I sometimes wonder if we have reached a point in our evolutionary journey where there is little that is new in the world, just different ways of getting to the same outcome?  

A recurring theme for me in recent years has been the proverb “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”.  

Clearly, this proverb was new to me at some point, but has been around for some time. As an advocate of outsourcing and the value of partnerships it really did resonate with me. It just made sense; using the experience of the collective to deliver a better outcome.   

What’s new to me, you may have done several times before.  So, sharing in the experience of others could help us get further than by trying to go it alone. The solo journey may initially have less friction, with nobody to challenge how I’m approaching things I could make all kinds of fast progress – but admittedly in the wrong direction!  

I’ve written recently about the value which can be achieved by focusing on your core activity, working with partners and leveraging the skills of specialists can enable a business to develop or reduce costs for example.   

But what if we cannot decide our direction?   

That’s the challenge for many organisations and it’s not surprsing. We’ve just been through what feels like eight years of continued uncertainty in the wake of the Brexit referendum, a global pandemic, conflict, and the resulting economic impacts, followed by the past 12 months which have seen unparalleled development in technology.    

That feels like a lot, right? So perhaps currently it may feel better to just hold station and wait a while?  The promise of automation that is here and about to be delivered could make decisions taken today feel dated by tomorrow?   

But indecision and just doing the same is never really an option is it?  What are your objectives, what is the ambition of your organisation? Working with others makes the achievement of these much easier.  For once I’m going to suggest forgetting your immediate customer experience goals for a moment, instead think of your headline business objectives – where does your business need to be 12, 24, 36 or 60 months from now?  

Sometimes we all need a little help  

A key strength is knowing your own weaknesses and being able to ask for support. Arrogantly assuming we have all the answers never ends well.  If you know where you need to be headed at the highest level, then the strategy to get you there can take an amount of focus – and when you are trying to deliver the day to day, implementing change can be hard.   

Often, we already know what needs our attention and what we’d like to do differently. But when there are competing priorities and differing options for solving challenges, all promising to do exactly what you need, then it can be hard to determine what’s the right option for you.  

Building your own solution when there are proven ones can be troublesome, even adapting what comes out of the box can be expensive, too, as we saw when Birmingham Council tried. 

So why not work with others to ensure that you deliver your objectives with minimal effort and maximum focus? Partnering with others brings multiple benefits,  

The key is to have the right commercial agreements to ensure that your objectives are aligned and you can work as a true partnership, as outlined in Steve Sullivan’s recent article ‘Is the traditional outsourcing contract past its ‘sell by’ date?‘.

How far is far in a CX sense?

Whether you are an organisation with an inhouse contact centre, or if you are an outsourcer or have an operation that you have outsourced already, the rapid changes in technology and their impact to customer experience means that you have to be clear “how high is high”.  

Additionally, what is “high” for one organisation may not be for another, we perhaps need to talk in the sense of what is optimum instead?  Your service ambitions may be linked to cost as opposed to quality, it comes down to the value of the product and the budget of course, so delivery should be optimal.   

All customers change their expectations based on the all the different services that they receive from multiple brands. Each helps set the expectation for the next and the changing technologies alter what is available to be delivered.  

Ask yourself realistically:

  1. How much automation do your customers want?
  2. Have you already moved to self-service everything that your customers will tolerate?  
  3. Do you really know which processes cause the most friction for your customers? 
  4. Do you always have people available to engage with your customers when they need support? 
  5. Can you afford to always have people available? Do you want to?  

 We could continue with the questions, however you get my point.

Conclusion

If you are about to set out on a journey to do things differently are all the potential stakeholders in your business in the right place to deliver for you?  

The level of change that we are seeing at the moment means that there are likely to be areas where your existing team may not recognise where they have blind-spots. But these are good people – they have done good things for your organisation and want to do more. Never underestimate the benefits of them working with specialists and learning from them, they will repay your investment in them if done in the right way.  

 Always consider what opportunity there is for knowledge transfer to your teams and how this can deliver additional value. 

Why not ask us to travel with you?

Working with partners offers the ability to look at things from additional angles, consolidating understanding and benefiting from wider experiences. If you have a thorny topic or challenge that your organisation is facing then why not ask the Contact Centre Panel team for a chat?

Let me play with the stereotypes for a moment when it comes to what different people think of when it comes to growth. We all think it, so someone should say it:

  1. Finance will be more focused on revenue growth from either selling more to existing customers or winning new ones;
  2. Marketing may consider the growth in brand recognition as a key in delivering that growth;
  3. HR will want to see the growth of the people that they are developing and progressing; AND
  4. Operations, well they are the lucky ones, they have to deliver all kinds of growth and balance the needs of the business and the people!

I know I’m biased because I started my contact centre life in Ops, at the “coal face” “on the phones” – however, our industry whether in-house or outsource plays a key part in the lives of the end customers, in the representation of brands and in the delivery of authenticity. Ultimately, sales projections and forecast customer retention rates can quickly fail to materialise if the customer service team don’t deliver on the brand promise.

Contact centre traditions

Where contact centres have always excelled is tracking data, the joys of an ACD. 25 years ago we had access to data that other sectors would have only dreamed of, then we had all this information in agents heads from the customer conversations they were having, the people on the phones were hearing of all manner of issues that customers were facing and still do.

Quality and coaching was a little harder, we knew when our calls were being recorded for training and monitoring purposes as “Arthur” would be sat at the end of the floor with a Sony tape recorder, so we knew today was possibly the day. Feedback and coaching would follow, but was limited to the 5 calls that had been recorded for you in the month and often you’d receive feedback on multiple at once. Growth was possible but perhaps limited…

Daily performance stats had to be pulled from the system, pasted into Excel and a macro run. I can remember when we got out first NICE call recorder and then implementing Witness with screen capture – it was the future.

The present day

Jumping back to the present day, I’m fortunate now to see a great number of contact centre technologies and tools. When one such technology was described to be as “Fitbit for contact centres” I was immediately curious. What follows (like with most) is you see a demo of the solution and you can immediately see how you would have implemented it when in operations and the benefits that it delivers, how it supports the whole team in the delivery of their roles and actively tracks the impact of coaching interventions. It then becomes clear that this is a solution developed by someone who has first-hand experience of the challenges faced by teams in operations.

Infact, Rob and the team at miPerform have developed a solution which no matter how often I see in demo, I’m left envious of the current team leader and ops manager population that I didn’t have access to this when I was a team lead.

Growth is not only good for you, but also good for your employees and customers alike

Current solutions have the ability to evaluate more contacts on your behalf and flag to you those that need closer attention, to identify the coaching required and track performance following delivery.

Whilst this may feel focused on the benefits to the customer and the business, it actually provides the opportunity for growth in the agent and manager populations. This will lead to more readily identifying growth opportunities and ultimately staff who are supported, developed and grow will feel more inclined to stay and therefore grow their experience and deliver better service to customers.

When customers receive better service they stay and may spend more, which delivers the growth the Finance team are looking for.

Which means?

Driving sustainable growth requires key systems and processes to track performance and deliver the right coaching at the right time, to ensure that those processes and interventions had the desired impact, that staff are supported and then if your people are growing well you can confidently grow your business.

Are you too looking at ways to deliver growth? Drop us a line, we would love to chat with you.

For many the OOO (out of office) was in action over the summer, the best I ever received went along the lines of “I’m away, returning on DD/MM, when I return I will delete all my emails, so mail me again after that date” I was outraged at the time,  but now I’m older, well… I still couldn’t do it.  

Anyway, now people are back and it seems, are back to the actual office in increasing numbers, what 5 things would make our roles more productive and effective between now and the end of the year?  

We are fortunate to speak with lots of people at Contact Centre Panel and through our conversations over the years these are my standout quotes:

  1. If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority: wise words, if you are trying to do too many things then it is likely that none of them will get done, make a shorter list or ask for help where you need it.
  2. Focus on your core: I do mean business not the type developed by doing the plank (that said I maybe need to do both types), clearly all businesses need to evolve but know when you need to perhaps outsource part of the work so that you can focus on what you do best.
  3. Learn from others’ mistakes: come on we can’t all sit here and pretend we got it right all of time, taking the experiences of others to improve your own operations, customer experience or sales doesn’t mean you have to hand everything over to an outsourced solution it may be that you need someone to come in and support for a while, but use their experience, it could be a shortcut.
  4. If you are going to automate it: make sure you fixed the processes first. Also ensure that you are automating the right processes not just the ones that you don’t like doing.
  5. Look after your people: there is a well quoted Richard Branson post that I’ll probably be paraphrasing but make sure you give your people the tools and the support they need to shine, helping to do the right thing for your customers. Those things may not be easy, but if you train and support your people right they’ll be loyal to your brand and create fans.

If we can help with any of these then don’t be shy, just ask.

I’ve spent the last 25 years working in contact centres and in a conversation earlier this week with another long standing, highly experienced person we agreed that many of the issues that we were dealing with 15 or 20 years ago are still challenges that face our industry today. When I was on the phones supporting a mobile phone network, I can remember receiving transferred calls that just weren’t for me to deal with. 

For instance, the Sales team pushing something through to Service when the issue was that a handset order hadn’t gone through correctly. Knowing that they weren’t going to make a sale to someone who had already purchased, Sales decided that it was now a service call.  I’m sure we can come up with a hundred examples if we wanted to.   

However, we can’t change what happened in the first half, we can only change the result through playing smarter in the second.   

If the process was broken can automation help fix it?

There is a potential for a law of unintended consequences; you may not get what you initially signed up for (ask Harry)…. If the process is broken and you automate it then you could just generate more improper transfers at greater speed, as the bot just powers through. Not the fault of the bot, it was just doing as it was told.

If someone is getting questions that sit outside of their skills then they could be spending time searching for an answer or be passing the call on unnecessarily, as a result CX suffers. But how to catch such issues before they are the talk of Feefo and Trustpilot?

Increasing QA sample size and use of auto QA tools has to be an opportunity to identify issues quickly and make critical adjustments to the process, training of the agent and or the bot.

What are the root causes of poor CX? 

Automation of QA and enabling first level managers to identify and address coaching opportunities more quickly is only half of the story.   

Access to more data and insights allows businesses to better understand customer effort and the issues creating friction in customer journeys, issues which could be driving churn, creating grumpy customers and maybe unhappy agents who are then more likely to attrite.   

Whilst we in the industry don’t like talking about AHT anymore, customers do talk about how long it took for their issues to be dealt with. The age old Wait Time, and Hold Time are still important to customers (they are important to the person paying for the contact centre too). Root cause analysis remains a key opportunity to identify where AHT can be reduced and agent workflows can be optimised.   

Customer surveys are great, but really they are much better when the meta data from the call, the quality score and the survey feedback are all joined together.  Customer dissatisfaction data should be an opportunity to identify training needs and make changes, it helps when you have the full context of the interaction in one place.   

If the customer had to contact more than once then it becomes even more critical to link all that data together, identify the processes that are most likely to generate multiple contacts and consider how you can remove those additional contacts driving customer and employee experience.

“Take action to reduce the number of improper transfers”

There are typically 3 key drivers of improper transfers, the key is to take action to reduce them.  I’m sure we’ve either all caused issues through the following or have dealt with the consequences of them during our careers.   

What can you do about it?  

AI powered insights enable faster understanding of issues, patterns can be seen more quickly, improvement areas can be identified and actioned before the end of the shift, not the end of the month.

  1. Identifying coaching opportunities and actioning them quickly can make a material difference. Issues with processes not being completed right now may lay dormant for months, years even?  Consider change of tenancy processes, the details of the tenant or a meter read may be entered incorrectly now which doesn’t present as an issue until the customer receives their first bill (smart metering should prevent this, but what if the start date was captured incorrectly?).
  2. Use of screen capture to see what actually happened, what the agent saw and therefore advised the customer can be critical to identifying system issues, or issues with accuracy of information in the knowledge base.  These are key considerations and opportunities for organisations to be more informed in their decision making.   

“If things are going well now, that is a reflection of the work that went in 6 months ago”

The performance being delivered by your contact centre team is going to reflect the work you have done previously to ensure that you have the right people, processes, and technology.   

Sometimes you may make the wrong choices, the best you can do is play what is in front of you, keeping an eye on the horizon so that things are less likely to come as a surprise. The thing is that through using technology and AI our ability to see what is on the horizon is much improved versus what it was 20 years ago.    

I was speaking with a partner who has seen a 48% increase in QA audit deliver a 30% reduction in AHT.  They’ve used the insights from the QA to reduce improper transfers, improve processes, provide better training for agents and ensure the tech stack is aligned.   

Now I know people don’t like talking about AHT but I’m guessing we’d all be happy to talk about the benefits that could be delivered in improved employee and customer experiences, reduced wait times, more investment time, lower agent attrition, reduced recruitment and training costs, increased customer retention and of course, that all means reduced costs to serve and improved profit margins.   

Need help finding a new star player? 

Harry Kane may be gone, but it already looks like Tottenham are marching on under Ange Postecoglou – where will they finish this season I wonder?

We’d love to chat with you about how you are planning on getting the most out of your team this year and delivering a winning performance.

In the past 12 months we have seen rapid acceleration of automation and AI solutions. However, when it comes down to dealing with customers, human relationships still have their place.

We are all customers and there are times when we just want to get something done quickly. In banking terms that may be a balance or transaction check, give me the information that I need fast and simple. It could be a renewal of your insurance or to check where an order is.

But what if the balance isn’t what you expected or you have a duplicate transaction? The renewal price has changed dramatically, or the order isn’t arriving today after all, and you’ve taken a holiday day to wait for it? Well, you probably want to speak with someone, you want understanding and empathy. Another human to say to you it has all been sorted and there is nothing to worry about, to apologise – and mean it.

So, it is likely there will always be some form of need for human intervention in the process.

People determine the processes 

AIAI can determine when a customer is likely to need to make contact based on analysis of various data points and the creation of insights. It can run tasks/journeys to make proactive contacts at the right times based on customer lifecycles.

However, it has not reached the point of autonomy yet where it can decide what the CX should look like, it can give the tools but you still need to direct the effort, so people remain key.

Are your automation objectives aligned?

 Few outsource providers have the technology inhouse to satisfy the needs of their clients directly, few clients have the experience to implement AI themselves. As an outsource community of CX specialists you have the opportunity to shape the service delivered and the enable your clients to deliver better outcomes for their customers, differentiate their brand and help them either grow their business or reduce costs.

There is no point putting your head in the sand; this change is here, it is happening now. To say “it’s coming and we will get to it” is too little, too late.

The best thing that you can do is ensure that you have the right partners to enable you to deliver the changes that your client needs and the right commercial agreement with your client to ensure that your business is sustainable.

“If you aren’t talking to your clients about AI and automation someone else will be.”

Those who simply try to protect their headcount will find that they are on the losing side when it comes to contract renewal. Don’t wait until renewal comes along to talk to clients about innovation and cost saving, they will see straight through this!  

There are benefits to automation that can support your business

We have seen massive change through homeworking during the pandemic, increased attrition, increased salary costs due to inflation and pressure on clients to manage costs as a result of reduced customer spend due to a hardening economy.

We have seen increasing amounts of work being placed offshore, however there remains the risk that other labour markets become increasingly competitive and then costs will start to rise again.

Customers expect automation for certain tasks, they crave it, so you need to be able to provide solutions for your clients.

“Choosing the right technical partner could be critical to your future success”

As a business you need to ensure that you have:

Remember you get out what you put in. Be sure to properly resource any implementation project, scope realistically, ensure you have a clear business case, deliverables, testing and sign off processes, choosing the right solutions is only half of the story.

Want to know more?

Join Us for our webinar on September 14th, when we will be discussing in more detail the opportunity that AI offers to the outsource community. 

The shift to homeworking during the pandemic expedited the implementation of Teams and other messaging channels for many organisations, necessity being the mother of invention.  Other organisations, especially Tech and developer teams perhaps had been using Slack for some time, but the need to work collaboratively and remotely brought these methods of working into the mainstream.

Making people more accessible through a quick ping on teams or starting a call has all kinds of advantages, a quick clarification on a point, the occasional meme, some great team interaction.  So why would I be calling out the same platforms that enable this to happen as a risk?

A few questions; maybe once you’ve answered these then you’ll dare to think the same?

  1. How many different Teams channels do you have, I call them channels, but you may call then conversations or groups?  There’s a new incident to deal with, someone creates a group, you know what I mean.
  2. How often do you search for a document that you were sent off the back of a conversation and it takes longer to find than it used to, this may just be me getting older…
  3. When you’ve been away from the office for the day or off on holiday for a week, what do you do with your Teams messages, all those conversations sat there in bold?
  4. How often are you working on a document and a ping, ping, ping begins?

Teams (or other such platforms) have the ability to steal your time:

  1. Having multiple conversations means additional time keeping up with them. Depending on the number of people in the conversations and what they are related to, there can often be chatter on a related item that you don’t need to respond on, but you still heard the ping and therefore read the message – concentration can be broken by this and as a result productivity impacted.
  2. The conversations that you don’t need to be involved in the additional comment/back and forth, could be like the equivalent of going and sitting on the desk of a colleague whilst they have a conversation that you don’t need to be part of.
  3. Those multiple conversations can mean that if there is a document or a link that was shared, it could be in one of many places.
  4. When you were away from the office and you missed a conversation that was it, you’d missed it and if there was something material you needed to know you were either sent an e-mail to catch up when you got back or someone made a note to ask you for input, you would not have replayed all the conversations.
  5. The ping, ping, ping – that can be avoided by setting do not disturb, but realistically how consistently do people do this?

Practically, what can be done to minimise the risk and take all the benefits?

  1. Agree an approach for creating new groups, I’ve seen great examples where a channel is set for dealing with a specific type of issue, key people are on the group, if it is needed the bat signal goes in there, detail of the issue and the team are good to go.
  2. Be brave enough to suggest that you don’t need to be in that group any longer and that you plan to remove yourself (if you are needed you can always be added back in).
  3. Agree where you are sharing documents, if they are in a meeting then share in the chat for that meeting for example, this works especially well for recurring weekly meetings.
  4. Be selective as to which threads you go back and review when you come back to the “*the office” (*wherever that may be)
  5. Schedule focus time so that you can get deep work done without interruption, put that time in your diary, it will block the time out so you don’t get the pings, if something urgent comes up, people can still get hold of you.

Agree, or disagree? Let us know your thoughts!

Whilst these are not-for-profit organisations created to provide affordable homes and to support local communities, they must ensure that support is of the highest possible standard at the most effective cost so that the maximum amount of income possible can be reinvested where it is needed most. However, as cost pressures increase how can housing associations ensure that operating costs of contact centres and service management are not eroding the monies required to maintain and build additional properties and give more families the opportunity to have a space of their own.

As England alone needs 340,000 new homes per year, including 145,000 social and affordable homes, there is significant pressure on providers with new residents to be considered, operating costs will increase because of inflation and rising wages and as the number of residents grows the cost to service them will too.

A number of organisations have turned to outsourcing as a means to support their residents, there are many benefits to this approach of using private sector expertise to deliver this including:

The automation conundrum

Working in an environment where customer contacts are often of high emotion brings challenges. Whether moving in or out of a property or if there is a repair that needs to be made, residents are more likely to be calling at a time of stress or need and who wants to speak to an IVR when feeling emotional, not me for sure.  So how do the opportunities to bring technology and automation reconcile with the imperative to deliver a personal service when support is needed? How can the use of technology ensure that those with the greatest need are attended to first?

Perhaps one solution is to get proactive, the use of insight and analytics solutions can unlock vital information and highlight trends within the housing stock, allowing housing associations to identify and remedy an issue before it even happens.

Where agent support is required it is key to ensure that they have delivered all the essential compliance and safety information that may be needed by a resident. Use an intelligent scripting and decision making tool, coupled with speech analytics, to make sure agents have done all that is necessary on the call, providing certainty for the organisation, the agent and the resident. Layer on top coaching tools and analytics and then your agent’s ongoing development is covered, whilst ensuring that key trend data is made available to the organisation. Having these processes in place means that all the right information is passed to engineer resources accurately the first time. This reduces the need for them to go back to a job, avoiding additional costs to the organisation and inconvenience to the resident.

So in summary, effective contact management can help deliver efficiency in scheduling and planning of work throughout your organisation and therefore improve service whilst reducing outlay. Plus feeding all repair data back into the analytics engine can then help with proactive scheduling of work to reduce risk.

Differentiated service

It should be considered that housing associations are the main provider of supported housing in England with 300,000 homes for older people and 115,000 for people who need extra support.

Outsourcing providers are dealing with vulnerable customers on a daily basis across all sectors and can bring both personal and technical expertise to support and develop services in this area. Access to voice analytics software in real-time can assist agents in identifying where additional care may be needed, more than a simple flag on a CRM to signify that a resident was vulnerable at the point of moving into a property. This data is linked to contact number and query routing technology to ensure that people at high risk are connected to the right support quickly. Technology can now pick up on vital clues that a resident’s situation may have changed and therefore they need to be considered as vulnerable.

Channel divergence

People are now communicating in more ways than ever before and often on multiple devices. Conversocial have previously stated that: ‘Customer care teams today are 10 times more likely to resolve customer inquiries via a private channel, like Facebook Messenger and Twitter DM, than they were years prior. What’s more, the rate of growth of conversations using private channels has accelerated to 20 times that of conversations using public channels (i.e. 900% vs 45%).’

When customers need help they should have the opportunity to interact in the channels that they feel most comfortable in, so whilst an e-mail is great for a lengthy dialogue after the event perhaps, a call has historically been the first action if you have an issue, but what about messaging platforms? These have become the key method of interaction in day to day lives and provide the opportunity to ease communication with residents. The ability to send a message and see it was received in WhatsApp, switch to a call or even a video call so that the contact centre agent can physically see an issue and in turn provide visual reassurance.

Who can you talk to about your options?

Having worked closely with a number of housing associations we have an excellent understanding of what is required to deliver excellent customer care at an affordable price. We have built a ‘best of breed’ network of over 180+ contact centres and 100+ technology providers, which makes us perfectly positioned to recommend and source the ‘right’ contact solutions for your business. We are entirely independent, so you know our recommendations are not driven by self-interest. Our selection process is managed by industry experts, so you will always be in safe hands.

For more information, get in touch.

Sources:  

6M number from National Housing Federation https://www.housing.org.uk/about-housing-associations/what-housing-associations-do/

As the days get warmer and the nights get inevitably longer, thoughts for many will turn to handling peak demand, or for those who survived their last peak – reviewing how it went and learning lessons for the next one.

With the headwind of a cost-of-living crisis there’s uncertainty for some as to how busy they’ll be this year. However, all have the challenges of potentially needing to do more with less as increasing costs and potential recruitment issues could mean fewer contact centre agents.

So how do you balance demand and costs to serve? Service from a cheaper location, provide self-serve options, automate… all well-trodden paths with many failing to flourish if not approached in the right manner.

But isn’t voice the undisputed champion when it comes to resolving emotive issues, customers want to be able to engage via multiple channels based on their requirements. We’ve previously heard that:

So, with these numbers in mind, what are the options and where does voice retain it’s title? If staff are harder to find and more expensive than ever, then is the key to ensure that they’re being used as effectively as possible? A ‘well trained’ bot can make a difference in the triage of those 67% who prefer self-service to ensure they only speak to someone if they really need to, it keeps people free for the 83% that want to engage immediately too.

Asynchronous messaging offers flexibility for a customer if they don’t have time to talk but need support, there are opportunities using WhatsApp or web messaging, for example, to easily send photos of what’s causing the issue and switch channel to voice at the right moment.

Proactivity is key when trying to minimise customer effort. For example, my train tickets for a strike day are no use to me now. I need a refund but clearly for commercial reasons I’m not going to be immediately offered one, they’d rather I just decide to travel on another day, but that doesn’t work for me, whereas a proactive contact with a link to trigger a refund would. Other scenarios are easier though and brands making timely interventions can improve the experience for the customer, whilst managing demand and pressure on their own staff.

Voice is here to stay, especially for complex or emotional conversations and certainly when looking to make a sale. The key is ensuring that people have the right skills and information to hand, as well as understanding the insights from those contacts and improving processes where possible. Or when outbound dialling that productivity and conversion are optimised through tools which support the agent in maximising their potential. Good people are hard to find so ensure you give them the tools to do a great job, failing that there is always the option of outsourcing – a problem shared and all that.

Looking for peak demand support this year? Get in touch, we are here to help!

The Contact Centre Panel team like to challenge ourselves and each other in our thinking, to ensure that we are doing the right thing for our clients and partners. We each have our favourite reference points, experiences, “North Stars”. One reference point that John Greenwood often brings me back to, is the age-old wisdom of Robert Lieberman and “The Telephone Book”.

I’ve not read it, at some point I will, but John will take me back to the key question of “what are contact centres about?….they are about winning and retaining customers” and that is something that is indisputable. (I’m probably paraphrasing John and Robert there, but this is what has stuck with me).

Some may be more focused on winning, others retaining, but all play a key part in both. I’ve added grow because really if you aren’t growing and everyone else is, then effectively you are in retreat.

So, if that is the objective then what is your preferred method? Where are your prospects and customers hanging out, where is the best place to find them, how do you best contact and engage with them? The truth is that if you are only using a single channel of communication and type of message, then you are probably missing most of them entirely or you are simply leaving a lot to chance.

We have such an abundance of communication channels available to us, all of which are competing for the attention of your buyers. No single communication is going to bring that win. Instead, a multi-channel approach aligned to the habits of your target market is needed. Advertising only takes you so far, direct mailing of the postal or electronic variety maybe a little further. Make yourselves available for a webchat or WhatsApp messaging, but at some point a conversation is going to happen, for which the phone is still key. Real-time communication where you can hear the “unspoken” questions, the pauses, the hesitations and potential objections.

Because if we really want to win new customers (especially in a business-to-business environment), then we have to KNOW them. We have to understand what they need and when they are likely to need it. We have to build reputation based on understanding and trust. The message, whether delivered via adverts, chat, e-mail or social, will only get you so far.

After that, you have to be available for a conversation, to really listen to what that customer needs and to ensure you have the right solution for them.

Quality of service adds to reputation and credibility, so the non-sales people have a part to play too. If levels of service and customer satisfaction are high then include this in your marketing messaging, all of which can help you get a foot in the door. Speaking to prospects and customers allows you to properly understand their needs such as what and when they need/want to buy. How you communicate with them must include their preferred channels to maximise engagement and gain insight.

You’ll need to tailor that approach according to sector, profile and demographics, but speaking to people is where you start to bring all that hard work together.

A recent article in The Times suggested that working from home is no longer popular with employers and that patience for reduced productivity is running out. Recently I was on a 17:15 flight from Leeds on a Monday evening and as I looked down at the city and the lights below, the queuing traffic suggested that we were returning to the office in ever-increasing numbers.

Changes to legislation in Q4 of 2022 made it feel like employers were obliged to consider any request for remote working as a priority and one that could not be declined. However, against a backdrop of increased pressure to reduce costs, has the tide now turned?

Has the mindset of the working population changed such that there isn’t the appetite for spending a whole working week in the office?  I saw a post about the increasing numbers of over 55s who have become “economically inactive” and how the government are looking to incentivise them to return to the workplace. What an opportunity these people present to contact centre employers. However, even with an incentive I don’t think that is going to be an easy option. Put simply, people’s priorities have changed.

In a recent conversation with a salesperson, he made what was a critical assessment of the nation post-Covid. It probably wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but he was perhaps accurate in his assessment. Post-pandemic, many people have become less generous with their time, they are less courteous, as if not letting someone out at a junction or trying to cut a queue will somehow recompense them for the time “lost” due to the pandemic.

Perhaps this can be applied to the appetite that some people now have for work? For employers with increased costs and potentially falling revenues, if we enter a recession then productivity will be critical.

I didn’t want to hear it as I always prefer to see the best in humanity.

That being said, have we all truly implemented the best processes and support required to make homeworking sustainable for the long term? Are the best practices to support people, seen at the start of the lockdowns, still being actively pursued? Have you gone back and checked in on your technology? Are you confident that everything possible has been done to make working from home viable and if necessary have you ensured that the right conversations about productivity and performance have been had?

Only then should we consider such a decision to bring everyone back into the office full-time.

Perhaps contact centre outsourcing with all our technology, management information, people, processes and approach are better set to make homeworking deliver. Maybe this is our time to shine and working for a contact centre will gain more kudos as it becomes a way to maintain that critical work-life balance that so many people are searching for. If this is the case, then we may have an opportunity to attract and retain the best people to deliver great customer experiences.