Homeworking is here to stay say top UK contact centres

Throughout lockdown, business leaders have debated the tricky issue of how best to engage and support their people while working from home.  

Are you struggling with bad data in your CRM? Have you tapped into the wealth of information your contact centre interactions data holds?

We all know that the pandemic has accelerated digital transformation and that contact centres have followed suit, with 3 or 4 now using full or partial cloud solutions. Calabrio’s original research, State of the Contact Centre 2021, is based on a survey of 273 contact centre managers in 3 major global markets and in a variety of industries. 

Following on from my last article we are seeing a lot of data being displayed graphically, we can take some great ideas from these but we can also see examples of some of the common pitfalls we need to avoid.

Outbound dialling – viewed by some as a nuisance, and by others as a vital tool in the battle to serve customers in the most effective and efficient way possible. Whether done manually via a list or automatically using the latest in Dialler systems, hundreds of companies employ tens of thousands to make outbound calls for making sales, managing inbound queues, imparting information, or collecting outstanding monies. It is a very important consideration for modern companies.

Which possibly makes it more surprising that so little consideration is actually given to the best way to build capacity plans or plan FTE requirements.

As a result of Covid-19, each aspect of the employee lifecycle has been challenged. This has provided an opportunity to design and rebuild a new and joined up approach, supporting both the long- and short-term strategies. The uncertainty of planning during a pandemic has led to decisions being made with a short-term view in mind; some of these responses may turn out to be poor enduring solutions.

Moving to your Contact Centre to the cloud is easier and more critical than ever!

Have you thought about the awesome power of benchmarking? If not, maybe you should.

Is collecting debt in large volumes on the horizon?  Aspect is a leader in the outbound dialer market with contact capabilities that power automated, compliant campaigns, that help you send the right message at the right time – which helps improve collection activities.  

We have now launched our programme of activity for 2021, combining the very best of virtual and face-to-face to offer you a variety of ways of maximising your membership.

The forced virtual environment of 2020 has given us a huge learning opportunity to understand how we can grow our community, make more events easier to access whilst still ensuring value. 

These can be accessed through your membership, or pay-as-you-go.

Heightened customer expectations are here to stay and are having a huge impact on technology in contact centres. Ed Creasey at Calabrio shares a forward-looking plan for the “new normal”. 

First-ever virtual Calabrio customer conference showcases cloud-based WEM platform designed for the modern, agile contact centre

For 10 years our Forum Hero Awards have spotlighted role models for each community of best practice - individuals who stand out for how they learn and share. For 2020, we recognise 3 further Forum Heroes

See how successful implementation of analytics has transformed the contribution of Quality at Vitality, engaging colleagues and raising care scores up by a quarter, with a 13% drop in lapse rates.

Summary
A detailed view of customer experience is provided by 10 new scorecards, based on 100% sample, made possible by the successful automation of call scoring using CallMiner. This has already completed the equivalent of 20 years manual effort and audit fails are down 16%. A new governance process is developing the use of analytics in the business, with Quality, Coaching & Continuous Improvement coming together, in a value-add function, alongside planning. Programming of 260+ rules, based on over 750 key phrases, relied on the expertise of external consultants from Ember, who provide a managed service. In just 18 months this new Quality Framework, has been rolled out across four areas of the business, raising NPS by 8-18%, supporting a 4.5 Star rating on Trust Pilot and leading to being voted the best large centre and No.1 for voice contacts.

See how sales opportunities doubled in a challenging market, by embracing customer service principles in sales and focussing on colleague engagement, proactive contact and value-add actions.

Summary 
A cultural transformation within sales at RS was supported by collaboration with the insight, planning and quality teams. By focussing on what is important to customers and colleagues, the sales teams evolved to meet the needs of a changing marketplace. Colleague feedback and engagement played a crucial role in this, adapting established best practice for customer service to help colleagues succeed in sales. Sales opportunities doubled, a 200% increase in the types that were most effective. As a result, turnover grew 5% and customer Net Promoter (NPS) & Net Easy (NES) scores each rose by 20 points. Significantly, this new operating model provides the benefits of personal client relationships, while bringing in a more centralised function, driving efficiencies and refocussing resources on value adding roles and activities. 

See how planning helped tackle complex challenges in introducing the first new train type in 30 years, itself the first step in a journey of digital transformation.

Summary 
Successful implementation of the new Azuma trains has depended as much on the planning and delivery of training, as the technical introduction of the trains themselves. This required complex planning on such a crowded rail network, including suspending two daily services and gaining flexibility on schedules from colleagues. Yet over 1,600 crew were successfully trained, at the same time that trains were being tested and drivers trained, losing only one service in 18 months. Customer experience is transformed – moving LNER to 3rd out of 28 operators. And technology now provides new facilities and data, paving the way to expand the services further, in a competitive marketplace. Adapting key planning approaches, to face new challenges with limited technology, this is all about engaging with people at the right time to bring them on board on this strategic journey of change. 

See how Planning gained a seat at the top Customer & Ops table and built confidence in the plan, while at the same time genuinely supporting those accountable for ‘doing the right thing’ in their own area.

Summary 
Systems Thinking is often seen as incompatible with planning, yet the Planning Team at LV= embraced the opportunity to redefine their purpose, gaining a mandate to pioneer new activity and support people using data to make decisions. They are empowering advisors and providing bespoke support to business leaders. Planning models have been stripped back and simplified, data reports automated and made visible. Self-serve for lifestyle planning has cut escalations to Planning by 80% and helped people feel ‘set free’. A sector-first tool for surges in demand in home claims is planning what’s ‘waiting to happen’, before it happens, in stormy times! The shift in thinking has helped raise colleague engagement 12% across the business – and support the key goal of exceptional customer experiences, with NPS up seven points to +72.