I’m lucky enough to live in a warm part of the country. Thanks to a certain mouse, it’s a convention and meeting mecca. This time of year is especially popular for companies in the Midwest who are in the midst of a never-ending winter. A …

Travel
Fake Restaurant Rated London’s Best—A Social Media Cautionary Tale
Savvy business leaders understand that in a digital age driven by customer experience, the contact center is the engine of success today. They also understand that the contact center’s responsibility has shifted from a relatively one-dimensional relationship with customers to an infinitely more complex omni-channel …
Summer Travel Underscores Need for Airlines to Overhaul Customer Service
When it comes to customer service departments, few industries underwhelm on an annual basis quite like the airline industry. This isn’t just about leg room, and it isn’t even about being forcibly dragged off a plane. In fact, despite several recent PR missteps, the airline …
Customer Engagement Center Series: Service Intelligence
Let’s recap what we’ve covered thus far in our customer engagement center series…
We’ve defined the value and need for a customer engagement center and we’ve discussed the following capabilities: self-service, omni-channel customer experience, and proactive outreach. Today, we are continuing with service intelligence.
Simply connecting a …
How Hotels Can Distinguish Themselves through Mobile Self-Service Solutions – A Day in the Life from the Vegas Strip
Mobile phones have become the ultimate travel companion for consumers as they express a growing preference and need to engage with hotels through channels such as SMS, web chat and chatbots that support these devices. This has opened up a whole new world of consumer …
Infographic: 5 Ways Mobile is “Taking Off” for Travel and Hospitality
Travelers want to engage with businesses through their mobile devices, and hospitality vendors need to offer more than just mobile booking. Digital channels such as SMS customer service, web chat, and Messenger offer new ways for hoteliers to engage with travelers throughout their entire trip—from …
Customer Service Solutions Keep Hospitality in the Penthouse Suite
To understand the disruptive threat that alternative lodging companies pose to the hotel industry, look no further than research released earlier this year by Cowen and Company providing a glimpse into the success of Airbnb. The report indicated that Airbnb’s global bookings are anticipated to …
Learning about Learning and the Natural vs. Artificial Intelligence Debate
Last month, the Radisson Blu Edwardian hotel chain in London launched Edward, a new chatbot in the messaging channel that provides guests at the chain with a virtual host who can handle routine questions and route requests for services to appropriate staff departments while freeing …
How we deployed Edward the SMS chatbot on Amazon Echo in 30 Minutes
A few weeks ago, I introduced you to Edward. Weeks later, we are still being approached from analysts, customers, partners, other vendors, who all want to hear more about this exciting project. It is still very early, but seeing the first guests interact with it …
How we Built Edward, an Artificially Intelligent, SMS Virtual Host for Radisson Blu Edwardian
In late 2015, our Chief Customer Officer, Joe Gagnon, and I, met with the IT Director, and the COO of Radisson Blu Edwardian in London. A long-term customer of Aspect’s, we were there to share what we have been so diligently working on over the …