Making Connections: Genesys Helps Businesses of All Sizes Employ CX as a Competitive Business Differentiator

TL; DR: More than 11,000 businesses throughout 100 countries turn to Genesys for industry-leading customer engagement solutions that drive positive business outcomes. The company provides omnichannel communication opportunities that can be used to build loyalty, increase conversion, and gain marketing insights. With a blended approach to AI that leverages advanced technology to meet real human needs, Genesys is empowering businesses to improve customer experiences worldwide.

Anyone who doubts the impact that one unhappy customer can have on a company should listen to Dave Carroll’s viral smash, “United Breaks Guitars.”

The song details the musician’s spring 2008 United Airlines flight to Nebraska, during which baggage handlers carelessly threw his prized Taylor guitar on the tarmac, causing $1,200 in damage. Carroll notified United Airlines employees of the infraction immediately and spent nearly a year seeking compensation — only to be brushed off by the company.

That’s when he took matters into his own hands, publishing a musical account of the experience on YouTube. As of 2019, the song — which features the twangy refrain “I should’ve flown with someone else or gone by car, ‘cause United breaks guitars” — has amassed more than 18.5 million views. United ultimately apologized and offered Carroll compensation, but the reputational damage caused by the fiasco is undeniable to this day.

In today’s digital landscape, companies must prioritize the customer experience above all else to meet rising expectations and fend off competitors.

“One bad service interaction, when amplified through social media or review sites like Yelp, can have an extremely negative impact on a company,” said Keith Pearce, SVP of Corporate Marketing at Genesys. “We connect businesses with their customers across any channel to create positive experiences.”

The company’s industry-leading solutions help more than 11,000 businesses worldwide stand apart from the competition by optimizing customer engagement opportunities. The Genesys Customer Experience Platform, an omnichannel tool with flexible deployment options, provides the tools teams need to build loyalty, boost sales, and gain valuable insights. With a human-focused approach to artificial intelligence, Genesys is helping companies turn customer care into a competitive differentiator.

Founded in 1990, Genesys boasts almost three decades of industry experience. Keith told us the company was born when two engineers with a $150,000 family loan devised a way to connect telephone and computer systems, enabling support agents to access customer information while on the phone.

“Fast forward to 2019, and we’re a $1.4 billion company with 11,000 customers worldwide,” Keith said. “We still help companies connect with their customers. In 1990, that was predominantly done via phone and email. Today, we use everything from WeChat and WhatsApp to SMS and video interaction.”

In a fast-paced world bursting with competition, Keith said customer experience has emerged as the single most significant opportunity for business differentiation — as exemplified by tenets of leadership held by the likes of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. “We’re living in a customer experience era,” he said. “In the last 10 years, we’ve seen a transition from businesses attempting to do things as cheaply as they can to providing the highest touch and the most value.”

Keith said those companies look to Genesys to provide the innovation they need to enhance engagement and overall customer satisfaction. “It’s a great opportunity for a company like ours, but it’s a great challenge as well because businesses want solutions that are unique to them,” he said.

To that end, Genesys offers solutions to help businesses understand customer behaviors and offer communication methods personalized to individual need. For example, intelligent routing tools prioritize interactions in a queue based on unique business rules, and the company’s digital and self-service options allow customers to specify preferred communication channels.

The company’s omnichannel customer experience platform contains three products that help businesses connect with consumers how and when they want, whether that’s through chat, email, text, or a phone call. PureCloud, a true born-in-the cloud solution, can serve the customer experience and contact center needs of companies large and small. Genesys also offers on-premises and cloud versions of PureConnect and PureEngage, which are typically used by large-scale businesses with very complex requirements.

“The fundamental thing across the three different platforms is matching the right employee with the right customer for whatever channel they’re using to communicate,” Keith said. “It sounds simplistic, but it’s actually very difficult, especially when you have consumers moving between channels in the midst of life’s interruptions.”

It’s easy to imagine: A working parent who’s reaching out to book a cruise via phone while attempting to get ready for work, make breakfast, and get the kids dressed. This hypothetical customer may need to switch from phone support to email or SMS, depending on how the day unfolds.

“The employee trying to sell that cruise ticket needs to see a record of all those different channel hops and know the context of each interaction to determine what to do next,” Keith said. “As a company, you need to ensure that you’re making that person available to the customer at the right time, that they’ve got the right channel information, and that it’s all coming together in one screen so that they can make that sale.”

Keith said the company’s solutions enrich experiences for employees as well as customers. “If you have all the information you need to do your jobs, you feel better, more confident in doing it and happier with the outcome,” he said.

The added benefit, of course, is that happy employees make for satisfied customers. Numerous studies point to a correlation between employee engagement and customer satisfaction. Happy employees have also been shown to convert more leads into sales.

When it comes to product development, Genesys leans heavily on feedback from customers as well as customer service agents and salespeople. “We make a serious effort to listen to our end users,” Keith said.

The company also makes an effort to implement requested changes promptly. “This represents a giant leap forward for our industry in that a small feature request won’t take months to implement,” Keith said. “End users can say, ‘It would be great if this screen looked this way or if this button was in this place, and they can make those changes through a feature request to us that we can push out in a matter of hours in some cases.”

Such technology allows employees to improve the customer experience — which, over time, may lead to an increase in referrals through word-of-mouth marketing. According to Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising Survey, which polled more than 28,000 respondents in 56 countries, this technique is especially persuasive. In fact, the majority (92%) of consumers stated they trust recommendations from family and friends more than other forms of advertising.

Keith said customers often ask whether AI will replace jobs currently held by humans. But he doesn’t think that’s what consumers want.

“We think consumers want a blended AI approach in which automation streamlines transactional interactions, saving human interaction for when it is most desirable,” he said. “It’s a combination of AI and people — not a zero-sum game.”

A smart blend of the two forces may help increase sales. “Say I just got approved for a mortgage,” Keith said. “Instead of sending an automated message announcing I’m approved, perhaps a phone call would present an opportunity for a salesperson to offer mortgage insurance.”

By 2020, Genesys predicts that nearly half of customers will use multiple touchpoints, including self-service AI options, to engage with brands.

“We’re starting to become much more AI-infused in our products, and able to deliver better outcomes as a result of that,” Keith said. “We feel very positive about powering the new frontier of customer engagement.”