Constellation ShortList™ Digital Customer Service and Support

Digital customer service and support solutions provide a common platform for an organization to deliver help and support across a broad range of digital engagement channels from social to chat, email, and messaging. Leading platforms and product suites centralize help desk operations by aggregating customer inquiries and requests into a single, easy to use workspace where agents may manage multiple streams of engagement in a simple space. These solutions also empower organizations to offer more self-service options ranging from branded knowledge centers to AI-powered chatbots for automated responses to common issues or frequently asked questions.

AI is further explored in this growing category to better personalize responses and content delivered to aid customers while also aiding agents with recommendations, guided decisioning, intelligent routing, and ticket prioritization. Conversational AI will continue to evolve and reshape the engagements made possible in this segment.

This category of Digital Customer Service and Support encompasses the tools and requirements of help desk software, evolved into a more comprehensive automated support operations system capable of engaging with both agent and customer to deliver the best possible outcome for lasting, durable, and profitable customer relationships.

Threshold Criteria

Constellation considers the following criteria for these solutions:

• Communication management across multiple digital channels including voice, SMS, messaging, and email 
• Ticketing including ticket support for agents, ticket assigning, and smart ticket routing 
• Self-service support help and content delivery 
• Aligned and integrated engagements, inquiries, and communications with customers to create a comprehensive view of a support or help experience 
• Prioritized actions and next steps for agents 
• Automated actions and response triggered by customer events, sentiment, or behavior 
• AI-powered engagements including chatbots, predictive support, and content recommendations 
• AI-powered tools to aid and guide agents through best responses, ticket prioritization, and smart routing 
• Tools and recommendations to aid and support the agent experience 
• Collaboration tools to enable cross-functional teams to resolve issues, answer questions, or deliver value to customers 
• Activity capture into CRM (native tools or integrated/ connected solutions) 
• Organized response to inquiries and requests across key communications channels 
• Analytics and reporting into customer engagement and agent interactions across channels 
• Workflows to automate engagements, follow-ups, and issue closures 
• Leading solutions including AI/ML functionality around data analysis, talk-to-text transcription, automated actions based on conversational analytics, and advanced customer intelligence and insights
• Integrations across core experience delivery solutions including CRM, contact center communications, and operational systems
• GenerativeAI and AI powered copilots for agents, including recommendations and automated content generation to personalize responses to customers