Recent Updates in Customer Experience: HMRC U-turn on Phone Lines, Verint’s Timeflex Bot, and Acquisitions by Twilio and Cisco

This week in the world of customer experience (CX) has been full of exciting developments and surprising U-turns. From HMRC reversing its decision to ditch phone lines to Verint’s release of a TimeFlex Bot that promises to revolutionize contact center scheduling, there has been no shortage of news to keep CX professionals on their toes.

One of the most talked-about stories of the week comes from Twilio, which has confirmed that it will be retaining its Segment business after an operational review. This decision comes after speculation that Twilio may sell off the underperforming Segment business, which currently contributes just seven percent of overall revenues. However, Twilio’s CEO, Khozema Shipchandler, has stated that the company will be keeping Segment and taking aggressive action to accelerate its path to profitability.

In another major acquisition update, Cisco has completed its acquisition of Splunk after receiving approval from the EU antitrust regulator. With this purchase, Cisco aims to build unparalleled visibility and insights into its portfolio, leveraging Splunk’s platform to power security and observability solutions.

Verint has also made waves this week with the release of its TimeFlex Bot, which promises to redefine the flexibility of contact center agent scheduling. By automatically calculating the impact of shift changes on forecasted demand and performance, the bot gives agents a new level of autonomy while ensuring that schedule changes benefit contact center service levels.

And finally, HMRC has backtracked on its decision to close a key customer helpline for six months of the year after facing widespread criticism. The organization’s Chief Executive, Jim Harra, stated that they are halting the helpline changes in response to feedback, recognizing the need to ensure all taxpayers’ needs are met.

Overall, this week in CX has been full of twists and turns, with companies making strategic decisions and responding to customer feedback. It will be interesting to see how these developments shape the future of customer experience in the coming weeks and months.