We’re all told that necessity is the mother of invention, but today it’s probably equally true to say that headcount reduction commitments are the mother of innovation.

Over the past couple of weeks, both BT and Vodafone have announced plans for massive job cuts – 10% of the workforce for Vodafone and a whopping 40% (55,000 jobs) for BT. These cuts will take place over years, not months, and many will be on the back of natural attrition, will include the non-retention of contractors and will no doubt be eased by some attractive voluntary redundancy terms.

It won’t come as a bit surprise that both the firms themselves and the media has made much of claims that the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and techniques will be a big enabler of falls in headcount. For some, this has been a very positive illustration of the game-changing benefits AI can bring. For others, it’s a chilling harbinger of an AI-driven jobs cull.

There’s no part of the economy in which the mass adoption of AI won’t have massive potential impacts and even the true AI experts don’t pretend to know what these impacts might be; what roles and processes will be changed, upended – or just ended.

The contact centre world is far from unique in the impact that new technologies has and will have on people, but it’s way ahead most because so many AI solutions (or solutions that claim to use AI) have been deployed in the customer service and customer experience world. Bots – whether they rely on defined logical rules or have genuine AI, self-learning capabilities – have already had a massive impact on contact centres and their customers. Ultimately, the applications of AI techniques and insights in contact centres will go far wider than assisting and automating interactions with customers, but for many struggling centres they can be a great start. When applied correctly.

One of the real world examples that has contributed to the recent – understandable – clamour of concern and excitement over the impact of AI on work and jobs comes from Octopus CEO, Greg Jackson. He has gleefully revealed that that AI solutions are saving the work of 250 customer service advisors, while delivering better quality scores than humans (though head to LinkedIn and you’ll find that not all customers agree).

Ofgem figures have revealed that energy customer contact volumes have increased up to 300% through the energy price crisis. So Octopus – like all energy providers – will have had a compelling reason to seize the benefits of technology, especially in customer service.

What is maybe of note, though, is that Octopus has started with the automation of emails. A relatively low-risk, text-based, asynchronous communication channel. To do so is sensible and shows a degree of understandable caution, allowing a controlled roll-out of new technology through which quality and customer impacts can be monitored and assessed. No doubt if the achievements Mr Jackson describes are sustained then Octopus will embrace AI still further, but it seems to be doing so in the way you would hope it would any new solution; in a managed and measured way.

We’re all told that necessity is the mother of invention, but today it’s probably equally true to say that headcount reduction commitments are the mother of innovation. If you want to see an organisation rapidly seeking the productivity benefits promised by AI, then find one whose executive team has already committed to reduce headcount. Then the real organisational challenge is how they go about realising those opportunities.

The profound business and employment changes that BT and Vodafone anticipate over the next few years will obviously stretch far beyond customer service and bots. But, at its best, the contact centre world can potentially prove a useful example of how AI can be implemented in a measured, balanced way – ideally with customers and colleagues at the centre of use cases and decision making.

M&S recently announced that they plan to invest £480 million in their ‘Store Rotation Programme’ which would entail “180 higher quality, higher productivity full line stores…[and] opening over 100 bigger, better food sites”, generating 20 more stores overall. Whilst growing a brick-and-mortar presence may seem surprising to some, due to the general shift towards online shopping caused by the pandemic, research suggests that high street stores are bouncing back.

Analysis conducted by PwC demonstrates that current consumer preferences between online and offline shopping are polarised. 37% of consumers prefer physical stores for enjoyment or pleasure, compared to 32% for online shopping. Additionally, 56% of consumers believe that customer service is better in-store as opposed to online (19%).

Though online shopping continues to be a key part of the buying journey, physical stores will remain significant in customers’ experiences. Stuart Machin, Chief Executive of M&S, echoes this stating that “stores are a core part of M&S’s omni-channel future and serves as a competitive advantage for how customers want to shop today.”

One of the reasons for this is that the high street offers a unique shopping experience that cannot be replicated online. Physical stores offer the opportunity for consumers to see and touch products before buying, as well as receive immediate satisfaction of a purchase. Additionally, physical stores offer the opportunity for face-to-face interactions with sales associates, which can be helpful for making informed purchasing decisions. Some retailers are also experimenting with new technologies like virtual reality, interactive displays and in-store events to enhance the in-store shopping experience and drive foot traffic. More than a third of all consumers would gladly pay more for an enjoyable shopping experience, whether that be a multisensory buying journey or receiving a human touch.

Another reason for the resilience of the high street is the fact that it is a vital part of the community. The high street provides a range of services and amenities to local residents, including shops, restaurants, cafes, and other community services. As local authorities continue to invest in the regeneration of inner cities across the UK, it makes sense that developing more spaces for retail, dining and living are a key part of these plans.

Interestingly, retail brands who are opening brick and mortar stores are also witnessing what they are now coining the ‘halo effect’. That is, the positive effect physical retail can have on online channels. On average, brands see a 36% uplift in online traffic the quarter following the opening of their physical store.

As consumers demand more channels of interaction with a retail brand along their buying journey, physical and digital retail are becoming more and more blended. As a result, brands must now look to ensure channel integration is a key part of their customer service solution. This means creating an omnichannel experience, such as the ability to purchase online and pick up in-store, or the ability to return online purchases in store.

To conclude, whilst the purpose of brick-and-mortar stores may be redefining itself, they remain a crucial part of the retail landscape and thus a brand’s strategy. The high street has stood the test of time, with a post-pandemic bounce back and research suggesting that consumers understand the value of and unique experience offered by high street shopping.

So, what exactly are Super Agents? The term, which is also described as ‘Power Agents’ or ‘High-Performing Agents’, refers to customer service representatives who handle a large volume of contacts and consistently achieve high levels of customer satisfaction, productivity and sales. These agents are typically characterised by their strong communication skills, ability to handle complex interactions and navigate multiple systems and tools.

Super Agents often have a deep understanding of the product or service they are representing and are able to quickly and accurately provide information to customers. They are also adept at handling difficult customers and resolving complaints quickly.

Super Agents can improve overall contact centre performance by handling more contacts, reducing handle time and increasing sales or upsells. They also tend to have a lower turnover rate, which can lead to cost savings for the organisation.

There are several ways to create and maintain Super Agents in a contact centre. Here are a few key strategies that organisations can use:

• Recruitment and hiring: Screen candidates based on specific criteria such as communication skills, problem-solving abilities and customer service experience. This helps to ensure that new hires have the potential to become Super Agents.
• Training and development: Provide comprehensive training and development programmes for agents. This should include product and service knowledge, as well as communication and problem-solving skills. Agents should also have access to ongoing training and development opportunities throughout their career to continue to improve their abilities.
• Performance management: Establish clear performance expectations and metrics for agents and provide regular feedback on their performance. Use performance management tools such as real-time monitoring and analytics to track agents’ activities and identify areas for improvement.
• Incentives and recognition: Create incentives and recognition programmes to reward top-performing agents. This can include bonuses, time off or other rewards that recognise their achievements and motivate them to maintain their high level of performance.
• Empowerment: Giving agents the autonomy and support to make decisions and provide solutions to customers issues, this improves the sense of job ownership and motivation.
• Technology: Provide agents with the technology and tools they need to effectively handle customer interactions. This can include CcaaS solutions with advanced routing and queue management capability, CRM software and knowledge management systems.

It is worth noting that Super Agents, also need to continuously learn, adapt and advance, it is important that organisations continuously evaluate and update their strategies for creating and maintaining a team of high-performing agents.

If you need help sourcing the right technology to empower your agents or need guidance around training and development, performance management or recruitment, get in touch.

Our initial opinion piece questioned the fears raised in an article published by The Guardian on the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation on UK call-centre workforce. In May 2019 we revisited the subject, publishing an in-depth article that canvassed the opinions of leading minds on the subject of AI and Digital Disruption.

What were the predictions?

According to the Guardian’s sources, 45,700 jobs will disappear from the Contact Centre sector by 2021. This is a huge number of course but needs to be put in context. 1.3 million people in the UK are currently employed by around 6,200 Contact Centres – meaning that the predicted shrinkage in jobs is around 3.5%.

What does this mean for customer service and outsourcing?

There’s definitely an unstoppable momentum towards consumers shopping and seeking customer service via the internet. We’ve seen the effect this is already having on our high streets with the failure of some major retail names. However, people are not stopping shopping, they’re simply choosing the best way to shop for themselves.
Unfortunately, big decisions by some major users of outsourced Contact Centres will affect jobs as alternative providers are selected. However, this is usually the result of roles moving, not disappearing… and in most cases this movement is driven by brands seeking better performance, not by lower consumer demand for great customer experiences.
Continuing developments in AI and automation will deliver more effective ways to complete repeatable tasks, potentially reducing the number of agents required to perform the more mundane aspects of serving consumers. However, AI is a long way from delivering complete customer service solutions – even the experts we’ve spoken to agree that the major opportunities for AI and automation lie in speeding up the correct routing of enquiries, or solving the simplest and most frequent of problems.

Are there any opportunities from these shifts in technology?

Improvements in AI and internet-based customer transactions will reduce the volume of calls which human beings need to handle, we can’t argue against that. We can safely assume therefore, that in the future Contact Centres will need fewer agents overall.

However, good automation and AI implementations will leave more time for agents to deliver better service to consumers with more complex needs. This can only be good for consumers and agents alike.

At CCP we still can’t imagine a future where the human element of customer service and outbound contact doesn’t play a critical part. Contact centres will continue to provide a vital human interaction for those in-depth enquiries that robotic systems simply can’t deal with. As a result, agents will need to be trained to deal with more complex situations and empowered to deliver genuinely human judgement calls, which should increase their value as individuals and improve the loyalty of consumers to the brands that get it right.

For brands, building the right customer service experience often means choosing the right outsourced Contact Centre, which ultimately has huge potential to enable excellent customer service to be delivered using a combination of well-implemented automation and well trained, properly recognised human agents. In turn, happy customers of course become more loyal and this results in continued and increased spending.

Finding the right Contact Centre with the right skills and trained agents is critical, if you’re to provide excellent customer experience and improve loyalty from customers to your brand.
At Contact Centre Panel, we have built our business on helping brands to choose their perfect outsourcing match. Our scientific approach and industry expertise results in long-lasting, rewarding business relationships – watch our short video to see how this works.

If you’d like a free no-nonsense, no-obligation evaluation of your current Contact Centre solution, or just a quick chat about how you could improve things, contact us today:
Phone 0114 209 6120 or email info@contactcentrepanel.com today.

Sources:
The Guardian – Rise of robots threatens to terminate the UK call-centre workforce

We spoke to two industry stalwarts from very different Contact Centres and asked them about their approach to B2B work. Anne Bagnall is Managing Director of Phonetic Limited, a flexible Contact Centre with a core of B2B and some B2C clients amongst the client list, allowing her to give an all-round perspective. Paul Fletcher is MD of CC33, a boutique Contact Centre focused on inbound and outbound B2B calls including appointment setting and lead generation, working hand in hand with clients to deliver and end-to-end solution. These two industry leaders shared their experience and honest opinions with us.

B2B versus B2C – How is Business to Business Contact different from Business to Consumer?

When most people think of Contact Centres, they think of B2C outbound contact and customer service. There’s no doubt that Consumer contact is a huge and important slice of the industry, but Business contact remains a consistent and rewarding area for Contact Centres possessing the right mix of skills, experience and tools. We put three key questions to our B2B experts to identify what it takes to provide a top-level outsourced B2B Contact service.

What are the biggest differences between your approach to B2B Contact, compared to your experience of B2C work?

Anne Bagnall talked about the sheer lack of knowledge and familiarity of B2B brands and buyers with regard to potential outsourcers: “The biggest B2C brands have used Contact Centres for years – they know the outsourced providers and the outsourcers tend to know them too. B2B clients tend to be nervous because the business has tried and failed to do the work before and is looking at outsourcers to fix the problem. Quite often the clients look for a Cost Per Acquisition or some other kind of risk & reward model, because of this nervousness.

“Typically B2B work uses a much lower number of seats than a B2C contract: 8 seats can be a large team for B2B! Despite the smaller teams, much more hands-on management is used than for B2C teams because the approach tends to be less formulaic and more flexible. Smaller, more targeted audiences mean that a very proactive approach is needed. It’s not an easy environment but with a high ratio of management per agent and a close relationship with clients, we can achieve great results.

“On a positive note, good B2B clients enable you to put roots into their organisation. We have a list of very long tenures, ultimately down to building relationships on trust and performance. This means we can deal with challenges together, like last year’s introduction of GDPR for example. The close working relationship that’s needed to achieve good results can really help to grow successful partnerships with clients.”

Paul Fletcher’s experience is slightly different, but there are definite common threads in the conversation: “We find it important to be extremely realistic with our B2B clients. We’re very heavy on our management ‘mothering’ clients but by working closely, we can really improve the results clients receive compared to initial expectations.

“Working with B2B clients on a closely-managed cost per hour basis, we can build a value-led quality assured operation, which isn’t often possible with the cost-per-acquisition model.

“One huge benefit of working in B2B markets is the availability of enhanced data. GDPR has helped, but in B2C sectors you can’t usually obtain extra data about the risk of a contact. For B2B data, on the other hand, we can check for financial indicators which can be very important when it comes to leads moving through our clients’ sales funnels… by checking for financial risk information up front, we can maximise the convertibility of leads we pass through.”

Why do you think more organisations don’t outsource B2B Contact work?

Paul from CC33 echoed Anne’s earlier comment when we asked this question: “Fear. Many buyers have been burned before. What most buyers don’t know is that the industry has changed a lot from a ‘bums on seats’ model with high client churn between Contact Centres, towards a much better appreciation of what really works for B2B clients.

“Potential clients aren’t always aware of the extra things a good Contact Centre can do to help a B2B brand achieve better results. Great data quality, transparency and working hard together with the clients to find the right approach can all make a big difference. Being up front with the client about how they can influence the results is important, too. It’s our job to make our buyers look good!”

Anne Bagnall identifies some different reasons that B2B operations have for keeping things in-house; “Some brands may have already built a specialist in-house team. If they’ve done this, there are barriers to disbanding this and if the work is done well, it can be cheaper than outsourcing. On top of this, there can be perceived loss of control when thinking about moving an in-house operation to an outsourcer.

“On the other hand, some clients already have a good in-house operation but don’t have capacity to expand or handle spikes in activity. This is where a good outsourced Contact Centre can help by adding a layer of lead generation, passing or hot-keying leads to the internal team and improving their success rates.

“As outsourcers, it’s our job to educate B2B organisations about how the right outsourcers can enhance an in-house team, rather than offering a complete alternative to it.”

Is there such a thing as a perfect B2B agent, as opposed to a B2C agent?

Anne from Phonetic uses agents on both B2C and B2B contracts, so she should be in a good position to compare the best characteristics needed to succeed in each area. “For B2B work the perfect agent shares many traits with a good B2C agent, but some are more important for business contacts. Someone who is intelligent and has a lot of common sense will work well in both B2B and B2C work, but an ability to listen and communicate well is great for B2B work because agents need to rely much less on scripts and more on a less structured call guide. The flexibility to adapt to training and guidance is more essential in B2B environments as conversations tend to be more exploratory and less scripted.

“Talking to business contacts whilst they are working can actually be much less stressful than B2C work when it’s done well, as the business people a B2B agent is calling are in their work environment rather than at home trying to avoid calls. A polite and articulate agent might have to arrange another time for a conversation, but finding a better time can result in a positive outcome, so it’s often worthwhile establishing a rapport over a longer timescale.”

What Does This Mean For B2B Organisations?

With B2B-specialist skills in evidence in some established Contact Centres, outsourcing is definitely an option for B2B brands who are considering a new approach, or who need additional capacity to help their existing team to meet demand. Adding a layer of lead generation or qualification is also a real option to improve the performance of an already-successful internal contact team.

Knowing which Contact Centres possess great B2B competence and infrastructures shouldn’t be expected, thankfully here at The Contact Centre Panel it’s our job to make sure that Brands and businesses find the best Contact Centres to meet their needs. An in-depth knowledge of the sectors we work with, coupled with our rigorous selection process and network of over 80 outsourced Contact Centre providers, means that we can work with brands in B2B environments to find the right partners.

We offer a free, no-obligation assessment of your current Sales and Customer Service Contact provision, so just contact us by email or call 0114 209 6120 to talk about your needs. We won’t push: we will only help if you need it.

Keep In Touch

Follow CCP on LinkedIn for regular industry news and updates. It’s not all about us! Just look at our website’s News & Publications page for many more helpful articles.

To find out more about working with the perfect partner for your business, give us a call here at Contact Centre Panel on 0114 209 6120 or contact us using the form on our website.

In a recent Guardian article, an attention-grabbing headline suggested that the increasing use of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) “threatens to terminate the UK call centre workforce”. At CCP we thought we should take a careful look behind the headlines…

There’s no doubt that the increasing pace of automation will have an effect on contact centre operations and staffing. The future for human contact is already being influenced by two huge shifts in service delivery:

1. The continuing and inevitable move to delivering sales, customer service and other business-to-customer interactions via the internet, and
2. Phone-based AI especially for inbound streaming of enquiries and outbound lead generation.

However, even within the Guardian’s concerningly-headlined piece, the numbers being quoted do not ring out the death-knell for our sector just yet.

With around 6,200 customer service centres in the UK employing around 1.3 million people, it is inevitable that some major high street names will regularly make decisions that affect jobs. Individual agents will be significantly affected, and in some cases the towns where major contact centres are based will feel the effects, but most of these decisions will not significantly alter the overall size and shape of the sector. Most of the decisions will shift work from one provider or contact centre to another, driven by outsourcing previously-in-house work, or changing provider at the end of a contract review, for example.

If we read the article, even the most pessimistic forecasts illustrate a contact centre industry which will remain large despite the best efforts of our Robot Overlords. In the Finance Sector for example, 13,000 of 230,000 agents in customer service call centres are quoted as “expected to go”, which represents 5.7% of staff. Whilst important, this is not the devastation of the sector.

So, Should We Be Worried?

Improvements in AI and internet-based customer transactions will reduce the volume of calls which human beings need to handle, we can’t argue against that. We can safely assume therefore, that we will need fewer agents overall as the future comes to meet us.

However, here at CCP we can’t imagine a future where the human element of customer service and outbound contact doesn’t play a major part. How many times have you waited to hear “Press 5 to speak to an agent” simply because you want to know that a human being will be dealing with your issue?

AI will improve to the point where it can take care of many repetitive scenarios… but contact centres will continue to provide that human element for those in-depth enquiries that our automated friends simply can’t deal with. This means that agents may need to be better trained to deal with more complex situations, which should increase their value as individuals and is likely to improve the loyalty of the ultimate owner of the customer relationship (the High Street Retailer, Bank, Utility Company etc) to their contact centres.

This means that finding the right contact centre with the right skills and trained agents will be more important, to promote better customer experiences and improved loyalty from the customer to the brand, and from the brand to the contact centre.

Perhaps the future isn’t so scary after all?

What do you think? We’d appreciate your thoughts… Respond to this article or get in touch with one of our humans here at CCP!

Sources:

The Guardian – Rise of robots threatens to terminate the UK call-centre workforce