The UK Contact Centre Decision-Maker's Guide 2016

Transcription

1 The UK Contact Centre Decision-Maker's Guide 2016 (14 th edition) The Contact Centre Strategy Chapter Sponsored by

2 The 2016 UK Contact Centre Decision-Makers Guide (14 th edition) ContactBabel 2016 Please note that all information is believed correct at the time of publication, but ContactBabel does not accept responsibility for any action arising from errors or omissions within the report, links to external websites or other third-party content. 2

3 Seamless customer engagement begins and lasts with Netcall. Contact centre technology designed with your customers experience in mind, allows you to access data and content where it s needed using our smart, user-friendly and beautifully designed solutions. Create a universal queue and consistently manage service delivery across all channels; social, web, voice and self-service. Join-up your contact centre s front and back-office systems and deliver integrated automated workflows that promote first contact resolution. Keep customers informed and reduce inbound contact using proactive outbound messaging. Gain quantifiable visibility and control of volatility. Face each day with confidence, optimise the deployment of your trained and motivated agents. Improve the customer journey with high quality customer interactions, while enjoying lower operating costs. Netcall is proud to serve over 700 private and public sector organisations. Be empowered to deliver superior customer service any time, any place, anywhere. Explore for your customer engagement journey. Contact: w: e: replies@netcall.com a: Netcall Telecom Limited, 3rd Floor Hamilton House, 111 Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead, HP1 1BB (UK) t:

4 STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS Much of this report is about how contact centres are performing today, but this final chapter looks at the strategic decisions and issues that contact centres face. Traditionally, HR issues such as attrition have been what make contact centre managers most concerned, but the past years have seen a growing feeling that the technology in place is letting the operation down, or at least, preventing it moving forward to the extent that it needs. Many solution providers note that as part of their sales engagements, they will typically carry out a business process review. They often find that staff are typically committed and capable, but are hamstrung by legacy applications, data systems and inefficient processes. Contact centres are also aware that they have to modernise their processes as well as the technology, but - as ever - cost, time and the need to keep the operation running smoothly make this sort of strategic thinking very difficult, especially in a situation where some contact centres still do not have much in the way of a champion at the higher levels of the business. The need to measure and improve customer experience and satisfaction, and its impact upon profitability, has become an obsession throughout the industry, which is positive for customers and businesses. A recent phenomenon has been the explosive growth in multichannel communications, and the dawning realisation that customer contact should not exist in a siloed environment, but as part of an omnichannel contact strategy. Today s customers are always on, preferring to communicate through the channel and device most convenient in the moment and expect you to know who they are, what they want, and how to deal with them, without asking them to repeat information or passing them between departments. However, when different teams manage each channel, departmental silos of interaction history and customer information can occur resulting in inconsistent customer experiences. Ensure that your project partner will enable you to deploy channels step-by-step to create a seamless journey across an integrated platform, which will improve front and back office efficiency, engage and motivate your agents and in-turn increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. The industry is still growing in terms of increased volumes of interactions and even headcount to a lesser extent, and more needs to be done to increase the effectiveness of agents, particularly as the move from live voice to text-based service means learning new ways of operating. Voice self-service levels have been low across much of the industry for some years, although have picked up significantly in the past two years. Far more is also being done via the web and especially mobile channels (and new technologies such as visual IVR offer a boost to existing technology), taking lowvalue work away from agents and freeing them up to do more profitable, valuable and difficult work, not just through the voice channel, but also via . Sales discovery projects will typically highlight several opportunities for self-service and call deflection, but the customer satisfaction element of a poorly implemented self-service application also needs to be considered. Businesses have to ensure that they choose the right areas to self-serve, and then do it well. 4

5 For businesses where self-service is not seen as a viable option, many opportunities still exist to trim unnecessary elements of the calls, from identity verification through system navigation to post-call wrap-up: consistently high levels of wrap-up time and non-call time is worrying: often 40% or more of an agent s time is spent doing something other than communicating with customers. Agent desktop optimisation - putting the right things on the desktop at the right time in the conversation, without disrupting the underlying system functionality has gained in popularity, especially in very large contact centres with multiple, complex processes and legacy systems. Interaction analytics offers businesses a major opportunity to understand why customers are calling, and to gain real commercial insight that will impact at the heart of the business. Open systems and infrastructure now make the implementation of automated identity verification and CTI-like processes far more cost-effective and simpler to deploy. Linking with cloud-based CRM applications, the agent desktop can unify all of the legacy applications within a single customer view, significantly reducing agents post-call wrap-up activities and overall call handling time. Customer satisfaction and improved customer experience is the common ground where senior executives and contact centre operations can now meet and discuss how to head in the right direction together. Much of what respondents to this survey have talked about is coloured by improving customer satisfaction and reducing customer effort, the drivers of where the contact centre industry is headed long-term. Customer experience is the only remaining long-term differentiator for organisations and CRM solutions have often been used to support sales and service objectives rather than improve customer journeys. Traditional solutions typically use multiple screens and are difficult to integrate with other legacy systems forcing agents to use inefficient processes to work around the software. Customer centric organisations take steps to improve their customer s experience, they ensure that agents are provided with a unified customer view and they define, then deploy intelligent workflows so that their software matches business objectives which rapidly provides results with the maximum flexibility. 5

6 Seamless customer engagement begins and lasts with Netcall Technology designed with your customers in mind Multichannel contact centres interact quicker and more efficiently with Netcall netcall.com 2016 Netcall Telecom Limited Hamilton House, 111 Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire HP1 1BB

7 TECHNOLOGY USAGE AND PLANS The following chart shows respondents' current and future use of specific contact centre solutions. Figure 1: Technology penetration and implementation plans Technology penetration and implementation plans Gamification 7% 7% 51% 22% Automated speech recognition 11% 7% 11% 64% Speech/interaction analytics 19% 11% 14% 48% Automated outbound dialler 22% 58% Web chat 42% 9% 24% 12% Workforce management systems 38% 14% 19% 7% 16% 6% Mobile customer service app/website 46% 16% 1 1 Touchtone/DTMF IVR 5 27% 6% management software 47% 1 20% 7% 11% SMS 5 7% 12% 17% Social media service 5 12% 11% 11% IP telephony infrastructure 64% 12% 7% 6% Management information systems 62% 1 8% Call recording 79% 12% 1% 91% 0% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Use now, no plans to replace/upgrade Use now, looking to replace/upgrade Will implement within 12 months Will implement after 12 months No plans to implement Don't know / NA Workforce management, management and management information systems are amongst the most likely to be upgraded or replaced in the next year, with a significant proportion of respondents using social media and IP infrastructure also looking to improve or upgrade their solution. IP infrastructure and converged networks can cut costs, but also lay the foundations for other technologies and strategic initiatives. Many organisations are also moving legacy call recording technology to the cloud, removing the need for on-site storage and maintenance, security management and improving operational flexibility. In terms of new implementations, web chat, mobile service, workforce management systems and management systems are singled-out in the short term, with gamification also receiving a high level of attention when considering its low current usage. 7

8 In the longer-term too, web chat, mobile service and speech analytics were seen by respondents as likely investments, very similar to previous years research. This may show that businesses are serious about these solutions, or alternatively it may be viewed as something that businesses would like to do, but find it difficult to get around to as they have more pressing tasks in the meantime. Recognising that the reality of contact centre investment does not always match the intention shown in the previous chart, the following table gives closer analysis of IT investment priorities. Respondents were asked to consider 25 solutions, and to choose the top five most important areas of IT expenditure in their contact centre within the next two years. Viewed together, these data are likely to give an accurate picture of likely investment. Figure 2: Top 5 most important areas of contact centre IT expenditure in the next two years Technology solution 1 st 2 nd 3 rd 4 th 5 th CRM / Agent Desktop Software 26% 9% 12% Omnichannel (i.e. getting channels to work together) 17% 12% 8% 2% Back-Office Integration 14% 11% 4% Management 1% 12% Web Chat 1% 9% 7% Self-Service (includes DTMF IVR, Automated Speech Recognition and Web Self-Service) 11% 2% Workforce Management 2% 4% 7% Performance & Quality Management 4% 7% Desktop Automation & Analytics 4% 7% 2% 2% 9% Management Information Systems 2% 2% 8% 9% Social Media 7% Cloud 7% 4% 4% 1% 1% Interaction Routing (including ACD/CTI-like functionality) Mobile Service 4% Hardware (including PCs & servers) 2% 2% 1% 8% Telephony Infrastructure (including IP) 4% 1% 2% 2% Virtual Contact Centres 2% 1% 4% 2% 1% Gamification 1% 2% 1% Homeworking 4% 1% 2% 2% Speech Analytics 1% 2% 2% Call Recording 1% 1% 1% Outbound Automation 1% 1% 1% 2% Video/Web RTC 1% 1% 2% Headsets 1% 2% Voice Biometrics 1% 1% 1% NB: technology solutions have been ordered by the cumulative score of their appearance as a top 5 priority 8

9 For many years, CRM (including improvement to the contact centre agent desktop and contact management system, as well as company-wide CRM) has been in no.1 position, and this is the case once again this year. In fact, 5 of respondents put this is one of their top five priorities, with omnichannel, management, back-office integration and web chat close behind. Moving contact centre functionality to the cloud is of prime importance for 7% of respondents, with 17% in total placing it within their top five priorities. Improving performance and quality management features in the top 5 for around one-quarter of respondents, and can be seen as a widespread and compelling requirement for many operations. Omnichannel - which has been defined within this part of the survey as getting the various channels to work together is placed within the top 5 priorities by 49% of respondents (an increase on last year s figure of 42%), which is actually higher than any solution apart from CRM. The various supporting applications, such as web chat, management systems and social media have significant proportions of respondents placing them within the top 5, especially the former two solutions. One interesting point to note is that telephony infrastructure upgrades (usually involving IP) is no longer one of the main planned expenditures on contact centre technology, as so many have moved to this already, although upgrades are planned for a significant proportion of respondents. When implementing IP telephony infrastructure, many project partners force you into a deployment model that is most suitable for them, not you. Successful organisations focus on their current and future business strategy, they make their own deployment choices that match their values, beliefs and integration requirements and they harness essential legacy infrastructure to optimise their investment outcome. Your choice of IP telephony must be able to play nicely with your legacy infrastructure for either on-premise or cloud solutions, deliver complex integration in a private cloud, integrate with Skype for Business or similar and provide you with a future-proof roadmap for your entire Unified Communications infrastructure. It is interesting to note that respondents place back-office integration as the third most-likely investment priority over the next two years, with 44% of respondents putting them in their top five (up from last year s figure of 38%). This suggests that respondents are very aware of the need to underpin the entire customer contact infrastructure - both front and back office - with a robust, stable and non-siloed infrastructure that allows a single view of the customer throughout their entire experience in an omnichannel environment. While back-office integration may not be the most glamorous technology solution available, this significant level of interest and planned investment shows the contact centre s remit is widening to cover the entire customer journey, not just the voice element. 9

10 CASE STUDY Danwood s customer engagement vision realised with Netcall Liberty TM Danwood is the UK s largest independent provider of managed print services. Supporting 13,000 customers and 80,000 print and document management machines, Danwood s vision is to revolutionise their customers experience by embracing the Internet of Things and cloud technology. This business transformation starts with the customer engagement centre supporting 100+ agents across multiple sites, taking an average of 25,000 calls per month. With the help of Netcall s end-to-end Liberty customer engagement platform, Danwood is aiming to achieve three goals: Transform customer engagement by providing effortless customer journeys Integrate legacy systems and processes Achieve significant growth Our vision is to predict the needs of our customers before they know them, answering their questions before they are even asked. Our engagement with our customers is increasingly proactive and Netcall s Liberty platform is pivotal in making this change a success. Rod McCarthy Group Operations Director, Danwood. Netcall s Liberty platform has streamlined the way customers interact with Danwood s customer engagement centre. As a result first contact resolution has increased and escalation handling has reduced, which has also had a positive impact on Danwood s staff morale. Top tips from the Danwood team: The service you provide shouldn t become your customer s concern: providing service excellence frees your customers to focus on their core business, instead of yours. Be inclusive: consult with colleagues, their contributions could be the difference between project success and failure. Enable them and the new technology to succeed. Focus on integration: critically assess how project partners will integrate with your legacy infrastructure to ensure investment value is realised. Discover more at netcall.com/cbdanwood

11 TECHNOLOGY, PEOPLE, PROCESS & PERCEPTION Respondents were asked a series of four questions around how well or poorly they felt their contact centre was doing around four key areas: technology, people, process and perception. They were asked to score their operation on a scale of 1 to 100, where a low score represented a poor outcome, and a high score a positive one. The scores for each question within grouped into five categories in order to draw out a pattern. Figure 3: Rating of technology, people, process and perception in the contact centre 100% Rating of technology, people, process and perception in the contact centre 90% 80% 1 29% 18% 27% % 70% 60% 3 26% 28% 61-80% 50% 44% 20% 41-60% 40% 16% 16% 30% 20% % 21-40% 0% 20% 11% 14% 19% 1% Technology People Process Perception 0-20% Technology (where 1 Little investment in systems and technology -> 100 A great deal of investment in systems and technology ) Respondents were the most negative in their views of the investments they saw being put into systems and technology within the contact centre, with 20% scoring this below 20/100 and a further 1 between 21 and 40. Agent skills (where 1 Agents do not have the skills & characteristics needed -> 100 Agents have all of the skills & characteristics needed ): The majority of respondents were very positive about the skills and characteristics that their agents had. 7 scored this at 61/100 or above, with very few stating that the agents did not have the skills and characteristics required. 11

12 Processes (where 1 Contact centre processes need a lot of improvement -> 100 Contact centre processes need little or no improvement ): The pattern here is similar to that seen in technology investment, although the proportion of respondents feeling very negative about this is lower. While 44% of respondents feel that their contact centre processes don t need much improvement, 37% feel that they require significant change. Management view (where 1 Management views the contact centre as an operational cost -> 100 Management views the contact centre as a strategic asset ): Respondents were asked whether the business s management views them as an operational cost centre (low score), or as a strategic asset (high score). 5 said that their management viewed them more as a strategic asset, with only 28% stating that they were seen more as an operational cost centre. This move towards being viewed strategically continues, as 10 years ago, most operations were seen as cost centres. 12

13 HELPING THE CONTACT CENTRE ACHIEVE ITS AIMS Respondents were asked to give their views on what was preventing the contact centre from achieving its aims, assuming that there was a gap between what was being achieved and what would be ideal. Figure 4: What is preventing the contact centre from achieving its aims? What is preventing the contact centre from achieving its aims? Lack of vision about where the contact centre is going 19% 17% 31% 22% 1% HR issues (e.g. attrition / recruitment / agent skill set) 34% 24% 24% 6% 2% Lack of investment in systems & processes 22% 26% 24% 2 4% Siloed channels are affecting how we provide customer service 26% 34% 14% 18% 4% 4% Technology is holding us back but cannot be replaced 28% 32% 19% 17% 0% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree Don't know / NA There was little real conclusion to be drawn from this: 22% of respondents strongly agreed that lack of investments in systems and processes was holding the contact centre back, and it was interesting to note that 60% agreed or strongly agreed that it was irreplaceable technology that was a problem. This lack of ability to change or upgrade its systems may be around the previously stated lack of investment, or maybe more to do with the highly-customised and bespoke legacy environment that the business feels it requires to operate. It is also of interest to note that 60% of respondents admit that siloed channels are affecting how they can provide customer service: most of these channels were added and integrated in a piecemeal fashion, and require the re-engineering of underlying infrastructure and business processes in order to provide the omnichannel experience which many respondents feel is necessary to improve the customer s experience significantly. Considering that most respondents have historically low levels of agent attrition, and stated earlier in this chapter that agent skills and characteristics were generally good, it is surprisingly to see 44% of respondents agreeing that HR issues were preventing the contact centre from achieving its aims. 13

14 As these findings do not shed real light on which specific factors are holding contact centres back, it is necessary to look in more detail to see if there are specific issues related to the size of the contact centre. When considering the attitudes of respondents from various size bands, there are a few key areas of differentiation: large and medium contact centres are more likely to state that HR issues are holding them back: 47% and 57% of respondents respectively, compared to 30% of small operations around 60% of all respondents, regardless of contact centre size, believe that a siloed approach to channel management is an inhibitor to service, showing that omnichannel is not just a question for large operations to answer smaller operations are more likely to state that a lack of investment in technology is restricting their plans (59%, compared with 4 of medium operations and 39% of large) looking in more depth at technology, there was little difference between contact centre size bands when considering how incumbent, irreplaceable systems affected them. 58% of small, 68% of medium and 56% of large operations mentioned that this was an issue for them Only 19% of large operations agreed that a lack of vision about where the contact centre was going was a problem. 36% of small operations and 29% of medium-sized contact centres agreed. Respondents were also asked for any other issues that they felt were preventing their contact centre from achieving its aims that had not already been mentioned. Responses included: Budget constraints Fast-moving changes to the business and increased complexity Too little time to carry out all of the improvements identified Declining revenues in markets that are changing, meaning investment in the contact centre becomes less Reluctance to change existing, traditional working practices, which includes trying to get the non-contact centre part of the workforce to improve customer communication. 14

15 APPENDIX: ABOUT CONTACTBABEL ContactBabel is the contact centre industry expert. If you have a question about how the industry works, or where it s heading, the chances are we have the answer. The coverage provided by our massive and ongoing primary research projects is matched by our experience analysing the contact centre industry. We understand how technology, people and process best fit together, and how they will work collectively in the future. We help the biggest and most successful vendors develop their contact centre strategies and talk to the right prospects. We have shown the UK government how the global contact centre industry will develop and change. We help contact centres compare themselves to their closest competitors so they can understand what they are doing well and what needs to improve. If you have a question about your company s place in the contact centre industry, perhaps we can help you. info@contactbabel.com Website: Telephone: +44 (0)