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Interview

5 Minutes With… Christoph Neut, CEO at Sparkcentral

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In the latest instalment of our contact centre & customer service executive interview series, we spoke to Sparkcentral CEO Christoph Neut about his company, industry opportunities, the challenges of coronavirus and new technologies…

Tell us about your company, products and services.

At Sparkcentral, we offer a global SaaS platform for digital customer service that enables seamless conversations across digital channels such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WeChat, SMS, Live chat,…

By making customer service scalable and supporting operations, SLA based customer service can be delivered on these highly popular messaging communication channels. Want to drive customer satisfaction up and operational costs down? I would advise you to enhance your strategy with a seamless collaboration between humans and bots.

And what our Spark team is most proud of, is that every day we can work with some of the most customer centric brands in the world: Zappos, Emirates Airlines, Nordstrom, Air Canada, Netflix, citizenM hotels, Axa Partners, Engie, Concentrix … to name a few!

What have been the biggest challenges the Contact Centre/Customer Services industry has faced over the past 12 months?

During this global health crisis, the contact center industry demonstrated huge resilience by massively adopting “work from home” models while delivering qualitative services to customers worldwide. This in itself will surely be remembered as the biggest operational challenge in the last decade.

And what have been the biggest opportunities?

What we learned from this global crisis, is that the contact center industry needs to adopt new service delivery models that are not only cloud based, but also geographically distributed and able to handle a large degree of home workers.

In my opinion this is an opportunity for the entire industry. Now, more than ever, they will have to move faster in their digital transformation. Using platforms that are innovative, AI-driven and make customer service more efficient.

What is the biggest priority for the Contact Centre/Customer Services industry in 2020?

The contact center industry needs to be aware that younger generations are changing customer communication. Generation Mute, as they’re called, are texting instead of talking.

As a result, I advise large service operations to create new service delivery models, including people, processes and technology, to meet the expectations of this generation. Many contact centers are still focused on voice and email, but I think it’s time to get ready for some change. Listen to your customers and engage with them on the platforms they prefer.

What are the main trends you are expecting to see in the market in 2020?

In addition to the more widespread adoption of digital channels like WhatsApp as a consumers’ favorite engagement channel with their beloved brands, we’ll see an increased use of AI and bots to deliver proactive and reactive services in various parts of the customer journey.

What technology is going to have the biggest impact on the market this year?

It would be pretentious to answer this one myself, so I prefer to look at what Gartner’s analysts have to say about this. In their latest ‘Market Guide for Digital Customer Service & Support Technologies’ they predict that Artificial Intelligence, Chatbots and Omnichannel Customer Engagement Technologies will have the biggest impact on the industry in the next three years. That’s why I am pleased to see that according to Gartner, Sparkcentral operates in a promising domain of this customer service technology industry.

In 2025 we’ll all be talking about…?

Finding the perfect balance between AI driven automations with chatbots and highly relevant human service interactions over a continuously evolving number of digital communication channels. Brands who master this game will definitely deliver memorable customer service and will be adored by their growing and loyer customer fan base.

Which person in, or associated with, the Contact Centre/Customer Services industry would you most like to meet?

Without a doubt: Tony Hsieh, CEO at Zappos. And preferably during an informal chat in a casual bar with a glass of wine, to talk about our mutual passion for customer service and how we foresee this part of the world will evolve.

Thanks to his leadership and vision he convinced many CEO’s worldwide that the customer service department is not a ‘cost center’ but a ‘profit center’ and that old-fashioned metrics like average handle time are not necessarily customer centric. 

What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learnt about the Contact Centre/Customer Services sector? 

By engaging frequently and more often with your customers you’re building stronger customer relationships and … lots of data. This data is also considered the ‘new gold’, it enables businesses to improve in various areas.

The surprising part for me is that there are still leadership teams that do not seem to value the importance of customer feedback. They consider ‘more’ conversations as a cost rather than an opportunity to learn from their most important assets: their customers!

You go to the bar at the Contact Centre Summit – what’s your tipple of choice?

As a Belgian native, I actually have to say: a great Belgian beer. However, I do prefer a good red wine and I would love to discover a local wine of the country where the summit takes place.

What’s the most exciting thing about your job?

Being able to work with a team of very talented young people, who are passionate about our clients and who have the desire to make an impact in the customer service industry with innovative technology. For me that makes the job enriching and fun.

And what’s the most challenging?

What remains a challenge for a scale-out like us, is how enterprise organizations often still use very heavy and formal processes that last for months and require tons of paperwork. In today’s world companies should embrace the innovations smaller companies can bring to the table in a much more agile way.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

If you focus all your efforts on the innovations that are ‘natural next steps’ they will eventually happen, because the force of nature is always stronger than the resistance to change.

Succession or Stranger Things?

Am I missing out on something?

www.sparkcentral.com

5 Minutes With… Christoph Cyrol, RingCentral

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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In the latest instalment of our contact centre executive interview series, we spoke to Christoph Cyrol, Product Marketing Manager – Contact Centre at RingCentral about his company, industry opportunities, challenges, technology and Stranger Things…

Tell us about your company, products and services.

RingCentral delivers cloud-based CCaaS and UCaaS to provide fresh approaches for contact centres and customer engagement in businesses of any size. Our solutions are tightly integrated, making it easier for companies to increase agent performance and enhance the customer experience across all interactions and throughout the entire organisation. RingCentral provides an open platform that integrates with today’s leading business apps while giving contact centres the flexibility to customise their own workflows.

The RingCentral product portfolio, comprising Contact Centre, Engage Digital and RingCentral Office, offers a market-leading business communications and collaboration platform for organisations that wish to compete in the 21st century.

What have been the biggest challenges the Contact Centre/Customer Services industry has faced over the past 12 months?

The sudden pandemic outbreak with most organisations trying to enable their workforce to work from home. Before that, we realised that delivering consistently high levels of customer experience (CX) across multiple communication channels is one of the biggest challenges for most of the existing contact centres. Digital channels here are really important as they have shown a very strong rise in popularity among the customer base, so businesses need to meet the expectations of customers to communicate on these channels.

And what have been the biggest opportunities?

Cloud contact centres: To improve customer experience (CX) by improving employee experience (EX) with the support of providing a fully integrated contact centre solution to agents. This integration allows agents to simplify their daily workflow, which results in shorter average handling times (AHT). Adopting a cloud-based platform provides the immediate opportunity to move the contact centre operation from office to home and enables remote working as the new norm.

What is the biggest priority for the Contact Centre/Customer Services industry in 2020?

Many industries and organisations might struggle right now and their main focus is to stay open and online and continue to meet customer expectations. This will be followed by analysing existing business continuity plans and how they can improve them moving forward. All this will become a regular process across the industry.

What are the main trends you are expecting to see in the market in 2020?

I see a strong trend of using additional digital communication channels (Apple Business Chat, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, etc.), in-app messaging (iOS® and AndroidTM) and social media (Facebook®, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). Working on business continuity improvement plans for contact centres is another trend I predict when we all get back into the office.

What technology is going to have the biggest impact on the market this year?

Integrations with the most valuable business application; often this would be the CRM solution. It clearly delivers day-to-day advantages for ever-busy agents. On the other side, cloud solutions are great to improve and simplify any required analysing and reporting tasks for contact centres. This can be achieved as cloud solutions break up the data silos that still exist in many of today’s contact centres.

In 2025 we’ll all be talking about…?

How we all used to be in a call centre running separate data silos and now we are all connected anywhere.

Which person in, or associated with, the Contact Centre/Customer Services industry would you most like to meet?

The day-to-day heroes, passionate in keeping each contact centre operation up and running.

What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learnt about the Contact Centre/Customer Services sector?

That almost 4% of the working population in the UK is in this industry.

You go to the bar at the Contact Centre Summit – what’s your tipple of choice?

Argentinian Malbec after 18:00.

What’s the most exciting thing about your job?

I love the action and variety. Things are moving fast, and it’s thrilling to help push contact centre technology forward. Every day is different, bringing new challenges and opportunities, and that’s what keeps the work fresh and fascinating.

And what’s the most challenging?

The scale and speed requires focus to keep on top of. I’m involved with a number of fast-moving projects that require a lot of attention during the workday, so I need to prioritise, focus and deliver at speed. It’s demanding and exhilarating in equal measure.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you get stuck. A problem shared is a problem halved, and asking for advice is a good way to start building relationships.

Succession or Stranger Things?

Stranger Things.

5 Minutes With… Harriet Treadwell, Butternut Box

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In the latest instalment of our contact centre executive interview series, we sat down with Harriet Treadwell, Head of Customer Love at Butternut Box, to talk about her company’s approach to CX, industry opportunities, challenges and career…

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your career to-date.

I head up the amazingly dedicated Customer Love team at Butternut Box, striving for better for every customer and employee experience. Regularly sharing insight with industry leaders on our unique offering, and demonstrating our exceptional customer journeys with outstanding NPS, Google and Trustpilot reviews.

Operating always with genuine care to go over and above, being open and transparent across every interaction, and knowing that our whole Customer Love team does everything for the love of dogs is what keeps me motivated and enjoy every day at Butternut Box.

I’ve worked my way up in many customer facing roles, from cabin crew to property management – but I’ve always been passionate about developing a team of people, and firmly believe that great team engagement and experience in the workplace makes the customer journey exceptional.

What do you believe are the biggest challenges facing the industry at present?

A new generation of workforce who have grown up with digital platforms – this means they really find it challenging to speak to the older generation on the phone. This instills a fear factor of being taken outside their comfort zone, and in a world where wellness is key, what can we do to combat this?

If you had not taken your current career path, what do you believe you would be doing now?

I would likely be a pilot, and probably for the Royal Navy.

What has helped you get to where you are now, and what advice would you say to others who want to go in the same direction?

Push yourself far and wide outside what you think you can achieve. Two years ago, speaking in front of a crowd would scare me, and I wouldn’t think that what I had to say was valuable. In fact, all of our experiences present value in different ways to different people and it’s important that you know your worth – otherwise who’s going to be there to speak up for your team in critical business decisions?

What do you believe are the benefits of attending the Contact Centre & Customer Services Summit?

Seeing how companies have scaled and operate with a large team.

Tell us an interesting or funny fact about yourself?

I once went on ITV’s The Chase.

What is your go-to party anthem?

AC/DC – Thunderstruck

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

I’d know what others were thinking, so I could make better life choices!

5 Minutes With… Jeremy Payne, Enghouse Interactive

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As part of our ongoing executive interview series, we sat down with Jeremy Payne, International VP Marketing at Enghouse Interactive, to talk about customer interaction, market trends and the pace of change…

Q: Tell us about your company, products and services.

A:We develop customer interaction management solutions. Core technologies include contact centre, attendant console, predictive outbound dialler, knowledge management, IVR and call recording solutions that support any telephony environment, on premise, hybrid or in the cloud. Today, we have thousands of customers worldwide, supported by a global network of partners and more than 1600 dedicated staff.

Q: What have been the biggest challenges the Contact Centre/Customer Services industry has faced over the past 12 months?

A: First, customer expectations are escalating all the time, and many organisations are finding it increasingly difficult to meet them. Second, organisations struggle with integrating systems together cost-effectively to create an effortless and seamless experience.

Q: And what have been the biggest opportunities?

A: The biggest opportunities have been – and continue to be – in offering enhanced service levels without increasing business costs. There are several ways to achieve this:  through advanced automation, the use of AI, bots and through self- and social customer service. The triangulation of those elements will allow businesses to drive a better customer experience without necessarily driving up cost.

Q: What is the biggest priority for the Contact Centre/Customer Services industry in 2019?

A:The focus is on offering the best possible customer service to drive higher net promoter scores, attract new customers and increase loyalty and share of wallet from those customers. 

Underpinning this, businesses need to be aware of customers’ growing need to interact with them digitally. They therefore need the right channels, people, systems and processes available to service those channels. And, they need to do all this in a way that is regulatory-compliant.

Q: What are the main trends you are expecting to see in the market in 2019?

A:  There is a growing recognition that AI and bots add great value to an organisation’s customer service efforts. However, we are also seeing growing awareness that these technologies can never form the basis of a one-size-fits-all or plug-and-play scenario. Businesses are becoming more aware that thought and effort needs to go in, to ensure these technologies can proactively support enhanced customer engagement and drive a better customer experience for organisations today.

Q: What technology is going to have the biggest impact on the market this year?

A:Across the board, momentum is building behind AI, bots and associated technologies. Within the collaboration space, we expect collaboration platforms that help solve complex queries, such as Microsoft Teams and Slack, will continue to grow rapidly. We also expect to see a renewed energy around systems integration this year.

Q: In 2021 we’ll all be talking about…?

A: People will become more familiar with talking to natural language understanding (NLU) engines and interacting with them in a human-to-machine way. We will also be talking about increased machine-to-machine communications and people using their phones as a virtual assistant. They may even be driving to work and dictating to their phone about the jobs they need to get done that day. That device will then interact on a machine-to-machine level with service providers who can help to fix specific problems or challenges. 

Q: Which person in, or associated with, the Contact Centre/Customer Services industry would you most like to meet?

A: Anyone who is involved in developing and deploying social and crowdsourced customer service strategies and approaches. It is a big focus area for the customer service industry today.

Q: What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learnt about the Contact Centre/Customer Services sector?

A: It’s around the pace of change. If you listen to the hype, you’d think that robots have replaced most agents and AI is dominating the space. When you look at the reality, however, most interactions are still passing through voice and email. So while we are seeing exciting technological advances and a definite shift to digital, the move away from legacy communications channels is not as rapid as you might expect.  

Q: You go to the bar at the Call Centre Summit – what’s your tipple of choice?

A: A gin and tonic from one of the latest micro-distilleries that are springing up everywhere today. 

Q: What’s the most exciting thing about your job?

A: Working with innovative organisations that are looking to embrace new technologies but doing it in a way that drives real value towards their end customers. 

Q: And what’s the most challenging?

A:The market we are in is constantly changing. Indeed, the pace of technological change is such, that, in the world of customer service, staying ahead of what is possible is constantly challenging. 

Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

A: Be true to yourself.

Q: Peaky Blinders or The Crown?

A: Peaky Blinders.

Paul Dunne

5 minutes with… Paul Dunne, Plantronics

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Paul Dunne, Regional Director – Sales & Marketing, UK & Ireland, discusses the contact centre industry’s opportunities, trends and challenges in 2018…

Tell us about your company, products and services.

Plantronics is a global leader in business and consumer audio communications. We make wired and wireless headsets that are used by many contact centres around the world, as well as Bluetooth headsets for mobile workers and wireless headphones for consumers.

What have been the biggest challenges the call centre & customer service industry has faced over the past 12 months?

The growing number of online, self-service channels present unique challenges for contact centre operators. From an operations perspective, while voice remains the most prominent channel today, chatbots, social media and video chat are becoming more widely available, causing the role of contact centre operators and managers to become more complex.

And what have been the biggest opportunities?

While the growing number of channels is a challenge, those contact centres that can crack multichannel and can provide a single view across online and offline to their customers will be in high demand.

What is the biggest priority for the centre & customer service industry in 2018?

Attracting and retaining talent will continue to top the list of priorities.

What are the main trends you are expecting to see in the market in 2018?

Integrated Analytics is the Holy Grail – Social is emerging as a mainstream medium for customer service and many contact centres are investing in analytics and routing that will enable them to merge data from various channels and enterprise systems into a single analytics solution.

What technology is going to have the biggest impact on the market this year?

Analytics and routing.

In 2020 we’ll all be talking about…?

RPA (Robotic Process Automation).

Which person in, or associated with, the centre & customer service industry would you most like to meet?

I have meet her already, Annette Hickey, Senior Director and Dublin Site Leader at PayPal. Annette is a trail blazer when it comes to driving excellence in customer experience. She consistently supports her team to drive their development and her business and she is a pleasure to partner with.

What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learnt about the centre & customer service sector?

You get to meet the nicest people, which may be surprising given the nature of the job!

You go to the bar at the Call Centre & Customer Services Summit – what’s your tipple of choice?

Whiskey, not Whisky.

What’s the most exciting thing about your job?

Working with my team.

And what’s the most challenging?

Working with my team.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Happiness is always a choice, regardless of the situation.

Peaky Blinders or The Crown?

Peaky Blinders although I do despair about the impact Peaky Blinders is having on men’s fashion, especially in the Contact Centre industry…

Industry Spotlight: Finding the ‘perfect fit – the psychology of contact centre recruitment…

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Brona Ratcliffe, head of contact centres HR at Domestic & General, oversees more than 900 employees at the company’s Nottingham-based contact centre. Domestic & General employs more than 2,500 employees in the UK and, last year alone, handled eight million calls, spending three billion hours on the phone.

Here, she explains how Domestic & General has adopted strengths-based recruitment to appoint the right talent for a successful contact centre environment.

Change can be difficult, do you agree?

A tough question, but this will likely face applicants during a job interview with Domestic & General as part of our streamlined strengths-based recruitment process. As a business, we recognised that although change can prove to be difficult, we wanted to re-evaluate the way we recruited talent to our contact centre team and remain at the forefront of the industry.

Filling vacant roles in a sector with a notoriously high employee turnover can certainly be challenging at times, and it is our duty as responsible employers to not only fill positions and ensure the business runs effectively, but that the candidates we recruit are the right people and will get as much out of it, both personally and professionally, as they put into the business.

Both financially and productively, the importance of hiring the right people the first time around is crucial. Research conducted in 2014 by Oxford Economics revealed that the costs of recruiting replacement members of staff to be as much as £30,614 per employee. The figure is based on the combined logistical costs of recruiting and absorbing a new worker, and the lost output a company experiences during the period of time the new worker is ‘settling in’.

The report unveiled that, on average, workers take 28 weeks to reach optimum productivity which has an attached cost of £25,181 per employee.

Over the past 18 months, we have been working with business psychologists Capp to implement a strengths-based recruitment process within our business structure. In short, this allows us to assess body language, scenarios and group work to nurture applicant success and help ensure the right people are filling our roles.

It almost goes without saying that in order to achieve a successful career in the industry; our employees need to have an abundance of core skills such as: strong customer focus, the ability to work under pressure and be highly agile and adaptable. These are the skills we look for in our candidates and what we need to identify as we undergo the recruitment process. We feel in order to have a successful business, our employees need to love what they do from the word go, and naturally be suited to the role with strengths already in place.

As a result, we no longer look closely at someone’s work history but are much more interested in their core skills and where they could best fit into our organisation, whether it is in our contact centre or in a more senior role – to benefit both parties.

The recruitment process is broadly divided into three key areas: the initial application, a telephone interview and the final assessment centre and there are three aspects we look for – strength, performance and energy. Key assessment signals might include whether applicants are using passionate language; what their body language is doing; and whether they are smiling or speaking quietly.

Given the demanding nature of the role, our assessment centres need to replicate the experience of the contact centre role. By using exercises, similar to speed dating, it recreates a really similar atmosphere to a contact centre, which are noisy, busy environments. Naturally if an applicant looks out of place at the assessment centre, the role is not suitable for them.

The impact of using strengths-based recruitment is already having a profound effect within the business. Almost 93 per cent of our assessors said they felt the new recruits were more highly engaged during the training and picked it up quicker, whilst 100 per cent of its assessors agreed the strengths-based approach was more effective, saying they could differentiate between low, average and high performance easier; identify candidates who are a good fit for the contact centre role; and ensure the new hires would be an asset to the business.

As we move into our busiest time of year in the run up to Christmas, ensuring we have highly motivated, talented and enthusiastic employees is vital to guarantee our customers receive outstanding customer care, as well as looking more inwardly to ensure they all find their role enjoyable and are in a career they look to progress going forwards.

 

Domestic & General is the market-leading appliance care provider for household appliances and consumer electronics in the UK. The company takes the worry out of appliance breakdowns for over 16 million customers and carried out over two million repairs last year alone.

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