EVENTS Nuvias Round Table
deecting calls which can be
answered through an algorithm
which can be a yes/no type
answer and giving the call
centre agents more time.
DD: How does Employee
Experience fit into this?
KJ: Every contact centre is
completely dierent. If you
are in a 999 contact centre
you don’t really want to have
gamication going on in the
background to try and get
people elevated to make their
jobs more exciting because that
is mission critical stu.
PG: I think it’s about the
medium. Oering the customer
service people the opportunity
to engage with end-customers
on every medium that comes
into the business be that
Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook,
Webchat or whatever it is. Being
able to do that in a single pane
of glass application so they can
engage with the customer then
their job is going to be so much
nicer. Before we were forcing
them down the avenue of if
this gets sticky the customer
will have to ring them because
that’s the only way to solve the
problem. From a tweet we can
now take this from cradle to
grave with UCaaS applications.
It’s got to be making the
customer service consultant
experience a lot better.
RK: I don’t think I would root
it in technology though. One
of the big changes is with
empowerment. We are using
the self-service channels and the
digital channels to take away
those easy interactions and the
stu coming into people is more
dicult. So, empower them
to make a dierence. Don’t
constrain them with a script
and say ‘sorry, computer says
no’. Lets empower them to solve
customer problems. With that
you’ll see a pride of ownership
and that will trickle through to
greater retention also.
KJ: Also, the end-points have
become so much better these
days. If you go back a few years
everyone was sat there hard
wired into the desk and the only
time they would get up was for
lunch. No one is going to enjoy
sitting at a desk for six hours
at a time. I look at our internal
sales teams and no one is sat at a
desk. ey are moving around,
kicking a ball, being mobile.
DD: So the hardware is playing
a big part here?
RK: If I look at a prole of a
contact centre employee now
they are closer to that of an
employee in the organisation,
they aren’t this stand-alone
business item. ey have
individual needs, they are on
the phone a lot but they need
to move around. ey need to
collaborate and stretch, because
the calls are getting longer,
and so wireless is a really big
thing to look at. It sells itself
as a technology, you don’t have
to explain wireless to people
these days and it’s good for the
partners to get the hang of.
Richard Kenny, Poly and Aled Treharne, Nuvias
DD: How important is the
feedback mechanism
between the customer and
the partner?
KJ: Our entire engagement
with the Channel is ‘work
with’. We are never going
to send them into a contact
centre and expect them to
know what is going on. We
send solution engineers, subject
matter experts and they will go
and spend hours in a contact
centre to understand how that
organisation is working now but
also how we can make it better.
For example, how do we take
15 per cent of your call volume
and answer that through a bot,
taking 15 per cent away from
the agents is going to make a
dierence. ey are going to
be more productive, their wrap
up notes will be better and the
Customer Experience will be
better. Enabling the Channel
and working with them so they
understand as much about our
platform and what the customer
wants as we do is the biggest
driver for us.
DD: Will voice always reign
supreme in the Contact
Centre?
RK: ere is one Channel
coming through which has
anecdotal evidence to suggest
it will supersede voice over
time and that’s video. At
the moment video is being
used as a replacement for
face-to-face. Instead of going
into your branch of Halifax
for instance you could go
into a video room with that
person. If you look at the
younger generation coming
through, anyone under
21, their expectation of an
interaction is visual. ey are
looking at the device rather
than holding it to their ear.
When they start to become
consumers and employees
we will start to see a real sea
change in expectations and
communications will need to
be visual. We are starting to
see people experiment already
with this, some of its for high
net worth and some is for
branch replacement but you
will see more. A partner that
can bring expertise in video
into the contact centre will be
welcomed with open arms.
AT: One of the biggest success
stories we’ve seen in terms of
video in the contact centre is
with an insurance company.
ey were using video through
a mobile app to replace the
insurers loss adjuster’s visit.
Instead of having to wait a
week for the loss adjuster
to come out and evaluate
everything and send a report
back by using the video they
were able to able to have
someone evaluate it there and
then. Ideally this was done
within the context of that
initial call and provide a
value for the insurance claim.
e Customer Experience for
that was through the roof, if
you can do that and resolve
the issue on the spot with one
interaction, I would go for that
every day.
Keith Jackson, 8x8 and Paul Gibbs, Gamma
42 | Comms Business Magazine | February 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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