Today’s modern contact centre is amazingly complex, not only in technology but also in process. But – We have not seen anything yet. Just as Moores model told us compute would double every two years, I believe we are witnessing even faster transformation in the way we will interact with our customers, prospects, patients and citizens.

However, challenges are ahead…

Convergence and consolidation is happening in parallel. Ultimately, we are in a state of transition. The traditional contact centre came from a world of ‘call-control’. The routing and management of inbound and outbound calls. Now we have to consider all media types and ways of providing the answers needed, human or automated. Ultimately the data used to make these decisions and to provide the answers is massive, comes from many sources and is complex. Practically every contact centre vendor promises a complete solution, but in reality we remain in a ‘integrated silo’ framework. Yes, there are connections, API’s and dramatically improved interaction and sharing between silos, but in EVERY case, there is ‘add-on’ technology, either built or acquired to complete the brand vision.  This is hard to manage, change and is static.

There is also a lot of vendors. Not only coming from the legacy contact vendor markets, but also new entrants. Furthermore, the intelligence on the customer, prospect, patient or citizen is principally held in CRM, ERP or for more advanced environments the CDP, workforce management and analytics. I think of this as ‘What’s happening?’, ‘What’s happened?’ and ‘What’s likely to happen?”. The contact centre is dealing with the Now. CRM, ERP, and systems of record primarily deal with what has happened, the history and relationship, and the CDP and analytics looks at the predictions, journeys, opportunities and risk by bringing in many more data-points and mining for insight, the future. Knowledge and process also plays a big part, both electronic and human, and also internal and external. So it’s a Venn diagram of markets converging.

Ultimately, there are thousands of vendors. There are 10’s of thousands of technologies that are somewhat dis-integrated and there are too many for all to be viable, so consolidation is inevitable.

Changes in customer relationships are accelerating. Customers now have more choices and can be quite fickle. The adage “Customers are king” has never been more accurate. Meanwhile, the dynamics and variables in the market are increasing exponentially. In our hyper-fast, interconnected, big data world, manual reactions will become obsolete within the next five years – if not sooner.

So, what will the ingredients of the future contact centre include?

The capabilities will undergo a massive transformation over the coming years. We are so used to hearing terms like, multi-channel, omni-channel, chatbots, IVA, IVR, WFM, CRM, Knowledge management and the list goes on. We have called many of these initiatives ‘Digital strategy’ or ‘digital channels’. In reality, they have been digital connections and are merely functional capabilities and mainly solving inwardly focussed problems (Save money or remove work from us). The next era of innovation will be outward focussed and centred on system competence, system cognisance, system context and ultimately system Consciousness.

A.I will play a massive role in this. Today we see LLM’s and other sciences solving for end user transaction automation, or agent assistance. Ultimately the A.I will move into the coordination and management of mass data within the entire system, not just the communication to the customer or agent.

AI fuelled CDP will likely be at the centre of this universe as they will capture and analyse every touch-point, mine the identity, context, customer journey and link this to knowledge, CX and RevOPS strategy and ultimately become the brain of a modern enterprise. A system that is dynamic, learns and puts the customer first.

In the fast-paced world of business, transformation is no longer a choice; it’s a necessity. The forces outlined in Michael Porter’s Five Forces framework* have gained unprecedented strength, pushing enterprises toward profound changes. Nowhere is this more evident than in the dynamic landscape of the contact centre, where the gravitational pull of business transformation is at its peak.

The contact centre, extending beyond mere human-to-human interactions to encompass automation, self-service, applications, and content, stands at the epicentre of several critical transformations. These changes typically involve Revenue Transformation, Cost Transformation, Service Transformation, Support Transformation, or a combination of these goals. Essentially, most transformation initiatives aim to bolster revenue, reduce costs, and enhance service and support quality.

The contact centre presents an inviting canvas for transformation due to the considerable cost associated with its operation and the substantial upside potential. The logical step for most organisations is to optimise, improve, and transform this vital hub of customer interactions. However, despite the intent, successful execution is rare. McKinsey’s recent study reports a 70%** failure rate for such projects, suggesting that even when projects do not entirely collapse, they often fall short of their original objectives. The question then is, why does this happen?

The Management Disconnect and the “Why”

One of the most significant stumbling blocks in the path of successful transformation is the management disconnect and a lack of clear “why.” Many transformation projects are conceived in one layer of a business and then handed over for execution to another layer. It’s here that the infamous “JUST” word is liberally used, with requests such as, “Can you ‘just’ implement an Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA) and eliminate 100 staff?” Furthermore, effectively communicating the transformation’s objectives and gaining the buy-in of teams and staff is of paramount importance. Springing transformation initiatives upon operational teams with a “First time I’ve heard about this” rarely yields positive outcomes.

The Overpromise of Non-Productised Automation

Automation, particularly non-productised automation, is often promised as a panacea for contact centre challenges. However, a distinction must be made between defined product or process automation, which follows a well-defined path, and non-productised automation, which deals with queries and requests outside the norm. While the former can have some utility in specific contexts, the latter, which is more prevalent in business-to-consumer (B2C) service automation, often falls short of expectations. Non-productised service automation frequently performs poorly, with a significant portion of inbound traffic ultimately requiring human intervention due to system inadequacies.

In the ideal world, automation thrives, but the reality that contact centres confront is far less perfect. Nevertheless, there is significant potential in agent-assist and augmentation technologies, which reduce workload, provide real-time assistance during calls, and optimise customer interactions, particularly for new staff.

Fact-Based Monitoring of Data

When customers encounter digital hiccups, they tend to escalate issues via various channels, including phone, email, and chat. Currently, voice calls bear the brunt of these escalations as chat and email channels often lead to frustratingly unproductive experiences. For organisations undergoing transformation, closely monitoring the voice channel is a critical necessity to ensure that the process stays on track.

Focus on Outcome, Not Activity

Transformation efforts must focus on tangible outcomes, not just activities. It’s not enough to simply install new switches or update technology; the focus should be on improving customer satisfaction, increasing revenues, and reducing post-call workloads. The effort and activities undertaken should be seen to achieve these goals, whether they pertain to revenue, cost reduction, employee experience, customer experience, or support.

The Desire for Perfection

The quest for perfection has become a stumbling block in today’s data-rich environment. The sheer volume and fluidity of data make it unrealistic to expect a granular report covering every aspect of operations. What’s truly needed are insights, trends, pointers, and indicators, not exhaustive data on every permutation. The goal should be to detect issues or opportunities effectively, rather than striving for perfection. In this era of big data, recalibrating expectations to focus on recognising patterns and making incremental improvements is a more pragmatic approach.

Introducing transformation in bite-sized initiatives, supported by technologies that easily “Snap-In” to existing platforms, can offer swift wins for organisations during major transformations. These flexible technologies align with the virtues of rapid deployment, cost-effectiveness, seamless integration, modular deployment, user-friendly interfaces, open data access, scalability, and security—all without compromising the need for effective, outcome-oriented transformation in the contact centre. In a business world continually evolving, these transformative tools provide a practical approach to staying ahead of the curve. Here’s why:

Agile Snap-In solutions provide a user-friendly platform that empower employees with varying technical backgrounds to actively participate in the transformation process, bridging the technology gap and enhancing the overall success rate.

They can make a significant difference in the context of contact centre transformation via simplicity and speed.  Snap-In platforms simplify the analytical processes, enabling employees to comprehend and adjust swiftly. This approach accelerates the contact centre transformation, allowing companies to understand and logically react in a rapidly changing landscape.

Empowerment. Snap-In solutions empower employees to own and fully understand the decisions driving the contact centre transformation. This sense of ownership mitigates resistance and garners greater buy-in from the workforce, creating a more engaged and enthusiastic team.

Flexibility. Snap-In platforms support rapid iteration and flexibility. If an organisation needs to pivot or make changes in response to market dynamics, employees can easily adapt applications without relying on scarce IT resources, ensuring that the contact centre remains agile and responsive.

Cost efficiency.  Snap-In solutions can often be more cost-effective than traditional development methods, making them accessible to a broader range of organisations. This accessibility reduces the risk of budget overruns and financial constraints.

Enhanced communication. No-code snap-ins facilitate collaboration between employees and IT departments, ensuring that the contact centre transformation aligns with the organisation’s goals. This enhanced communication can help avoid costly missteps and foster alignment between the workforce and the technology team.

In the ever-evolving landscape of business transformation and the contact centre, Tech agnostic Snap-In solutions offer a user-friendly, empowering, flexible, cost-efficient, and communication-enhancing approach. They’re the key to staying ahead and thriving in today’s dynamic world.

* Porter’s Five ForceFramework https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter%27s_five_forces_analysis
** McKinsey Common Pitfalls in Transformation– https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/transformation/our-insights/common-pitfalls-in-transformations-a-conversation-with-jon-garcia/

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/successful-transformations/

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/transformation/our-insights/perspectives-on-transformation/

The bad ones stay and the good ones leave. Funny, that isn’t it?

It is not unique to the contact centre, but staff recruitment, development and retention is the number one issue I hear about in my day-to-day interactions with customers, prospects and partners. This is particularly amplified, it seems, in larger contact centres with more than 500 staff.

Money (salary) is obviously a big driver, but not one that we can do much about. There is an economic model we all must fit within and, if this is a prime driver, I am sure you will react to it as best you can. But I find money has two sides to its coin. The obvious side is: I need to pay the bills. The less obvious side: how much do I need on top to put up with this? And it is the latter that really drives the exit of good players, not the former. So, what can we do about it?

Well, first let us categorise the employee stages. You will have staff that are:

Consciously Incompetent: they know they don’t know what they are doing. There are two subcategories within this group: newbies and problem people. Therefore, keep the former and lose the latter.

Unconsciously Competent: they don’t know that they know what they are doing.

Consciously Competent: they know their stuff.

There is also a category of Unconsciously Incompetent and you should get rid of these people fast.

You are left with newbies, potentials and rock stars. Now you need a strategy to keep and motivate all these guys outside of the obvious $$$£££€€€.

Each category needs different drivers and I have mapped out more than 20 for each, but that would make for a very boring blog, so here are the top three per category.

To start, my model is aligned to personality types that can be simplified into staff that want:

1. A career path
2. A better me
3. A better company
4. To help/develop others.

All of these are clearly interrelated.

The Newbies
These people typically have more bias towards career path and a better me.

The number one frustration of this category is lack of visibility of a clear and granular career path programme. This is not simply role based, for example agent to senior agent to supervisor to QM leader and so on. Although this is valid and important, it is more about the experience and education-based activities you can map out within the current role. Think of it as dot releases of software. They come in at 1.0, and you offer 1.1, 1.2. 1.3 sub-elements before they are ready for 2.0, also followed by a series of dot releases. This way the career structure becomes substantive and structured.

This category typically wants to do better, learn and improve their resume, so having a platform to facilitate this is fundamental. They are typically motivated, keen and bright, and learning from others and from systems is key. Speech analytics platforms and agent real-time assist platforms not only drive the development of these staff, but they also directly impact the customer satisfaction and experience and have a meaningful impact on FRC and ACHT.

I am Invisible.
This category also wants to shine bright and impress. But many are not given the stage. We have seen a phenomenal impact by placing excellent call examples, whether sales, service, complaint, objection handling, sincerity, condolence, and so on, into an indexed excellence library. They become the star, and other newbies learn.

The Potentials
These people are critical to you, and they probably make up most of your staff complement and therefore deal with the bulk of the volume. There are lots of subgroups, but at a high level there are those who just want to do the job (hopefully better), and those who want to move up the ladder to leadership of people and process. So, this category is either focused on ‘better me’ or ‘career path’ with added ‘help others’ (people management) and/or ‘better company’ (back-office processes, analysis, knowledge and data).

The drivers of frustration come from several areas, but two big drivers for staff who want to move up are: mundane tasks and the perception of higher value. This means they are frustrated as they think they know the answers to the business problems but do not have the mechanism to substantiate them or impact change.

These are rising stars, but not quite stars. As a leader, you may find yourself in a tough spot as you need troops and not more officers.

The answer is to give some degree of systems access and allocate authorised time to prove their theories and reward them. I have seen incredible responses to giving seasoned agents and junior team leaders access to intuitive conversational analytics tools to investigate why customers calling and where there are broken processes, missing knowledge and friction points.

Back-office teams do this in isolation. Front-office staff do this from knowing, because they feel the customer pain in the calls, chats and emails they handle. We extended our conversational analytics query builder from ten back-office staff at a major telco provider, to more than 200 agents and team leaders, and the impact on staff was very positive, as were the subsequent findings.

The Rock Stars.
Again, these people may be happy with their lot or want to progress up the ladder. They are seasoned and highly knowledgeable, not only about the company’s products and services, but all the nuances in process.

The big frustration for them is needless processes and broken processes. Many rock stars are still subject to relatively pointless QA/QM sessions and must fill out copious forms and reports post call/chat/email. In addition, there is significant frustration that comes from broken company processes.

Automating these activities is a major release valve for the employee experience and dramatically impacts staff retention.

In summary, organisations may wish to consider automating call summary workload and the QA/QM process, not only to directly impact staff wellbeing and performance, but also to save a small fortune in the process. They could also consider using AI to automate the detection of unknown topics that drive failure demand and process issues.

I hope this helps. It is just the tip of the iceberg.

 

Having worked in the customer interaction space for many years, I have witnessed the advancement of technology aimed at improving customer service or reducing supplier costs.

The industry has moved from advanced routing and call control to the first IVR revolution, multi-channel and omnichannel, WFO/E/M XY and Z, and now the AI-powered world of automation, augmentation and BOTism.

Post Covid-19 hibernation, with people starting to reconnect with friends and family in bars, restaurants, clubs and sporting venues, the inevitable “How’s Work?“ question always comes up. This is a question I find somewhat difficult to answer, because my company operates in a highly specialised field.

I work with some of the brightest PhD-level minds to solve extremely complex business problems. As a result, converting this capability and the technologies we have developed into a snapshot update is difficult. The elevator pitch is clear, but many recipients’ eyes glaze over when I discuss NLU and NLP large language model, generative AI speech augmentation, real-time automation and analytics powered by conversation intelligence. Therefore, I frame my response as a question: “When was the last time you were DELIGHTED with an automated or self-service interaction with a company?”

The response is always the same: negative, and it resonates with them on a personal level. Many of these people describe their latest interaction with a company that they believed in and expected better customer service from.

It is then very easy for me to describe how my company creates software that solves this problem. Indeed, our solution determines why someone called in the first place, corrects any root-cause issues, and ensures that the customer experience, journey and response are highly optimised, lowering costs and increasing C-Sat and revenue.

Today, we are witnessing a resurgence of concern for the customer rather than a covert desire to save money. Simply automating has not worked and customers have clearly voted with their feet. (Or, these days, a finger). Click.

A genuine customer-first perspective, which focuses on business and customer challenges rather than technology, is emerging. I refer to this as Intelligent Business Transformation, in which the old phrase  “people, process and technology” is adorned with a fourth area of knowledge.

In short, it is critical to understand how these capabilities are coordinated, harnessed and optimised. People (customers) converse with people (agents). People (customers) converse with technology (bots). Both interaction systems must be optimised, and this is where process and knowledge come into play.

Intelligent Business Transformation will improve our people, augment our humans and allow automation to function.

 

In a previous blog we talked at length about how robots are infiltrating our world and supposedly solving customer problems, queries and reducing operational costs.

In my humble opinion, most of today’s customer automation is frustratingly poor.

Admittedly, there are scenarios where self-service plays a role in 100 per cent-productised customer journeys, but as soon as there is any complexity, nuance, or anomaly to the request that is outside of the standard operating procedure, things go wrong.

It must be said that humans are amazing. Our ability to listen, assimilate multi-threaded and dependency questions, ascertain emotional dynamics and, ultimately, comprehend is phenomenal. We are a way off seeing a digital service that can fully compete with a human.

Today, there is a new wave of Artificial Intelligence (AI) – a shining new lightsaber for agents; the Force that gives businesses an overwhelming financial advantage. We are now entering the world of the Jedi agent, the agent with AI-powered augmented assistance that transforms compliance, first-call resolution (FCR), sales, CX and C-SAT.

What is this Force and how do I get Jedi agents?
The dichotomy for customer service, sales and contact centre OPS professionals for the past five years has been automating customer interaction versus utilising the human service. Finding a balance that delivers on cost, skill, resource, knowledge, customer value, brand and more has been a challenge.

Now enter the trichotomy.

1.  Automate the customer interaction
2.  Automate (Jedi) agent assistance
3.  Pure unassisted human

Number 2 is new, powerful and easy to deploy and truly transformational to service and cost.

Rather than start with what it is, let us consider the use cases and outcomes. We break these down into three areas:

• Agent workload and cost reduction
• FCR, CX and C-SAT optimisation
• Compliance optimisation

By automating two minutes of post-call wrap-up across 500 agents taking 40 calls each per day, a business could save approximately £3.7 million a year.

If all agents have real-time prompts and advice, FCR can increase by 20 per cent, CX and C-SAT will improve more than 30 per cent. By pre-briefing agents via automated call summary, actions and sentiment from any previous interaction, there will be no non-compliant calls.

How can you achieve this? Well, nothing needs to change. This new technology easily and simply complements the incumbent system, whether that is Genesys, Avaya, Mitel, 8×8, Five9, AWS-Connect.

In short, Agent Assist technology will acquire your customer interactions from your switch, Session Boarder Controller (SBC), chat server or video server, in real time. It will transcribe in high definition so that all brand terms and unique product or service names are captured accurately. Then, it will process the conversations for intent, quality and action and propose real-time prompts or content to the agent who is assisting in the transaction. Auto summarisation will remove work for the agent, distilling a perfect brief for the next interaction. Agent Assist will also track compliance requirements within the call or chat session so that no call is left before the appropriate steps are taken.

It is estimated that more than 70 per cent of automated journeys end up back at the agent. Today’s robot is a glorified music-on-hold, pretending to add value and reduce cost, but negatively impacting CX and C-SAT.

Business justifications for investments of £1 million in older bot technology were that they would save £4 million in staff costs. Realistically, they save £1 million maximum. Breaking even is a long way off and ruined by added customer frustration and eroding service metrics.

Isn’t it time you tried the lightsaber? Available in red, blue or green.

Part 1 of Robot vs humans can be found here.

For more information, please contact contexta360.com