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Techday NZ
4 days ago
- Business
- Techday NZ
Why a confidence-inspiring contact centre is one of your organisation's greatest assets
In today's times, Australian customers want to deal with businesses whose service is swift, seamless and safe, ANZ vice president, Paul Rilstone, and CXTT Principal and Transformation Specialist, Michael Clark write. Are you one of the millions of Australians who's had the unwelcome news that your personal data has been compromised and is in the hands of a cyber-criminal or several? The accessing of customer records containing names, dates of birth, email addresses, phone numbers and other sensitive data has become an all-too-frequent event, as sophisticated actors continue to seek out weak spots in companies' IT defences. Increasingly, these clever, unscrupulous individuals aren't only using their technical expertise to gain an 'in'. They're adopting social engineering strategies; attempting to manipulate and deceive employees, via phishing, multi-factor authentication and email bombing gambits. Those working in contact centres, engaging with customers and members of the public day in, day out, are squarely in the firing line. A matter of trust However it occurs, a cyber incident erodes customer trust. If a business has the misfortune to experience one, rebuilding that trust is critical. That's where the contact centre has a vital role to play. Rapid digitisation means they've become the beating heart of many organisations – their primary interface with the world and a one-stop-shop for service delivery. Offering responsive, seamless and reliable service is critical, and in the wake of a crisis never more so. Organisations that do this well tend to find it easier to restore trust and rebuild their brands. Conversely, those that fall short, by making it difficult or painful for customers to engage with them, are laying themselves open to ongoing questions about the quality of their offering and operations. Improving your contact centre operations with AI In today's times, getting it right means making smart decisions about how AI should be incorporated into your contact centre. Deploying AI and automation technology can give your customers the power to self-serve their way through run-of-the-mill processes, and provide answers and resolutions to many of their more straightforward queries and issues. That's a win-win when it works well: no more hanging on the line makes for a better experience for customers and can deliver a sizeable efficiency dividend for your business too. The human touch But not all problems can or should be managed by AI. However sophisticated and intuitive it may become – and it continues to evolve and improve at bewildering speed – there will always be complex calls, emails and messages that require human scrutiny and judgment. Striking the optimal balance between what to automate and what to leave in human hands is no easy matter. In the rush to transform their contact centre operations, many companies are making the mistake of addressing the challenge with piecemeal solutions. Rather than re-imagining what stand-out customer service and experience look like and then using this game-changing technology to help them deliver it, they're replicating many of the same old processes, using AI, rather than human agents, to engage with their customers. All too often, the result is clunky, disjointed and unsatisfactory. Enlisting expert assistance That's why it pays to work with specialists who understand contact centre best practice and how AI technology can enable your organisation to achieve it. They'll map your workflows and processes and develop customer journeys where automated processes expedite and augment the work of your human agents. This will enable you to eliminate the duplication and double handing of data and orchestrate actions across all your critical systems. It's a smart way of ensuring the time and resources you're expending lead to high quality customer experiences that enhance your brand. Setting your organisation up for a stronger future In 2025, customers' trust is hard won and easily lost. Operating a responsive contact centre that offers personalised, seamless service can help you gain and retain it. If maintaining mind and market share matter to your organisation, it's well worth investing in the resources you need to get it right.
Techday NZ
07-05-2025
- Business
- Techday NZ
How to turn the contact centre grind into interesting and rewarding work for your agents in 2025
Automation technology can transform a tough, tedious and often thankless role for the better, writes, Ian de Sousa, CEO, Synergy Enterprise Solutions and Paul Rilstone, VP ANZ, Fronting up to a bricks and mortar premises has ceased to be the default move for customers seeking information about, or assistance with, a supplier's products or services. In today's times, the contact centre is almost invariably their first port of call and, as a result, it's become the beating heart of every organisation that deals with the public. The Covid experience highlighted the dangers of not having a resilient, high performing digital hub. Many companies that were unable to maintain their contact centre service levels during this era of unprecedented disruption took a financial and reputational hit. Conversely, those that succeeded in ramping up their capacity to deal with increased activity saw their standing rise in the eyes of their customers. Finding and keeping people to support company success Every contact centre that's an asset to its owners – in all sorts of times! – has two essential components. The first is a flexible, scalable cloud-based platform that enables seamless engagement with customers via multiple channels, including telephone, email, SMS, social media and web chat. And the second is a stable team of knowledgeable, well-trained agents who can answer questions and resolve issues efficiently and effectively. Building and maintaining the latter is far from easy. The Australian contact centre industry has long experienced high staff churn rates and revolving door recruitment is a brutal reality for businesses and organisations of all stripes and sizes. The sector recorded an average employee attrition rate of 27 per cent last year, according to the 2024 Australian Contact Centre Industry Best Practice Report. The picture is bleaker at the bigger end of town: in contact centres with between 500 and 1000 seats, 43.4 per cent of agents bid their employers adieu in 2024, on average. Meanwhile, average absenteeism sat at 12.9 per cent last year, down from 13.4 per cent in 2023 but still more than double the national workplace average of six per cent. Tackling the tedium of frontline duties It's not too hard to see why so many agents take an abundance of sick days or fail to stay the course. Although it can vary from industry to industry, contact centre pay is generally modest and the work can be tedious, thankless and stressful. For many agents, a frontline shift can feel like Groundhog Day – hour after hour spent answering the same basic questions and resolving the same simple issues, for customers who aren't always as patient or appreciative as they could be of the support they receive. Deploying automation technology that can provide answers and resolutions to some of these repetitive interactions can be a gamechanger for businesses – and a sanity saver for agents. From being able to gain instant access to a complete summary of a customer's interaction history, to receiving real time, context-based suggestions on how to solve their problems, AI-powered tools can help them power through monotonous interactions, or even sidestep them entirely, if they're able to be resolved by an automated assistant. As a result, agents' time can be freed up to focus on more complex calls and messages; those that demand the scrutiny and judgment only a human being can provide. Doing more of this meaningful work and less of the drudgery can elevate mood and morale. Agents with access to AI-powered automated assistants found their work more engaging and their jobs more satisfying, according to a 2024 study of contact centre workforce pain points. Setting your business up for a stronger future in 2025 and beyond In today's times, a high performing contact centre is an asset which Australian businesses can ill afford not to have. Making the agent's role a more rewarding and enjoyable one is an excellent way to improve employee satisfaction and stem staff churn. Harnessing the power of AI technology can enable you to do so quickly and cost effectively in your contact centre setting. If you're serious about keeping experienced, knowledgeable employees engaged and on the team for longer in 2025, it's an investment that's likely to serve your enterprise extremely well.
