by Lisa van Hesteren | November 5, 2020
If you were not able to attend “CX Strategy: What now?”, our panel debate from last week, then here it is. An insightful, thought-provoking hour with industry gurus Mark Hillary, Stephen Loynd, Peter Ryan and our own Robert Van Diem. Here are some of the themes that really stood out for us.
Our speakers all agreed that while WFH has been on the horizon for our industry for more than a decade now, the global pandemic has acted as an accelerant for our industry in the same way it has magnified behaviors and outcomes elsewhere.
The race that we’ve seen in the bricks-and-mortar CX industry to embed WFH this year has brought its own challenges, and there is a second wave of challenges coming for companies who have had to adapt rapidly this year.
We’ve all heard the industry anecdotes, where the technology has been copied but the management and engagement tools are all still based on traditional workplace environments rather than geared to working from home. The results are dropping engagement and productivity as ‘WFH Fatigue’ sets in.
As Peter Ryan says, “It’s easy to forget that people who went to work in bricks-and-mortar centers like meeting their colleagues”. They didn’t opt for home-working – it was thrust upon them, and the honeymoon is possibly over now.
As Robert says, “Working from home has to be right for your people. It’s a lifestyle choice. It’s not going to suit everyone.”
Robert talked about what we’ve learned at 5CA over two decades of pioneering WFH. Of course, you need to make sure you have the processes in place and your culture needs to adapt: transparency, a culture of trust, becoming more output-oriented, all these things are important. But actually wanting to work from home is the absolute key to success, because only some are suited to WFH and the disciplines that it requires. As Stephen Loynd says, “It’s an irony of exponential technological change that companies need to really know their people”.
The old days of needing to create a hub in a European city and then bring in – at considerable expense – linguists from all over the continent to staff it are gone. You simply don’t need to move people around Europe like that anymore and the result is a lower-cost, more scalable proposition.
The technology, processes and security are all robust enough so that you can plug people in wherever they are. They can work wherever they live, based in their own time zone. It makes you more flexible when you don’t have to commit resources to building the physical infrastructure of a hub.
Our panel of industry experts talked about the benefits of remote working, and Robert talked about how for 5CA, working from home makes everything else work. It means we’re able to recruit from anywhere in the world, because our people can work from anywhere in the world. Sounds simple, right? But that’s not the actual benefit for our clients. No, that comes with the increase in scalability we get from having a global talent pool to hire from. It means we can afford to be really picky, rather than have to rely on being lucky, hoping that the perfect candidate lives within commuting distance of the office.
That pickiness means in turn that we can afford to find and employ true fans of the brands we work for. For us, it’s a killer combination.
All our experts agreed that powering a client’s CX with agents who are fans of their brand could prove a game-changer for the industry as we hit the new decade. If you can harness the advocacy that an agent has for a brand, he or she is going to outperform anyone else in terms of passion and knowledge, because they believe in it.
Obviously, there are brands that are more suited for this than others. But anywhere you find bold, disruptive new challengers that are shaking up their industries, you’ll find fans evangelizing for these brands. Who doesn’t want to partner with those kinds of disruptors?
Given the wealth of survey feedback that enterprises continuously receive on their CX, our panel discussed the ongoing mystery of why so few actually act on it. Why would they let the disrupters get all the glory? Why wouldn’t you fix your CX if it wasn’t working? Particularly when the potential rewards are so huge in the form of ongoing customer loyalty and revenue generation across the customer lifecycle.
BPO used to be a “Your mess for less” business, as Peter pointed out. Nowadays that’s all changed, largely due to how CX management has changed. In an era when companies need to be able to pivot quickly, multi-sourcing is an obvious path. There are so many innovations that it’s hard for the enterprise to keep up, so now they might use multiple BPO partners to help them understand and innovate in terms of process, compliance, security, technology and anything else that supports them in staying ahead of their competition.
Eager to learn more? Please click here to watch the recording of the debate right away!
Gaming is the world’s #1 lifestyle choice, played by more people than any other form of entertainment. We’ve had a ringside seat for its evolution, working hand-in-hand with our clients to support their customers as they enter huge, new immersive worlds.
The times, they are a-most-definitely-changing. As seasoned CX veterans know, plenty of the received wisdoms of third-party contact center management have received something of a battering over the last few years.
I’m pleased to announce that I will be participating in a debate hosted by 5CA on October 27th. The title is CX Strategy: What Now? It’s going to be particularly topical, as one of the key things we will discuss, in the midst of this pandemic, is working from home (WFH) in the CX arena.
I’m pleased to announce that I will be participating in a debate hosted by 5CA on October 27th. The title is CX Strategy: What Now? I know that there are a lot of webinars and online debates these days, but I really think you should make time for this one:
Following on from National Customer Service Week, our Chief Customer Officer Rob van Herpen reflects on the journey that customer service has undergone in the last decade, and the role it plays within the wider scope of the whole customer experience.
I’m pleased to announce that I will be moderating a webinar hosted by 5CA on October 27th. The title is CX Strategy: What Now? I know you might be thinking “another day, another webinar invitation,” but as I’m chairing the debate I want to try making this one a little different. We can’t meet at conferences right now so the very least anyone planning a new webinar can do is to ensure it’s interesting and this one should hit the ball out of the park.
Gaming has been one of the few beneficiaries of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Global quarantine and stay-at-home orders preventing people from traveling, commuting, and socializing has resulted in a boom for the gaming industry. Maximize the value of your VIP players and discover how work from home (WFH) support helps you add more value to your gaming whales.
Game launched? Check. Player hype? Check. Champagne? Crack that bottle, you deserve it! But while it bubbles on your tongue, let me ask you this: Have you considered how to respond to players who need assistance or want to provide feedback? And when your player base grows (and let's be honest it will - your game is awesome), what will you do when those interactions start exploding in languages you do not speak? How will you manage the volume of requests coming in, but still provide the best possible user experience to your fans?
Yes…. Another thought piece on how COVID-19 is re-shaping life as we know it and what can we learn from it going forward. With people stuck at home and shops closed, several industries, such as e-commerce, streaming entertainment, and gaming, are experiencing hyperactivity. The influx is driving revenues but also customer support needs.
Did anyone see that Assassins’ Creed Valhalla announcement trailer? Of course you did. Chances are you did not discover it on your own, but instead it appeared on your social media channels, most likely shared by a fan of the franchise or an influencer. At least that is how it happened to me. Game marketing truly has changed in the era of digital, community, and influencers.
It’s often said, ‘people are the weakest link in cybersecurity’. I get that and I agree that we must seek to minimize human-related threat vectors. But I believe that if we view our people, our teammates, as our greatest security asset, then we start from a position of strength.
In BPO, we often talk about how we deliver the best possible customer experience. We focus on training knowledgeable and empathetic agents, we run and rerun staffing simulations to ensure minimal wait times. These things are important, but, for the most part, once a customer is reaching out to us, it’s already a ding to the overall customer experience. Customers want an easy experience that works as it should and is intuitive.
Last month, Vice ran an interesting article by Jess Morrissette on how games marketing invented toxic gaming culture by promoting toxicity and harassment as value propositions for gaming. While considered perfectly reasonable at the time, games marketing has luckily taken a turn for the better.
One of the most interesting things about the gaming industry is that gamers don’t behave like customers. Sure, they have no problem spending like customers, but their devotion and passion makes them more like super-fans.
With more and more companies providing work-from-home possibilities, and children spending more time at home during school breaks, many tend to fill the time previously spent commuting or at after-school activities on picking up new or old hobbies. It comes as no surprise that playing video games is one of those favored hobbies.
The World Health Organization and almost every national government has encouraged everyone in non-essential roles to stay at home. With millions of people in self-isolation, there is a real need to ensure these people have something to do.
Companies across the world are facing an unprecedented wave of disruption at present. One of the specific outcomes from this is that many people are suddenly working from home. Many have no experience working away from the office and so the business journals are full of tips on how to make it work.
Companies across the world are finding their business extremely disrupted at present and it looks like things may get worse before they get better. During this time there has been a strong focus on the need for people to work from home...
In this new day and age where no one spends more than 67 seconds away from a screen without at least a hint of anxiety, recruiting and engaging this new wave of job seekers is no less complicated than swiping right, get a match and then not really knowing how to open a conversation anymore (sound familiar?).
One methodology to aid in creating the right structure and behaviors in the customer support or customer service domain is called KCS (Knowledge-Centered Service).
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Consumer support over any channel, in any language, at any time: 5CA’s successful contact center as a service is possible because we use technology to make planet Earth our talent pool. It also presents an intriguing challenge: How do we balance flexibility, productivity, and security?
The most common response I get when I tell people I work in Workforce Management (WFM), often coupled with a very confused facial expression, is “Hmmm, is that in HR…?”
We’ve probably all heard of quality assessment (QA) before, where a quality specialist goes over agent interactions and checks to see if there are any possible areas of improvement or development...
The most successful companies make listening and understanding their customers a vital part of their business strategy. Sounds simple, doesn’t it?
Staff engagement has a variety of factors that employees should give attention to, and one of these factors that I am particularly passionate about is employee development.
Chances are your company has a defined mission statement. A short description of your market, goals, and how you intend to reach those goals...
What do you make of this phrase: If we want to improve our CSAT then we need to increase FCR! If you're new to customer service then this is probably complete gibberish to you...