Planning for Messaging: Making It Work, Not Just Happen

Messaging is popping up all over customer service teams. WhatsApp, in-app chat, SMS – you name it, someone’s testing it. But here’s the truth: just launching a messaging channel isn’t enough. Doing it well takes some serious thought.

Bridges: From here to there

The picture above, many will recognise, is the Severn Bridge. It is also the view from my friend’s back garden. It’s a magnificent view and connects England with Wales across a huge and extraordinary expanse of water. Bridges connect places: some are huge, others exceedingly small. Some are incredible feats of engineering, others a plank across a muddy gap. We use the word ‘bridge’ as a verb. Something we do. We ‘bridge the gap,’ and it is the gap that interests me more than the bridge. We ‘abridge’ books, shorten them into easier to access chunks, and it is the parts we choose to include, and exclude, that draws my attention.

The Evolution of Speech Analytics

Speech analytics has revolutionised how organisations manage customer interactions, progressing from its origins in large contact centres to becoming a critical enabler of real-time customer engagement. Historically, it was a resource-intensive tool housed on on-premise servers, primarily adopted by enterprises to optimise quality assurance (QA) processes, extract insights from customer interactions, and, in some cases, improve sales performance. Today, advancements in real-time analytics and large language models (LLMs) have vastly expanded its capabilities, introducing automation, efficiency, and real-time problem-solving into operational workflows.

AI and the future of Contact Centre Quality Assurance

Whether you love it or hate it, AI is here. AI has had a bigger impact on Contact Centres than Analytics, WFM, Quality Management, Insight Dashboards, and other technologies we’ve used over the years. It’s as significant in our lives as mobile phones, broadband at home, smart devices and IoT have been.

10 Things They Won’t Tell You About Forecasting

We all get fixed on forecasts, but none of us can see into the future. A forecast is basically a guess – an educated guess. What we can do is study what has happened in the past. By analysing past data for patterns and trends, we can make an educated guess about future outcomes. Unless we get lucky, it will probably be wrong.

The Art of Outsourcing: Getting It Right

Outsourcing is a tricky balancing act. Get it right, and it can transform your business. Get it wrong, and it can turn into a never-ending headache. Companies outsource for many reasons, like saving money, gaining expertise, or increasing scale. But success largely depends on managing the relationship well. To make outsourcing successful, follow these tips and avoid common mistakes. Also, learn why some businesses choose multiple outsourcers to spread their risk.

Can Employers’ Efforts to Reduce Stress Actually Be Making It Worse?

In recent years, more and more companies have started to recognise the importance of mental health and stress management in the workplace. As businesses realise how stress impacts not just employees but also the overall success of their organisation and customer satisfaction, many have rolled out initiatives like flexible working hours, wellness programs, and policies promoting work-life balance. These all sound great in theory, right?

The Art and Science of Decisions

How can we combine data and human intuition to drive continuous improvement? Today, there is huge excitement about the potential of data, machine learning, and AI. With these tools, we’re capturing more data than ever. We’re pushing our analysis to new heights.

Transforming Data Governance: A Strategic Perspective

Why haven’t we covered this topic on its own before? Probably because it isn’t the most exciting topic ever. However, we can change our mindset. If we view compliance and risk management differently, we can make data governance an engaging and valuable initiative. This will excite teams and align with broader business goals.

Agentic AI

This is a new term that is starting to be used in our industry. So I thought I would look into this in detail. Is this a leap forward for our industry? Or, is it another tech advance that promises much but won’t change much? I have found one thing. When people consider the implications, they don’t grasp the real world Team Leaders and their teams inhabit.

Understanding Customer Insight: Practical Approach

Customers are key to the success of our operation. Understanding their needs, wants and frustrations allows us to set the right strategies. In recent networking groups we have been discussing customer insight. What data do we have? How can we use this? What are the challenges. In this article I will be sharing some of my learning from these groups.

Customer Complaints: Driving Improvement Through Data and Empowerment

With rising customer complaints, organisations must focus on complaints management. It’s now critical in all sectors. Businesses from banking to telecoms and retail, face rising customer dissatisfaction. This article looks at rising complaints and the challenges for organisations. It discusses how data-driven strategies and empowered staff can help manage them.

It’s “Go Time” for Real-Time

Step up to the challenge for intra-day leadership and a bright future for real-time readiness and effectiveness.

Drive Strategy for Smarter Scheduling

Allocating work patterns and striking the right balance between customer and colleague needs and expectations is an enduring task that occupies many of us. We spend much time on admin tasks such as monitoring and tweaking metrics on lates and weekends. Over time, this becomes a heavy administrative burden. In reality, scheduling decisions often come down to personal preferences. Not everyone fits neatly into these established patterns.

Omni or Multi-skill, or Maybe Fungible Flexibility

Is there a new view for the future of efficiency and productivity, or do we just have another name to play bingo!