The game itself is simple yet so addictive, becoming a popular hit with gamers world-wide with 12 million downloads in its first month! A real gem of a game for the die-hard Marvel fans (go give it a try).

Yet, as I sat plotting where to place my Iron Man card to double my point count, my thoughts went back to a recent conversation I had with a client. One where the client in question was slightly hesitant about the idea of outsourcing their Gaming customer service requirements to a third party.

Why was this?

Well, when we take a game like Marvel Snap, it’s very easy to see all the detail that has gone into a very simple looking game on the face of it. These types of games are really make or break for the developer in question, hence the meticulous planning and detail that goes into creating a game of this standard. So handing over your community management requirements to an outsourced partner can feel like a big bold step to take, one that can really have a negative impact on your player base if not done correctly.

It’s not just the traditional consoles that are delivering the latest games too, mobile gaming’s share of total gaming revenue has climbed significantly over the past decade. Today, mobile gaming is responsible for over half of total gaming revenue (Newzoo). From a customer point of view, its not just the avid console fanatics that can play these games, but anybody with access to the internet can now download their favourite game. This has presented an even bigger headache in terms of the breadth and depth of support that developers are now having to provide to their customers, which is why more and more gaming companies are looking to outsource their customer support requirements.

If sourced properly, the right outsourced partner can help the company to Level Up! their customer service strategy.

Those Level Up! benefits include (but not limited to):

So the next time you are thinking about your customer/community strategy, select Co-op mode and let your outsourced Player 2 enter the game.

Are you looking for help with your Gaming Customer Services/Community Support requirements? If so, get in touch, we have specialised partners on our network who can help with this.

Entering Q4 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.

Whether by design or not, the same difficulties apply and that message in the IVR saying “due to covid” isn’t well received by customers any longer.

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 king when it comes to resolving emotive issues, customers want to be able to engage via multiple channels based on their requirements. We’ve recently heard that:

So, with these numbers in mind, what are the options and where does voice retain the throne?  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 remains a jewel in the crown 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.

Unfortunately, mystery shopping and benchmarking can be quite tedious and a lengthy undertaking. But recently a colleague and I carried out a mystery shopping assessment for a client operating in a competitive financial service environment.

So equipped with Neville Doughty’s recent article ‘The Triple Threat: 3 key challenges facing contact centres’, which highlighted ‘staff attraction and retention, channel shift and automation’ as major current challenges to contact centres, I’ve mused on what my bit of mystery shop benchmarking might tell us.

1. Bots still aren’t that common and often just don’t work

Surprisingly, only 2 of the 12 companies use webchat and none of the others actively promote any social media messaging apps as customer service channels. Both of those companies also had a Bot. But neither Bot recognised any standard terms or phrases related to their proposition or service that we used, so consequently none of our contacts were ‘contained’ and managed by the Bots

2. Other elements of best practice or useful technologies are under-represented

3. Service levels are all over the place

Across the 12 companies the average call answer time varied by a factor of 26 to 1 (41 seconds was the shortest average, 1075 – that’s nearly 18 minutes – was the longest)

4. There’s no ‘settled view’ about acceptable, live-agent opening hours

Some companies were only available to customers Monday to Friday, and some also open on Saturdays. A few opened on Sundays, too and one – surprisingly an ‘app-first’ online challenger brand – was available 24 hours per day, across all contact channels. This results in their having total weekly open hours 4 times the number of its least accessible competitor

These are challenging times for brands and their contact centres, but options and possibilities to do things differently and better abound. If you’d like to discuss how different technologies, resourcing and customer propositions might help your hard-pressed contact centre operation, just get in touch.

If brands are to be successful, they need to be:

Authentic: feeding the social consciousness in society.
Differentiated: tough to do in a market where replication is easy. Some form of ‘value add’ needs to be evident.
Responsive: perhaps in a crisis, but with the advent of ‘big data’ the notion of a ‘segment of one’ – brands need to be proactive and anticipate a need before the customer realises that they have it.
Consistent: failures in delivery will typically lead to a customer switching to an alternate supplier if expectations are not met.

Forrester stated that: “Consumers expect any desired information or service to be available, in context, at their precise moment of need.”

So how do we ensure delivery against this level of customer demand? The agility that is required to do so has led to a number of older businesses failing and the growth of many start-ups that are now leaders in their sectors.

Critically many of these do not even own the commodity that they are marketing:

All of these businesses are effectively selling a service that utilises something that belongs to another. This demonstrates the evolution of economies from commodities to goods, then services and latterly to experiences.

Based on this premise, customer needs have changed:

This movement from commodity to experience offers the opportunity to maximise revenues and margins. Take for example Starbucks, the value of coffee beans in raw form versus what is charged as an end product in a coffee shop.

As we face a cost-of-living crisis it will be interesting to see if consumers become less interested in the experience and go back to focusing on costs. For many businesses it may seem like a necessity but there are smarter ways to do this.

If you need help finding new ways to improve efficiencies, whilst maintaining or improving CX, get in touch.

“Consumers expect any desired information or service to be available, in context, at their precise moment of need”

Forrester

Here’s a quote from the BBC article in which Meta chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, stated that the development would help companies customise their experience and that “The best business experiences meet people where they are,”. He said at the announcement of the new service that “Already more than one billion users connect with a business account across our messaging services every week.”

So clearly customers are already using WhatsApp to engage with businesses, the change here is more about the “how”.

I do agree that customers want to be serviced where they are, the whole point of frictionless CX is making it easy and if I’m having other conversations in WhatsApp, then why not add another? The rules are clear, I must engage the company in the chat, they cannot engage me. The addition to a “Contact Us” page of a “WhatsApp Us” is a good way to support customers in that space.

From a delivery of service perspective, it can make the conversation harder as there is the asynchronous nature of a WhatsApp. As a customer I may start the chat now but not pick up the response for 3 hours, the conversation could continue for the best part of a week. This creates an interesting challenge for the business and the people within it though. Does it mean that multiple agents are going to interact with that supporter who could send messages across a timeframe that exceeds a shift or a working day? Contact centres have already been managing this situation for sure, but is the result an impact to efficiencies that servicing via WhatsApp is trying to achieve as another member of the team needs to familiarise themselves to respond to the last message? Or should we be setting a lower SLA on the follow up responses, seeing if the initial agent will be back to deal with it and leaving it for them to manage when back on shift?

I remember a time when first implementing e-mail solutions, in which trying to get the system to manage the stop and start of the clock to deal with e-mails “within the SLA” was a whole project strand. This would mean sometimes missing the reason behind the “customer” need and focusing too heavily on what the “client” had stipulated. The model was focused on one mail in and one mail out. Thankfully, technologies have moved forward now and the right blend of technology can ensure the initial phase of a conversation via messaging platforms can capture key information so the agent is best placed to resolve the query. For me, one of the best things with WhatsApp is the ability to switch from messaging to voice easily if needed all within the one channel.

‘Meta Platforms Inc (including Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp) have over 3.6 billion active users.’

Statistica

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 recently 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 two 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 140 contact centres and 50 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/

With economic forecasters predicting the largest growth period since the post-war boom, the importance of converting sales has never been higher, with consumers using a variety of communication platforms to engage with businesses, it can be very easy to miss out on a sale if your channels aren’t set up properly.  

As businesses prepare for growth and look to optimise their contact centre operations, selecting the right customer engagement technology solution has become crucial. Cost effective customer acquisition and a reduction in ‘cost to serve’ are both desirable goals but achieving them can be a challenge if you don’t have a true understanding of available technologies and their alignment to your existing environment.  

In the first of our series of expert panel discussions chaired by John Greenwood, Head of Technology, Contact Centre Panel, we look at the Bot and the differences in the technology underpinning operational performance. We will explore the difference in programmable products vs those that have minimal learning input before effectively replacing their human equivalents. The webinar will include an audience Q & A, where you will get the opportunity to ask the panelists questions.

Expert panel

John Greenwood: Head of Technology & Payments, Contact Centre Panel

John is a payments specialist and leading authority in PCI DSS compliance and how this applies to customer contact centres and 3rd party service providers. He was the driver and lead content contributor to the official PCI SSC Information Supplement, published in late 2018. John is a technology subject matter expert with over 30 years’ experience working with and within the industry, he has a deep understanding of the technology vendor landscape as well as BPO and contact centre environments.

Nathan Smith: Founder & MD, Gabba

Nathan is the founder and managing director of Gabba, an award-winning pioneer in digital and chatbot marketing. He has worked with some of the best-known names in the corporate world, including Microsoft and Siemens. Author of the book Social Media for the Legal Sector (Law Society Publications), he is passionate about sharing his knowledge to empower other organisations.

Chris Kellner: Global VP Sales & Partnerships, Digital Genius

Chris is responsible for leading business development, marketing and partnerships at DigitalGenius. DigitalGenius is the Ai platform that puts your customer support on autopilot by understanding conversations, automating repetitive processes to help guide your customers. The platform is powered by deep learning that understands your customers’ objectives, then drives automated resolutions through APIs that connect seamlessly to your own backend systems.

Natalie Calvert: Founder, CX High Performance

Natalie helps businesses to put their customers at the heart of their organisation through superb CX employee engagement programmes. Natalie has work with, empowered and equipped more than 200,000 service & sales professionals and leaders across 100+ global organisations to deliver world class customer service during her 25 year career. Over the past 10 years Natalie has judged the UK Lloyds Bank National Business Awards for The Virgin Atlantic Customer Experience & Loyalty award. Natalie is also a Board Advisor to the National Business Awards.

Topics for discussion

With economic forecasters predicting the largest growth period since the post-war boom, the importance of converting sales has never been higher, with consumers using a variety of communication platforms to engage with businesses, it can be very easy to miss out on a sale if your channels aren’t set up properly.  

As businesses prepare for growth and look to optimise their contact centre operations, selecting the right customer engagement technology solution has become crucial. Cost effective customer acquisition and a reduction in ‘cost to serve’ are both desirable goals but achieving them can be a challenge if you don’t have a true understanding of available technologies and their alignment to your existing environment.  

In the first of our series of expert panel discussions chaired by John Greenwood, Head of Technology, Contact Centre Panel, we look at the Bot and the differences in the technology underpinning operational performance. We will explore the difference in programmable products vs those that have minimal learning input before effectively replacing their human equivalents. The webinar will include an audience Q & A, where you will get the opportunity to ask the panelists questions.

Meet the panel

Louis Halpern: Chairman, Conversations with Ami

Louis is an ad tech veteran and is the driving force, along with fellow founder Lawrence Turner, behind Ami. He has in-depth insight and knowledge of the world of Ai and Bots. Meet Ami is Conversational Ai and contributes to clients’ competitive advantage by increasing customer service capacity, immediately freeing up resources and creating better outcomes. Louis is a big advocate of mentoring and also runs ‘Realise your potential Mentoring’, which support micro-business owners and corporate staff of all levels.

Natalie Calvert: Founder, CX High Performance

Natalie helps businesses to put their customers at the heart of their organisation through superb CX employee engagement programmes. Natalie has worked with, empowered and equipped more than 200,000 service & sales professionals and leaders across 100+ global organisations to deliver world class customer service during her 25 year career. Over the past 10 years Natalie has judged the UK Lloyds Bank National Business Awards for The Virgin Atlantic Customer Experience & Loyalty award. Natalie is also a Board Advisor to the National Business Awards.

John Greenwood: Head of Technology & Payments, Contact Centre Panel

John is a payments specialist and leading authority in PCI DSS compliance and how this applies to customer contact centres and 3rd party service providers. He was the driver and lead content contributor to the official PCI SSC Information Supplement, published in late 2018. John is a technology subject matter expert with over 30 years’ experience working with and within the industry, he has a deep understanding of the technology vendor landscape as well as BPO and contact centre environments.

Nathan Smith: Founder & MD, Gabba

Nathan is the founder and managing director of Gabba, an award-winning pioneer in digital and chatbot marketing. He has worked with some of the best-known names in the corporate world, including Microsoft and Siemens. Author of the book Social Media for the Legal Sector (Law Society Publications), he is passionate about sharing his knowledge to empower other organisations.

Topics for discussion

Over the past few years, the challenges facing the retail industry have been greatly publicised. With intense competition from new online only entrants, years of sluggish economic growth and heavily debt-financed business models, creating an environment in which we have seen a number of major High Street retailers fail. In 2019 alone, we saw Bonmarche, Clintons, Coast, Debenhams, Jack Wills, Jessops, Karen Millen, Mamas and Papas, Mothercare and Thomas Cook – either disappear, undergo major restructuring in pre-pack administration deals or become insolvent and the brand rights sold to other retailers.

In the pandemic ridden year of 2020, we have already seen similar fates for Antler Luggage, Beales, Brighthouse, DW Sports, Go Outdoors, Laura Ashley, Oddbins, TJ Hughes and Victoria’s Secret.

Almost all of these High Street retailers or brands have gone through pre-pack administration deals, which have seen major rounds of store closures and trade creditors largely unpaid, with major stakeholders and landlords facing renegotiated deals. Go Outdoors, for example, were bought by their existing owner JD Sports to be restructured, with unsecured creditors expecting to see only 1p in the pound.

Alarmingly but not surprisingly, the knock-on effect of so many retailers seeking lower rents as part of pre-pack administration deals has been a financial impact on landlords, including Intu properties who entered administration in June. Intu owns and manages some of the UK’s largest shopping malls, where retailers house their major stores, but carries total debts of over £4.5 billion.

While many businesses are failing, others are benefitting from the situation. Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct empire has recently bought House of Fraser and has enjoyed several years of incorporating well-known brands into its portfolio. The group (now renamed as Frasers Group) has purchased House of Fraser, Evans Cycles, Jack Wills, GAME and key assets from the DW Sports Fitness business since 2018, to add to its wide list of brands including Agent Provocateur, Everlast, Karrimor, Lonsdale and North Face.

Boohoo have also been on the acquisition trail. Following major success in the online channel, they have further expanded their offering by purchasing Oasis and Warehouse, to add to their Karen Millen and Coast buys earlier this year. It is worth noting that Boohoo has acquired the online brands only, leaving the High Street stores to close, totalling over 120 stores and around 600 concessions. With reported cash to spare, more purchases might follow and Boohoo will need to build a business capable of incorporating the new brands successfully. The more mature demographic of the new brands’ customers might serve to improve customer loyalty and offset the criticism of Boohoo as a ‘fast fashion’ retailer. Certainly, there will be implications for Boohoo’s sales processing and customer services teams, who will need to adapt or replace legacy systems and maintain service levels to loyal customers who stay with the brands.

Survival of the fittest

With such a bleak sector landscape, how can High Street and online retailers keep their customer service operations functioning well? It might not seem a big priority to financial decision-makers, but ultimately retailers’ survival depends on retaining and gaining shopper spend, so how can they deliver a great service amidst this turmoil?

The impact on the High Street

It is difficult to predict how the High Street will look in future. The efforts of Mary Portas to invigorate the High Street have been dealt a blow by the global economic slowdown. Early signs are that a shift away from out of town shopping to local trips plus online shopping has taken place. If this shopper behaviour sticks, there are opportunities for smaller businesses to succeed and big challenges for large brands to stay relevant in physical shops. To maintain their share of consumer spending, retailers will need to complement an attractive physical experience with excellent online provision and effective customer service.

The only exceptions to this rule seem to be the lowest priced retailers. Both Primark and B&M, for example, appear to be flourishing in 2020 by delivering a simple price-based offering with no online backup. B&M was classified as an ‘essential’ store early in the UK’s journey through this pandemic, and queues built up outside its stores. The lack of online provision by the brand meant that shopping behaviour did not alter in two channels, so change was easier to deal with. Primark closed its stores until June, then continued to retail goods using its established model. Physical retail experiences a much lower level of returns and Primark’s low prices continue to attract shoppers in a much more price-sensitive post-furlough environment. Shoppers simply do not feel as confident about buying expensive goods.

These exceptions, however, do not represent most retailers. Many brands need to offer what consumers want whilst managing costs to balance customer satisfaction with sustainable physical and online retail operations.

The shift to online shopping

Covid-19 has accelerated the already-huge move to online shopping. However, the global pandemic has created new challenges: coping with the sudden increase in demand and the need for new operational procedures means that an increase in online sales has not meant an increase in profits for many online retailers. Take Amazon, the online shopping juggernaut: although sales were up 26% in the first quarter of 2020, profits were down. The company’s net income reduced by 10% from $4.4 billion to $4 billion, and provisions to fight Covid-19 were expected to account for that entire income. Amazon seems to be playing the long game, putting customers ahead of profit. Other retailers can learn from this, but many will not have the profits available to support that strategy.

We predict that the accelerated shift towards online shopping will stick. Much like the realisation that we can actually work from home now, shoppers have realised that online shopping actually works. Once that behaviour is rewarded with a positive experience, it tends to develop into a habit. Lower cost retail channels, managed well, result in higher channel profits for retailers so the winners will be those who can combine good processes with great customer service.

Balancing cost reductions and great customer service

The challenge for retailers is to retain happy customers whilst keeping costs down. Exceptional demands on ops managers to keep businesses working at a time of massive change will have resulted in big cost increases for many. Unprecedented volume fluctuations in sales and in enquiries can stress-test a business beyond breaking point. Those who were most adaptable might already have gained an advantage. How can retailers keep costs down during this time of huge upheaval?

  1. Adopt the right technologies

If your retail business is adapting business processes to deal with your post-Covid future, are you building on a future-proof flexible platform? Even with excellent teams and leaders, legacy systems might restrict your abilities to change quickly and to handle enormous variations in throughput. They may also be unsuitable for homeworkers, presenting problems including how to handle payment processes and personal information over a remote connection.

Flexible business systems now exist which are rapidly deployable and capable of fully compliant end-to-end data handling. They can deliver surprising results in short lead times, resulting in a customer experience which is more seamless, more satisfying and better value than existing systems which seemed fine until the world changed!

  1. Choose the right partners

For many retailers, the biggest challenge throughout 2020 has been forecasting and dealing with massive fluctuations in sales and customer service demand. The shift towards online shopping with associated increases in returns, then back to physical shopping has caused huge variation in the demand for sales processing and customer service support. Failure to handle the fluctuations has resulted in losses of sales, which will be unmeasurable for most organisations. Lack of resource to resolve issues and handle enquiries, similarly, results in failures which cannot be measured by most operators.

Working with carefully selected outsourcers has allowed the best retailers to be truly flexible, adapting agent numbers when needed to cope with unpredictable variations in demand. This has allowed them not only to accurately assess demand but to deliver customer service solutions to a confused and demanding customer base at a time of high sensitivity. In the long term this will result in customer loyalty, however the retail landscape changes into 2021 and beyond.

What does 2021 hold for your business?

If you are planning for the uncertain future, make sure that you build a sales and customer service operation that is ready to deal with the uncertainty we have experienced in 2020. The retail sector will continue to be intensely competitive and challenging throughout and following the Covid-19 pandemic: retailers who survive must be prepared for difficult years ahead, which will require adaptability, cost management and great teams delivering excellent services to demanding customers.

Consider how you will deal with post-Covid customer service volumes and your strategic options for technology and flexibility. CCP can help. Our skilled and vastly experienced team is backed by our comprehensive Contact Centre and Technology Networks.

Get in touch, to find how best to build a future proof customer services solution, using the right technology and support services to deliver a flexible, cost effective and world-class customer experience.

In 2020, the struggles of the air travel industry have been well documented. In the past week, Virgin Atlantic has filed for bankruptcy protection, it has been publicised that 6000 British Airways employees have accepted voluntary redundancy, Boeing has announced that they are ceasing the manufacture of their iconic 747 jet, while EasyJet is scheduling extra flights to cope with a sudden upsurge in demand. Sadly, that upsurge is nothing to be too optimistic about – with the airline currently working at just 30% capacity and seeing a 10% increase in holidaymaker numbers.

The economic climate is incredibly challenging for the airline industry, illustrated by the potential bankruptcy protection of Virgin Atlantic, the significant reduction in British Airways workforce and EasyJet considering a 30% reduction, while Boeing reported a loss $3 billion in the three months to June 2020.

The physical disruption, caused by Covid-19, to contact centre operations has been a major challenge. With agents being forced, at short notice, to operate from home and access key systems remotely. Then there is the dilemma of move agents back to the contact centre – willing or not.

So in this global environment, how do air travel businesses plan and deliver excellent customer service?

Changing customer service demands

Historically, air industry contact centre volumes have been relatively easy to predict. Seasonal variations repeated year upon year, with any spikes in demand usually driven by marketing campaigns or weather events which were restricted to specific geographies. 2020 has been vastly different.

With Covid-19 restricting international movement of people, demand for air travel abruptly fell to virtually zero. At the same time, the demand for answers to questions spiked alarmingly, but understandably, with millions of anticipated holidaymakers and business travellers suddenly needing to alter or cancel their travel plans. Airline customer service teams were faced with an unprecedented situation.

Following the initial spike in demand for news about cancelled flights and refund handling, call volumes dropped again and settled into more predictable enquiries, giving companies an opportunity to redraft FAQs for agents to deliver consistent standards of service. However, this period of relative stability did not last.

More recently, regional, national and international ‘mini-lockdowns’ have caused unpredictable spikes in demand. The recent decision by the UK Government to impose quarantine restrictions on travellers returning home from Spain, for example, was given with only five hours’ notice. Understandably, customer service departments were faced with a new situation they were mostly unprepared for.

How can the industry cope?

With no end to the pandemic insight and outbreaks being handled on a more local basis – enormous variations in customer service demand are likely to be the norm. How do travel companies build a service capability which can deal with this?

As airlines stopped flying, some companies deployed their cabin crew to support other departments. Commonly, the multi-lingual skills and industry knowledge that cabin crew possess have provided much needed assistance to teams struggling to cope with demand. Although, as flights gradually recommence this temporary measure needs to be replaced.

For a permanent solution, air travel businesses are planning to use two important enablers:

  1. Technology
  2. Outsourced help

Technology – the enabler

To enable agents to cope with new questions and periods of unprecedented demand, implementing improved or more sophisticated technology is being viewed as a must have by some businesses. Technology platforms are available which can be implemented surprisingly quickly, capable of rapidly expanding numbers of agents to satisfy changing volumes. In addition, automated systems can reduce the demand on human agents, allowing your team to spend more time dealing with complex enquiries while simpler transactions are handled without the need for intervention.

To enable agents to cope with new questions and periods of unprecedented demand, implementing technology is being viewed as a must have by some businesses. Technology platforms are available which can be implemented surprisingly quickly, capable of rapidly expanding numbers of agents to satisfy changing volumes. In addition, automated systems can reduce the demand on human agents, allowing your team to spend more time dealing with complex enquiries while simpler transactions are handled without the need for intervention.

Online automation, coupled with fast transfer to agents when needed, can also smooth out sudden increases in demand. Data collection also enables FAQs to be updated more rapidly, further improving agents’ ability to deal with changing issues more quickly and consistently.

Outsourcing – the facilitator

The ability to rapidly bring additional support on stream may be the defining characteristic of those businesses who survive to emerge as winners once the pandemic subsides. Some airlines already have additional outsource capacity on a retainer, deployable when required. By building this capacity, costs are reduced in the core business whilst customer service levels can be kept high during peak demand.

Outsourced teams can be tasked with FAQ responses and transactional business, leaving internal highly skilled agents to handle more complex issues. These same agents can also build up a knowledge base as new situations develop, future-proofing your teams in a rapidly changing business environment.

Specialist outsourcers can be used, in addition, to deal with specific elements of the customer journey or enquiry, for example when handling transactional data. Fully PCI DSS compliant operators can handle payments and refunds within strict guidelines, supported by other businesses dealing with conversational enquiries and online requests via chat or social media channels. Technology gives a seamless way of connecting these teams, which enables your business to give its customers a positive and risk-free experience.

Beyond 2020: converting a problem into an opportunity

One of the inevitable side-effects of the changes due to Covid-19 will be an increase in prices for flights and holidays. Travel firms will need to add extra value to encourage travellers to book again, especially international travellers and customers who have either lost money or gone through the painful process of obtaining refunds from cancelled flights.

For premium brands, there may be opportunities to offer direct services including rapid Coronavirus testing and additional PPE and barrier protection in airports, as well as at the customer’s home before and after flights.

Long term effects could result in customers becoming happy to pay a premium price to take advantage of online advice with a human touch delivered via apps such as Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams or through branded online travel gateways. By delivering a travel agency experience online, companies might be able to maximise loyalty by using a lower cost, non-intermediary advice channel for premium clients.

Whatever the future looks like, it will certainly be very different operating landscape for the travel industry. The short-term prognosis is very challenging and difficult decisions will need to be made. Companies who survive and emerge as front-runners beyond 2020, will need to provide enhanced customer service in a more challenging marketplace than the industry has ever seen.

If your business needs to consider how to deal with post-Covid customer service volumes, or to look at strategic options for technology and flexibility, CCP can help. Our skilled and vastly experienced team, backed by our comprehensive Contact Centre and Technology Networks, are able to advise your business on ways to improve your customer experience and introduce contact centre technologies that will help reduce costs and improve customer interaction. Get in touch today for a free no obligations consultation.