a void has been filled and that my new LIKE.TG career is everything I had hoped for,” she says.Breaking barriers to IT jobsThese stories don’t have to be unique. Companies need tech talent. Workers like Ko and Holmes have a wealth of skills and experience to bring to the table. There’s a wide array of untapped talent that simply needs the right support to enter the IT field.RiseUp with LIKE.TG offers affordable and flexible learning models to lower the barriers to entry into IT. The program includes skills academies and training partnerships that target underrepresented groups in tech, such as veterans. In addition, placement programs connect newly skilled workers, such as Holmes, with tech jobs.Ko encourages anyone given the opportunity to make a career shift into tech to do so. NextGen “gives you real-world experience,” she says. “You already have your foot in the door while you’re learning. If it’s a fast-track career change that you want or need, then this is definitely the type of program you want to get into.”Find out more about how RiseUp with LIKE.TG helps open tech careers.
Award-winning ways to embed Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging into the business
It’s easy to express commitment to increasing diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DIBs). The hard part is turning words into actions.Fortunately, at LIKE.TG, many of our employees are putting in the extra effort inside and outside our company. To recognize the progress they’re driving, we created the “DIBs Champion Awards.” Colleagues across LIKE.TG nominate other employees for their work as change makers in three core areas: growing our communities, practicing a growth mindset, and evolving inclusive practices and programs. Recipients show what it means to lead inclusively and what it looks like to be intentional and proactive in creating belonging inside and outside LIKE.TG in meaningful ways.Read more about our efforts in our annual LIKE.TG Diversity Report.Let’s meet and congratulate our winners! Team Winner: NextGen ProgramLIKE.TG skills are some of the most in-demand skills today. Our customers and partners are looking for talent who understand our platform and whose skills can help them implement, administer, and maintain ServiceNow. The NextGen Program, created in 2019, trains a talent pool of women, Veterans, and others who’ve chosen to pursue a non-traditional career path, and matches them with employers who need their LIKE.TG skillsets. When students complete the program and get hired, NextGen Program founder Faez Ahmed says, “It’s a life changing moment.”Team members recall successful students who started the program after years of raising children, had experienced homelessness, or ending a career in the military and searching for a new career. Kristen Knepper Bahbahani says, “The most important thing we do is show employers the possibilities and help individuals understand their own potential.” The key to its success is removing economic, accessibility, and educational requirement barriers.Nick Winham shares, “We want to create that inclusivity, those moments of belonging, not just within LIKE.TG, but also for our individuals going through the training programs, within our partners, and our customers as well.” For Kurdin Bazaz, it’s personal. “As a minority myself, I know this is important work and to work at a place that makes it a priority to incorporate DIBs in everything we do, makes me feel very proud of the place that I call my employer.”Learn more about NextGen >> Team Winner: DIBs at ProductTech and engineering organizations in particular are faced with improving methods to increase representation and build out an inclusive culture. Cheick Camara leads a lean team in our Product organization that focuses on three areas: recruiting, especially from HBCUs (historically Black colleges and universities), internal learning and development, and community outreach.As part of the learning efforts to deepen belonging, the team brings together external speakers and internal employees to openly and productively talk about bias, equity, and raw topics such as racism at work. Cheick says, “It's not something that people are used to. Teaching people how to have those uncomfortable conversations is so important.”Alysson Whitlam says of being recognized, “This award really speaks to the passion and enthusiasm that so many people within the Product organization have for this commitment and these initiatives.” With commitment, actions must follow. As Chris Rogers advises, “Let's be okay with being uncomfortable, to do something different, to get some different results.” Gretchen Wagner adds, “You can simply make a conscious choice to contribute differently, to contribute meaningfully. So, take that next step.”Leadership Winner: Allison HughesAllison Hughes started the brand new digital go-to-market team in early 2020. Her vision is clear, “We have to have diversity of thought. We are trying to promote a culture of inclusion and are continuously improving and iterating on how it can be best-in-class.” It’s working. The team is attracting and hiring people with a wide variety of backgrounds, cultures, and experiences.The first thing she did was double down on how and where her team was showing up to recruit people to the organization. They expanded their reach to community colleges and looked at four-year universities under a different set of criteria than before.Then, she launched a video series called “Insider Insights,” interviewing folks from around the team about their personal and professional journeys, how they've arrived in the role they occupy today, and how they stay motivated. She reflects, “I am endlessly inspired and motivated by those moments.”Her advice to other leaders, “DIBs is something that we have to strive for. It allows us permission to make mistakes along the way. Without that room for error, it would be very difficult to make progress.”Individual Winner: Stephane LalondeOver the last nine years, Stephane Lalonde has been part of the exponential growth at ServiceNow. He learned along the way that attracting and developing a broad set of talent was key to a successful team.As a people manager, he first focused on job descriptions and realized that some of the criteria were biased. He says, “By modifying criteria and really focusing on the areas we want (amazing storytellers, quick learners, etc.), it really creates new opportunities in the candidates that you'll get, and also the people that you are able to get, makes it a stronger team.” He also focused on mentorship to learn how to be a more inclusive leader and mentored employees to help them grow and develop their careers."Diversification really helps makes us as a better organization and also makes us as people better and stronger.”Hear from the winners !
B2B Customer Service: What It Is and How to Do It Right
Whether you operate in the B2B or B2C sector, the key to growth and success lies in exceptional customer service. The strategies for winning over B2B clients, however, differ from those for B2C clients from a sales and marketing perspective.Business-to-business (B2B) customer service involves the management of relationships and interactions between companies.By understanding the importance of B2B customer service and implementing best practices, companies can retain business, build stronger relationships, and enhance their brand’s reputation.In this article we will discuss what B2B customer service is, difference between B2B and B2C customer service, ways to improve B2B customer service and B2B examples. What is B2B customer service?Business-to-business (B2B) involves one company selling its products or services exclusively to other companies, rather than to individual customers.B2B customer service refers to all the service interactions between a B2B company and its business customers.B2B customer service includes providing the following help throughout the customer journey:Guiding clients through product setupOffering clients both technical and human supportAnswering any questions or concerns clients haveProviding clients with the necessary self-help resourcesHelping clients through the troubleshooting process and providing solutionsB2B customer service vs B2C customer serviceBusiness to customer (B2C) is where businesses sell their goods or services directly to individual consumers.While B2B customer service is the process of assisting or providing support to other businesses that are your customers, the main goal of B2C customer service is rapidly responding and resolving individual customer’s issues and questions.Following are the differences and similarities between B2B customer service and B2C customer service.Differences between B2B customer service and B2C customer serviceB2B Customer ServiceB2C Customer ServiceProduct prices are expensive because of complexityProduct prices are lower, since once one product may be purchasedSmaller customer baseLarge customer baseCommunication is more formal and can involve stakeholders and legal teamCommunication is informal and involves agents and individual customersBrand identity is less emphasizedBrand identity is more emphasizedTakes longer for transactions to be closedTakes shorter timeframes to close transactionsRelationships are built over long periods of time and are lastingRelationships are built over a short period of timePurchasesB2B (business-to-business): In B2B customer service, the purchasing process frequently includes several stakeholders, such as a legal team responsible for contract examination and approval.The purchasing duration is extended, their financial resources are greater, and they anticipate personal customer service.B2C (business-to-consumer): The purchase procedure in business-to-consumer (B2C) customer service is usually simple, involving just one decision-maker and having a lower monetary value and shorter timeline.Customer baseThe size of the customer base and how products are utilized differ significantly between B2B and B2C customer service.B2B: Business to business customer service caters to a smaller but more diverse customer base, which often involves selling larger quantities of more expensive products.Multiple individuals in different departments within the client company may utilize the products.As a result, B2B customer service often requires managing the requirements and desires of multiple parties within the same company.B2C: On the other hand, B2C customer service focuses on serving many individual customers who have specific and immediate needs.Even if there are multiple users, such as in a family, customer service will usually deal with just one person among them.CommunicationB2B and B2C commerce each have a distinct style and approach to communication.B2B: B2B communication is more formal and ongoing, usually including formal meetings with various stakeholders and decision-makers involved in the organization’s administration.B2C: On the other hand, B2C communication is more relaxed and direct, with common customer service manners and politeness.B2C communication is generally less formal compared to B2B communication, with the goal of establishing a personal connection with consumers.DurationB2B: In B2B relationships, decision-making is usually shared by various stakeholders over an extended period of time, continuing negotiations often lasting several years. B2B transactions are relatively complex, expensive, and can take a long time.Returns from business-to-business transactions take longer to process.Lack of available products or continuous production of those products is another reason the procedure can take longer.B2C: Consumers usually have a product in mind that they intend to purchase within a relatively short timeframe of days or weeks.Transactions are speedy and even if a customer requires post-purchase support, interactions are relatively short-lived.RelationshipsB2B: In B2B customer service, relationships are created over a longer time period, and support team members interact with many individuals in the client business.This calls for a customer service strategy that can successfully connect with and meet the requirements of different individuals within the firm.However, they also interact multiple times with the same company reps, building familiarity.Support representatives for B2B relationships concentrate on growing and sustaining these relationships over long time periods.B2C: Business-to-consumer (B2C) partnerships are typically characterized by one-time purchases or subscriptions from customers.These can require monthly or yearly purchase renewals.Support teams that operate in a B2C environment interact directly with customers they don’t know most of the time, necessitating a more direct, general, and friendly approach to customer support, with a goal of building quick rapport instead of familiarity.Therefore, every interaction counts in building the customer relationship.Similarities between B2B customer service and B2C customer serviceCustomer interaction: Both B2B and B2C transactions involve real individuals during their customer interactions. Thus, fostering relationships, understanding requirements, and delivering customized service are essential in both scenarios.Customer-oriented sales procedure: Both models necessitate a sales procedure that prioritizes the customer’s needs and preferences.Excellent customer service: Outstanding client support is a requirement in both B2B and B2C models. This includes timely responses to inquiries, effective issue resolution, and assurance of customer satisfaction.Customer experience: A superior customer experience means providing a smooth, positive engagement with the company at every point of contact.Problem resolution: The emphasis is on addressing the client’s issues in both situations. This could range from a demand for a particular product in B2C to a comprehensive business solution in B2B.10 Best ways to improve your B2B customer serviceThese are some of the ways that to improve B2B customer service.Provide proactive customer serviceProviding proactive service is a powerful strategy to improve B2B customer service.This approach requires a deep understanding of customers’ needs and expectations to address potential issues before they become problems.It involves regularly communicating with your clients, monitoring their behavior, and using data to predict potential issues to ensure that your clients have a smooth and seamless experience with your business.Some of the benefits of proactive service are:Enhanced customer satisfactionIncreased customer loyaltyCompetitive advantageIncreased business efficiencyOffer personalized experiencesPersonalization and a customer-centric approach in B2B customer care aid in comprehending the requirements of each B2B client.By gathering and utilizing information about the customer’s mission, product, and long-term growth objectives, this comprehension can be improved.Customizing the customer journey not only shows a company’s dedication to fulfilling customer needs, but it also helps customers feel valued and understood.Customization can improve satisfaction and relationships in the following ways:Using the customer’s identitySending relevant emailsCreating personalized suggestionsProviding service through their preferred channel are all part of offering personalized experienceOffer multiple channels of communicationBy offering multiple channels of communication, businesses ensure that they are accessible to their customers in a way that is most convenient for them.This could be through email, a messaging app, or in-person meetings.Businesses can enhance customer loyalty and encourage repeat business by enabling customers to select their preferred communication method.Use the right toolsBusiness can implement support tools such as a ticketing system to ensure they offer prompt support and manage their workflows better.Business should consider implementing a help desk ticketing system for their B2B customer service.A help desk ticketing system automatically assigns tickets to appropriate agents or teams based on predefined rules to ensure issues are handled by the most qualified agents.Automate your B2B customer service workflowAutomating specific tasks in your customer service can enhance B2B operations.By using automated customer service, businesses can improve productivity and service by allowing their agents to focus on more complex matters while repetitive tasks are handled automatically.Additionally, automation aids:Accuracy and consistency of responsesEffective time managementFaster processing workflowData managementEstablish a clearly defined SLAImplementing service level agreements (SLAs) establishes the standards for both your clients and your service staff.They include response and resolution timeframes as well as the quality of service that customers can anticipate.Help desks can incorporate SLAs. How well your team adheres to yours can be tracked. Making the SLA easily accessible by agents helps them prioritize their work and understand their responsibilities.Your support system will run more smoothly, resulting in increased client trust and satisfaction.SLAs help with:Defining clear expectationsAccountabilityQuality assuranceIssue resolutionSatisfactionRisk mitigationGather and analyze feedbackCollecting and analyzing feedback from B2B customers reveals important insights about their opinions and feelings towards a brand’s products, services, the industry in general, and their customer experience.Analytics platforms enable companies to monitor and analyze support KPIs that are important, such the number of tickets received, the time it takes to resolve issues, and the customer satisfaction score.They can use visualizations of these KPIs to pinpoint areas in need of development.By analyzing these metrics, businesses can make data-driven decisions to enhance their service delivery and improve customer satisfaction.Provide multilingual customer supportIn an increasingly globalized world, businesses are not limited by geographic boundaries. As such, it’s essential to cater to a diverse clientele who may not necessarily speak the same language.Therefore, businesses should provide multilingual customer support to ensure that they can effectively communicate with all their clients, regardless of their native language.This not only improves the quality of service, but also enhances the clients’ experience, leading to higher satisfaction.Provide self-service optionsOffer self-help tools such as a knowledge base in business to business customer service. It’s best to equip customers with the necessary information to independently address common issues.A knowledge base is a centralized repository of information about your products and services that is available 24/7.A well-structured knowledge base typically includes the following components:Frequently asked questions (FAQs): This section addresses common queries about your products or services. It serves as a quick reference for people looking for answers right away.How-to guides: Detailed instructions that explain how to use your product or service are provided in guides. These could be user manuals, how-to articles, or step-by-step instructions.Tutorials: Tutorials give consumers practical learning opportunities. These are usually videos that walk users through actions or procedures.A self-service option lets customers answer simple questions on their own. This reduces your support team’s workload, allowing them to focus on more complex issues.Furthermore, it provides clients with immediate solutions, reducing waiting time and improving their overall experience.Train your support teamYou need a support staff that has received proper training to deliver excellent customer service.Frequent training guarantees that your staff knows your products and can properly address client inquiries.Ensure your support staff members are educated on your offerings and polite interactions.They must be competent in responding to all client inquiries and offering precise answers.B2B customer service examplesThese are some business-to-business model examples.LIKE.TGLIKE.TG is a B2B product. It is a contemporary help desk ticketing system that runs in the cloud and supports a variety of customer support tasks.Businesses can use it to streamline support requests, work with clients and associates, automate redundant tasks, and enhance the client experience.Features provided by LIKE.TG:Effective email ticketing systemKnowledge base softwareTicketing softwareWorkflow automationCustomization choicesTask managementReports and analyticsNetflixNetflix is well-known for their exceptional B2B customer service as a top streaming platform. They cater to various industries, including airlines and hotels.The customer support team at Netflix handles diverse concerns, from inquiries about billing to problems with technology.They are available 24/7, aiding businesses whenever required. Additionally, Netflix maintains a comprehensive support center on their website, providing resources and guidance.AmazonAmazon (AWS) offers a wide range of global cloud-based products to businesses. These products include storage, databases, analytics, networking, mobile, developer tools, management tools, security, and enterprise applications.Additionally, AWS provides several support services for its B2B customers. This includes sales support for sales requests or speaking with a sales associate and technical support for any service-related technical issues.Compliance support is offered for customers who require assistance with AWS compliance.Furthermore, account support is available for any inquiries related to accounts and billing, and subscriber support services are provided beyond the Basic Support Plan.AWS also offers resources for troubleshooting sign-in issues and FAQs for unexpected charges and billing inquiries regarding the Free Usage Tier.Make your B2B customer service effective today!B2B customer service is an essential part of every flourishing company that supplies products to other companies.By putting a high priority on customer service, fostering strong client connections, and offering efficient problem solving, companies may win over their customers’ trust and succeed in the long run.Try LIKE.TG as the help desk software that offers all the essential features you need to facilitate seamless interactions with your clients. Check out the LIKE.TG free trial or book a live demo. Feel free to contact the LIKE.TG support team in case of any questions.Related articlesMost Essential Customer Service Skills7 Best Techniques to Improve Customer Experience10 Effective Ways to Boost Your Customer Service Security
B2B短信营销的用例，助力您的企业发展
您可能听说过面向消费者的短信营销活动，但是B2B短信营销呢？B2B短信营销是与您的企业客户进行沟通的有效方式，使您能够与决策者建立关系，并提供有助于他们做出购买决策的信息。通过B2B短信营销，您可以在轻松平衡多个账户的同时，为客户创造高度个性化的客户体验。与电子邮件相比，短信短信的打开率高达98%，而电子邮件的打开率仅为20%。因此，对于企业来说，将短信等即时通讯方式纳入B2B营销是至关重要的。短信短信营销直接接触到人们，而不会打断他们，优先考虑到客户的便利。这使得消费者更愿意接收和参与您的营销信息，并更有可能转化为付费客户。您需要了解的B2B短信营销示例1. 潜在客户生成在保持现有客户关系持续增长的同时，寻找新客户也同样重要。但是，您需要在寻找新线索时进行战略，以避免浪费时间和资源。许多专家表示，对于回应一个潜在客户，所谓的“黄金时间窗口”仅为五分钟。如果一位客户需要等待超过这个时间才能收到您的回复，他们很可能会寻找其他选择。与潜在客户建立联系的一个很好的方式是在您的网站上创建一个注册表单，让访问者可以选择加入您的短信营销列表。一旦您有了受众群体，您可以安排发送短信或配置自动回复信息，这样您的潜在客户就不需要等待回复。2. 订单管理及时掌握订单状态是日常运营的重要组成部分。使用短信短信通知客户有关其订单的更新情况，使他们能够咨询您的产品和服务相关的任何问题。通过双向短信，您可以在一个平台上接收和回复短信。这使您能够实时与受众互动，改善客户体验并推动转化。此外，一旦您通过短信与客户建立起个人关系，您将看起来更像是朋友而不是匿名品牌，从而提高了交叉销售的机会。3. 预约安排自动安排您的预约意味着您的团队可以专注于与客户合作等高级任务。与手动预约相比，短信营销使用点对点活动，使您的企业能够与潜在线索进行对话并安排私人预约，从而改善业务沟通。虽然通过短信预约是自动化的过程，但我们建议您以与收件人进行对话的方式来撰写您的信息。消费者更喜欢与人工客服人员对话而不是自动系统，因此使用友好的语气将使他们对您的信息保持参与。4. 提醒大多数B2B销售线索的日程安排紧张，几乎没有空余时间。通过B2B短信营销，您可以在会议、网络研讨会或付款截止日期之前预定提醒短信，以确保收件人不会错过任何时间敏感的信息。5. 跟进与提醒类似，您可以随时自动跟进消息。通过与潜在客户和现有客户进行跟进，您可以刷新他们的记忆，使您的品牌始终留在他们的脑海中。滴灌营销是一种常见的跟进订阅者的方式。滴灌营销包括在一段指定时间内安排发送的多个基于时间的短信。例如，您可以创建一个在一个月内发送三条短信的系列，或者您可以安排每天连续两周发送一条短信。6. 自动回复自动回复信息是B2B企业在与多个客户同时合作时的强大工具。例如，还记得对来自销售线索的消息回复的五分钟“黄金时间窗口”吗？这就是自动回复信息发挥作用的地方。您可以使用短信营销平台根据关键词或电话号码轻松设置自动回复。例如，房地产办公室可以根据短信中的地址配置自动回复，并将潜在客户与负责管理特定房源的房地产经纪人联系起来。7. 内容分享获取短信营销列表的订阅者很容易，但是只有给他们一个理由，他们才会一直留在其中。因此，不要等待您的订阅者联系您，而是向他们发送独家于短信订阅者的有价值的内容，比如使用多因素身份验证的指南，以提高访问您的网站的流量。专业提示：根据兴趣对您的短信订阅者列表进行分割，您可以将其添加到注册表单中。通过这种方法，您将确保您的信息对感兴趣的受众提供价值，而不是让信息被忽视。8. 客户调查和反馈提供一次良好体验并不足以建立一个忠诚的客户群体，以支撑您的业务长期发展。为了了解您的客户需要什么，可以进行调查或投票，收集客户反馈。许多短信营销平台都具有内置的投票和调查功能，让客户可以在一条简短的短信中分享他们的反馈。用户友好的短信营销软件还将帮助您的企业为营销策略找到更好、更快的投资回报率。9. 公告您可以使用B2B短信营销发送短信群发，宣布即将推出的产品或针对特定受众群体的信息。此外，短信营销平台每天可以发送大量短信，因此您可以放心，知道您的订阅者将收到您打算发送的营销信息。开始使用B2B短信营销LIKE.TG的通信平台适用于希望与客户开始对话的企业。许多B2B公司将短信作为其整体营销策略的一部分，与客户进行联系。通过我们快速可靠的短信网关API或全渠道营销软件Mobile Marketing Cloud，您可以创建出色的客户体验，推动参与并转化潜在客户。不要犹豫，立即向您的客户发送短信！
B2G营销：了解B2G和B2B之间的区别
政府对企业（B2G）营销是指向政府机构推广和销售产品。公司从联邦，州和地方机构获得拨款以完成订单。在本文中，我们将揭示B2G和B2B营销之间的区别，并回顾5种B2G营销策略。B2G与B2B我们可以将营销策略分为三种主要类型：B2C，B2B和B2G。根据您的客户，您可以选择其中之一的业务模式。让我们比较B2G和B2B，找出主要区别。B2G指的是向政府机构推广和销售产品。联邦，州和地方机构要求提交提案，并向被认为是最合适的政府任务候选公司提供拨款。企业向政府机构提供各种类型的服务。他们提供IT支持服务，建造飞机和供应导弹防御系统。B2B是以其他公司作为消费者的目标。在这种业务模式中，公司向中小型和大型企业销售产品和服务。它们包括初创公司，企业，小型品牌等。这个过程需要更长的时间，因为客户需要更多时间做购买决策。因此，B2G和B2B之间的主要区别在于订购产品或服务的机构。在B2G中，买方是政府机构，而在B2B中，买方是企业。现在区别很清楚了，是时候探索B2G的营销策略了。B2G的5种营销策略如果您与政府合作，您需要开发出优秀的产品和营销策略。我们为您准备了5个提示，供您考虑，以使您的业务对客户更具吸引力。明确您的目标受众。您应该首先确定您希望针对的政府机构。了解他们的偏好，使命，他们分享的职位和他们选择的产品。完成任务后，您可以创建一个准确的买家角色。这将帮助您了解如何向这些潜在客户展示您的公司和产品。创建一个引人注目的网站。在撰写任何拨款投标之前，您需要建立一个具有优质供应的网站。您的网站应传达您的品牌形象并满足客户需求。考虑在SEO，用户体验和可用性方面进行优化。公司应始终关注主要落地页的创建。这些网页应具有响应式设计，良好的网站速度，引人注目的文案和明显的呼叫行动按钮。包括展示您产品的独特图片，信息图和视频。制定您的内容营销策略。建立信任和可靠性要求企业向客户提供优质内容。通过展示您在行业中的专业知识，技能和知识，您可以证明您的公司是该项目的最佳选择。您可以通过博客文章，教育视频，演示，完成项目的照片和电子邮件通讯等不同类型的内容接触潜在客户，使他们选择您的公司。利用CRM。 CRM工具可以自动化与潜在客户的沟通。借助它们的帮助，您可以收集联系信息并收集反馈。因此，您将能够对客户进行资格审核。LIKE.TG的CRM允许您免费执行此操作。我们的服务使用户能够接受订单，创建客户列表并启动营销活动。提供虚拟现实体验。互动体验和探索产品的特点对于政府决策者来说意义重大。客户可以在购买之前测试产品，并决定它是否符合他们的目的。如果是，您将赢得拨款并与政府机构合作。
Back to Work: COVID Management in the Workplace
Returning to the workplace post-COVID-19 will require a careful balance of coordination, sensitivity, and logistics. You may be grappling with questions such as: How can we ensure the safe return of our workforce? What’s our plan if an employee is diagnosed with COVID-19 after returning? How do we keep business moving forward during the transition? What’s our policy regarding the vaccine? Our Back to Work webinar series can help you think through these questions and more to ensure proper COVID management once you’re back in the workplace. Here are three on-demand webinars that may be especially helpful:Overcome vaccine management challengesQuickly delivering vaccines at scale isn’t easy, but it’s vital to minimizing waste and vaccinating as many as possible as efficiently as possible. To succeed requires automating workflows. Watch the 10 Best Practices to Solve Last-Mile Vaccine Management Challenges webinar to learn more.Automating workflows can help us overcome logistical challenges and simplify vaccine management. Discover how we can create a healthier future together.Have a crisis management planDid you know the Now Platform and emergency response apps can help your organization manage COVID-19-related crises? Join our COVID-19 Crisis Management in Action: Now on Now webinar to learn how.LIKE.TG resiliency experts will walk you through the steps we took to ensure our employees stay safe, business continues, and we respond quickly. You’ll also learn about our ensuing results and business outcomes.Act fast to minimize flare-upsImplementing a contact tracing program can put your organization in a position to take rapid action if one of your employees is exposed to COVID-19. But where do you start?Watch the Contract Tracing 101 webinar to hear LIKE.TG employee experience experts share tips on: Gathering and sharing information Automating tasks to simplify contact tracing Limiting the spread of COVID-19 We’re all eager to get back to interacting in person again. These three webinars on managing COVID in the workplace will help us get closer to making that a reality.
Back to Work: Webinars for Returning to the Workplace
As COVID vaccines begin to roll out, get ready to return to the workplace with LIKE.TG and learn about how to bring employees back to your workplace.How to create an employee centered game plan for the safe return to workplaceWorkplaces are reopening. Register to learn how you can assess employee readiness, manage PPE, schedule maintenance, and more, including: Creating a framework for reopening more safely Supporting employees’ mental, emotional, and physical needs Helping keep your workforce safe and productive anywhere The return to workplace experience: Managing culture, care, and workforce safetyCOVID-19 has impacted every aspect of work, making the employee experience more important than ever before. Join this webinar to learn the essential strategies to drive your Return to Workplace experience while supporting the well-being and safety of your workforce.Josh Bersin, world-renowned employee experience expert, and LIKE.TG Chief Talent Officer, Pat Wadors, will answer questions during this event and dive deeper into return to workplace experience topics, including: Measuring the sentiment of your workforce and why it’s essential How to use employee data to drive better business decisions Best practices for supporting employee safety and building their trust Challenges and successes shared by organizations around the world with digital transformation Now on Now: How LIKE.TG is ensuring its own safe return to the workplaceLIKE.TG wasn’t immune to global lockdowns. Our leaders are building a safe return to workplace strategy with technology at its core. Get an inside look at our plan to make work flow once again. Watch this webinar featuring VP of Corporate Services Robert Teed, VP of IT Corporate Services Jeff Bower, and Sr. Director of Global Talent Care David Reed, as they discuss LIKE.TG’s own strategy for returning its employees to the workplace.
Balanced metrics: The key to success in DevSecOps transformation
When measuring the success of large-scale transformations—particularly in the technology space—it’s natural to look at hard metrics, such as cycle time, mean time to recovery (MTTR), and so on. In IT, for example, hard metrics are what we do all day long.But within any organization, change is ultimately personal. In my experience, relying exclusively on hard numbers often leads you to ignore the human side of transformation, and sometimes even action the wrong things. That’s why we use both hard and soft metrics to guide our DevSecOps transformation at ServiceNow.Measuring progress in 2 waysIn our transformation journey, we look at more than 20 data points, with equal weight given to soft numbers and hard numbers: Hard metrics are quantifiable, such as the number of releases flowing through the pipeline, the frequency of deployment, and the number of teams using the pipelines. Soft metrics are qualitative, subjective values, including Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Adoption Readiness surveys of our program leads, that assesses the engineering community’s satisfaction with the transformation. We often follow these surveys with retrospectives where engineers can share their thoughts on changes from a people (culture), process, and technology perspective. To help us transform insight into action, we use a combination of both metric types to consider the human side of a project via satisfaction and feedback surveys. Including soft metrics brings team members into the transformation process, giving them the chance to voice their views and influence change.Teams that show great self-reported metrics, such as satisfaction scores, and hard metrics, such as deployment frequency, are the ones that make steady progress and find new ways to improve week over week.On the flip side, teams that rely only on the rigor of hard metrics and overlook user satisfaction often hit a plateau quite quickly. This results in frustration—pushing hard but not reaping rewards.I must admit that although I love to see high satisfaction scores, I welcome the low ones because they yield a goldmine of feedback that will help us improve how we work. Gaining insights from divergenceHard and soft metrics often track with one another; good progress against hard metrics often results in high satisfaction. Where it gets interesting is when the two metrics diverge.For example, one of our teams’ high satisfaction scores showed they were very happy with their new process. Yet, they were used to their previous release schedule and saw no great need to increase their deployment frequency. By considering both metrics, I knew we needed to create encouraging conditions for them to deploy more frequently and experience the benefits themselves.At first blush, it may seem like low satisfaction scores are purely a symptom of cultural challenges, but a deeper look can reveal whether it’s the process, technology, or culture that needs fine-tuning.As an example, one of our teams had low satisfaction scores—not because they resisted change, but because their unique setup wasn’t supported by our technology. They listed their complaints, and the DevSecOps tooling team enabled features to accommodate them. As a result, the releases going through the pipeline and satisfaction increased not only for this team, but also for other teams that had this problem but not as severely. (Read more about using metrics to gain visibility and achieve desired outcomes.)Transformation is a journeyTransformation is an ongoing process, from crawl to walk to run to sprint. Because of that, attitudes and metrics are going to change. Be sure to take the pulse of your community periodically—on both hard and soft metrics—to assess your progress and make any necessary course corrections to achieve your goals.Find out more about how LIKE.TG uses its own products.
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