Revolutionizing Customer Service with AI

Are you ready to witness the game-changer in customer service? Let's delve into the extraordinary world of AI and discover how it's rewriting the rules, one satisfied customer at a time. And it's true, we can do more with AI...

How it Became Different

Gone are the days of tedious, repetitive tasks bogging down your customer support team. With the advent of AI in customer service, everything has taken a quantum leap forward. No more long wait times or frustrating interactions. AI has injected efficiency and effectiveness into every facet of customer support.

Imagine a world where your customers' queries are answered promptly and accurately, 24/7, without any human intervention. That's the power of AI at work. It's not just different; it's revolutionary.

Why We Should Use AI

Let's cut to the chase – AI is the future of customer service, and here's why: 

Efficiency: AI-powered systems can handle a multitude of tasks simultaneously, drastically reducing response times and increasing productivity.Say goodbye to human errors. AI algorithms are designed to analyze data with pinpoint accuracy, ensuring every customer receives the right solution every time.

Scalability: Whether you're dealing with ten customers or ten thousand, AI effortlessly scales to meet demand without compromising quality. Simply put, embracing AI isn't just a choice; it's a strategic imperative for any business serious about delivering exceptional customer experiences.

What Can it Give Us in Service

Oh, where do we even begin? AI doesn't just give us solutions; it opens doors to a whole new realm of possibilities in customer service:

Personalization: By analyzing vast amounts of customer data, AI can tailor interactions to each individual's preferences, making every engagement feel personalized and meaningful.

Predictive Insights: Want to anticipate your customers' needs before they even realize them? AI can analyze patterns and behaviors to provide actionable insights, allowing you to stay one step ahead at all times.

24/7 Availability: With AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants, your customers can get assistance whenever they need it, day or night, without having to wait for human support. But wait, there's more! AI doesn't just give us solutions; it empowers us to redefine the entire customer service landscape, setting new standards of excellence along the way.

In conclusion, AI in customer service isn't just a buzzword; it's a seismic shift that's reshaping the way businesses interact with their customers. So, why settle for mediocrity when you can embrace innovation? Let AI be your secret weapon in delivering unparalleled customer satisfaction.

Furthermore, as technology continues to advance and AI algorithms become even more sophisticated, the potential for enhancing customer service is limitless. By staying at the forefront of AI integration, businesses can future-proof their operations and stay ahead of the competition in an ever-evolving marketplace.

So, what are you waiting for? Embrace the AI revolution in customer service today and pave the way for a brighter, more efficient future for your business and your customers alike.

 

Empowering Customer Service Teams: Strategies for Success

Empowering your customer service team is more than just a buzzword; it's a strategic imperative. Start by instilling a culture of trust and autonomy. Encourage team members to take ownership of their roles and decisions, empowering them to resolve issues creatively and efficiently.

Investing in Training and Development

Investing in continuous training and development is key to equipping your team with the skills and knowledge needed to excel. Provide ongoing coaching, workshops, and access to resources that foster professional growth. A well-trained team not only delivers superior service but also feels valued and motivated.

Utilizing Technology Wisely

Leverage technology to streamline processes and enhance the customer experience, but don't rely on it at the expense of human connection. Implement tools like CRM systems and chatbots to improve efficiency, but ensure that there's always a human touch available when needed. Balancing automation with personalized service is crucial in today's digital landscape.

Prioritizing Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is a cornerstone of effective customer service. Encourage empathy, active listening, and emotional resilience among team members. Equip them with the skills to understand and respond to customers' needs with compassion and understanding, even in challenging situations.

Celebrating Success and Feedback Loops

Recognize and celebrate successes, both big and small, to foster a positive and supportive work environment. Additionally, establish feedback loops that encourage open communication and continuous improvement. Solicit feedback from both customers and team members to identify areas for growth and celebrate achievements together.

Empowering your customer service team is not just about improving metrics; it's about creating a culture where team members feel valued, motivated, and equipped to deliver exceptional experiences. By fostering empowerment, investing in development, leveraging technology wisely, prioritizing emotional intelligence, and fostering a culture of feedback and celebration, you can set your team up for success in delivering outstanding customer service.

Unlocking the Potential of AI: Revolutionizing Customer Experience

In today's ever-evolving landscape, the AI revolution stands as the cornerstone of technological advancement, reshaping how we interact with the world around us. Its transformative power not only drives innovation, but also fundamentally alters the way businesses approach customer engagement and service delivery.

Personalization Redefined: Enhancing Customer Experiences

Imagine embarking on a seamless customer journey, where every interaction is finely tuned to your preferences and needs. This is the promise AI holds, offering businesses invaluable insights into consumer behavior and preferences.

Empowering Customer Service: AI-driven Solutions

Beyond mere personalization, AI empowers businesses to anticipate and resolve customer issues proactively. Through intelligent chatbots and virtual assistants, customer service becomes not just efficient, but also empathetic. These AI-driven agents learn from each interaction, continuously refining their responses to deliver a more human-like experience.

Navigating the Customer Journey with AI Insights

Moreover, AI doesn't just stop at reactive problem-solving; it actively shapes the customer journey. Through predictive analytics, companies can foresee potential bottlenecks and pivot strategies accordingly, ensuring a smoother passage from prospect to loyal advocate.

Augmenting Human Potential: AI as a Collaborative Force

However, the true magic of AI lies not just in its capabilities, but in its potential to augment human ingenuity. By automating repetitive tasks, it frees up valuable human resources to focus on creativity and innovation, fostering a workplace culture driven by collaboration and growth.

In essence, AI isn't merely a tool; it's a catalyst for transformation, reshaping the way we perceive and engage with technology. As we continue to embrace its potential, the possibilities for enhancing CX and refining the customer journey are boundless, ushering in an era where human and machine collaborate harmoniously to redefine what's possible.

The Era of Transformative Customer Service

In today's rapidly evolving world, the customer experience (CX) has emerged as a critical differentiator for businesses across industries. Customers now demand seamless interactions, personalized service, and swift issue resolution. 

To meet these heightened expectations, organizations must harness the power of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Social Customer Service - two essential components of a comprehensive customer service strategy.

Leveraging CRM tools

CRM systems serve as a centralized hub for managing customer interactions, capturing and analyzing data, and streamlining communication channels. By leveraging CRM tools, businesses gain a holistic view of their customers, enabling them to anticipate needs, personalize interactions, and deliver proactive support. CRM empowers organizations to track customer preferences, history, and feedback, opening avenues for targeted marketing campaigns, cross-selling opportunities, and tailored customer experiences.

In tandem with CRM, Social Customer Service has emerged as a vital pillar of modern customer service strategies. As social media platforms continue to proliferate, customers increasingly turn to these channels to express opinions, seek assistance, and engage with brands. By actively monitoring and participating in social conversations, businesses can demonstrate their commitment to customer satisfaction, promptly address concerns, and enhance brand reputation. Social Customer Service not only offers real-time customer support but also provides invaluable opportunities to engage with customers on a personal level and foster long-term relationships.

Integrating CRM and Social Customer Service allows organizations to bridge the divide between offline and online customer interactions. By leveraging CRM data within social media engagements, businesses can provide tailored, context-aware assistance to customers, leading to more meaningful and efficient resolutions. Moreover, this integration enables organizations to capture valuable insights from social media conversations and utilize them to refine their products, services, and overall customer experience.

By adopting a comprehensive customer service strategy that combines CRM and Social Customer Service, businesses can elevate customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy. Customers highly value seamless experiences, personalized interactions, and timely support, and organizations that prioritize these elements gain a competitive advantage in the market. Furthermore, delivering exceptional CX results in increased customer retention, higher customer lifetime value, and positive word-of-mouth referrals.

In conclusion, in this era where customer experience reigns supreme, businesses must harness the power of CRM and Social Customer Service to deliver superior service and cultivate lasting customer relationships. By leveraging CRM systems to capture customer data and insights, as well as actively engaging with customers through social media channels, organizations can provide personalized, timely support, proactively address concerns, and foster strong customer loyalty. Invest in effective customer service strategies today to unlock the true potential of CX and drive unprecedented business success.

 

Unlocking the Power of AI in Enhancing Customer Experience

Imagine a world where customer service goes beyond expectations, leaving an indelible mark on every individual. This extraordinary future is now a reality, thanks to the remarkable capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Say goodbye to mundane interactions and welcome an era of experiences where AI algorithms delve deep into customer insights, predict their needs, and deliver tailor-made solutions.

With tireless AI-driven chatbots working round-the-clock, envision instant resolutions, seamless engagements, and a league of supercharged agents equipped with real-time sentiment analysis, ready to swoop in and save the day! It's time to elevate your customer experience to new heights by embracing AI as your ultimate secret weapon for customer service success.

AI-powered CRM

Today, AI-powered CRM systems offer organizations advanced analytics and predictive modeling capabilities. Leveraging AI algorithms, businesses gain deeper insights into customer behavior, preferences, and buying patterns. These insights enable businesses to identify trends, forecast customer needs, and make data-driven decisions to enhance the overall customer experience. AI-powered CRM also facilitates automated and personalized communication, ensuring customers receive relevant information at the right time, further enriching their experience.

AI role in social customer service

AI plays a significant role in social customer service. AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants handle routine inquiries, providing instant responses and assisting customers 24/7. These intelligent bots utilize natural language processing (NLP) to understand and interpret customer queries, offering real-time resolutions or seamlessly escalating complex issues to human agents. By automating repetitive tasks, AI frees up human agents to focus on more complex and value-added interactions, ultimately amplifying customer satisfaction.

Furthermore, AI empowers businesses to proactively engage with customers on social media platforms. Through sentiment analysis, a pivotal AI capability, organizations can monitor real-time social media conversations, identifying customer sentiments, concerns, and trends. Understanding customer sentiments allows businesses to respond promptly and empathetically, resolving potential issues before they escalate. AI-driven social listening tools also provide valuable insights into customer feedback, enabling organizations to identify areas for improvement and deliver more personalized experiences.

AI-powered personalization emerges as a game-changer in customer experience. By analyzing vast amounts of customer data, AI algorithms generate personalized recommendations, offers, and content tailored to each individual customer's preferences. This level of personalization not only delights customers but also drives higher engagement, conversion rates, and customer loyalty.

In conclusion, by harnessing the power of AI, organizations unlock valuable customer insights, automate routine tasks, and provide seamless, personalized experiences that enhance customer satisfaction and foster loyalty. Embrace AI in your customer service strategies today to stay ahead in the ever-evolving, customer-centric landscape. Let AI be the catalyst for revolutionizing your approach to customer service and witness the extraordinary transformation it brings.

 

We are What We Eat, We are What We Serve Others

We've heard lots of such phrases in our life and they all seem to be true. When I first read “ we are what we tweet” a smile appeared on my face, but really, we share what we are interested in, we speak about things we are comfortable about, what makes us happy or disturbs us.

And the same refers to the service we deliver. If we are a great company, we serve our customers accordingly. In other words, we serve with all our heart and willingness to make our customers happy.

Well, today I’d like to dive deeper into customer service, mentioning one of the greatest experts in the field, Chip Bell, whose book I just finished reading.

Months ago I attended ICMI conference where I was presented one of his books. I adore attending conferences, there are so any advantages - starting from making good friends to interesting content and learning new things. As you know, some of the  conference speakers sign an ‘x’ number of books and present to attendees. This is another beloved part from conferences, as I always have long flights home and book reading helps greatly to spend the time on board wisely.

The book I am going to speak about is called “ Kaleidoscope”, based on the fundamental values driving  innovative service. It was another powerful wake up call for me to start another post and bring some decisive thoughts to my readers’ attention.

Besides recommending you to read the book, I want to point out some interesting facts detailed in the book, which will help us understand if we are really here to serve and make difference to our customers:

• Good service leaves customers satisfied, innovative service makes them swoon and become zealous advocates for your business. Innovative comes from your core; it evokes an experience of genuineness, a sense that its source is deep, not superficial.
• Good is the key to customer retention, but unique is the secret to customer advocacy.
• It is an innovation to all service providers to constantly up their game.
• Generosity is the key to opening a door into a garden of opportunity for a more expansive relationship.
• We live our lives on promises. Service begins with a promise made or implied.
• Honor and trust are the lifeblood of repeat business.
• Be slow to blame, quick to affirm and the very best at celebrating your customers. Always do what you say you will do. If you cannot, renegotiate early.

Chip also recommends us to start every day with an “ it’s showtime!” attitude. And when I met him, I did understand that his attitude was similar! Just imagine this and your life becomes full of adventures.

So what? Are we here to serve and make a positive difference in our customers’ lives? Many will say “sure”… Can you act like every day is your customer’s birthday, treating different customers differently? Can you be the giver you hope your customers become? Can you be a rainbow in someone’s cloud…?

Social Customer Service - a Company-Wide Value

In the world of social, where everyone is engaged in at least a few social platforms, the value of social customer service changes, becoming everyone's job, regardless of employee position. Social channels present an amazing opportunity for companies to engage with existing and potential customers. And when many employees are involved in delivering customer service across social channels, it becomes a strategic opportunity for the company.

It's clear, that not everyone can handle the customer message to the end, they can at least pass the issue to a trained ear to figure out what actions need to be taken to help and satisfy the customer. Besides having skilled, knowledgeable people behind company's social media handles, whole staff should be trained for delivering minimum care when occasion occurs.

What is the Secret Sauce to Great CX?

Well, the secret sauce to great CX is providing fast support and when many people are in the game, success is inevitable. Social customer care gives you the ability to think carefully about the reply and do all that in a casual, friendly conversational voice.

People trust other people more than company official representatives. Side help can lead to better results, agree?

What is the impact of your team in your organization? Do you coach and mentor all employees to be ready for minimum support? Can they all become key contributors by solving problems independently?

Keep in mind that omnichannel customer service starts with every single employee and only ends with technology, coach employees for primary knowledge readiness and you will win the competitive game.

Let's Change Customer Service This Year!

Well, I made up my mind to put some efforts in changing today’s bad customer service and will exchange all personal bad experience with my readers this year (anyway hoping not to have many).  We all are experiencing unsatisfactory customer service interactions here and there, but in most cases we keep our emotions to ourselves, thinking that nobody cares, or that it’s pointless to complain. In this way we let it slide without any punishment, make a mental note to avoid the company in the future, and that’s it.

My previous article was about airlines’ bad service, and today’s experience is related to hotels. Both services are very popular nowadays for many people who travel for both pleasure and business.

Recently I had an unpleasant customer service experience with a well-known hotel chain Citadines, a member of The Ascott - a Singapore company known as the world's largest international serviced residence owner-operator, functioning in 95 cities across 27 countries.
Citadines is one of its three award-winning brands which we liked during our vacation spent in Lyon last summer. As all loyal customers, we decided to spend our winter vacation in the same brand, but this time in Tbilisi, Georgia. It’s our neighboring country and it is usually a four-hour ride from Yerevan where I live.

So, without even imagining that we’ll have any force majeure, we booked a non-refundable family room for four people. When we heard the weather forecast with heavy snowstorms for the next few days, we sent an email to announce about the weather “surprise” we had, asking to cancel our reservation. Well, we “may” have reached Tbilisi in fourteen hours instead of four, but when you travel with kids, you try not to disturb them so much.

Soon we received a reply from the hotel representative asking for our phone number to speak to us. We called the hotel, and the lady told that when their management is back, they hope to refund our money back. Afterwards we received another email, saying that they cannot refund, instead next time when we book the hotel, they will make some discounts. 

I couldn’t imagine, that the “reputation” of a worldwide operator could cost 550$. Is this a huge amount for a hotel chain? Was it worth spreading the world about hotel bad experience? I am complaining not about Tbilisi, but the whole chain policies and normal human interactions.

My next step was tweeting to the company, and imagine, they have a “good” social care - the respond came the next day with the usual regretting tone for the bad experience we had, asking for the details of our reservation… Anyway they haven’t refunded. Later on we received an email, saying that they will try to make 50% discount on our next arrival. And what would you do in our place? Would you book the same hotel any more after all this?

They really had an opportunity to turn our negative experience into a positive one, an opportunity to make us remain loyal and not walk away. But reality is that they earned 550$ instead of maybe thousands of dollars, and which is more important – they could escape negative word-of-mouth. 

This is today’s reality and I am sure many people all over the world experienced such incidents. But time changes and we should express our opinion, tell about our poor experience in hope that one day we’ll really have a better service with better human interactions. We should build our future! Build it today!

Recognizing Airlines Poor Customer Service

If the customer service is the new marketing, this means many airlines lack marketing at all. I thought that I’m the only complainer in my surrounding, but after reflecting my “mood” on social channels, I did understand that it’s a global problem and should be solved somehow.

I’ve been traveling much recently, and I already know that US domestic flights almost never depart on time, accordingly arrivals are also late. You may be lucky a few times, but it’s just a chance.

Another thing is when you arrive in the airport and they say that the landed plane is too small and some of the passengers cannot get on board. “We are sorry, but you can take another flight tomorrow only”. But do I have that tomorrow at my disposal? And why should I stay one more day away from family? Yes, this happened to me while travelling from Bozeman, Montana to LA. And that was United Airlines. But United is not an exceptional example of a bad service.

When you have multiple flights with a company, you can use your bonus miles, right? And this is the only reason I’ve been travelling with Aeroflot for many times. It really used to be a good company, but what happened to it?  

Once I had to wait three hours on board in New York airport, we even had lunch during this period - I never had any meal on board before the flight in my life...

Then this happened again, but with a two-hour delay. But today I started thinking that the world doesn’t like “Russian airline”, maybe it’s politics? My London flight was also delayed…

But the delays are not the only reason for my “unmoody”post. Last time one steward made me very angry. Personal behavior is worse than company’s one, and the steward’s bad service was a slap for me. In case of flight delays many reasons can be found, sometimes even reasonable ones, but the crew selection factor is within an airline’s control, within their customer service obligations.

Imagine sitting in the plane for two hours waiting for the flight. You cannot sit any more, especially thinking that after departure you’ll have to sit nine more hours to get to your destination. I stood a while, and then walked in the direction of the 1^st class. It was 70 percent empty. A steward was approaching from the economy class… “I’m sorry, can I change my place from the economy class?” was my question to him. He replied in a very rude way “NO” and left. 

I started thinking how impolite he was, he could have explained me that he had no right to do so, as my ticket was a cheap one, etc. Although I heard thousand times, that passengers give some 50-100 dollars to crew members and they change their seats without any difficulty. Money works everywhere…

Well, I went to my seat. Three hours later I could think about nothing, but standing. I decided to walk to the lavatory to stand a bit. A man was sleeping with his feet stretched in the front row. He was alone in that row, two vacant seats next to him. I sat to stretch my feet for a while, when I noticed the same “Sergey” passing by. He looked strangely at me and came back, asking if that was my seat. I explained that I sit next to the window in the same economy class, next to a fat lady and decided to have some rest here…

“You should return to your place, and the sooner, the better”, was his reply. But why? In this case I was in the same class, I wasn’t disturbing anyone, and I used to change my seat lots of times with different companies and never had such a bad experience with the crew.

I was more than insulted. Now when customer service is a priority in every field, for any biz, when we do speak about exceptional customer service in all the parts of the world, why do you keep such rude and unfriendly employees, Aeroflot? Why do you put the company reputation in the hands of such individuals? Why should a steward change the face of the whole company? Why Aeroflot, why…

Have You Earned Your Customers' Trust?

When I typed the title, a story, that happened to me a few months ago pictured in front of my eyes.

 

Once I took a taxi and when I got home, the driver surprised me asking for more money than I used to pay for the same distance. I guess I had the “why” expression on my face, which made the driver ask me if something was wrong. I replied that it was ok, when the driver stretched his hand out to me with some change and his business card, saying “hope to serve you again, just call me”.

 

A strange driver from the first sight… At that same moment I didn’t even realize how wise he was. He just seemed to be fair to me... A few days later I remembered about the card he gave me, called him and from that day on he takes me home almost every day. And the other strange thing is that he calls me every day by the end of my working day asking if I need his help. He really built some good relationship and at the same time trust. Customers don't buy from people they don't trust. From my personal experience I can assure you that relationship building is very important.

 

When your business demands word-of-mouth advertising (and can anyone point me a business which doesn’t need it?), you should deliver an unforgettable service, the one I received.

 

According to a Concerto Marketing Group and Research Now survey, when customers trust a brand, 83 percent will recommend a trusted company to others and 82 percent will continue to use that brand frequently.

 

Be real YOU with your customers, add a human element! When you’re comfortable, your customer is also comfortable. When you’re nervous, your customer is nervous too. Keep your eyes open and ears listening. Remember: customer experience is becoming even more important than the product itself.

 

Earning a customer’s trust starts with giving a great service. When customers trust you they become more patient, they can pay even more than used to pay, they will advise your product/service to their friends, they will assist and defend you. Build trust in your company, in your industry, products and services, build trust in you. Earn customer trust and the rest will follow you!

Customer Success Story - Best Reward for Any Company!

What can be better for a company than customer success stories?

 

The reason I decided to write this post is the story I’ve recently read in Facebook - a touching story, which made my friend's day...

One of my friends was telling about his birthday best present. You cannot even imagine - it was a letter from Lufthansa, a German airline, the largest one in Europe. It said: “The captain of the plane wants to speak to you”. After a while a call from that same captain... What a surprise! He called my friend to congratulate his birthday. Unbelievable! It really made my friend happy. I guess it’s a feeling of being important – who doesn’t need to feel special?

A minute call and the whole world will learn about it. Why can’t we make people happy and at the same time spread some good will?

Another story I read once is about a sick woman, who had recently had medical treatment that made her feet numb. Her daughter ordered six pairs of shoes from Zappos, in hope that at least one would work. Unfortunately none fit her and they had to return all the shoes back, explaining the reason. In two days they received a large bouquet of flowers from the company, wishing her health, along with an upgrade to “Zappos VIP Member". So impressive!

Every company says that their customers are #1 priority, they do every possible thing to delight them, but do they all receive success stories from their happy customers? Do they all “talk the talk” and “walk the walk”?  I’m sure not.

Providing an excellent customer service is a must. It’s the most important point in every business which will make you stand out from the rest of your “one-click-away” competition.

Make customers feel important and appreciated as my friend felt on his special day. Treat them as individuals, value sincerity and try to give more than expected. Create a culture of customer service, the best, unforgettable one; help your customers help you!

Exceptional Customer Service with Co-Browsing

Exceptional customer service drives customer satisfaction. True, and in order to provide the best customer service, you should have better relationship with your prospects and customers and at the same time use different technologies that can balance their happiness.

 

Co-browsing, being deployed across many serious industries at present plays a major role in many savvy business’ routines. It’s used for customer/sales support, online shopping, trainings, collaboration, transactions and more.

Co-browsing “why”s

If you are still unaware of co-browsing “why”s, let’s start with the simplest one - with co-browsing you can see exactly what your prospect/customer sees. You, in your turn, can use the pointer to guide throughout the website, show the products/services, help to choose the best one for the case and help complete the purchase. And the most important fact is that co-browsing guaranties security while sharing your web. What else is needed for a successful business?

Co-browsing “how”s

How co-browsing works? There are many solutions in the market, but I’ll mention the way, the  best one can perform.

• works with any browser on any computer
• works across all firewalls and pop-up blockers
• works on mobile devices
• works with complex pages and technologies
• limits view to any combination of web domains, web pages, desktop applications, documents, etc.
• hides/blocks sensitive data like credit card numbers or account numbers
• does not store any customer information, ensures regulatory compliance

 Co-browsing “pros”

What values will co-browsing add to the business? Really worth ones:

• real time assistance
• customer service improvement
• customer satisfaction and loyalty increase
• first call resolution rates increase
• call handling time decrease
• self-service tools adoption
• agents empowerment
• confidence increase
• revenues increase
• new visibility into the customer experience

Many financial and governmental services, retail, telecom, insurance and travel companies already use co-browsing and they saw significant increases in customer satisfaction scores. If you’re not in the list yet, hurry up; use co-browsing for your business success!

Generations Living in the Present High -Tech World

We live in an age when one can meet seven different generations - radically different ones. Each generation has its characteristics, interests, attitude, likes and dislikes, and each approaches technology and life quite differently.

Incredible technological changes made it difficult to live in the same society with many of them. For such a broad topic, I went in search of generations existed in the 20^th century. According to which there have been five generations living in 20^th century and the division of every “generation category” differs, depending on the age range of 18 to 25.

20^th Century Generations:

GI Generation/Greatest Generation - born 1901-1926

Mature/Silents - born 1927- 1945

Baby Boomers - born between 1946 and 1964

Generation X - born between 1965 and 1980

Generation Y/ Millennial - born between 1981 and 2000

Prior to these generations, Lost Generation (1883-1900) also existed. But one can hardly find people living at present or who knows, maybe there are some.

While speaking about technology we come across Baby Boomers most of all, who have lots of difficulties with this innovative world. Generations before Baby Boomers have nothing to do with technology; they are so far from it and live their calm life without even realizing what they miss. On the contrary Baby Boomers try to keep pace with the innovations and the most complains come from their side. That’s why many modern technologies like co-browsing, live chat, screen sharing and many others come to help them.

Generations coming after Baby Boomers very much differ not only from Baby Boomers, but from each other. The Generation X is not very much interested in traditional perks and needs to make clear what they are looking for (having patience to wait), the Generation Y loves challenge, they are flexible, multi- tasking, true team players, but want everything right now.

As for the 21^st century, here we already have two generations, and I guess that if before the category range was big enough (18-25 years), now it will change faster, as everything in this world changes at such an enormous speed.

21^st Century Generation:

Generation Z/Boomlets – 2001- 2009

Generation A/Alpha, 2010-2025 

I’m almost sure that at the end of the 21^st century today’s new generations may appear in the same situation as Baby Boomers. Life is like a marathon, and you should run fast to keep up with all the new things.

2015 – Starting a New Year with the Best Tech Deals

The internet of things? Can we learn about the future peering into the past? If so, this year will also be a promising one, as 2014 has been marked as the most active year in technology. Before that, 2000 was the most active one.

Numerous acquisitions happen each month, but to make my posts shorter, I select the most important deals only. Surely they are important from my personal point of view; anyway hope that my readers will share the same opinion.

The same “giants” all the time – as if conquering the heights. Do they need the products or the talents, or maybe both? Never remember any company announcing about that.

Year started with social deals – two Facebook acquisitions with two-day interval – not bad. Then Twitter joint the list with its ZipDial acquisition. Ok, let’s switch to the list, not to miss anyone. 

06 January - Facebook Acquires Wit.ai to Help Its Developers With Speech Recognition and Voice Interfaces
Facebook acquired Wit.ai, a Y Combinator startup founded 18 months ago to create an API for building voice-activated interfaces. Wit.ai already has 6,000 developers on its platform who have built hundreds of apps. The Wit.ai product lets developers add a few lines of its code to instantly build in voice control and speech recognition. The platform will remain open and free.  

08 January - Facebook Acquires Video Compression Startup QuickFire
Facebook acquired video-compression company QuickFire Networks, further underscoring the social networking giant’s increasing focus on video. Based in San Diego, QuickFire says, it can quickly convert video formats and allow them to be downloaded with less bandwidth and without a loss in video quality. 

20 January – Twitter Acquires India-Based 'Missed Call' Startup ZipDial

Twitter announced that it has acquired Bangalore-based ‘missed call’ marketing platform, ZipDial, which assigns companies a special phone number which their brands can use in print ads or TV commercials. Customers can call the number and hang up before they are charged for the call. In turn, brands can phone or send text messages about their business to the ‘missed callers’. ZipDial’s clients include Unilever, Disney, Gillette, Amazon, Facebook and, of course, Twitter, whose customers have used the platform for placing orders, receiving coupons or entering contests. 

20 January – Microsoft Acquires Text Analysis Startup Equivio, Plans to Integrate Machine Learning Tech into Office 365

Microsoft announced it has acquired text analysis software startup Equivio, which uses machine learning to let users explore large, unstructured sets of data. The startup’s technology leverages advanced text analytics to perform multi-dimensional analyses of data collections, intelligently sort documents into themes, group near-duplicates, and isolate unique data. 

21 January – Apple Buys UK Startup Semetric to Power up Its Media Analytics
Apple has acquired Semetric, the London-based startup behind music analytics service Musicmetric.  While Musicmetric seems an obvious fit with iTunes and Beats Music, Semetric has also been working on analysing data for games, TV, movies and books so will enhance Apple’s understanding of data around all the digital products it sells. 

23 January – Microsoft to Acquire Revolution Analytics to Help Customers Find Big Data Value with Advanced Statistical Analysis

Microsoft has reached an agreement to acquire Revolution Analytics - the leading commercial provider of software and services for R, the world’s most widely used programming language for statistical computing and predictive analytics. This acquisition will help more companies use the power of R and data science to unlock big data insights with advanced analytics. 

23 January – Mobile Network Three to Buy O2 in £10bn Deal 

Asia’s richest man is poised to take control of the UK’s biggest mobile phone network, after Three announced it had started exclusive takeover talks with its larger rival 02. The deal would create the UK’s largest mobile phone firm with 31.5 million customers, cutting the number of network owners in the UK from four to three.