Kicking off 2023 with great content....

Hi Everyone ??

Lets make 2023 our year! Its been a Christmas and New Year period of transition for me as I waved goodbye to the warm embrace of employment and started on a journey to supercharge GOOW and to launch a Team Leader Community.

Lets kick off the content with a question that got everyone watching GOOW TV show on Linkedin Live (every Tuesdays at 10) talking

What is the future for Outbound Dialling ?

From the viewers this sparked some great points;

Chris Lewin said "I feel the future of outbound dialling is a thing of the past. So many people now use the use of social media to find their needs/services. And you sometimes get better deals online than through Contact Centres"

Beverley Hughes commented "I firmly believe outbound dialling has a place but not necessarily outbound sales but used for CX"

Chris Lewin added "Outbound dialling will have its place, but this should be in Customer Service/CX. Customers want first contact resolutions these days, customers don't want to be pestered on the phone. The cost of living etc, so customers will look for their own needs."

Nick Thompson stated "If executed well, outbound dialling is still an incredibly powerful and effective way of generating business"

Pete Dunn noted "I still think there's still a place for outbound calling, plenty of senior budget holders still prefer a phone call. Bulk outbound dialling is being / has been replaced by social selling, tech led outbound etc. I don't think it'll ever go away though."

Danny Wareham followed on "There's a future, if we reframe the purpose of outbound (i.e, it's previously been about the selling organisation hitting a number) Rather than using the data to look specifically at connection times to maximise sales (contact rate) , if its focused on the value that we can add by primarily understanding the customer's needs (rather than the sellers) theres always a future in value add.

Stephen Comer added "There will always be a need for call backs and outbound dialling however companies may need to review their telesales / proactive dialler strategies and reconsider 'cold calling' without customer context.

A lot of great points here from the viewers of the show - what do you think ?

Steven Bartlett one why his contact centre background has been so important to his career

News - here are two recent bits of news from our industry that caught my eye.

I cannot be alone in feeling for those people on the phones and the patients and also wishing that our government would actually do something to help preserve and improve the NHS rather than letting it suffer so that in the end privatisation is seen as a good thing. (its not)

8 Steps to CX Transformation in 2023 - by Stu Dorman of Sabio

Here are Stu's & Sabio’s?view on our top 8?actions that customer service teams need to consider to help optimise their 2023 performance.

1. ?Audit Your CX Tools?-?with technology offers around?CRM, CCaaS?and AI all converging?and potentially overlapping, it’s important to think twice before adding new capabilities and services to your contact centre technology portfolio. The reason for this is that there’s a strong chance you may already be paying for this functionality on one of your existing platforms. Nobody wants to be paying twice for functionality, particularly given today’s market conditions, so now would be a great time to audit exactly what services you have in place before scoping out any potential further additions.
2. Tighten up your workforce optimisation?–?have you done a planning audit recently? Having the right resources in place at the right time remains critical for contact centre teams. That’s why avoiding optimisation drift should be a key focus for organisations in 2023. Sabio’s decades’ long experience means we know exactly how to help you get the most from the latest workforce optimisation solutions such as WFM and speech analytics.
3. Work your data in 2023?– whether it’s digital voice, chatbots or conversational AI, you’re already gathering?significant volumes of data?- types of interaction you’re receiving and customer preferences. But while many recognise the potential value that’s stored within this data, very few are currently successful in bringing much of this unstructured information together. For example, simply categorising different contact types correctly can make a huge difference when it comes to scheduling advisors to meet demand levels. But data still needs to be made much more accessible, particularly given that siloed data stored across other business systems is a key reason behind customer journey frustrations.
4. Empowering your people to?deliver excellent CX?–?with everyday workloads increasing in complexity, it should be no surprise that around a third of contact centre advisors feel acutely stressed multiple times each week. In 2023 it’s incumbent?on CX leaders to ensure that advisors aren’t faced with poor supporting technology, frustrating gaps in customer journey, and no empowerment. At a time when advisor attrition rates remain concerningly high, it makes even more sense to focus on providing the?support and empowerment to help retain your people.
5. The hyperscalers are coming?–?2022 saw both Google and Microsoft announce their intentions to enter the CCaaS market, with both vendors currently focused on building out their strategies in this sector. They join Amazon and Salesforce in this already competitive space, and it’s clear the advent of the hyperscalers will have an impact on current CCaaS propositions. We’re already working closely to evaluate these hyperscale propositions and are excited to share the benefits of these platforms with customers across our industry.
6. Democratisation of AI?– We’re moving quickly to the point where almost every customer interaction will soon be fronted by AI in some shape or form. And, while many organisations have already benefitted from first wave AI with conversational AI and intelligent chatbots automating many simpler transactional requests, expect 2023 to usher in a new wave of?AI-powered functionality. This?should?include surfacing insights from data at key times, real-time support for advisors, and the automated summarising of customer calls.
7. Unlocking cloud innovation?– despite all the focus on CCaaS, it’s often surprising to consider how many contact centres are yet to transition operations to a cloud platform. However, for organisations considering making this move in 2023, it’s important to remember that cloud initiatives should be all about innovation powered by the kind of agile principles and development methodologies that you need to be delivering continuous change. Simply replicating your existing legacy contact centre platform within a cloud doesn’t really change anything.
8. Quantifying digital innovation success –?for organisations that are able to unlock the power of?Digital First, the potential value can be transformational. However, while it’s vital to focus on how this helps to deliver excellent customer experiences, it’s also essential that brands understand how effective their digital strategy is in business terms. Hardly anyone is successfully measuring digital’s impact on contact centre demand, and this oversight will become even more noticeable in 2023.

You can hear and learn more about these steps and other key CX, digital and people transformation insights at Sabio’s Disrupt2023 being held at The Brewery in London on Tuesday 7th?February 2023.?

Register?here?to secure your place.

?Get Out of Wrap - current podcast and next up....

Can chatGPT predict the future for our industry?

Chatgpt is all the rage at the moment and so much so that it caused Google to call emergency meetings as people were using chatgpt more than google recently. It is AI - search engine - content creation all rolled into one and demand has seen the site crashing regularly including now at the time of writing this. But before the crash I was able to ask it 'What are the 7 main areas that people in the contact centre industry should be aware of in 2023' - within seconds it gave me a whole article - here are the headlines;

Hard to question any of those isnt it ? Next time you read an article or something on Linkedin will you be wondering who, or what wrote it ?

Identifying unhelpful thinking styles

A great infographic this to use and share with your teams.

Thanks to Sabio for sponsoring this weeks newsletter.

I'd like to thank Stu, Joe & Craig at Sabio for supporting my venture into Get Out of Wrap full time - like me they are committed to making our industry better and sharing best practice and it's been great working with them. I will be at Disrupt on February 7th hosting a panel and there is so much more at this great Sabio event - free to attend but tickets are going fast !

And finally...not long now till the launch of the....

If you would like to know more then just follow the link below...

Thanks for reading this and hopefully see you on Tuesday at 10 ??