Customer Service
April 20, 2022 at 10:55 am
Artificial intelligence-powered chatbots may be extremely common in customer service, but do they make sense for sales? Consumers seem mixed on the idea, but overall, they seem to prefer bots for uncomplicated tasks. Salesforce, for example, found that 69 percent of consumers prefer to use chatbots for getting answers to simple questions. But when people…
April 12, 2022
In this Talkdesk Research report, we examine how retailers are responding to new pressures to continue elevating the customer experience, the challenges they face in their journeys, and how leaders are strategizing to deliver on these elevated experiences to generate profits through the contact center
March 24, 2022 at 3:20 pm
In this episode of Retail Right Now, Total Retail's Joe Keenan and Kristina Stidham discuss an article recently published by Total Retail titled “5 Steps to Make Sure Your Vendors Deliver a Seamless Shopping Experience,” authored by Tara Kelly, founder, president and CEO of SPLICE Software. Maintaining brand standards across vendor partners is essential to…
March 23, 2022 at 11:02 am
The interactive voice response (IVR) system has been with us for the better part of a century, with its origins dating back to the 1930s. Today’s IVRs do more than let consumers complete a range of routine tasks like checking product availability or store hours. Where brands have embraced conversational artificial intelligence (AI), they’ve found…
March 21, 2022 at 1:21 pm
Whether you sell online, from a physical store, or both, there are probably people communicating with your customers on your brand’s behalf who are not on your payroll. It could be a delivery partner, a warranty or call center, an app that provides automated shipping updates, or a partner that provides online chat services. Each…
March 7, 2022 at 11:56 am
The convenience of online shopping is indisputable — and it continues to give brick-and-mortar retail a run for its money. While 2021 saw a rise in brick-and-mortar retail as a result of lifted pandemic restrictions and vaccine availability, e-commerce sales still grew at nearly three times the rate of brick-and-mortar. But digital retail does not…
March 3, 2022 at 2:06 pm
The world of online shopping is here to stay. With retail and e-commerce so intricately connected, 2021 saw global e-commerce sales reach $4.2 trillion, and 2022 predictions are to surpass $5.5 trillion. This already growing trend to switch to online shopping was propelled forward when COVID-19 hit. This has brought about new challenges for the…
February 21, 2022 at 3:36 pm
In episode 337 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Natalie Hurst, director of customer success at Nuuly, a clothing subscription rental experience from the Anthropologie, Free People and Urban Outfitters family. Hurst discusses Nuuly's rental and resale services, her role in creating a seamless rental experience for the brand's shoppers, and the customer…
February 16, 2022 at 4:19 pm
The holidays are behind us. The November and December rush leaves most companies exhausted and in a turbulent cycle of catch-up after the hectic time from Black Friday through Christmas. Before you know it, spring will be here and planning for the 2022 holiday season will kick off. You might not have taken more than…
January 31, 2022 at 11:53 am
Off the heels of the busy holiday season, digital consumers are continuing to rewrite the rules of retail in 2022. To keep up with evolving demands, the industry will see the rise of a “digital workforce.” A digital workforce is powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and can work alongside retailers’ sales and service reps to…
