When you assemble a room of people with extensive levels of contact centre experience, as we did for our event hosted at Sutherland Labs, you know from the noise levels over coffee there are going to be some great conversations! Add some fantastic speakers from our outsource and technology networks to share their views of the market and a lively, open dialogue around challenges and opportunities (new and old) will follow.

We are looking forward to continuing these conversations and scheduling another event.  But in the meantime, how do we bring so much collective experience together in a short article that does justice to the quality of the conversations?

Navigating Business Decisions in a Rapidly Evolving Landscape

In the current environment, companies face a range of critical decisions, from implementing new technologies to fostering employee engagement. Despite knowing what needs to be done, many organisations struggle to translate that knowledge into actionable outcomes. This disconnect is often a result of inadequate systems, outdated training and coaching models, and an inability to adapt to change. 

In our recent L&D survey it was apparent that there is a clear gap between knowing and doing.  Results show that while employees understand their roles, there’s a significant disconnect between knowledge and execution. This is particularly evident in how businesses approach training, often relying on outdated, “once-and-done” programmes that fail to evolve alongside the changing work environment. As companies shift to remote work, many are noticing a reduction in employee loyalty and engagement, partially because of the lack of in-person interaction and relationship-building.

Addressing the Changing Needs: Evolving Training and Technology

To bridge this gap, organisations must rethink how they train their employees, particularly if they are to continue with a work from home or hybrid working model. Has enough been done to redesign training and refresher modules that better fit a virtual environment? Equally, more needs to be done to focus on continuous education rather than static, one-time courses which tick a box for compliance. Furthermore, conversational AI can be a powerful tool in reshaping learning; allowing employees to ask dynamic, evolving questions rather than relying on predefined solutions.

“Businesses recognise the correlation between staff development and brand reputation, but may not always apply the budget to ensure delivery”

AI offers the potential to unlock the true capabilities of people and data, but as we have said before is not a silver bullet. It can revolutionise business processes by supporting employees in their roles, reducing friction, and enhancing decision-making. AI can also help agents manage customer queries more efficiently, giving them access to foundational knowledge in real-time. However, the challenge lies in positioning AI correctly: not as a threat to jobs, but as a tool for augmenting human capabilities.

For example, AI’s ability to analyse customer intent and apply insights to guide agents through complex interactions can dramatically improve customer experience (CX). By properly integrating AI into business workflows, companies could potentially resolve the eternal challenge of moving from being seen as a cost centre to profit centre, unlocking new value opportunities across the customer journey.

Location strategy is still a consideration as the global market evolves. The outsourcing industry, particularly in sectors like fintech, IT support, and healthcare, appears poised for significant growth.  We know countries such as South Africa have already emerged as strategic hubs for business services, offering talent and capabilities that align with the growing demand for multilingual and technologically adept service providers. Whilst there are valid concerns as to the capacity that remains available, with 33% unemployment in South Africa (60% for young people) as well as the wider continent opening for business, then combined with the capabilities of technology great opportunities remain available.

Overcoming Challenges in AI Adoption

While AI presents numerous opportunities, it also comes with significant challenges. Many process owners may be hesitant to adopt AI due to concerns about how it will impact their workforce and customer relationships. Meanwhile, senior leadership may be focused more heavily on the potential cost saving benefits.  There’s a widespread misconception that AI will replace jobs, particularly in customer service. However, AI’s true value lies in assisting and enhancing human roles, not replacing them.

For businesses to adopt AI successfully, they need to:

  • Align AI with company goals and culture: AI should be seen not as a technology investment, but as a strategic asset that drives both customer and employee experience.
  • Shift from a cost-saving mindset to a value-driven approach: Technology shouldn’t be about cutting costs; it should unlock value, address problems at their root cause and improve service quality.
  • Build the right business case: Secure buy-in from different budget owners by emphasising how AI can enhance outcomes across the organisation.

Aligning Metrics and Culture for the AI-Driven World

To fully leverage AI’s potential, cultural and operational changes are required. Business leaders need to:

  • Align metrics with an automated world: Ensure that technology handles routine tasks, allowing people to focus on complex, human-centric work.
  • Redefine the agent role: The agents of the future will need to deliver more value and possess different skills compared to traditional customer service roles.
  • Foster a culture of continuous improvement: Embrace ongoing evolution, where AI serves to complement human skills and free up time for higher-value tasks.
  • Focus on proactive engagement: Let technology handle the repetitive, allowing people to engage with customers in a more meaningful way.
  • Encourage bravery in decision-making: Leaders must support bold decisions around AI investment to drive long-term success.
“AI is not the solution, it is a key to unlocking it”  
Rob Wiles, Zoom

Irrespective of delivery location, the future of CX delivery will increasingly rely on AI and automation to enhance customer journeys, optimise operations, and drive sustainable growth.

Transformation is never-ending. Businesses must approach AI and automation not as one-time projects but as ongoing evolutions. This requires understanding the unique challenges they face, aligning technology with business goals, and ensuring that AI enhances rather than replaces the human element.

With the right strategy, AI can unlock unprecedented opportunities for growth, helping companies stay competitive in a rapidly changing world. However, without the appropriate attention to employee experience, success will be illusory or limited.

Delivering the right experiences

At Customer Contact Panel we support organisations in delivering contact centres that match their ambitions. In a Deloitte Digital research articles from May 2024 it was cited that 55% of contact centre leaders reported that they didn’t meet their strategic goals in 2023 and 76% reported that their agents were overwhelmed by systems and information*.

If you are facing challenges meeting your strategic goals or fulfilling the ambitions you have for your people, customers or technology, we have the experience to support you. Just ask. 

Running a contact centre can be tough and a real challenge, so it is always good to know you are not alone.

However, tapping into our teams experience in running and managing a contact centre operations over the past 25+ years, we thought we’d highlight the top 4 common contact centre challenges seen in centres today:

  1. Call Duration – this isn’t talking to agents about AHT, but inefficient process resulting in higher AHT is still an issue for many. Agent knowledge/competence could be part of the solution, however so could appropriate automation.
  2. Repeat Contacts – whether intentional (process requirement) or unintended as a result of unclear information these contribute to:
    • Cost to serve
    • Customer retention
    • Agent frustrations
  3. Improve Service Levels – in recent years average speed of answer has increased, queries have become more complex and recruitment has become tougher!
  4. Understanding The Possibilities – Technology is evolving at pace and as a result it can be hard to understand the art of the possible. The CCP network has >120 technology and >220 outsource partners – so there’s plenty of options to find the right fit.

Are you facing similar challenges within your contact centre? Not sure where to start when it comes to finding the right fix? Weel look no further than CCP, we are here to provide both generous and equitable advice when it comes to your customer contact operations.

Click here to contact the team today.

Reviewing the results there was a clear view that people know their roles, the different aspects of it, the impact of people development and appropriate investment in it and the importance of the ongoing development of people in contact centre environments.

We know why we are here and what we are supposed to do

This survey area scored strongly and aligns with wider miPerform research around front line staff and how they are engaged, there is no shortage of data at a senior level, however those who engage directly with customers are perhaps less likely to see the strategic objectives of an organisation.  There are still opportunities to unlock further value from customer conversations, ensuring people have the right skills and knowledge to engage in these.

I know what excellence looks like in my role

84.5% of participants in the survey believe that they know what excellence in their role looks like. However, the ability to demonstrate this to customers and to clients is something to be considered, how can we ensure that we are measuring and reporting the service that is being delivered?  Measures like CSAT are always considered, however the retention of both customers and critically employees, which could be the most significant metric as staff who are engaged, know their role, are confident in their delivery are happier in their work, they will not only delight customers but will be less likely to leave due to feeling undervalued. This results in unquestionable benefits the employee, customer and business.

“It is essential that leaders and managers have the capability to maintain a culture where people can connect with the role”

The ability to deliver continuous feedback in the right way so that people feel supported and empowered is critical to people wanting to, and being able to share that knowledge with customers.

Staff development plays a huge role in brand reputation, perhaps as an output of increase productivity and delivery of service levels, with 94% suggesting a strong correlation to the impact on this.

However there was sometimes a clear disparity between the amount of time available for staff training and the recognised benefits equally there were times when the time available was much higher than expected. Another key theme was there was a gap between in knowledge about what specifically people needed to be trained on, to ensure that there is value in coaching there needs to be better analysis as to where the training is needed and what technology can be used in supporting this.

Ensuring that coaches and trainers have the right insights to direct training as effectively as possible can be supported by technology:

  • Focusing efforts with support on the right subjects and with the appropriate delivery methods,
  • These may be conversations within the operation, not necessarily removing people from the operation to sit in a training room
  • Remote working needs to be considered in this context with the appropriate monitoring and support,
  • Training still needs to be specific to the needs of the individual,
  • Which enables us to think more about how we make training and coaching really count for the individual?

Tools like Cognexo as a micro learning solution can take as little as 2 minutes per day and be delivered through a channel aligned to the daily tasks of the staff member, therefore engagement levels are maintained above 91% as it is part of the daily routine.

Behaviour shifts are the result of the right conversations.

It isn’t always necessary to take people out of their day-to-day environment to change culture or behaviours and the role of the manager in ensuring that they are “walking the walk” being a visible leader, providing coaching and support, leading with the right insights ensures the most impact.

Managers must be able to understand their people as individuals, that the outcomes that need to be delivered for the customers require appropriate trust and autonomy due to the unique nature of customer interactions which is increasingly pertinent as AI and automation completes the easier tasks, we need to consider what measure and how we manage.  Whilst this may feel obvious, the shift to home working may make access to these skills harder for our next generation of Team Leaders.

We need to listen to the experiences of the front line staff, the roles are getting harder, but we need to ensure people are allowed to contribute to the process, to provide feedback about the processes and how things may be done differently, technology may be used for surveys with employees and to consolidate those responses, with a workflow to the management to ensure that all staff feedback is captured.   

“Managers need to ensure that they understand their people on a personal level”  

Enabling people to review their own performance and to track against the expected levels of delivery empowers them to properly understand where they are, how they are doing and where they may need support.

This can be used as a tool to support culture change, however, when time can be limited because of operational pressures so the subject matter and insight of what training or coaching is critical to get the right support to staff at the right time.

Budgets may not always be allocated to ongoing training and investment time may not always be scheduled as often as people may like, ROI models around attrition reduction benefits and how this filters through the business in other impacts, the role of ongoing personal development to retaining staff and supporting the growth of brand reputation,

In a world of AI we still need to ensure investment in people

A 1% increase in engagement can deliver a 2% increase in productivity, there are multiple benefits as a result, using coaching and learning to deliver contact centre culture is not achieved through pizza on a Friday, technology can be useful but we need to ensure that people within the organisation are considered in the mix, from agents and first line manager levels, who need to see that the insights are being used through to the senior team who may need stronger insights to drive strategic decision making.

If you’d like to talk further then please contact me directly and we can look at how we can help. 

Will changes for other businesses lead to a realisation that contact centres have been progressive in their approach and potentially increase the recruitment pool or will contact centre leaders need to make changes to become more competitive in recruitment of the best talent?

Perhaps we are more progressive in contact centres than we give ourselves credit for?

We’ve written before around the view that despite our collective best efforts, our industry can often have something of an image problem with those on the outside, and, unfortunately, for some who work in the sector as well, because of arcane processes that may have been applied by some managers.

Working in contact centres can be tough and is seen by many as an interim role as opposed to a career path. The use of terms like CX may make it a more noble cause, even if the gap between customer ambition and realities can seem large. However, (I hope!) many people reading this article will recall a journey from a stop-gap role to a ‘proper’ career, which has delivered job satisfaction, personal development, promotions and a level of reward which affords a quality standard of living and the attainment of life goals.

You may also reflect on the flexibility that working in contact centres may have afforded you in your life, initially from being in operations in which there were options as a result of:

  • 7 days per week, which may have resulted in working a weekend day, but having time off in the week,
  • 24/7 operations where dealing with something through the night resulted in lieu time at a convenient time
  • Creating 4 day weeks with compressed hours to enable flexibility for your staff and ensure capacity where your customers needed it
  • Split shifts (ok maybe not 25 years ago, when that meant going to work twice in the same day, but post pandemic with home working)
  • Part time shifts which worked around the school run or after lectures
  • The ability to work remotely and therefore mitigate communing time

So, perhaps when talking about flexible working and encouraging greater control over work-life balance we should already be seeing contact centres of a beacon of what can be achieved (even if that does sometimes mean rolling rotas to ensure that customers have access to support when they need it?).

But it doesn’t end there does it?

Contact centres – through necessity in some cases, of course – have embraced the real living wage and providing better rewards for frontline staff. However, the reality is that skilled contact centre agents may still be earning similar amounts to those in roles where there may be less stress or pressure. Self-service and automation mean there are less “easy” contacts and as customer expectations and levels of knowledge increase, the role does get harder.  Put simply, there is more for agents to deal with now, when considering the complexity of queries and vulnerabilities of customers.

Admittedly, where costs are key and businesses are feeling pressure to manage the cost of customer service and acquisition, then offshoring has been the norm for some time. As we know, offshoring doesn’t necessarily reduce quality, but it takes hard work to get it right. The manufacturing sector had already followed this route, in many cases years earlier.  Unfortunately, our industry faces more scrutiny for moving work out of the UK than others, it seems.

The same customer service ‘exceptionalism’ may also apply to automation, with a recent Gartner survey highlighting that 64% of customers would rather companies didn’t use AI in customer service delivery.

Out of necessity the industry will keep pace with changes to minimum wage, however there will be an inevitable impact to either the cost of the product or margins. In which case more innovative techniques will need to be adopted to maximise margins.

I’d like to think we’ve been pioneers in ensuring equality. When I see news pieces around gender and representation of women in boardrooms, I reflect on the fantastic female influences I’ve had through my career, senior management and directors who have shaped my career and given me opportunities to develop.

I believe that contact centres are (for want of a better term) unfortunately ahead of the changing employment curve. I say unfortunately as contact centres’ relative enlightenment can disadvantage other sectors.  I don’t have access to contact centre-specific data on gender pay gaps. And though I assume a gap is still sadly probable, I would think it is relatively lower in contact centres, based on the skill, talent and mindset that we have in the sector, 

“Women hold about 41% of senior leadership positions within the UK contact centre industry”

UK Contact Centre Decision-Makers’ Guide 2024

So, could this be a new dawn of realisation?

We were discussing last week the same story in multiple newspaper articles around easyJet and their recruitment of people aged 50 and above for cabin crew roles, citing their life and communication skills as a key benefit to passengers and by extension their new employer.

The shift rotas offered the flexibility of working alternate weeks, for example, or four days on four days off (I recall that over 20 years ago in contact centres we called this a continental shift pattern). This type of recruitment should open up the ability to recruit people who previously decided to leave full time employment after the pandemic back into roles.

Admittedly, customer service at 35,000ft may have more appeal for some than dealing with a phone call or webchat concerning a utility bill, for example.  However, in contact centres we recognise clearly that life skills and knowledge are of significant benefit to our customers and have been recruiting from all demographics for decades.

“We tackle misconceptions about the job and broaden horizons for even more talented people looking for a new opportunity who can bring their wealth of life experience to the industry”.

Michael Brown, Director of Cabin Services at easyJet

 

We believe that we are well ahead of other sectors in our approach to working practices and rights. Undeniably, negative perceptions evoking the ‘dark satanic mills’ persist for many and horror stories from 20 years ago (and occasionally today) remain.  But the contact centre industry is probably in a better place than we are given credit for.

We will however need to manage challenges as a result of changes to legislation around worker rights, there are likely to be changes in WFM that will need to be considered, potential impacts to payroll and management of holidays.

Additionally, there may be changes harder to identify on the surface – maintaining knowledge and communications when more people work compressed hours could be one.

We have the skills and tools ready to support altered employment practices and we’ve demonstrated time and time again that we can change when needed.  If you are facing challenges maintaining employee knowledge and experience, managing performance metrics or even protecting a sustainable margin in your contact centre operations then you won’t be alone.   

“Once seen as a modern-day mills and bastions of the overseer, contact centres should, rightly, be lauded and credited for leading the charge for innovative working practices such as the compressed hours working week, and flexible shifts around childcare responsibilities which the industry introduced at the dawn of the contact centre”.

Gerard O’Hare, WorkNest Legal Director

We are here to help, just ask.

The Customer Contact Panel team is made up of contact centre professionals who have seen a number of challenges and changes in the sector over the past 30 years, we use our experience to support both in-house operations, those wanting to outsource and outsourcers to deliver contact centres that match their ambitions whether that be sales or service.

If you have a thorny challenge then we’d love to hear about it, we share our thinking and have supported fantastic brands in finding the right fit solution for their and their employees’ needs.  We have over 220 contact centre partners and 120 technology partners, we don’t have favourites only right fits for your needs.   

Since the launch of ChatGPT and subsequent proliferation of AI-driven technologies across the customer contact technology landscape, the pace of change has accelerated exponentially. From communication analytics, quality management and agent assist, to replacing IVRs with their omni-channel equivalents and real time translation services, the impact of AI on our industry has almost been as big as the invention of the telephone itself. Not only is this a source of organisational stress, are there implications for outsourcing and contract mechanisms?

While the telephone fundamentally changed human-to-human communication, AI technologies are transforming human-to-machine interactions. And given how we now communicate with each other, that can only mean that change is both permanent and ongoing.

This permanent change is putting increasing stress on organisations to restructure how they equip themselves to communicate with both their customers and their target market, irrespective of the sector they operate in.

We are seeing organisational stress in three areas:

  1. Understanding the impact of these changes across the customer and target market demographic
  2. Properly evaluating the ability of existing technology platforms to accommodate change and realign to new communication paradigms in the mid to long term
  3. Fully understanding the mid to long term commercial impact of bolt on technologies to deliver short term performance and cost reduction gains.

In helping organisations cope with these stress areas we see striking parallels to the changes seen when organisations first began to interact with customers remotely. The evolution which began in the 90s to get more value from data, media and communication spend resulted in specialist operational activity often being outsourced as few organisations had the specialist people, process or technology to support those functions as cost effectively as outsourced providers could.

As customer became core to operations and remote customer management became an operational necessity, organisations began to establish their own capabilities, leveraging existing data management infrastructure to control and drive insight. Customer contact levels boomed, the technology to enable customer contact saw similar growth and our industry was born as more organisations grasped the benefits of controlled and managed remote customer contact.

Considering those parallels, we ask “Should organisations be stressing themselves or does that same customer contact outsourcing industry ‘muscle up’ for this second cycle of permanent change to reduce organisational stress in the shape of Outsourcing 2.0, underpinned by end-to-end AI driven technologies and the accelerated levels of operational insight that provides?”

Observing change in the global customer contact outsourcing market

Outsourcing is a very broad church. Our global network of two hundred plus providers gives us a privileged view of the diversity of the services provided, service delivery and how services are contracted. Whilst industry pricing has generally reduced in real terms over time, the way that service pricing is presented has not really evolved that much, it has not been that complicated, clients have had a choice of:

  1. straight hourly rate,
  2. the hourly rate with outcome components,
  3. outcome with activity components and
  4. outcome alone.

Making money has not been that complicated either. As long as the effective revenue per hour outweighed the total known costs per hour, then outsourcers made money.

The outsourcers’ challenge has always been about packaging service and price to be more attractive than the nearest competitor. Of course, that global mind set has led to an incredibly diverse and attractive industry offering, but it is doing little to relieve the level of stress we see in organisations today. Especially as permanent change begins to impact on mid to long term business performance forecasts.

What we see in the global outsource community is the emergence of some clear lines of distinction between service offerings. Principally between those that have the capability (or plan to have the capability) to relieve mid to long term organisational stress and those that don’t. Whilst those customer contact outsourcers that don’t have (or don’t plan to have) this capability to de-stress, continue to be well placed to solve organisations’ immediate and short-term challenges, we have seen some significant levels of technology and skills investment towards an Outsourcing 2.0 capability, amongst those that can.

What we are not seeing enough of is an evolved, Outsourcing 2.0 contracting proposition. One that is equitable for both parties. A simple contract proposition that provides an upside for the technology and skills investment of the outsourcer and in return, long term risk and cost reduction for the client.

Striving to deliver an equitable position to accommodate permanent change

Our view of the customer contact world is that its typically the client that makes the decisions on how they want to automate customer contact to reduce friction and cost in their operations. We also understand that the client may also want to:

  1. know more about how changes in customer contact are going to flow through product and service delivery,
  2. be able to make active decisions on what those changes mean in terms of risk and profitability,
  3. identify service solutions that will de-risk their journey to deliver customer contact at lower cost,
  4. deliver value and benefits that justify the time, cost and effort in enabling process change
  5. potentially deal with specific customer use cases where they do not have the physical capacity or technical capability,
  6. do all this without compromising service delivery in terms of quality and data governance i.e. the regulatory and contracted controls supporting data privacy and data security.

We also recognise that the world of customer contact tech is changing faster than it probably ever has; and it’s hard to tell what the next few years will bring in terms of time saving and service enhancing technologies.

SaaS based technology is easier to deploy, easier to recognise ROI, is already impacting on the flow of low complexity tactical work into the global outsourcing industry. This trend is also evidenced by more work. being delivered via the client’s own technology, enabling them to leverage their existing back-end systems integrations and continue BAU without interrupting the established end to end data flows supporting their existing operational reporting and decision-making processes.

Whilst the outsourcer community is continuing to strive to deliver uncompromising value, to positively impact  service delivery and comply with regulatory and contractual data governance, there is clearly an acknowledgment of the impact that customer contact automation brings to their core market.

Contracting to deliver mid to long term value by de-risking the transition to a permanent change in customer contact

Global outsourcing capability now has a firm dividing line across it. Those that have (or plan to have) the infrastructure and technology to deliver permanent change (2.0) and those that have not.

For those that have (or plan to have), we can see the opportunity for a new type of contracting relationship with clients. A contracting relationship that:

  1. de-risks the client from the turbulence of technology change whilst delivering the permanent changes we see in human communication and the impact that has on customer contact service delivery,
  2. will enable the outsourcer to deliver appropriate levels of automation without compromising the clients service objectives and targeted cost reduction when expressed as simply as a ‘cost per customer per annum’.

In the context of customer contact, clients find the idea of managing permanent change, de-risking the potential downside of getting that change wrong and doing that at a fixed and reducing cost very attractive. Especially when that contract properly considers how service quality is measured and underpinned as well as being directly linked to cost.

There are then two big variables in the client conversation that are both fundamental to a new contracting proposition.

One is the composition and contracting position of the legacy technology overhead that delivers existing levels of customer contact, especially how that customer engagement technology stack is connected into the ‘back office’ technology of the organisation.

The second is about existing costs. This is the client’s understanding of their current cost of managing their customers. Specifically, how that’s calculated especially in the context of a desire to express that as a ‘cost per customer per annum’.

Recognising the barriers to change

It is easy for us to oversimplify what we see as a new contracting paradigm. But we also recognise that the old contracting models don’t proactively and deliberately reduce the organisational stresses that put mid to long term business performance at risk.

Of course, some business verticals carry significant levels of technology debt. However, unless we explore, and explore deeply, what the possibilities are, then the weight of technology debt will drown organisations and fail as a lifejacket to guarantee ongoing survival.

Unless your technology is able to destress your organisation now, then the same technology stands little chance of keeping you afloat in the mid to long term.

Customer communication and customer contact management has changed permanently and is different from customer contact pre-the explosion in generative AI. This means new risk and new levels of risk for both client and the customer contact outsource communities. Our view is that contracting between the parties needs to change fundamentally.

Outsourcing 2.0 offers a mid to long term view of how both client and service provider can benefit whilst reducing risk on both sides. By looking at contracting differently, both parties can focus on their core strengths and experiences to set and deliver against service goals and commercial objectives. To do that mutually establishing, expressing and agreeing the existing technology stack directly supporting customer engagement and the cost per customer per annum to deliver growth and service objectives.

What next?

What are your thoughts on the future of customer contact outsourcing contracts? Do you think we’re thinking along the right lines, or have we underestimated the complexity of clients’ current position, especially in the context of technology debt? Whether you’re a client or service provider we’d love to hear what you think.

Guest Author – Elaine Seculer (Head of Marketing at Taskaler)

As we dive deeper into the knockout stages of the Euros (dare we mention it), did you know that Pakistan is the largest producer of hand-sewn footballs? In fact, the official footballs used in the last two FIFA World Cups were crafted in Pakistan.

But there’s more to Pakistan than footballs; it’s also emerging as a leading location for outsourcing, offering unique benefits over many offshore countries that might first come to mind, which places Pakistan as an attractive alternative well-worth considering.

We speak with Jawad Farooq and Elaine Seculer of Taskaler to get the inside track on Pakistan as the latest outsourcing destination of choice!

1. The Rise of Pakistan in the Outsourcing World

When you think of outsourcing, countries like India, South Africa, and the Philippines are the destinations you probably first think off. They’ve been popular choices for years. However, these markets are becoming saturated, with increased costs being felt of late – that’s where Pakistan steps in!

A hidden gem if you may, not yet overrun with competition, meaning you can find high-quality talent at very competitive rates. Early birds in the market are already reaping the benefits!

2. Why Pakistan is Cost-Efficient?

Pakistan’s stock market has seen unprecedented levels of growth of late. The KSE-100 Index, tracking the largest companies listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange is at a 6 year high, making it the top performer among Asian frontier markets, thanks to improving economic conditions and a favourable IMF deal which boosted investor confidence.

Whilst the country’s currency (rupee) is relatively weak, this has been highly favourable for international businesses who receive a healthy exchange rate against the dollar.

Did you know? Pakistan’s outsourcing rates are even more competitive than India’s, which has long been the go-to for outsourcing!

3. English Proficiency and Education

Pakistan’s Constitution and Laws are written in English. English is recognised as the official language and is widely used in business and higher education. This means that communication is smooth and easy, with about half of the educated population speaking English.

4. Big Brands and Business Environment

Pakistan is already attracting big brands, with businesses like Audi, BMW, Samsung, Unilever, Nestle, Carrefour, and Standard Chartered all successfully running their operations in Pakistan for years now. This shows that Pakistan has the infrastructure and capability to support large-scale business operations. Plus, with Pakistan being four hours ahead of British Summer Time (BST), you can easily set up shift patterns that cover your core business hours, making it convenient for meetings and collaboration.

5. A Thriving Start-Up Scene

Pakistan isn’t just about established companies; it’s also buzzing with start-up activity. There are numerous start-up incubators, funded by both private investors and global giants like Google, fostering a vibrant and innovative ecosystem.

Piqued your interest?

If you’re curious and want to explore more, drop us a line – we’d be more than happy to help you discover all that Pakistan has to offer for your business!

Manufacturers are having to grapple with a vast range of challenges; supply chain difficulties, skills gaps, changing commercial and distribution models, harnessing the potential of automation and AI, to name just a few. In which case the role, purpose and configuration of contact centres may seem like a question for another day.

But communicating with and managing customers is now a core undertaking – and manufacturers changing how they do it can have significant positive impacts across the rest of their business.

Customers, customer everywhere!

Managing customers in a commercially effective and brand-enhancing manner is a challenge, but the first challenge is often to define exactly who those customers are.

For manufactures they may well include: end-users, service and maintenance providers, sales agents and distributors, logistics and shipping agents, governmental agencies – as well as colleagues such as finance, billing, mobile engineers and so on.

All these customers have their specific needs and expectations, but all need to be handled and addressed in a manageable way, with best practice techniques developed, optimised and consistently deployed.

The financial case for consolidation of contract centre activities is often obvious, but the adoption of new contact centre advisor-supporting tools and technologies now make a high-performing, multi-skilled service a feasible reality.

A tower of babel?

Today, very few manufacturers can afford to operate in a single language market or markets. Globalised supply chains mean that – whether selling direct to end-users or through dedicated or networked agents and distributors – manufacturers inhabit a multilingual world. Without the ability to interact remotely with customers across most or all of the languages they use, firms will limit their scope to penetrate overseas markets and/or rise up the value chain with the product/service proposition.

Irrespective of the undoubted advances made in translation technologies which can enable multilingual customer support, operating a multilingual contacts centre – be that in a centralised hub, or through distributed in-country operations – is very challenging and costly. Increasingly, the skills to do so successfully – and leverage those supporting technologies – is a specialised undertaking.

Facing up to the cybersecurity threat

The threat from cybercrime and data security challenges more generally grow and grow. Aviva’ research suggests that 20% of UK businesses are subject to cybercrime annually (https://www.aviva.com/newsroom/news-releases/2023/12/One-in-five-businesses-have-been-victims-of-cyber-attack-in-the-last-year/ ) and the impact of such crime is increasing as organisations’ digital shifts progress.

Distributed, ill-managed systems and lines of communication often present firms’ greatest areas of vulnerability. Added to which ‘social engineering’ and scammers’ targeting of individuals employees continues to account for most points of corporate failure, giving criminals access to vital systems and data.

Professional, secure and well-trained contact centre operations can provide a robust defence against the cybercrime threat. Again, a consolidated contact centre function, with tested processes and technology to underpin data control, isn’t a guarantee of cyber resilience. But it’s a great way to address threats whilst building internal coherence and capabilities.

Need to talk?

Customer Contact  Panel  based in Sheffield, a city with a proud industrial history and a strength in advanced manufacturing technologies. So, we know a little bit about manufacturing, but we know a lot about contact centres! Contact centre services are intrinsic to the manufacturing sector’s success. We can help guide firms through the best approaches, infrastructures and technologies to deliver the best customer management. This includes outsourcing to specialist providers who can deploy their expertise and insight, allowing manufacturing firms to focus on developing their products and services.

We’re always happy to chat. Get in touch

In the realm of customer service, contact centres play a central role. They have become a primary interface for brands, influencing customer experiences and shaping brand reputation. The role of the Contact Centre agent has evolved too. Today, they are true brand ambassadors, whose behaviour can have a direct impact on whether a customer chooses to make an initial or repeat purchase, or recommend the organisation to others.

However, empowering agents to provide the best possible customer experience is often easier said than done. Increasingly high consumer expectations, a raft of regulatory requirements and challenging market conditions – where many businesses are required to do more with less – make it harder for agents to deliver the desired level of service. Growing workloads, the pressure of juggling remote work, and the need to master multiple, disparate technology solutions only add to the challenge.

Against this backdrop, it is perhaps little surprise that agents sometimes struggle to show their human side. Brands need to find a way for their teams to deliver the friendly, empathetic, personalised and efficient service that underpins long-term customer relationships.

Let technology take the strain

It may sound ironic but the answer to helping agents be more human is technology. For example, increased levels of automation remove the burden and frustration of having to deal with mundane and repetitive enquiries, freeing up agents to focus on more complex or rewarding interactions; those that require a high degree of intuition, understanding and problem-solving.

With the right technology at their fingertips – and the skills required to get the most out of these solutions – agents can be transformed into ‘Super Agents’ or ‘Augmented agents’ who leverage automation tools, AI, and data insights to speed up resolution times while, at the same time, offer a personal touch. The impact of Augmented Agents extends far beyond immediate interactions to ultimately influence customer loyalty, brand perception and overall business performance.

Helping humans be more human: a five-point plan

To help agents interact with customers in a more human and authentic way, brands should focus on five key areas:

  1. Look at ways to streamline technology. Disparate tools and solutions slow down the customer journey and are cumbersome for agents to use. Instead, organisations should explore platforms that support single desktops, and which integrate Knowledge Management and Agent Assist technologies to serve up the very latest information in real-time. This ensures agents never have to go searching for answers and can have total confidence in their decision-making capabilities.
  2. Explore AI and automation tools. Customer enquiries are growing in number and cover a vast array of topics, so it is vital that simple, repetitive queries and tasks are dealt with automatically. Voicebots, chatbots and other self-service tools, as well as caller identification and verification (ID&V), are all ways to divert work from humans to machines. What’s more, as these tools speed up resolution times, customers benefit too. On a more sophisticated level, companies can deploy AI to analyse customer insights and assess how they might be feeling. Armed with this information, agents can adapt their tone or approach to deliver a much more empathetic customer experience. This is particularly useful when assisting vulnerable customers or handling complaints.
  3. Gamification and Performance Management tools are an effective way to keep agents motivated, guarding brands against the high attrition rates that afflict so much of the contact centre industry. Gamification techniques make everyday tasks more fun and are proven to boost productivity and employee engagement. Brands should combine this approach with Performance Management tools, which provide managers with a clear picture of their top performers. This visibility is especially important in hybrid working environments.
  4. Workforce Management. Investment here provides agents with far greater flexibility over their schedules – including over when they work from home and when they come in to the office – while at the same time optimising staffing levels. Not only does this enhance employee satisfaction it also ensures operational efficiency.
  5. Technology is only one part of the puzzle; new solutions need to be complemented with comprehensive learning and development programmes that equip agents with the skills they need to deliver exceptional customer service. Feedback, training, coaching and other personal growth opportunities should be readily available and encouraged. Learning opportunities shouldn’t be limited to how to use different tools and touchpoints, they should also cover soft skills, so agents can seamlessly resolve the most challenging and complex of interactions.

As the face of the brand, it is vital that Contact Centre agents have the correct tools and sufficient time to deliver truly exceptional service to each and every customer. By prioritising the employee experience in this way, organisations can boost engagement and slash attrition rates while at the same time handle complex enquiries and deliver truly personalised service. Ultimately, by allowing agents to be more human, brands will see an uptick in customer satisfaction, loyalty and revenue.

Is your centre in need of a human touch?

Drop us a line. One of our humans would love to chat with you!

AI and the march to automation is a hot topic right now, with much being made of the gains that can be made through AI handling enquiries.

But the benefits of technology are perhaps being primarily considered in the context of larger operations, where the costs of servicing customers are easy to see.

What about the hidden contacts that organisations may be managing? The ones that are increasingly challenging to manage, that AI – for now at least – can’t deal with?

Information is power

Customers are better informed than ever before. They just need to spend a few minutes online to arm themselves with what they need before contacting you. From looking up reviews to seeking advice from social media groups on how other customers escalated a given complaint, or checking how regulations apply to your sector and how they should be applied in the context of their situation.

They may even know more about complaints to your organisation than some of your management team. Which means your responses need to be on point now more than ever.

Yet if former Dragons Den investor Piers Linney is to be believed, most contact centre activity will be automated by AI five years from now.

“There are undoubtedly times when speaking to a person is the only thing that will do.”

Realistically, nobody is denying that there are use cases that can be automated with better outcomes for customer, agent and organisation alike. Win-win. However, there are undoubtedly times when speaking to a person is the only thing that will do. And therein lies the risk of creating hidden contact centres in this futuristic AI-driven world. Indeed, they already exist.

What is a hidden contact centre and why do I need to worry about it?

In many organisations, contact centres already exist informally, even when they have bona fide real ones.

Groups of non-contact centre people are engaged in dealing with customers through calls, e-mails, chat or webforms, perhaps as part of their wider role. They are likely disbursed across multiple site locations or functions, handing off customers to each other and collaborating to resolve those queries.

Customers may be end users, other businesses or internal customers. The thing that unites them is that the queries are likely to be complex. And because it’s not their day job, everyone works a little harder to get the job done, sometimes at the risk of their other core tasks being delayed until the demand has passed.

Of course, none of this means these teams are doing a bad job in serving the customer. Processes may not be documented well, with best practice held in the heads – or languishing on the desktops – of team members, so they’re the best people for the job.

“The trouble with informal contact centres is that they aren’t set up to be responsive. Or have audit trails.”

But the trouble with informal contact centres is that they aren’t set up to be responsive. Or have audit trails. During holiday seasons cover may be limited and there is unlikely to be out of hours support for the customer. Reporting on contact volumes and contact types may not exist. Feedback loops for potential process improvement is probably dependent on the capacity in that team on a given week. And when servicing internal customers, inefficiencies may be magnified.

However, there may be limited opportunity for automation and self-service.

So maybe it is better to stay hidden?

Perhaps for some, ignoring all of this could be appealing. Especially if there are several “fractional” resources who are supporting and spreading the load. However, if those people are being taken away from their core roles, the decision (or lack of) not to address this could be a costly error. Those resources could be expensive for dealing with what in some cases may be low level queries. And not just in the time it takes them, but also unrecognised costs of double handling of queries, opportunity costs and even lost customers or lost revenue.

The first step is understanding if you have hidden contact centres. Speak with your people to understand what may be preventing them from getting core tasks done. If customer contacts, queries and complaints are part of that workload, perhaps it’s time to review and consolidate work to specialist staff who are set up to deal with these contacts.

Four red flags to watch out for:

  1. Team attrition – perhaps because they’re not getting opportunity to do the role for which they were employed?
  2. Customer attrition – are you seeing customers leaving you or not putting additional business in your direction?
  3. Non contact centre customer contact handling – do you have a group of people who you may not term as contact centre, but they are all consistently doing a role dealing with customers?
  4. Customer service levels aren’t matching your ambition – is it aligned to your values? Does it feel like a cost/burden?

If any of those resonate, then perhaps it is time to take time out and review whether you do, knowingly or otherwise, have a “contact centre” that could benefit from review or consolidation. To consider how this may benefit your people, your customers and ultimately your business.

What can you do about it?

First up, talk to people who understand the risks and opportunities of hidden contact centres. They’ll help you to decide on the approach that’s right for you, potentially with solutions you hadn’t considered. Whether you still want to keep activity within your team, or whether you need some additional help to provide increased coverage or flexibility.

For example, additional support and flexibility, including potential out of hours coverage, could improve services. You may not need dedicated resource, but the availability of someone to engage with your customers in conversation and support them at the right point in time may reduce the burden on your team during core hours.

If recruiting contact centre staff is a challenge for you, and managing and developing them is a further item on your worklist that you struggle to get to, it’s almost certainly time to seek guidance on how to address that.

And if you want to keep your ‘hidden contact centre’, it could be a smart move to examine your technology set up. Is it making it as easy as possible for your team? That doesn’t mean that everything could or even should be automated. However, implementing systems that enable omni-channel support – so that all details of the conversation can be easily linked and customers can skip across channels – will make it easier for both you and your customers.

“Technological developments over recent years mean that you could be able to improve life for your people and your customers.”

Contact centres take all kinds of forms. They can be managed in many ways and no one size fits all when it comes to dealing with customers. That’s why there are big in-house contact centres, hidden contact centres, and many different specialist outsourcers who deal with specific sectors or tasks – and often in ways that can give a competitive edge. Knowing which approach will help you to gain your competitive edge is critical.

Importantly, technological developments over recent years mean that you could be able to improve life for your people and your customers, reducing the impact on your business and the cost of servicing your customers. But wholesale automation is not the answer for all. And may never be, five, ten or many years from now.

Want to chat further?

Drop us a line. A problem shared is a problem halved and we love to share our expertise, whether you’re a client or not.

Over the past few years Bulgaria has certainly made it’s name in the world of contact centre outsourcing. Not only are business in Europe choosing Bulgaria as their nearshore destination of choice, but businesses in the US are now casting their eye over towards the east.

If you did ever find yourself in Bulgaria’s bustling capital city Sofia, you might be greeted by one of its 1.3 million residents with “Zdraveĭte, radvam se da se zapoznaem!” (Hello! I am glad to meet you). However, if you’re like me and rely on a translator, there’s absolutely no need to fear as over 1.7 million people in Bulgaria can speak English. Other European languages spoken in Bulgaria include (but not limited to):

We recently caught up with waterdrop®’s very own Martin Vatchkov to get an on the ground view of Bulgaria. Not only is Martin a Bulgarian national living in Austria, Martin has also previously outsourced his customer service operations within Bulgaria:

“Здравей (Bulgarian “Hello”)! Diving straight in on why Bulgaria, which is mainly driven by the fact that Bulgaria has a highly effective language school system, where most European languages are extensively and effectively thought, the baseline is rather high and difficult to beat.

The university of “St. Kliment Ohridski” in Sofia has added another building block to the already high level of schooling within Bulgaria. This has brought some rather rare languages to Bulgaria such as Japanese, Korean, Arabic or the Nordic languages to name a few.

Once you get past the languages, another strong positive for Bulgaria would be the Geographic location. +2 hours from GMT and +7 hours from EST in the US, with US shifts (16:00 to 01:00) being something normal. Distance in my opinion is another asset at around a 3-hour flight, from most places in the European peninsula which is a rather short flight. Companies have started to explore the whole country with the opening of offices at the seaside (Varna and Burgas) and not only the capital, Sofia.

On another note, the fact that Bulgaria is part of the EU and NATO, brings GDPR with ease (contractual wise, as no data is leaving the EU) as well as economic stability. Internet downtime is almost nonexistent with high speeds.

Last but not least, the BPO and ITO industries are rather filled with the younger part of the generation which bring a lot of ideas and high engagement rates. AI is no foreign word and working efficiently is certainly a big asset as both industries have been embodied quite well in the countries’ economy.”

Thanks Martin! Contact Centre Panel too has had some terrific experiences with contact centre’s in Bulgaria, and we think you will too.

Like what you hear about Bulgaria and want to find out more? Get in touch, we’re here to help.