The myths around AI have been nothing if not sticky. Fifty years after Hal 9000 made moviegoers very afraid, consumers continue to believe both that robots will replace humans — and also that AI is a thing of the future. The reality? Neither is true.

Many customers have had the experience at least once. You call a company with a question and get a perfectly polite person on the other end who says “sorry, I can’t help you with that, let me transfer you.” The next person you talk to says the same thing. And maybe even the one after that.

In a company’s early days, a nascent support team’s ability to practice empathy and provide personalized customer service plays a crucial role in building a foundation for future growth. But what happens when success comes knocking? Whether it’s a ballooning customer base or pulling the trigger on that long-planned-for push toward global operations, many businesses grapple with a perplexing problem: how can a customer service team maintain that personal touch as it scales?

Business growth is a sign of success. But for customer service teams, it’s a good thing that comes with complications. As the department brings on more agents and gets a higher number of inquiries, continuing to use the old processes that once worked often falls short. And if a customer service team used to success suddenly finds itself falling behind on goals because of the change, it’s bad for customers and agents alike.

I’ve written at least 50 headlines for our monthly integrations post, you think you could do better? Let’s just move onto what you’re all here for.

Omnichannel is the new buzzword in the customer service industry, and everyone is trying to get a piece of the action. However, is this hype real, and do you need to become the next expert in it? In layman’s terms, an omnichannel solution integrates all your customer service channels in one place to maintain context and end siloed conversations.

A great customer service team can add wings to a company’s growth, by helping win and retain client loyalty. But should you build your team in-house, or hand it over to a specialist? Customer service BPOs (business processing outsourcers) are companies that specialize in handling customer queries that come in via email, chat, phone, social media, and other channels.

In the past few years, companies have become significantly more interdependent—users share passwords, and systems use backend technologies operated by third parties. So when hackers breach a company’s security, they often gain access to a wider set of services and information than initially expected.

A whole lot of data comes out of support interactions, enough so that astute support leaders can pull insights, discover trends, and improve how their business serves customers. While the data may only suggest what’s going on with your customers and agents, it’s important to be able to spot trends quickly.

Providing great customer service has always been a challenge, even for the most decorated support agent. Thanks to three factors, this challenge is only growing. First, customer support workflows are growing increasingly complex. Where once it was just a person and a phone, now agents often work with complex, clunky interfaces.