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Articles by Eric Keller
Gartner Survey Finds Only 27% of Customers Would Try a Chatbot Again After a Negative Experience
Newsroom / Customer Service and Support / Q&A STAMFORD, Conn., September 2, 2026 Eric Keller Sr Director Analyst, Gartner Customers say they are open to using customer service chatbots, but only 27% of customers say they would be willing to try a chatbot again after a negative experience, according to a Gartner survey.
Despite the hype, AI is not replacing the customer service workforce
The hype says “agentless” service is imminent, but data shows most teams are still staffing up while trying to make artificial intelligence actually function in real wo rkflows. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Original Link https://www.hrdive.com/news/despite-the-hype-ai-is-not-replacing-the-customer-service-workforce/818534/ HR Dive
Avoiding Buyer's Regret in Customer Service Technology Purchases
Organizations are placing big bets on customer service technology, especially as products embed new artificial intelligence capabilities. However, a recent Gartner Business Buyer Survey reveals a sobering reality: 72 percent of customer service and support leaders experience buyers' regret after making such investments.
Taking a needed break
I could feel the cold air hitting my teeth. It stung with a punch and made me long for a warm day. The problem is that this is my favorite time of the year. It’s getting cold and soon we would be gathered around the pellet stove, enjoying family time, playing games and watching movies, comforted by the warmth of the fire and the chaos of family life. Inwardly, I was overwhelmed, recently undergoing many things including a last-ditch harvesting effort.
Enjoying the fruits of our labor
It seems like every day there is something to harvest. As soon as we pick the beans, wash them, snap them and can them, it’s time to repeat. Looking at our beans, it’s hard to imagine that it took three separate plantings to get here, and the bunnies are still eating their share. But now the plants are large enough to produce an abundance for us as well as them. I have to step over the cucumbers, which have grown at an alarming rate, to harvest some peppers.
Lessons learned from failure
The sweat was literally pouring out of my skin. I was in the shade, but I was drenched in sweat. I must have been doing something wrong, but I didn’t know what. My only formal training on taking off and putting on a tire on the rim came from a video online where an old man did it in his backyard without any special tools in just a few minutes. I bought special tools. I even bought a couple extra inner tubes.
Old books are wiser than new technology
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Having cake and eating it too
“Who ate from the center of my cake?” If you were sitting where I was, it hardly sounded like a question. In fact, it seemed more like an accusation. I looked around and couldn’t find anyone to blame. In fact, the little kids had just left to go to a soccer match. That left just me, a partially taste tested cake, and whatever excuse I could muster up. I’m not sure why she doesn’t make extra cakes during the holidays. But she absolutely refuses.
Not for the faint of heart
Homesteading requires a laundry list of skills. Unfortunately, I lack most of them, like using an angle grinder and keeping rodents out of my water softener. However, my biggest strength is my inability to give up on something… and that always pays off, at least most of the time. A while back, during a job interview, the manager asked me what my strengths and weaknesses were. I must have amused her some because I responded by asking if she wanted my wife’s list, or mine.
How to Remove Effort from 3 Phases of the Self-Service Journey
Almost any customer service interaction entails some degree of effort on the part of customers. They've identified a problem with their products or services and have to take action to resolve the issue. Gartner research finds that reducing that effort has a big impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Only 9 percent of customers who had low-effort service experiences were likely to change vendors or merchants, compared to 96 percent who had high-effort service interactions.
Beacon Audiobooks Releases “Memory Cards” By Author Michael K. Brantley
“Memory Cards” is a journey down a dusty rural road, but also back in time to where as late as the 1980s, neighbors still used mules for transportation and outhouses for other necessities. There is plenty to see, hear, and smell, from the oppressive heat and pungent smell of row upon row of tobacco to the mobile library that brought air conditioning and the aroma of paper, glue, and binding each week of the summer.
The Simonetta Lein Show SLTV Spotlight: The Lake Law Firm
As #TheSimonettaLeinShow closes its 5th Season, the show welcomes partner Michael Blom and Director of Vendor Relations & PR, Ian Watts of The Lake Law Firm. The Lake Law Firm was established by Edward Lake and is a firm founded on its belief that justice is for everyone. The Lake Law firm is dedicated to helping those who have been injured by a dangerous drug, medical device, or defective product.
The Weeknd Reveals First-Ever Concert Album “The Weeknd Live at Sofi Stadium”
03 MARCH 2023 (TORONTO, ON) – Today, The Weeknd presents his first-ever live album, Live At Sofi Stadium, via XO/Republic Records. Listen to The Weeknd Live At Sofi Stadium — HERE: http://theweeknd.co/AHLiveatSoFi The 31-track collection captures his sold-out landmark two-night stand at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles in November 2022 during his blockbuster After Hours Til Dawn Tour.
I CALL FIVES BRINGS ADVENTUROUS POP-PUNK WITH NEW EP, ‘NOT FOR EVERYONE’
Following the release of “Honest & Only,” pop-punk band I Call Fives just dropped a new EP titled Not For Everyone via Smartpunk Records. The New Jersey band is taking it back to their DIY roots while introducing a new level of excitement and adventure in their latest studio project.
Aimée Delivers Empowering Music Video!
Today sees the release of an empowering new music video from one of the most exciting female pop artists Ireland has produced in decades! Aimée tells us,“When deciding what to do for this music video, I took quite a different approach. Most of the time I can imagine the entire music video as soon as I’ve written the song.
Why Customer Service Will Be the Target of New Protests
Gartner predicts that by 2026, citizen-led denial-of-service (cDoS) attacks using virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa to shut down operations will become the fastest growing form of protest. This represents a new type of denial of service, led by average people not hackers. These attacks will grow due to the increasing popularity and power of virtual assistants and customers changing expectations around organizations' ethics.
Flawed Proactive Customer Service Can Do More Harm Than Good
Mar 24, 2022 Eric Keller Nearly two-thirds of customer service and support executives cite shifting from a reactive to proactive strategy as a top priority in 2022, and rightly so. A proactive approach to service reduces customer effort and promotes loyalty, according to Gartner's recent global survey of customer service preferences and behaviors.
AC Dems react to missing signs
To the Editor: For this election, there are some things which we know will happen. The Anderson County Democratic Party decided to display several large Biden/Harris signs in accordance with local laws to show our support for their ticket. As expected, Trump supporters took them away. We were not surprised since voter suppression and anti-democratic actions are a hallmark of the Trump administration. However, it must be noted stealing is illegal.
Building a Better Experience for Government’s Customers
By Eric Keller and Kathy Conrad The coronavirus pandemic has required nearly all organizations—from restaurants to schools to banks—to drastically rethink how they deliver services. It has been the same for government. The pandemic shuttered federal field offices, disrupted contact center operations, overwhelmed some online systems serving the public and moved many employees to full-time telework.
Cautious approach
17th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Cautious approach A cautious Adélie penguin peers over the edge of an ice flow while his companions wait to see the outcome. While exploring Paulet Island in Antarctica, these beautiful birds would come up to you, curious to figure out what kind of penguin you are. But when it came time to enter the water they all huddle on the edge, hesitant to be the first one in. Orcas and leopard seals may lie below the waters surface.
How Leaders Can Get Customer Experience Results in 2019
The administration took promising steps in 2018 to improve the experience of citizens and others receiving government services. In June, the Office of Management and Budget issued thorough guidance requiring agencies with the highest-impact public services to collect, analyze and report insights from their customers, prepare plans for improving the customer experience, and appoint an official responsible for progress.
The hazard of the health care common is communication
Both in and outside of health care certain buzz words and phrases become so ubiquitously used that a shared understanding is assumed despite conflicting perceptions of what these sentiments actually mean. Examples in health care include: shared decision making, quality of life, professionalism, patient-centered care, and evidence-based.
What personality type fits your medical specialty?
Both patients and providers realize that an internist is different from a surgeon, but specifically how they differ and how this affects their approaches to patient care is largely under-appreciated. Over the last four years, I have conducted over 250 interviews with physicians across specialties and institutions about what they do and why they do what they do.
The Making of the MMI (Multiple Mini Interview)
To view the full text, please login as a subscribed user or purchase a subscription. Click here to view the full text on ScienceDirect. Background: Using MMI scenarios can make the interview process more objective and can provide additional information about the applicant. To access this article, please choose from the options below Purchase access to this article Claim Access If you are a current subscriber with Society Membership or an Account Number, claim your access now.
Overcoming a Big Obstacle to Citizen Feedback
Timely, thorough customer feedback is critical to meeting citizens’ rising expectations for convenient and personalized government services. However, the Paperwork Reduction Act presents a major barrier. For example, it took the Office of the Inspector General at the Defense Department more than a year to get approval for a simple five-question survey asking for users’ opinions about its website. Congress is moving to ease restrictions that limit agencies’ ability to seek feedback from the public.
Government’s Customer Experience Comeback
With the release of the fiscal 2019 budget proposal on Feb. 12, the White House sent a strong signal that improving customer interactions with government will be a major management priority. The administration plans to release the president’s management agenda this month, with specifics on how it will ensure government is accountable to the public, according to the budget proposal.
How to Improve Government Customer Experience
The private sector sets a high bar for customer experience as companies continue to innovate and exceed expectations in many realms, leaving federal organizations in catch-up mode. According to Forrester’s 2017 Federal Customer Experience Index, 80 percent of federal agencies measured have overall scores that fall into the “mostly poor” or “very poor” categories, compared with 22 percent of private sector companies. Agencies are trying to up their game.
Want to Improve Government Customer Experience? Focus On Employee Morale
Federal efforts to improve agency interactions with citizens will fall short unless employees are fully invested in the process, understand the goals, have a say in how to make improvements and are rewarded for their work. Recent studies of the private sector have found that employee engagement goes hand in hand with the quality of customer experience they provide.
Five Ways to Reform Government With a Focus on the Customer
President Trump’s executive order on reorganizing government and guidance from the Office of Management and Budget require agencies to develop proposals to make government lean, accountable and efficient, and to improve customer experience.
Forum: Time for leaders to stop bickering, start finding solutions
Bringing together 2,000 people in northern Michigan is a statement.It’s a statement that people are ready for a better tomorrow and they are tired of waiting.Last month, a whole host of individuals, organizations, and businesses came together for an event that was more than just a march and more than just an opportunity to carry a sign with what they were angry about or wanted someone else to do for them.
What Government Can Learn from Business about Customer Experience
The White House recently launched a SWAT team to bring ideas from the business world to help make government more effective: the White House Office of American Innovation. One of its primary goals is to drive improvements that will benefit citizens as the customers of government, according to Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to the president, who will lead the office. Not all lessons from the private sector apply to government.
How the Next Administration Can Improve Customer Experience
Signature initiatives to improve government operations have been a hallmark of recent administrations. The Clinton administration’s National Partnership for Reinventing Government program sought, with some success, to streamline the federal bureaucracy and align programs more closely with citizen needs.
Solve our health care problems by conveying more love
Many recent articles, blogs, and presentations have focused on what American health care lacks and what additional skills health care professionals should adopt to “fix” our “broken” system. Third-party payers and health care organizations tend to promote the need for quality improvement and economic measures, while clinicians grapple with their transition to less-autonomous employees, noting increased job dissatisfaction and conflicts regarding administration and reimbursements.
Use Data, Not Assumptions, to Improve the Customer Experience
Agency leaders and the citizens they serve are not always on the same page. Most federal leaders assume they understand the needs and problems of those coming to them for assistance, whether it’s veterans, businesses, college students, senior citizens or others who rely on the government for help. But they do not always have data to justify those assumptions about their customers.
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