I am writing this article live from the IBM Smarter Commerce event in Nashville, Tennessee. Yesterday was day one and jam packed with amazing presentations and learning. Redefining customer service, context of content and relationships are at the core of all conversations.
I am most inspired by IBM's announcement of Watson, the engagement advisor. This is not your every day Watson. IBM Watson brings to us a faster, personalized service for smarter commerce. Delivered from the cloud and straight into the hands of mobile consumers, Watson, a cognitive computing system quickly learns, adapts and understands a company's data fast and easily.
IBM Watson services include a training phase where IBM Watson Scientists work with the client business subject matter experts to train Watson, putting Watson to work fast. Watson's value is obtained quickly and increases even more over time. Watson is a fast learner and immediately puts the learning into action to help businesses improve customer service via better experiences and faster problem resolution.
IBM states that out of the 270 billion customer calls handled annually, 50 percent of them require escalation or go unresolved. 61% of customer calls could have been resolved with better access to information. It's estimated that $83 billion purchases are abandoned each year as a direct result of a poor experience.
Research also shows that 86% of consumers will pay more for a better customer experience and 89% of consumers began doing business with a competitor following a poor customer experience.
“Watson is a game changer, taking Smarter Commerce to the next level transforming how people and companies interact, solve problems and build relationships.” says Maria Winans, VP Worldwide Industry Solutions Marketing at IBM.
We hosted Steve Gold, IBM's Vice President IBM Watson Solutions for a special #GetRealChat Twitter chat on May 21, 2013. The conversation was deep and inspiring. Steve did a great job at explaining how Watson enables brands to crunch big data in record time to transform the way they engage clients in key functions such as customer service, marketing and sales.
What would you do with a Watson?
The key question for you is “What would you do with a Watson?” Tweet your answer using the #SmarterCommerce hashtag and / or simply leave your answer below in the comment section of this post.
When I asked my 13 year old son what he would do with a Watson, his answer was, “that's easy, I'd put it on my phone and get straight A's!”
IBM Watson #GetRealChat Recap
Below is a recap of our educational #GetRealChat with Steve Gold, VP IBM Watson Solutions. Stay tuned as we'll likely have him back to continue the discussion and get to better know our new friend, Watson.
Chat transcript from 5/21/13 #GetRealChat held in Nashville at IBM's #SmarterCommerce conference.
Chat transcript from 5/21/13 #GetRealChat held in Nashville at IBM's #SmarterCommerce conference. Our guest was Steve Gold.
http://storify.com/GetRealChat/smartercommerce-getrealchat-on-5-21-13
