INSIGHT Peter Tetlow - Ventrica
“There are increasing numbers of brands focusing on the CX rather than basic contact centre metrics, which is a
positive move for the industry as a whole.” Peter Tetlow, Client Solutions Director, Ventrica
CX and contact centres:
what will change in 2019?
In 2018 it was predicted that voice would soon be dead and that the only sounds heard in contact centres
would be keyboards – or chatbots controlling the customer experience (CX). However, this prediction missed
one critical factor: the customer. With this in mind, Peter Tetlow, Client Solutions Director, Ventrica, outlines his
top trends for contact centres and the customer experience in 2019
Brands will start going
back to basics
Arti cial Intelligence (AI),
chatbots and Robotic Process
Automation (RPA) are the
current vogue, with everyone
wanting a piece of the new
technologies. However, these
same organisations frequently
have no CRM or data
management capability and
don’t understand the customer
journey or the desired customer
experience. Without these basic
building blocks, AI, chatbots
and RPA may add little bene t
or indeed may damage the CX,
so in 2019 we will see many
organisations returning to the
basics to get the foundations
right before exploring the new
toys in the toolbox.
Innovating for the CX, not
focusing on metrics
is prediction has made an
appearance in one form or
another over past years, but
it’s time to get it o the shelf
and dust it o again. ere are
increasing numbers of brands
focusing on the CX rather than
basic contact centre metrics,
which is a positive move for
the industry as a whole. is
year, more companies will
place weight on CSAT, NPS
or customer e ort rather than
service levels and AHT. If, and
when, they do, customers will
feel the bene t.
Messaging is the new way to chat
Some companies have already
taken the plunge into messaging.
Most consumers use messaging
apps almost on a daily basis, and
so it makes sense to use them to
contact companies they interact
with; additionally, messenger
will enable conversations to ow
and companies to engage with
their customers proactively.
Natural language bots will grow
Many organisations aren’t at
this stage yet, but the use of
natural language bots will
continue to grow in 2019,
allowing customers to use voice
but in an automated way, that
may well be linked to some
form of machine learning to
©Monkey Business-stock.adobe.com
predict what the customer may
want. is will allow multiple
and more complex issues to be
resolved quickly.
Data management will be
central
is is not just because of
the General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR) and the
potential nes associated
with it, although these tend
to focus attention, but data
management is becoming
more critical to running a
successful business. e more
companies that use data to
understand their customers
and to predict behaviours and
requirements, the more the
customer experience will grow
and improve. Because of this,
we will see a greater focus on
the importance of data within
all organisations.
Omnichannel was so ‘last
year’ – it is now about the CX
So many predictions over past
few years have focused on omnichannel
and proudly boasted
that the contact centre can
handle any channel a customer
may want to communicate in.
However, this fails to take the
customer into consideration:
there is no point in encouraging
a customer to get in contact
with a brand, using the most
convenient channel, if the
service is bad. e brands that
thrive this year will be those
that understand CX will drive
the channels, not the other way
around.
CX: digital or non-digital?
Another false prediction from
yesteryear. Organisations
have wanted to somehow
separate the digital CX from
non-digital CX. Once again,
another example of completely
misunderstanding the customer.
ey do not think a company
is brilliant because they can
converse with chatbots. ey
simply want their issue resolved.
CX covers everything and you
cannot separate digital from
non-digital CX. It is all about
the customer.
56 | Comms Business Magazine | March 2019 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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