A loyal customer isn’t just someone who comes back. They spend more. Stay longer. Recommend faster. They open emails, tolerate hiccups, and ignore your competitors’ ads. They’re also far cheaper to retain than any lead your sales team is chasing right now.

Loyalty isn’t a lucky break. It’s the outcome of moments that go right consistently, and often quietly. A first experience that flows without friction. A support interaction that resolves more than just the issue. A product that keeps its promise. Each of these moments builds equity in the relationship.

When those touchpoints connect  across teams, systems, and time something stronger than repeat business takes shape. Customers begin to trust. They stick around, not because it’s the easiest option, but because the experience earns it.

What is Customer Loyalty?

Customer loyalty reflects a decision: the conscious choice to stay with a brand when alternatives are just a click away. It’s not just about satisfaction, plenty of satisfied customers churn. Loyalty runs deeper. It’s emotional, earned through consistency, value, and trust built over time.

In practical terms, loyalty shows when customers return after a poor experience, because they believe it’s the exception, not the norm. It shines when existing buyers refer peers, opt into updates, or upgrade without needing a discount.

But for enterprises, this isn’t a soft metric. It’s measurable, in retention rates, customer lifetime value, and referral growth. In fact, increasing customer retention by just 5% can boost profits by 25% to 95% depending on the industry. Loyalty doesn’t just pay off; it compounds.

Now, it matters more than ever. With CX as a key battleground, loyalty becomes a lead indicator of business resilience, and a hedge against rising acquisition costs.

The ROI of Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty used to be a feel-good metric. Now it’s a board-level priority.

Retaining a customer isn’t just cheaper than winning a new one, it’s smarter. The cost of acquisition has spiked over 60% in the last five years, especially across digital channels. Meanwhile, repeat customers spend more, refer faster, and support brands longer, even when things go wrong.

The return is measurable:

• CAC Down, Margins Up: Brands with strong loyalty programs don’t need to outspend rivals on ads. Their customers come back organically. Acquisition costs are up to 7x higher than retention costs, and rising. Loyalty brings those numbers down.
• Predictable Revenue: Returning customers are more consistent. They know the product, trust the brand, and often skip the comparison stage altogether. That makes forecasting easier, pipelines more stable, and marketing spend more efficient.
• Loyalty = Resilience: In downturns, loyal customers stick. They’re more forgiving of glitches and slower to churn. A loyalty strategy isn’t just about growth, it’s about survival when market headwinds hit.
• Better Intelligence: Good loyalty tools are also listening tools. They track not just transactions, but behavior: redemptions, preferences, referrals, and feedback. That kind of data can feed customer journey strategies and help pinpoint why loyalty is rising or falling.
• Cross-Functional Buy-In: Loyalty isn’t a marketing-only game anymore. When programs sync with CRMs and support channels, they empower every team that touches the customer and help break down the silos that usually hurt CX.

What is Customer Loyalty Management?

Loyalty isn’t a byproduct of good service; it’s the result of managing relationships with intent. For enterprises, customer loyalty management is the discipline of designing and maintaining systems that keep the right customers coming back, staying longer, and contributing more value over time.

Loyalty doesn’t come from running rewards programs on cruise control. It starts with clarity; knowing who your most valuable customers are, what keeps them engaged, and how to stand out even when competitors promise more for less.

The best loyalty strategies don’t operate in a silo. They’re part of the broader customer experience engine, connected to feedback, support, product usage, and behavioural cues. Managed well, these strategies turn loyalty into a dynamic input, not just a passive output. It’s not a metric at the end of a funnel, it’s something built and reinforced at every stage of the journey.

Loyalty Management Tools and Platforms

The strongest tools today aren’t just managing point balances or sending birthday emails. They’re helping organizations understand loyalty as a behavior, not a program.

At a basic level, these platforms centralize loyalty data: engagement patterns, redemption activity, repeat purchase signals, and more. But the more advanced systems go further. They apply machine learning to spot early signs of churn, flag disengaged segments, and recommend next-best actions in real time.

What sets the leading loyalty management platforms apart is their ability to fit inside a broader CX tech stack. That means:

• Integrating with CRM to unify customer context
• Connecting to feedback loops for real-time insight
• Embedding in messaging infrastructure like CPaaS to deliver hyper-personalized moments that actually land

Many also support predictive analytics, using behavioral data to calculate loyalty risk scores, tailor rewards dynamically, or prompt human intervention when relationships are at risk.

How to Measure Customer Loyalty

Loyalty isn’t a single number. It’s a pattern, and like most patterns in enterprise CX, it takes a mix of metrics to see the full picture.

Behavioral signals still lead the pack. Metrics like repeat purchase rate, frequency of interaction, average order value, and churn give a direct read on what customers are doing, and where that behavior changes over time.

Behavioural signals often say more than surveys. A customer who slows their spending, skips repeat purchases, or stops logging in is sending a message. Something has shifted, in the experience, the product fit, or the perceived value.

Behaviour tells you what happened. But it won’t tell you why. That’s where customer sentiment comes into play.

Tools like Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), and Customer Effort Score (CES) dig beneath the surface, giving teams a clearer sense of how customers actually feel about their experience. When behavioural dips show up, they offer the context needed to act fast, and fix the root cause before it costs more.

For many organizations, this layer is captured across touchpoints with VoC tools, then analyzed over time to correlate sentiment with spend or attrition.

What’s changing now is the rise of emotional loyalty metrics. These tools look beyond direct feedback, using conversational analysis, sentiment trends, and inferred emotional cues to understand attachment, not just satisfaction. It’s especially useful for brands competing on experience, not price.

Taken together, these data points create a more reliable model. Not just who’s loyal today, but who’s likely to stay, spend, and advocate tomorrow.

How to Choose Loyalty Management Software

The wrong loyalty platform won’t break a business, but it will stall progress. What looks slick in a demo can crumble under pressure if it can’t sync with existing systems, surface usable insights, or grow with you.

Enterprise teams evaluating loyalty management software need more than a feature checklist. They need to know how the tool will hold up six months in, with multiple departments relying on it.

Here’s what separates the useful from the disruptive:

True Integration

No platform works in isolation. If loyalty data sits in a separate bucket from customer service, CRM, or analytics tools, there’s a problem.

That means:

• Real-time syncing with CRM systems
• Alignment with VoC platforms
• Integrations with Business intelligence solutions

Most loyalty management platforms also seamlessly connect with CCaaS platforms, conversational analytics tools, and ERP software.

Dashboards That Get Used

Too many platforms surface metrics. Fewer tell you what they mean.

The strongest systems flag what matters: declining engagement from a once-loyal segment, a regional drop in redemption rates, churn triggers hiding in feedback. Ideally, these insights feed into broader customer intelligence tools.

Ask the vendor: When loyalty starts to dip, how will your platform show it, and who will know?

Scalability

Will it handle loyalty across multiple brands? Markets? Languages? Can it adapt to tiered models, emotional loyalty, partner programs?

Look for:

• Configurable logic, not hard-coded structures
• Clean admin interfaces for rule management
• Role-based controls that keep compliance teams comfortable

If it takes a developer to adjust a points rule, it’s not enterprise-ready.

Discover who’s driving results in the loyalty management software market here:

Best Practices for Improving Customer Loyalty

Loyalty doesn’t just emerge from a points program or a fun campaign. For enterprises, it’s a byproduct of consistent, intentional experience design, built into service flows, product strategy, data models, and frontline decision-making.

Build Feedback Loops That Actually Close

The fastest way to erode loyalty? Ignoring input – or worse, asking for it and doing nothing.

Instead of measuring feedback volume, measure action: How many product updates were driven by complaints? How often are support teams looped in to resolve themes emerging from surveys? Connect your loyalty program to customer feedback management tools that can drive real changes, not just reporting.

Use Tiering: But Don’t Let It Turn Transactional

Tiered loyalty still has its place, but only when it’s designed with purpose. Value shouldn’t just reflect spend. It should acknowledge engagement in all its forms. Early adopters, advocates, testers, even those who provide consistent feedback – they’re all part of the loyalty equation.

In B2B especially, tiers work best when they reflect mutual success. Think retention milestones, shared KPIs, or collaborative innovation, not just contract size.

Let AI Do More Than Segment

Yes, AI can slice customer cohorts faster. But real value comes when it flags what’s slipping before it shows up in churn.

Modern loyalty management tools increasingly come with predictive features: surfacing customers at risk of disengagement, nudging reps to check in, or adjusting loyalty offers based on sentiment and behavior patterns. Don’t just use AI to automate, use it to alert.

Tie Service Quality to Loyalty Outcomes

When loyalty starts to dip, it’s often not marketing’s fault, it’s a missed service expectation, or a support gap that never got escalated.

Bring loyalty and service metrics closer together. Track whether NPS dips after a long resolution time. Monitor whether loyalty program members get faster assistance, and whether that’s noticed.

Reward the Behavior You Want More Of

Discounts create habits, and not always good ones. If you reward spend alone, you build deal-seekers, not advocates.

Instead, reward the moments that drive growth:

• Referrals
• Feedback submitted
• Community contributions
• Self-service engagement
• Event participation

Loyalty isn’t a transaction, it’s a signal. Recognize the signals that drive real business value.

Localize Where It Matters

For multinational brands, loyalty can’t be global by default. Preferences shift by market, so should campaigns.

Consider:

• Local holiday-based promotions
• Regional tier naming conventions
• Local influencers or ambassadors

Global strategy. Local flavor. That balance keeps loyalty human.

Customer Loyalty Management + Service: The Critical Link

Loyalty doesn’t just live in a dashboard or a rewards app. It’s won or lost in moments that often feel small: a delivery delay, a billing dispute, a misunderstood policy. The way a brand responds in these moments is often more influential than any discount or points tier.

And that makes customer service a cornerstone of customer loyalty management.

When Service Is Seamless, Loyalty Feels Earned

Customers don’t demand flawlessness. But they do expect clarity, speed, and respect when things go wrong. Loyalty isn’t tested during moments of delight, it’s tested when something breaks. Support teams who can see a customer’s history, loyalty status, and previous interactions don’t just fix problems faster. They solve them with more context, more care, and often, more impact.

This is where integration matters:

• CRM systems should surface loyalty data
• CPaaS platforms can enable proactive outreach
• Ticketing systems can reflect VIP status or churn risk

Proactive Service = Preventative Loyalty Loss

The best loyalty moves aren’t reactive. They’re invisible, because the problem was handled before the customer noticed.

For example:

• Flagging shipping delays and sending apologies before the complaint
• Alerting high-value customers when products they love are low in stock
• Following up after negative sentiment is detected in chatbot interactions

This requires orchestration. But the payoff is reduced escalation volume, increased trust, and loyalty built on more than transactions.

Empower Agents Like They’re Brand Ambassadors

Loyalty lives or dies with the agent experience. If the frontline team feels unsupported, overworked, or stuck with legacy tools, they can’t deliver the kind of service that loyalty depends on.

Modern workforce engagement platforms are helping here, giving agents better training, clearer knowledge bases, and visibility into customer journeys. This isn’t just an ops upgrade, it’s a loyalty investment.

Customer Loyalty Management Trends to Watch

Enterprise loyalty strategies evolve with the customer, and the customer continues to change.

Over the past two years, loyalty has shifted from tactical marketing add-on to boardroom-level priority. Why? Because retention has become the fastest route to stable revenue.

Here’s what’s changing right now.

• Loyalty Is Getting Smarter: Rather than shouting about rewards, top brands are building invisible loyalty, systems that work behind the scenes, adjusting experiences based on behavior, purchase history, and product use. The loyalty isn’t in the point balance. It’s in the recognition. AI and predictive analytics are playing a bigger role here, helping teams act on churn signals before the customer ever says a word.
• Emotional Loyalty Takes the Lead: Price cuts don’t build loyalty. They build expectations. Enterprise buyers are shifting from transactional incentives to emotional loyalty strategies, things like exclusive experiences, consistent service, and values-based alignment. In B2B markets, that might look like strategic co-development, VIP access to product roadmaps, or account-based reward systems.
• Loyalty Hardwired Into CX: The strongest loyalty programs don’t operate in isolation. They’re woven into the wider customer experience stack, touching CRM, CPaaS, contact center platforms, and data systems. This allows brands to reward customers in real time, based on meaningful actions, not just spend.
• Consent-First Design: The days of collecting data “because we can” are over. Modern loyalty programs are being rebuilt around trust and transparency. That means clear value exchanges, upfront permissions, and control for the customer. Loyalty is no longer about how much data you can gather, it’s about how responsibly you use what you have.

Customer Loyalty Management Beyond the Transaction

Customer loyalty isn’t a finish line. It’s an ongoing, intentional outcome earned across every interaction, reinforced with every decision, and protected by every system put in place.

For enterprise teams, managing that loyalty means more than launching a rewards program. Managing loyalty well means making it easier for customers to stay than to leave. That’s not about discounts or perks, it’s about designing experiences that feel effortless, relevant, and personal.

Whether the goal is improving retention, boosting lifetime value, or gaining a clearer view of customer behaviour, the right strategy starts with the right tools, and the right insights.

CX Today offers a range of resources to help enterprise teams build loyalty systems that actually move the needle:

• Explore the Marketplace: Compare top loyalty management vendors with features tailored for growth, data integration, and security at scale.
• Join the Community: Learn how CX and marketing leaders across industries are evolving loyalty strategies in the CX Community.
• Track What’s Changing: Follow new developments in AI-powered loyalty, cross-channel experience design, and customer journey intelligence with research reports.

See how loyalty fits into the broader CX ecosystem. Visit our Ultimate CX Guide for a practical deep dive into the people, platforms, and processes driving customer-led growth.

Spoiler: just telling them to “calm down” doesn’t work. That phrase (while innocuous) often triggers the “reactance effect” – an instinctual resistance people feel when their sense of control is threatened or their concerns seem to be dismissed.

Over time, calls escalate more often. Escalations mean longer resolutions and lower satisfaction scores. Anxiety spills over into the workforce because agents feel cornered, and emotion hijacks logic.

So, what’s the right way to speak to a customer who’s far from happy?

What to Say to Angry Customers: 7 Defusing Phrases

So, “calm down” won’t work – but what will? Basically, anything that makes them feel heard, respected, and understood. Here are some practical phrases to embed into the de-escalation techniques customer service teams might already use:

1.      “That sounds really frustrating.”

Opening with recognition helps. Callers feel acknowledged. That simple nod shifts the tone. Callers don’t feel like their emotions are being belittled or ignored. The agent is actively validating them. Customers can start to think more logically, because they’ve made their point emotionally.

Alternative (but similar phrases include):

• I’d feel the same in your position
• I can see your point there
• I understand why you’re upset about this

2.      “We want to fix this just as much as you do.”

Sometimes, knowing what to say to angry customers means reinforcing a sense of collaboration – like this phrase does. It shifts blame and drama toward alignment. It also shows that the customer service agent isn’t trying to pass the buck to someone else, or imply it’s not their responsibility to deal with the issue.

Other ways to say this include:

• Thanks for letting us know about that, we definitely need to fix it
• We’re sorry about that, let’s try and get this issue solved

3.      “Here’s what we know, what we’ve done, and what we can do…”

Agitated customers want clarity, about what happened, why it happened, and what’s being done to resolve it. The best customer service professionals explain in three steps:

• What we know: We see your systems went down at 3 p.m. due to a technical fault with our server, and you’ve been experiencing issues since.
• What we’ve done: We’ve already got a technician working on the problem, and the server is now functional, but we’re still troubleshooting issues.
• What we will do: We’ll make a note on your file and run some additional checks. Our team will inform you immediately when the issue is resolved.

4.      “I understand, other customers have had a similar problem, here’s what they found worked…”

This “Feel, Felt, Found” approach builds empathy and a sense of community. It shows customers that they’re not alone in facing an issue, and helps them to see that the company they’re contacting has already helped others resolve the problem.

An example:

• Feel: I see how you feel. I hate it when I can’t log into my account.
• Felt: Some of our other customers have reported login issues, too.
• Found: They found that restarting the app helped solve the problem. Have you tried that?

5.      “Here’s what I can do…”

Confidence is key in knowing what to say to angry customers. Saying “the best I can do is get a technician to call you back,” sounds hesitant and invites escalation. Customer service agents should say exactly what they can do, and how it’s going to help.

For example “What I can do for you right now is pass this issue over to our technical team, they’ll be in touch within the next hour with an update. In the meantime, I’ll add a credit to your account for the inconvenience.”

6.      “Are you able to…”

Often, a customer will need to do something on their side for a problem to be fixed, like sharing their serial number, account details, or refreshing an application. Rather than using direct statements like “I need you to give me your…” it’s helpful to switch to polite questions like:

• Are you able to grab your serial number for me?
• Could you just switch your computer off and on again for a moment?
• Would you be able to give me a moment to check on that?

7.      “Could I try…”

When customers feel powerless, giving them options restores a sense of control. These kinds of phrases are particularly helpful when “troubleshooting” an issue that doesn’t have a clear solution:

• Could I try speaking to my colleague, they may have another idea?
• I have another option we could try; would you be open to that?
• I could do [action] but it might take a moment, would you mind waiting a moment, or would you like a call back?

Even if the options are limited, demonstrating effort helps customers calm down and feel supported.

Best Practices for De-escalating Angry Customers

Knowing what to say to angry customers is just the first step. Customer support agents also need to know what to do to help de-escalate the issue. Often that means using active listening techniques, empathy, and emotional control.

Stay Calm and Practice Active Listening

Remaining composed sets the tone. It’s easy for agents to get upset when they’re being yelled at, but responding defensively usually makes the issue worse. Train employees to take a couple of deep breaths if they’re feeling attacked, and tell them to focus on active listening. They should let callers speak uninterrupted, using occasional cues like “I see” and “that makes sense.”

Track Tone, Then Pivot to Solutions

Agents should be experts at tuning into tone, intent, and sentiment, even if they occasionally need help from analytical tools. Responding to tone doesn’t mean showing anger back to an angry customer, it means demonstrating empathy, then guiding the conversation towards resolution.

Simple framing tweaks can help:

• Use positive, reassuring language: “Absolutely” instead of “No problem.”
• Avoid negative statements like “That’s against policy.” Instead, say: “What I can do is…”

Use Templates, but Personalize Them

Templates speed up responses, but they only work when they’re used thoughtfully. Customers still want personalized service, even when they’re making a complaint or reporting an issue.

Agents should tailor templates with names, issue specifics, and a human touch. Give them access to useful insights from CRM tools to help tailor each interaction.

Think Critically

Agents should understand that an angry customer isn’t necessarily angry at “them” – they’re frustrated by the situation. Their focus shouldn’t be on protecting themselves, but figuring out what the customer actually needs.

Do they want a refund, or do they just want someone to validate their experience? A good way to find out a customer’s motivation is to restate what they said and what they might mean by it: “I understand you’ve been unable to use your subscription, would a refund help with this?”

Leverage Analytics and Voice of the Customer (VoC) Data

Not sure which frustrated issues crop up most? VoC analytics pull in feedback from surveys, chat, calls, social, and help center tickets.

AI-powered sentiment analysis flags negative experiences automatically. That means agents and supervisors can proactively address hot spots before they escalate. Using data is a good way to improve self-help resources and identify recurring problems, so they’re less likely to happen again in future. A more proactive approach means less time teaching agents what to say to angry customers.

Turning Angry Customers Into Long-Term Advocates

Customers won’t magically calm down. What works is a conversation built on validation and structure, packaged in calm, purposeful phrases and backed by smart tools.

Train teams on what to say to angry customers, but also show them how to manage their own emotions, stay calm, listen actively, and personalize the experience. At the same time, take advantage of the tools that can help businesses stay one step ahead of recurring problems.

Every company will deal with angry customers at some point. The key is knowing how to de-escalate the situation and turn an irate caller into a long-term advocate.

The cloud-based software company announced its third-quarter earnings report on Monday, revealing strong results across the board. 

This has led to ongoing investments into current and future AI products and initiatives. 

“We remain on track to exceed the $100MN in ARR from new products by the end of 2025,” said RingCentral CEO, Vladimir Shmunis, adding:

“Adoption of our new AI-led products is broad-based across various customer cohorts, from small businesses to large enterprises.

“Our GSP partners are also beginning to sell these new offerings, expanding our reach and accelerating adoption.” 

This expansion has led the company to roll out multiple AI product releases this week, increasing its customer base by branching out into emerging AI trends. The launches are aimed at enhancing communication experiences for both customers and agents.

This has resulted from an R&D spend of $125MN into its new AI portfolio. The company is already seeing consistent profitable growth, in the hopes of exceeding the year-end ARR target. 

RingWEM Adds AI Workforce Tools to Cloud Contact Center

On Monday, RingCentral released its latest AI product, RingWEM, an AI-powered workforce engagement management suite designed to enhance its native cloud contact center, RingCX. 

The suite offers four capabilities to strengthen customer experience across agent performance, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiencies by using AI-powered insights: 

AI Quality Management: Designed to give human agents the skills to improve their overall performance, the quality management tool will use personalized customer quality criteria to evaluate and provide extensive insight and feedback on customer calls. 

The tool is used to analyze and observe full customer interactions and agent workflows, delivering focused guidance for reskilling. 

Furthermore, the tool offers AI-based coaching recommendations to improve agent expertise, allowing enterprises to improve their workforce by viewing their agents’ performance analytics, common communication themes and advise them on next steps using the provided data-driven advice. 

AI Workforce Management: Used to improve quality in customer service, planning for potential challenges, and overall efficiency, this tool combines precise data forecasting and resourceful scheduling to align staff with probable tasks to tackle targeted demand. 

By using precise data forecasting, the AI workforce management tool can use algorithms to analyze past and current data trends and business drivers to predict the likelihood of contact quantities, allowing time for agents to tackle abnormal spikes before they occur. 

With intelligent scheduling, the workforce tool can generate actionable schedules for agents to follow that include agent preferences, adjustable service level actions, and business requirements to keep agents on track with tasks. 

These can be modified to fit irregular changes in working conditions to ensure that service levels stay the same to avoid customer friction. 

Additionally, customer agent supervisors can run probable scenarios to analyze the effectiveness of staff models and company changes before they are implemented. 

AI Interaction Analytics: This tool provides enterprises with high-level insights into customer satisfaction with interactions, compiling data taken from surveys and summaries from the interactions themselves to address negative customer experiences. 

AI Interaction Analytics can dissect customer conversations through voice tone, language preferences, and patterns in speech to assess satisfaction. 

The tool can use this and other conversations to further analyze key customer trends and issues as a whole, allowing businesses to proactively address these concerns before escalation. 

Screen Recording: Similar to the AI Quality Management capability, this tool allows supervisors to evaluate customer-agent interactions by collectively linking calls and screen recordings for a wider range of information into quality of conversation and workflow efficiency. 

These tools can be utilized to address underlying issues with agent performance and customer satisfaction and elevate operations in contact centers to deliver smarter service. 

RingCentral Debuts Agentic Voice AI Suite

RingCentral has also released its agentic voice AI communications suite, encompassing three tools that enhance communication experiences across the lifespan of each customer interaction. 

AI Receptionist (AIR): Before a conversation begins, this tool ensures that calls are not left unanswered. 

Using the voice AI ability to interact with customers, this AI agent can comprehend a customer’s reason for calling, answer questions, hand off real-time interactions to agents with summarized caller context, and identify and log potential opportunities that may require a human agent to follow up. These can help to avoid customer friction and repeated information. 

For scheduling interactions, AIR provides multi-calendar support across a company to integrate employee schedules and harmonize teams. 

Sales opportunities are collected and stored for future use in Salesforce, HubSpot, or with AIR’s own database. 

AIR can also be used on any SIP-based phone, allowing AI customer handling to be dealt with across the cloud, any premises, or hybrid setups. 

Brian Tucker, Chief Digital Officer at Televero Health, is a customer of RingCentral’s AIR tool. 

He said, “Using RingCentral’s AI Receptionist, the results are undeniable. We saw our monthly appointments increase 14 percent in the first four months, an increase in monthly revenue of over $200,000. 

“That kind of growth and return on investment is exactly what we need.”

AI Virtual Assistant (AVA): During a conversation, AVA can provide an agent with real-time assistance across customer interactions by implementing four key capabilities: 

• Real-Time Calls and Meeting Summaries: Identify the relevant information, questions, and actionable tasks during the span of a call or meeting, generating summaries and highlight reels to allow agents to keep track of the interaction’s objective during the call. 
• AI Writer to Create and Translate Communications: This capability can draft, edit, and translate conversations in multiple languages, allowing for seamless and customer-focused messaging. 
• Multi-Use Assistance Across Workflows: By adapting to a user’s communication method, via phone, text, or chat, this tool can provide intelligent prompts and relevant actions for each task. 
• Product Adoption and Feature Discovery: AVA can advise discovery and management methods to improve RingCentral’s overall customer enterprise experience. 

Kira Makagon, President & COO, RingCentral, explained the value of AVA in an enterprise workflow: “By putting trusted voice intelligence at employees’ fingertips, AVA makes work more productive and empowering,

“AVA is your personal virtual assistant that enables you to work smarter, faster, and more efficiently.”

AI Conversation Expert (ACE): After a conversation, ACE steps in to offer evaluated business insights from these interactions and adds it into one analytics and insights layer for a simplified outlook. 

It provides real-time insight into current customer satisfaction, trends in revenue, and overall agent team performance, giving context to performance data to allow leaders to act quickly. 

When requested, ACE can turn compound data into written summaries, recommend actions and examples of improvement, and be used an interactive interface to allow leaders to inquire related queries with instant results. 

Zach Jecklin, Chief Information Officer at Echo Global Logistics, and customer of ACE, uses the tool for improving company knowledge on customer calls and data trends. 

“AI Conversation Expert provides us with the detailed coaching for individual calls, and the dashboard connects the dots by rolling up all that data into a clear, concise view of the major trends impacting the entire business,” Jecklin said.  

“We used to have call data. Now, we have business intelligence. It’s that simple.”

RingCentral Pairs New AI Tools with Solid Growth

RingCentral has launched the new AI tools in conjunction with the announcement of its strong third earnings quarter. 

During its earnings call, the company reported a total revenue result of $639MN, seeing a growth of 5 percent from the previous year. 

Subscription revenue also increased, rising by 6 percent to $616MN, with a 23 percent rise of $130MN in free cash flow, which it intends to increase during the rest of the year.

While AI promises financial benefits and efficiency, the cost of poor implementation could outweigh the savings for enterprises relying on customer calls as revenue lifelines.

When callers realize they’re speaking to AI, the average call abandonment rate jumps from around four percent with human agents to nearly 25 percent with disclosed AI, according to Answering Service Care’s AI Call Report. That’s a difference that could cost businesses millions in lost revenue and reputation.

Transparency Matters More Than Technology

“People want to talk to people, or at least know when they’re not,” Logan Shooster, VP of Answering Service Care, told CX Today in an interview.

“The best course of action if you’re going to use AI is to at least disclose that it is AI. And [say] here are your options—you can get a human if you want it, or you can get a call back or an email so that the person can get help.”

That desire for transparency is overwhelming. 80 percent of the respondents to the survey wanted to know if they’re talking to AI. “So not necessarily that they don’t want to talk to AI, but if they are talking to AI or forced to be dealing with AI, they want to know,” Shooster said.

The data shows how fragile trust from consumers can be.

“A third of them will hang up immediately if they do know it’s AI, so they won’t even try to solve the problem.”

Generational differences exist, but the core sentiment holds steady. “Boomers were the most prone to hang up immediately and want to talk to a human, whereas Gen Z and below were more adept to potentially deal with AI,” Shooster said.

“But still, the overwhelming majority of people across generations, across political lines, all want to know at the core, ‘Is it a human or not?’ And then if it’s not, ‘What are my options? Can I get to a human? Am I stuck with an AI? What’s the process to escalate?’”

Shooster warned that businesses are too often focused on cutting costs, without fully considering the risks. Across millions of calls, human agents maintain average abandonment rates between 3 percent and 5 percent, whereas rates for disclosed AI calls spike close to 30 percent, Shooster said.

“So yeah, maybe you’re saving 50 percent on the labor assets, still, if you’re losing one out of every three leads to your competitor… it’s not even close.”

For small businesses, such as HVAC, plumbing, real estate and personal injury firms, the cost can be devastating. “Each one of those calls could be $15,000, $30,000 a pop,” Shooster said.

And beyond the direct financial cost, there’s the longer tail of reputational damage from negative reviews on social media.

“A lot of these businesses are word-of-mouth and referral-type businesses and I can imagine lots of these businesses having people talking on Facebook and all different types of groups [saying], ‘Hey, don’t use them. You can’t get support. It’s horrible; they don’t care. There’s nobody you can talk to,’” Shooster said.

“That’s the indirect impact that you don’t see on your bottom line, but it is impacting your brand and your reputation.”

The company’s findings highlight a disconnect between how quickly AI is being adopted and how slowly regulation and consumer confidence are catching up. “It’s kind of Wild, Wild West across the world, but especially in the U.S.,” Shooster said. “The technology is moving faster than legislation, and consumers are the ones who have to deal with it.”

With AI systems often retaining and processing user input for training, enterprises need to think carefully about what that means for customer data protection, Shooster said.

“If you’re talking to AI, not only is it not a human, but also everything you say is being stored and then trained on and then reused, and then who knows where it’s ending up.”

“We’re not completely anti-AI—obviously there’s a place for technology, and it’s not going anywhere, but it’s good to know what you’re talking to and what’s going to happen the information that you’re sharing.”

Businesses would do well to take a similar approach to compliance with U.S. call recording disclosure laws, which vary by state. Some require only one party’s consent, while others mandate that both parties be informed.

In practice, the call center industry tends to take the cautious route, following the strictest “two-party” disclosure standards to ensure compliance everywhere. The logic is simple: always disclose when a call is being recorded to avoid legal gray areas and stay on the safe side of regulation.

“Maybe they are thinking about their customer. But have they really stopped and looked at where their policies are today… when it comes to the proper disclosures, the proper registrations, the proper laws?”

Shooster pointed to states like California, Colorado, and Texas that have already begun passing AI transparency laws, as well as the proposed Keep Call Centers in America Act that could tie AI disclosure to job protection.

“There are a lot of things happening right now from a legislation standpoint even though it’s not where we’d like to see it,” Shooster said, adding that specific AI laws may come into effect in the future. “Businesses should think about that before they’re implementing technology.”

Answering Service Care has proposed a simple fix: make AI disclosure the default, along with a dose of honesty.

“Potential disclosure could look like when you call in, the AI would respond, ‘You’re speaking with an AI assistant today. I’ll do my best to answer your questions quickly,’” Shooster said. “At least now they know, from an ethical standpoint, from a privacy concern.”

That level of transparency helps businesses because “it lets the technology slow down and get better before we just roll it out to everything because it may save a few dollars,” Shooster said. It also “helps avoid any potential financial compliance risks by breaking laws they probably don’t even know about.”

Building Customer Trust in AI Rollouts

A lack of strategic planning and feedback loops around AI implementations isn’t unique to the U.S.

A recent report from ArvatoConnect found that many firms in the U.K. are rolling out AI and digital projects without proper planning, feedback, or measurement. Just 53 percent had gathered end-user insight before making changes, and the same number hadn’t sought feedback after rollout.

In addition, around 60 percent had failed to gain colleague buy-in, and only 56 percent had trained their employees on the new systems. Even more concerning, 38 percent had yet to implement performance monitoring, and 50 percent hadn’t set KPIs to track success.

Shooster echoed that sentiment, arguing that feedback and testing are essential before any rollout.

“You need to get customer feedback when you roll things out, and then iterate and then adapt from there and test. And not just do cold deploys of new things and hope it works. There does need to be a systematic approach to it.”

Shooster added that introducing AI without purpose or process is where many companies go wrong. “It’s about identifying the types of call types and workflows… identifying the whole process end to end, and then saying, where does a human need to be involved? Where could an AI potentially be involved? And most importantly, what does the customer think?”

Shooster acknowledged that AI can have a place — in limited, low-stakes scenarios, such as basic queries and or mass notifications for public announcements. “But there are other queries where you do need a human on the phone, instead of just forcing consumers to deal with AI for all different types of solutions.”

That distinction becomes crucial in high-stakes industries like emergency response, healthcare and finance. “Because when it’s a 911 call, which we went over in our results, an urgent medical issue, or even financial, with a lot of these IVRs you’re getting, you’re ending up at AI, and they’re not giving you the escape to get to a human. You’re stuck there, and you’re in loops and loops of agent,” Shooster said.

“When it’s wrong, AI has no idea. It’ll be extremely confident that this is the answer. And then when called out, it’ll change its opinion and say, ‘Oh, you’re right.’ … Sometimes paying a little bit more to make sure that we aren’t making those types of life-changing mistakes is worth it.”

That same need for balance between efficiency and empathy showed up across the Atlantic, too.

According to 8×8’s Streetview survey, 83 percent of UK customers still prefer speaking with a real person, with just four percent favoring chatbots or virtual agents. The only time that sentiment shifted was when money entered the picture, as around one in three respondents said they’d accept AI if it meant lower prices.

“My recommendation is not to put it in front of potential new business opportunities, because at least for that small business, you can’t afford to impact your reputation with a new customer, because every single one of those is really important to the growth of your business.”

Shooster added: “I think for some support-related issues, it could make sense, again, based on feedback and testing. And then every business is different.”

In the end, the advice to business leaders is clear: slow down, disclose, and design with trust in mind. The key is to use AI deliberately, not desperately. “It’s really about understanding what’s important — is it short-term gains, or long-term gains?” Shooster said. “Because loyalty and reputation are everything in the long run.”

A misread disclosure, a missed verification, or a skipped line in a script can put organizations at serious risk.  

That’s why real-time compliance monitoring is moving up the agenda. It is no longer a nice-to-have but a must-have for frontline defense.  

In a discussion with CX Today, Thor Mitskog, President at Cyber Acoustics, explained how the enhanced scrutiny surrounding compliance and security has made audits a critical part of the contact center space.   

“Clients conduct them, call centers conduct them, and they all feed into continuous learning and improving KPI scores.  

“If you don’t have the right tools, you can’t make those improvements in real time.”

Real-Time Compliance in Practice  

Today’s monitoring environment goes well beyond after-the-fact call reviews.  

Real-time transcription, keyword spotting, and coaching tools can flag issues as they happen – ensuring agents deliver the correct disclosures and appropriately handle sensitive data.  

However, while most of this innovation is happening in software, Thor pointed out that hardware plays an equally vital role.   

“If the headset isn’t delivering a clean audio stream, then the software’s alerts, analytics, and QA processes won’t be accurate,” he said. “Garbage in, garbage out.”  

To close this gap, Cyber Acoustics has developed Agent Assist, a patented hardware solution designed to modernize compliance monitoring.  

The idea builds on a practice that dates back nearly 40 years: plugging a second headset into an agent’s line via a Y-cable so a coach or auditor could listen in.  

“That old technology was limited and only used during audits,” Thor explained.  

“What we’ve done is take that concept, bring it up to today’s standards, and make it something you can use every day.”

Agent Assist allows supervisors, auditors, or even clients to monitor calls in real time – not just one or two agents, but entire campaigns.  

Why Now?  

The timing is significant. Remote and hybrid work environments have stretched compliance oversight, while regulators in finance, healthcare, and insurance have tightened their requirements.  

Meanwhile, Fortune 500 enterprises are raising expectations for audio quality and coaching support, forcing BPOs and outsourcers to keep up or risk losing business, as Thor explains:  

“For Tier one clients, the expectation is clear calls, no background noise, and tools that help make continuous improvements.  

“If you don’t have them, you’ll be left behind. Expectations are only rising.”  

Hardware as the Foundation  

Software providers may promise real-time analytics, but if the hardware fails, everything downstream does too.  

Thor draws the analogy with outdated computers:  

“I’ve seen call centers use 15-year-old PCs. Software developed two or three years ago wasn’t designed to run on platforms that old”

“It’s the same with headsets. If the microphone is broken, crackly, or picks up extra noise, then all those expensive software tools are going to deliver a bad experience.”  

That’s why Cyber Acoustics has focused on building USB digital headsets that process noise reduction locally, on the device itself.  

By handling noise suppression in hardware, they minimize the risk of missed keyword triggers, false alerts, and failed audit trails.  

Industry Adoption  

While Thor declined to name names, he confirmed that adoption is growing across multiple verticals: from financial services and healthcare to travel, entertainment, and hospitality.  

What they all have in common is environments where compliance is high-stakes.  

“Clients are seeing our tools demonstrated at call centers and quickly adopting them because they solve real problems,” he said.  

What’s notable, he added, is that Cyber Acoustics has positioned its premium headsets at a price point equivalent to mainstream competitors – making compliance-grade audio clarity and real-time monitoring accessible to the mass market, not just high-budget operations.  

Compliance as a Daily Discipline  

The lesson is clear: compliance isn’t a quarterly audit exercise anymore; it’s a daily discipline, built into every call, every disclosure, and every coaching session.  

And while software has transformed the monitoring landscape, hardware still provides the foundation.  

“Having good hardware will translate to better software and a better overall experience,” Thor argues.   

“Clients need to focus on the hardware component, not just the software tool, because it makes a world of difference.”

For CX leaders in regulated sectors, the compliance equation is shifting.  

Real-time monitoring is no longer optional, and the devices agents wear on their heads could prove just as important as the analytics platforms in the cloud.  

To find out more about Cyber Acoustics and its President, Thor Mitskog, you can watch his exclusive interview with CX Today here.  

For more information on the company’s headsets, check out this story on CX Today or visit the Cyber Acoustics website. 

The cloud-based call recording software provider made headlines in March of last year when it suspended CEO and Managing Director Steve McGovern following the discovery that AU$26.6MN was missing from the company’s accounts.

Dubber discovered the financial discrepancy during its half-year audit, prompting the company to notify the market and issue a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange ASX.

In said statement, the firm confirmed that a preliminary investigation had revealed that funds believed to be in a term deposit may have been used elsewhere and are no longer available to the company.

McGovern was subsequently dismissed, with Matthew Bellizia taking over in September 2024.

Having secured $25 million in funding to address the financial shortfall late last year, Dubber is now looking to recoup its losses in court.

The company has launched legal action against its former auditors BDO Audit, seeking $26.6 million in damages, along with interest and legal costs.

Dubber is accusing BDO Audit of failing to properly conduct audits for FY20, FY21, and FY22, and alternatively alleges that BDO acted in a misleading and deceptive manner by neglecting its obligations.

In a statement given to ASX today, Dubber said:

It [Dubber] asserts that, but for that conduct, it would not have suffered the loss that it did as the known parties would have been unable to misappropriate the funds or otherwise the funds would have been partly or wholly recovered.

What’s Next for Dubber?

The missing millions have cast a long shadow over Dubber’s recent trajectory.

Once hailed as a trailblazer in voice intelligence, the company has spent the past 18 months scrambling to contain the fallout – replacing leadership, patching financial holes, and attempting to rebuild market confidence.

While its core technology remains in place and operational, investor sentiment has taken a hit. That much is clear from its battered share price, which still hovers well below pre-incident levels.

For a company operating in a trust-centric domain like cloud communications, reputational recovery is just as crucial as recouping the funds.

Dubber will view the lawsuit against BDO as more than a legal dispute; they will be hoping that it serves as a potential turning point.

A win in court could restore a significant portion of the missing capital and help Dubber restore its reputation. But success is far from guaranteed, and the outcome may take months, if not years, to materialize.

Until then, the company remains in damage control mode, juggling courtroom battles with the everyday demands of delivering mission-critical voice solutions to a global enterprise customer base.

The lawsuit claims that having been deployed by the US National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH) to handle customer communications, Genesys used its CCaaS platform to intentionally record and analyze these communications without obtaining customer consent.

The suit states that the NDVH “purports to offer confidential support” to individuals affected by domestic violence via online chat, phone, and text messaging.

It continues by noting that people who contacted the Hotline were under the impression that they were communicating directly with a member of staff from the NDVH but were instead speaking to an undisclosed third party (Genesys) before being passed onto an NDVH representative.

The complaint argues that prior to being connected to the NDVH, Genesys had access to private and sensitive customer information, including name, age, gender, location, race, and reason for calling the Hotline.

Not only does the suit claim this information was stored and recorded without obtaining the customer’s permission, but it suggests that Genesys is directly benefiting from this data by using it to inform and improve its systems.

“Genesys does not simply enable customer interactions with third-party website owners – it mines them for information that it uses to improve its own services,” the lawsuit states.

This process of incorporating individuals’ information into its own systems, known as ‘machine-learning,’ gives Genesys a unique competitive edge, enabling it to gather business intelligence, improve its products, and provide enhanced services to its customers.

CX Today has reached out to Genesys for a comment but has not yet received a response.

The Plaintiffs, Allegations, and Damages

The complaint is being brought forward by three California-based plaintiffs who contacted the NVDH between 2021 and 2024.

While each plaintiff’s experience is slightly different, all three of the callers claim that they passed on personal details to Genesys without their knowledge or consent.

In doing so, the suit argues that Genesys has broken both Federal and California law.

The former refers to the Federal Wiretap Act, which bans the intentional interception or sharing of wire, oral, or electronic communications without consent.

While the latter concerns the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA). Although CIPA is very similar to the Federal Wiretap Act, it provides additional protection in the form of a “private right of action” against those who unlawfully intercept communications.

In response to this, the plaintiffs are seeking damages of $10,000 or $100 per day for each violation of CIPA.

From both a legal perspective – and a customer service/experience perspective – it is the allegations of a lack of customer consent that are most pertinent.

The recording and analyzing of customer communications is common practice for most customer service departments and contact centers, but under US and California law, organizations must obtain consent before doing so.

The suit specifically outlines Genesys’ CX Cloud CCaaS solution throughout the document, making a point of highlighting how the platform’s wide suite of features was deployed across various channels of communication for the NDVH.

The suit provides examples from the Hotline’s chat, phone, and text services. It claims that these detail how, in each instance, Genesys failed to disclose that it had access to customers’ information.

Moreover, plaintiffs also accuse Genesys of using customer information “for its own purposes.”

The document asserts that Genesys acknowledges that when recording is enabled, it collects and stores user interactions with third parties.

In addition, the company’s Cloud Privacy Policy states that it may use this data for internal purposes such as statistical analysis, benchmarking, research, and service improvements.

The suit also references a previous version of its privacy policy, which it believes further confirms that Genesys may use customer data for market research, marketing enhancement, and to improve its website, services, and products.

In the opinion of the plaintiffs, this “self-admitted ability to use data collected from individuals to improve its own products, designs, and services distinguishes it from a run-of-the-mill phone service provider.

Put simply, Genesys is not merely facilitating interactions between users and the Hotline – it is also capable of mining data from these interactions for its own purposes to maintain its competitive edge.

Vendors in the Crosshairs

Interestingly, this lawsuit shares similarities with a complaint filed against Patagonia last year.

The suit – which was subsequently thrown out by a California judge – accused Patagonia’s CCaaS solutions provider, Talkdesk, of recording and analyzing customer communications without consent.

While the suits are alike in many ways, interestingly, it was Patagonia – not Talkdesk – that was accused in the 2024 suit.

This time around, the plaintiffs have chosen to specifically target the customer service vendor rather than the organization.

Given the nature of the services that the NDVH provides, the plaintiffs and their representatives may not have wished to bring the case against a charity.

With that being said, the suit is still a firm reminder and warning to any customer service or experience tech provider handling sensitive customer data to ensure that they are complying with all necessary laws and regulations.

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The move will impact Avaya Experience Platform (AXP) Public customers.

Customers with fewer seats may cancel their subscription without charge by providing a written notice to Avaya before June 30.

Alternatively, they can modify their subscription to meet the 200-seat threshold.

All AXP Public subscription bundles will be affected, including the “Digital Only”, “Voice Only”, and “All Media” offerings.

Customers that use these in combination must ensure that – all together – their seat count meets that 200-seat minimum target.

The news comes as part of an “AXP evolution update”, which Avaya sent to its customers on January 31, 2025. Critically, the update noted:

Avaya will also offer additional innovative cloud and on-premises solutions for seamless customer migration, with details available soon.

Lastly, the enterprise communications stalwart stressed how customers that meet or exceed the 200-seat target will not need to take any action.

Avaya Renames the Avaya Experience Platform (AXP) Public

Alongside the minimum seat count, Avaya is renaming the Avaya Experience Platform (AXP) Public, which will now go by the name: Avaya Experience Platform (AXP).

Additionally, the company has renamed the bundles referenced above “Essentials Digital”, “Essentials Voice”, and “Advanced”, respectively.

All these changes come as Avaya restructures its business around its large enterprise customers. Unfortunately, that has resulted in substantial global layoffs.

Alongside the restructuring, Avaya is also cutting back on its portfolio, with several notable discontinuations.

Avaya to Discontinue Its SIP Trunking and Communications APIs (CPaaS)

The AXP evolution update included a reminder that Avaya will shutter its SIP Trunking and Communications APIs (CPaaS) cloud services.

As of February 3, 2025, businesses can no longer purchase either. Meanwhile, both services will discontinue on April 28, 2025.

Avaya first warned customers of the move in December via a post on its support portal.

In an “End of Sale” notice for its SIP trunking services, the company added the following statement:

Moving forward, Avaya will prioritize a carrier-oriented architecture, emphasizing “Bring Your Own Carrier” (BYOC) models. This strategy will enable us to collaborate with standardized carriers across all required regions, with a particular focus on SIP aggregators and service expansions.

As for migrations, Avaya encourages AXP public cloud customers to leverage certified BYOC-Standard options, touting the likes of BT, Maintel, and Sabio – among others.

Meanwhile, it recommends Avaya One Cloud Private (OCP) customers choose their preferred carrier, integrate, and move to the AXP Private cloud.

Finally, across both services, Avaya promises to honor “enhanced warranty, post-warranty, and service contracts” per the terms of the agreement.

More Avaya Product Depreciation News

Effective June 30, 2025, Avaya will stop delivering and supporting AXP service bundles with Avaya Voice Recording (AVR).

Moreover, AXP Voice Only and All Media bundles that feature AVR will not be available for new or renewal purchases from March 3, 2025.

Finally, Avaya will remove its third-party messaging integration with X (previously Twitter) from its AXP Social Media Direct Channels feature as of March 1, 2025.

For more details and required actions, Avaya customers may reference the following legal notice.

Kandoo Car Credit is a car finance broker based in Salford, UK, acting as a complete end-to-end solution for customers seeking car finance. Working exclusively with FCA-approved dealers across the UK who meet strict quality criteria, it is essential that Kandoo ensures a seamless, hassle-free experience for their customers.

Having operated for nearly five years, Kandoo was facing several operational challenges with their previous contact center system:

• Manual dialling was significantly limiting their outbound call capacity
• A single phone line meant all incoming calls were routed to any available agent regardless of department, which led to frequent internal transfers and a poor customer experience
• The lack of a proper queuing system meant customers had no indication of wait times, leading to high abandon rates
• The system’s limited reporting capabilities required staff to email or call their supplier to request basic reports, and retrieving call recordings could take up to four hours – a significant issue when handling customer complaints or queries
• Without real-time visibility of staff activity and performance, managing team efficiency was challenging

Kandoo partnered with contact center software provider MaxContact to address these challenges, while working alongside their existing CRM system. The MaxContact system introduced:

• Automated dialling system to replace manual processes
• An IVR system with queue position announcements and estimated wait times
• Instant access to call recordings
• Real-time performance dashboards
• Advanced coaching and call monitoring features
• Call-back options for customers in queues

These operational improvements have supported an accelerated period of growth for Kandoo. From a small team initially, Kandoo has expanded to over 20 sales staff and established new specialised departments including payments, lead generation, and documentation teams. This rapid expansion has seen them scale their MaxContact licenses by 146% to support their growing workforce. The company has ambitions to double in size and move to larger offices.

James Walsh, Head of Technology and Communications at Kandoo, reflected on the partnership, highlighting the value of improved automation:

“When we first partnered with MaxContact, we were small, we’ve now grown to a sales team of 20+ and expanded other departments too. If we had stayed with our previous supplier, we’d never have grown this fast because everyone was dialling manually. We wouldn’t have had any reports, we wouldn’t know where people were, we couldn’t monitor breaks – nothing. With MaxContact, we can see the whole company and performance more clearly.”

The MaxContact implementation has delivered measurable results including an increase in the lead generation team’s capacity to over 2,000 calls per day, a jump in daily transfer rates from 45-60 to 100-120, reduced abandonment statistics, enhanced efficiency, and improved staff accountability with activity tracking.

The improvements were seamless, too. Kandoo enjoyed dedicated support from MaxContact and this continues to support their relationship – with quick response times and direct access to their account manager for urgent matters.

The partnership between Kandoo and MaxContact has provided the car broker with scalable infrastructure to support their ambitious growth plans.

To find out more about MaxContact, head to their website.

After all, a slick and frictionless voice interaction is what all customers crave.

However, there’s a kicker: security is rightly paramount, and caller authentication is vital in order to not only pull up customer data fast, but also to safeguard data protection.

Asking callers to provide unique information – either via voice or Dual Tone Multi Frequency (DTMF) technology – has always been an effective, if clunky, approach. However, there’s a smoother, more modern alternative: voice authentication – recognizing who a caller is based upon their biometrically unique pattern of speech.

For businesses and their contact center, the resulting enhancement in the customer experience means return on investment is assured.

“What’s your account number? What’s your address? What’s your date of birth? They are all unique identifiers, but automating the caller verification process can make authentication so much easier for the customer and the agent,” says Dennis Menard, Application Design Specialist at global enterprise-class provider ComputerTalk, whose ice Contact Center platform has voice recognition capability baked-in.

“If a customer calls back and has to provide the exact same information all over again, it can be frustrating and wastes time. Using their voice as an identifier means the amount of extra identification steps can be reduced significantly.

Simplifying things like that whilst simultaneously improving data security is definitely the way to go.”

Smart AI technology captures the customer’s voice, extracts data points such as pitch, tone, cadence , and other biometric features, and produces a so-called ‘voice print’ which, similar to a fingerprint, is unique to that individual.

“Callers no longer have to answer multiple different questions before they even get started with their request,” says Menard.

“Now they can be asked just one. Once the system verifies the customer’s voice, it automatically retrieves their account, profile, and all their previous communication history. It also removes the frustration many people feel when they are asked to use their telephone keypad to enter verification numbers such as their account number or date of birth. We’re removing some of the routine stuff that agents do; like asking callers the same five questions everytime.

“Automating authentication in this way means agents can spend more quality time with the customer; resulting in all-round richer interaction, while shortening the average handle time.”

Of course, once authenticated via their voice, customers can then be exposed to all kinds of other time-saving and smart self-service automation via Interactive Voice Response (IVR) capability. Also, voice-authenticated communication can be used to trigger customized direct marketing initiatives with the potential to drive increased sales.

“It’s all about enabling businesses to get closer to their customers in ways which leverage the most innovative and impactful technologies possible,” says Menard.

“And it’s also about customers feeling connected to the businesses with which they interact. Being recognized by their voice whenever they call enhances the personal nature of the relationship whilst simultaneously saving them time. Those are benefits which can positively impact the CX score.”

• To learn more about how ComputerTalk can help your business leverage voice authentication, visit the website.