Spring into CX, Contact Centre and Technology Insights

80% of customers make decisions based on their experience.?

It's not your product. It's not your service. It's your customer experience! 4 in 5 customers choose to buy and remain loyal to a brand based on their experience in dealing with the organisation, with 31% walking away after a single negative experience.?

If you are you in need of a spring clean for your customer experience, read on for updates across CX, the Contact Centre and Technology as well as new initiatives designed to help your organisation.?

Choosing the right CCaaS solution for your business

In an environment where the experience you provide matters more than ever, choosing the right Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) solution can be a game-changer for your customer experience strategy. But with so many options on the market, how do you choose the best one for your business?

We are proud to release the?2024 CCaaS Sourcing and Implementation Guide. This promises to be your go-to resource for navigating the complexities of sourcing Contact Centre as a Service solutions. Whether you're looking to enhance customer experience, streamline operations, or explore the latest in AI-powered tools, this guide is tailored to help you make informed decisions that help you source and implement the right solution to align with your business goals.

Don't miss out on this opportunity to elevate your contact centre strategy. Download the guide and take the first step towards a more efficient, scalable, and customer-centric contact centre. As a bonus, we have also developed an outcomes-focussed CCaaS Evaluation Template which is also available for download.

Download my guide today

Right to Disconnect

Last week the new Right to Disconnect changes took effect. This now means employees have the right to manage when and how they can be contacted outside of usual work hours.?

This creates a big challenge for businesses communicating with scheduled employees in retail, hospitality, health, IT and Contact Centres.

We help organisations to comply with the Right to Disconnect, and other regulations.?

Our approach is to always consider people, process, technology and governance. This holistic viewpoint helps us to deliver the best solutions for your organisation.

Recent media has included our comments, which you can read more about here.?

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The AI advantages and risks

According to Australian Cybersecurity Magazine, 25% of Australian businesses are trialling or have adopted AI tools throughout their day-to-day operations. At one recent vendors event, I heard about 90 pilots using their Agent-Assist capabilities in Contact Centres.

The genie is well and truly out of the bottle and it is impossible not to hear about AI. Senior leaders are pondering questions including

• Do we have any suitable use cases?
• What are the risks?
• Can we benefit from using AI?
• Who else is using it?

The vendor lock-in risk?

One of the risks that is yet to be truly understood is the risk of signing up to AI tools provided as an extension of your technology stack by an existing vendor. At recent industry events it is clear that all the major players are offering bespoke AI tools as extensions of their solutions.

It's an attractive option because there is often no procurement required and costs can be managed under an existing contract, however, this approach comes with risks. The biggest risk in using these vendor-offered solutions is the sunk cost and lock-in you will experience over the medium to longer term.

If you have a fixed contract, and a business model that requires you to go to market at the end of that contract you will be risking significant disruption and change to processes, technology and outcomes if in a few years your technology vendor is no longer offering solutions fit for purpose for your business or industry. You would be facing significant challenges having over-invested in a single provider.

What are the alternatives??

There are standalone AI solutions providers. We are partnering with some of these providers because we believe the future of AI is through open technology architectures which allow for consumption and use of data by best in breed and standalone AI solutions.

Think about your investments in data warehouses, data lakes, analytics and business intelligence tools, you invested in best-fit solutions that could store and use data from your entire technology ecosystem.?AI relies on data and content.?

AI pilots are possible for all businesses

By adopting and trialling a standalone AI solution you can also position yourself to run AI experiments, pilots or Proof of Concepts (PoCs) with your existing technology solutions and ecosystem.?

• You have an on-premise contact centre solution? You can still commence an AI pilot without having to immediately upgrade or replace your solution.
• You have legacy applications? You can still commence an AI pilot without having to upgrade or replace your solution.
• You have data and content spread across multiple business systems? You can still commence an AI pilot without having to upgrade or replace your solutions.

You can move towards a world where your customer interactions are personalised, where insights are available instantly and where you are making data-driven decisions.

AI Tips to get started

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence: ????If you’re thinking of AI agent-assist pilots, start curating and focussing on knowledge now - our future with AI relies on data and knowledge. It's useful to engage an AI Advisor to help. ?? When implementing new Contact Centre or AI solutions, implement as a pilot with a control group or an A/B test. This allows you to clearly measure and understand the outcomes of the change. By taking this approach, you can pivot, adapt and incrementally improve. ?? Don’t think your pilots need to be huge use cases. In most Contact Centres, a small change can be incredibly valuable. Look for the smallest changes that can have biggest impact. Engage your frontline teams to help identify these opportunities.

Click the link to learn more about our AI advisory services and take the first step towards transforming your operations.

Show me more about AI Advisory

The rise of the CX Platform and tips?

Following attendance at industry events run by Genesys, NICE and Sprinkler, it is clear that the market is shifting with vendors extending their solutions and partnerships beyond their typical and traditional footprints.

The Contact Centre market is one such example, with CCaaS providers extending towards becoming CX Platforms, and some bridging the gap between Unified Communications and Contact Centres. It's fair to say that this trend, plus the arise of AI, will drastically reshape the vendor landscape within the next 5 years.

I shared some thoughts on LinkedIn to remind people of lessons emerging from these events with the following tips.?

Focus on Partnership:

???????? Partnership in your vendor relationship is critical. Selecting a Contact Centre solution aligned to your business goals, and a vendor that appreciates you and your business goals and aspirations. This is critical to ongoing success.

?? A key step in a successful vendor relationship is sharing roadmaps between you as a client and your vendor. I often refer to this in my consulting as developing and sharing Technology and Business Capability roadmaps. This helps you understand what’s coming from CCaaS roadmaps, and aligning these with your business and IT aspirations.

Change Management:

??? Implementing new technology is the easy part, the biggest lesson from many case studies at both events comes from not focussing enough on change management. You can never communicate too much. Be specific on what will change, why and what results you expect. Dispel myths that AI will take frontline jobs.

?? Internal thought leadership: If you’re one of the Contact Centre, CX or IT Leaders who have attended one of these events, I encourage you to use the information learned, package the insights and solution roadmaps to make it informative to your internal customers and stakeholders. This can help position you as an internal thought leader and person to trust and engage.

Achieve Excellence with Our Contact Centre Success Framework

At CXTT Consulting, we've distilled decades of hands-on experience, three years of consulting, and two years of judging the Auscontact Awards into a powerful tool for your Contact Centre's success. Our Contact Centre Success Framework is designed to elevate your operations, drive performance, and create exceptional customer experiences.

This framework isn't just theory—it's a proven approach rooted in real-world results, helping Contact Centres like yours thrive in a competitive environment. Whether you're looking to optimise workforce management, enhance customer satisfaction, or streamline processes, our framework offers the strategies and insights you need to succeed.

Ready to transform your Contact Centre? Explore the full potential of our Contact Centre Success Framework here.

Book your discussion now

Spring capacity?

As the spring weather emerges, we have several proposals under consideration and some active projects, however, we have capacity available to assist. Some of the ways we can assist with initiatives include:

? Interim or Fractional Leadership roles including CCO/CX Lead/CC Lead

? Consulting or contracting to assist CX Strategy and design

? Consulting to deliver Customer Service Benchmarking or Assessments

? Consulting for IT Functional and Strategic Assessment

? Contracting or consulting to lead an AI pilot

? Contracting or consulting to provide Technology Advisory services including sourcing and risk management

? Conduct a Project Health Check

? Leading workshops and facilitating events.?

Who is Michael Clark?

Michael Clark is not the famous former cricketer! Michael is a veteran of the Contact Centre and CX Industry and was recognised in 2023 as one of the Top 100 Influencers in the Contact Centre Industry in APAC, and as one of Australia's Top 50 Small Business Leaders in 2022.

Michael is the co-founder and Principal Consultant at CXTT Consulting.