Best-in-class customer experience never goes unnoticed— and these NICE customers are leading the way.
NICE recently announced its annual CX Excellence Award winners, who are not only doing CX right but doing it with innovation to deliver massive business results.
A total of 20 organizations received awards in six categories at Interactions 2023 in New York City, and International Interactions in London for their work in moving forward next-gen CX. These leading achievers in global excellence earned recognition for implementing groundbreaking digital, artificial intelligence and cloud technologies, powered by Enlighten, the trusted AI for business, and NICE’s cloud-native CXone platform.
“Brands today are faced with an ever-growing list of unique CX challenges amidst rapid digitization and AI adoption,” NICE CEO Barak Eilam said in announcing the awards. “These winners have responded to new consumer demands, adopting digital, AI and cloud capabilities to drive extraordinary experiences for their employees, customers and overall brand. Congratulations to all the winners for this well-deserved honor.”
Digital/AI Innovation
Adoption of AI for business including digital capabilities and conversational AI to respond to the needs of the brand, employee and consumer.
Holiday Inn Club Vacations – Holiday Inn Club Vacations, a resort, real estate, travel and timeshare subset of the Holiday Inn franchise, leveraged NICE CXone customized with out-of-the-box features to help agents anticipate any scenario.
The new tool allows agents to mockup any scenario with targeted customer data from the database. Managers and agents can choose the optimal times that work for them to test. A three-to-six-week concept to production process is now reduced to a single day with empowered agents able to test at will. For an added benefit, the quality of life at work has improved since the new CXone tool eliminates the need for large conference calls to work through issues.
MoneyGram – MoneyGram, a money transfer firm with both digital platforms and retail locations, upgraded its digital CX with CXone to offer customers important messaging at key moments during their interactions.
“CXone Guide allowed us to provide helpful, contextual messaging at critical points in our transactional flow to guide customers and ensure ease of use to maintain high customer satisfaction,” said Cyndi Daman, global web manager, MoneyGram.
Leadership challenged teams to increase enrollment in a loyalty program to improve customer retention and drive more revenue. MoneyGram also experienced benefits in driving promotional digital messages to help increase transactions at critical points in the customer journey.
Proofpoint, Inc. – Proofpoint, Inc., a leading cybersecurity and compliance company, added the capability to funnel real-time data and analytics for supreme business results using CXone Expert.
“We are driving people back into our knowledge resources, and they are paying off in spades. CXone Expert is easy to use and easy to implement,” said David Szoke, senior manager of technical support, Proofpoint. “It has enabled us to keep our staff and our headcount low, so we can improve our overhead numbers, margins, and profitability while increasing the satisfaction of our partners and customers.”
The availability of real-time data and analytics allow Proofpoint to make data-driven decisions and improve compliance. Proofpoint automated processes with AI and machine learning to reduce technology infrastructure costs and improve employee productivity.
Chubb Asia Pacific – Chubb, the world’s largest publicly traded property and casualty insurer in Singapore, transformed its customer service channels with digital front door engagement.
With CXone’s digital engagement, Chubb deflected as much as 25% of call volume to digital, where overall customer satisfaction (CSAT) was higher compared to voice.
As a result, Chubb in Singapore built strong client relationships by delivering responsive service, developing innovative products and providing market leadership built on financial strength, with a modern digital front door engagement approach to deliver superior customer experience and optimize operating costs.
Change Agents
Remarkably rapid adoption and implementation of digital CX best practices such as AI-powered analytics, efficient roll-out and employee empowerment.
Open Network Exchange (ONE) – Open Network Exchange (ONE), a full-service solution provider, used CXone capabilities to make it possible for its stakeholders to access at-a-glance core contact center data and analytics.
Improved access to individual and big-picture insights and outcomes helped align stakeholders around central business goals. ONE saw the majority of improvement in average speed of answer within one week of implementing CXone as well as a drop in the call abandonment rate. Faster resolution coupled with fewer abandonments led to decreased AHT and call volume to help reduce the need to hire more agents.
“We learned things from the fast rollout, which put a lot of accountability into the hands of the front line. We believe that empowering the front lines really helped with change management and helped us move as fast as we did,” said Ryan Romero, senior vice president of global contact centers and technology, Open Network Exchange.
Eficasia – Eficasia, an omnichannel business process outsourcing specialist focused on cost efficiency and KPI compliance for clients in Latin America, found instant compliance with a high-prestige, high-expectation client using NICE Interaction Analytics.
Looking to make efficiencies, Eficasia transformed its manual quality analytics process with NICE Interaction Analytics to automate all quality analytics to achieve compliance without the need for dozens of additional employees.
Onboarding the new technology was fast and seamless, with Eficasia becoming fully live in just one month.
DHU Healthcare – DHU Healthcare, a not-for-profit, community interest company providing healthcare services for more than 7 million people in the UK, used NICE solutions to increase the pace of scheduling training and meetings by 98% and reduce agency staff payment discrepancies by 70%.
DHU’s service suffered from a lack of visibility over agent availability and scheduling with shift patterns and availability often updated sporadically, making it near impossible to plan, forecast and deploy. NICE helped drive its WFM transformation to provide expert guidance, so now its leadership teams can forecast and plan with confidence and ease.
For example, the process of scheduling a training session for 800 advisors takes just 5 minutes, a significant upgrade since it previously would take weeks. Managers also have greater flexibility in assigning permissions different users have, reducing the number of process inconsistencies and human errors.
Outstanding Cloud Implementation
Celebrating the flawless deployment of CXone’s scalable, cloud-native CX platform leading to exceptional omnichannel, digital CX
Marriott International – Marriott International, a travel company with an international portfolio of more than 8,400 hotels, tapped the power of CXone to add enterprise-level insights to ramp up performance management and upgrade to the cloud.
Just weeks into implementation, Marriott made progress on a backlog of more than 80 improvements. Through training and communications campaigns, as well as on-demand CXone “white glove” service with one-on-one training, Marriott experienced an effortless transition with quick business results.
“We’ve heard from agents all the way up to senior vice presidents that this was the best transition to a new technology product they’ve ever seen at Marriott,” said Kristina
Heidesch, director of CEC systems, product services, Marriott International. “Statements like those don’t happen without a good partner like NICE.”
UnitedHealth Group – UnitedHealth Group (UHG), a health care and well-being company, saw an immediate need to move to the cloud to scale operations quickly.
Its information and tech health services arm, Optum, planned a rollout of its membership and payment card and envisioned the potential for over 1 million calls at the end of 2022, creating a perfect storm since many agents typically took time off.
Optum had just four months to spin up new contact operations to support the new card rollout, so CXone was deployed to meet a surge in customer demand.
“In three months with CXone we spun up almost 13,000 people taking millions of calls, hooked everything into our existing IVR, handled all of the opt-outs, and ramped up all of the agents everywhere, seamlessly,” said Jeremy Dekam, director of software engineering - omnichannel shared services, Optum. “Which in my career I’ve never seen happen, not this fast.”
Hastings Direct – Hastings Direct (part of the Hastings Group), an insurance product and service provider, implemented cloud-based unified communications to launch a new era in digital customer experience.
Hastings used NICE CXone to replace eight disparate on-premise systems with unified solutions for voice, chat and email on a single platform to modernize its CX strategy for a smoother experience for all stakeholders.
For example, offering a single sign-on (SSO) enhanced the employee experience by avoiding credential recycling/clashing and promoting access to a knowledge management resource. Supervisors also acquired expanded access to curated call listening, and call participation tools for improved interaction reviews and better caller experience.
GXS Bank – GXS Bank, a greenfield digital bank focused on Singapore’s everyday consumers and small businesses, wanted the most advanced, modern and secure platform for its customer experience center and turned to CXone.
To meet consumer demand for faster speed to service across the channels and channel of choice, the firm onboarded CXone Expert to ensure customers get information and answers about GXS services and support whenever they need it via an app. On the agent side, they can now provide expert assistance with heightened efficiency and accuracy whether it’s resolving queries or addressing customer issues.
GXS's SEO performance has consistently improved each month for better overall visibility and ranking on search engines, including Google, as a direct result of CXone Expert’s impact.
“The exceptional camaraderie between NICE and GXS Bank has greatly contributed to a truly fulfilling project implementation journey,” said Juhao Jeremy Leo, project manager, GXS Bank.
Outstanding Customer Experience
Recognizing the steps taken to deliver a new digital CX standard.
Charles Schwab & Co. – Charles Schwab & Co., a financial firm offering a full range of securities brokerage, banking, money management and advisory services, needed an experienced technology partner to bring its CX capabilities up to speed.
CXone helped the firm meet the needs of today’s financial services customers by replacing 40 applications across 10 vendors, and delivering net new capabilities for without significant in-house technology work while adding a powerful layer of security of analytics.
CXone’s cloud architecture expedited time to market with the ability to make incremental enhancements without outside consulting. Agents benefit from multi-channel scheduling, flexible schedules, automatic HR data integration, and single sign-on (SSO) convenience. Supervisors have streamlined access to call and screen recordings, improved monitoring and coaching options and real-time insights. Leadership can refine call routing, extract greater intent-based insights and more accurate speech analytics, and access a wide variety of intuitive dashboards.
Banco do Brasil – Banco do Brasil, the oldest and second largest bank in Brazil, made an impactful switch to an automated workflow using NICE solutions to move from conflict resolution to conflict prevention.
In fact, it improved its complaint resolution rates by 40% and achieved a 90% resolution success rate with the highest risk cases. In 2022, it was able to resolve 823 cases internally that previously would have entered regulatory purview.
“This refinement and curation process with additional queries is a work in progress and always evolving, however based on our initial success, we have high hopes for generating continued value with NICE Interaction Analytics,” said Edgardo Ladeira, general manager of customer service at Banco do Brasil.
LanguageLoop – LanguageLoop, a leading language service provider, required customer service automation that transcended language barriers—and CXone checked all the boxes.
“NICE CXone brings together all the individual pieces of the LanguageLoop contact center into a more connected solution that delivers greater efficiencies for the business,” said George Bisas, chief executive officer, LanguageLoop. “With the support of seamless IVR workflows, CXone empowers LanguageLoop to transcend language barriers and better support its customers in times of great need.”
Customers can call in and use their LanguageLoop identification number to connect with translation and interpretation services in over 190 languages. LanguageLoop gained the CX power to more efficiently process bookings for translating and interpreting services as well as finetune interactive voice response (IVR) services for its customers to quickly connect them with interpreters.
In addition, LanguageLoop easily redistributed talent into other valuable areas of operation to streamline operations.
Outstanding Employee Engagement
Applauding significant advances in workforce engagement management and motivation strategies, empowering brands to do more with less.
County of San Diego – The County of San Diego’s Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) needed to remove a major barrier to better service: an outdated legacy system.
Engaging CXone’s technology helped its workforce do more to help the people the agency serves by improving quality of life, housing and health equity, especially during COVID.
Adding gamification motivated agents to improve performance within individual lines and units, becoming a source of pride and camaraderie. Agents and supervisors could access data and dashboards to encourage large gains in customer satisfaction, average speed of answer, average handle time (AHT) and call volume. Ultimately, CXone helped the county agency reduce negative customer ratings by 93%, and decrease average speed of answer by 7:03.
“Call centers are already notorious for high worker burn out and attrition, but our community couldn’t afford that from us at the height of the pandemic,” said Yenissa Salgado, chief of self-sufficiency services, County of San Diego. “CXone gave us the insights to support and motivate our staff, even virtually, that simply wouldn’t have been possible a few months prior.”
TD Bank – TD Bank Group (TD), one of the world’s leading online financial services firms, harnessed NICE solutions to launch a more flexible scheduling process.
TD eliminated the intraday stress of ensuring that staffing matches customer demand by taking informed action and using real-time alerts, and unlocked the ability to offer voluntary time off (VTO), saving $3.6 million in less than one year.
With automated real-time notifications sent via email, managers could leap into action to address any issues in individual coaching sessions at any time. Automating real-time adherence freed up both capacity for command center employees and more than $100,000 in cost savings.
“This was such a turning point in shifting and becoming more fluid and flexible with our scheduling,” said Dan Ritson, senior manager workforce management, innovation, and integration, TD Bank.
EE – EE, a communications services company operating a mobile network covering 99% of the population of the United Kingdom, saw year-over-year gains with NICE’s comprehensive unified platform for workforce management and engagement.
NICE Workforce Management (WFM) delivers standardized, simplified architecture to create and support new policies and procedures, so EE could streamline three different WFM workflows and several union relationships into a single source for scheduling and work rules. In addition, NICE provided high-performance access to insights to substantially reduce overhead.
As a large and growing organization, EE leveraged NICE’s state-of-the-art technology for better scheduling of flex time, seasonal swap, flexible holiday and break/lunch self-scheduling for all agents. Employees can now find unconventional, short shift windows to cover needs during peak holidays, without creating an unnecessary burden for analysts.
Trailblazer of the Year
Showcases customers with exceptional success stories that have adopted cutting-edge solutions like NICE’s Enlighten solutions, and have proven to have the most effective use of AI or self-service.
City of Fort Worth, Texas – With the power of NICE’s technology, Fort Worth, the 12th-largest city in the United States and one of the five fastest-growing cities in the nation, saved 416 agent hours annually, reduced supervisory scheduling labor by 67% and recorded a 96% schedule adherence post-integration.
NICE led the integration between its WFM suite and the city payroll system to sync employee payroll and time-off information so employees would no longer need to log on separately to provide additional information.
True time-worked data enables leadership interventions to improve both adherence and forecast accuracy. Scheduling can now be done with precision, flexibility and accuracy, and agents can view all time-off opportunities to select from any approved time-off category (holiday, vacation, personal, etc.) inside the NICE interface.
Dominion National – Dominion National, a leading insurer and administrator of dental and vision benefits, recognized the immediate value of opening a new digital doorstep for customers.
With CXone, Dominion National reduced voice call volume by 10% since introducing chat and achieved faster outcomes for customers. Dominion already boosted year-over-year service level agreements (SLA), and the chat queue quickly exceeded its SLA goals so the company quickly added more simultaneous chat sessions. CXone’s technology also works to track and analyze valuable customer and agent sentiment.
“With chat agents typically handling two to three times more contacts than agents on the phone, we’re beginning to see reductions in cost-per-contact,” said Elbert Parker, workforce manager, Dominion National.
HGS – HGS, a digital customer experience leader using a multi-site hybrid model, found a perfect partner in NICE to meet the evolving demands of a changing workforce.
Moving from manual to digital for agent interactions has brought quick results. Today, HGS offers flexibility for coaching, improvement and scheduling for its work-from-home agents, including the ability to manage shifts from their smartphones.
With NICE, HGS saved monthly expenses and managers could access new information to personalize coaching opportunities through NICE Employee Engagement Manager’s (EEM) automation.
