Online and offline retailers are at war. For years, offline retailers have been struggling to stem the tide of shoppers leaving their stores, abandoning them for the convenience of online shopping. But this year, finally, their efforts have seen some positive press. It’s not a matter of if, but when. So here’s the question for both retailers: How does online and offline customer service compare, and does it really make a difference?

We released Zulip Server 2.0.1 today. This is a bug fix release, containing a dozen cherry-picked changes since Zulip 2.0.0.

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.

Everyone is online these days. It’s a given that this is how we now live and interact. We would find it extremely difficult to guide our lives without the internet. But with this trend of interacting on a digital plane, it’s sometimes easy to lose track of the human side of our interactions. It’s only too easy to treat online experiences as mere “exchanges” instead of unique stepping stones for developing and understanding relationships.

We're excited to announce the release of Zulip Server 2.0, containing hundreds of new features and bug fixes.

Basecamp 3’s to-do lists keep you in the loop when you’re working closely with other members of your team. You get notified when someone assigns you a to-do and that person gets notified when you check it off. This works great when it’s clear who needs to be assigned, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes you don’t know who should do the work, other times a to-do isn’t for anyone in particular and just needs to be logged.

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.

Hot on the heels of Riot Web 1.0 we’ve released updates to Riot Android and iOS with all new colours and automatic secure key backup for your encryption keys so you’ll never again lose your encrypted messages! Plus, the Riot Website (https://riot.im) has had a complete and beautiful overhaul! Now featuring much more useful and up-to-date information and much less eye-injuring purple.

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.