June 25, 2021 – The first Leaders Talk organized by Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC) discussed “Role of Leader in Contact Center Change.” We invited four speakers, who are professionals from contact centers in the Asia Pacific region.
One of the speakers is Kenneth Chong, Chairman of CCAS Singapore & Amazon Web Services Head of Sales of Amazon Connect (ASEAN). Kenneth said that one of the challenges now is workforce because we are in a limited condition as the COVID-19 pandemic is still going on.
In this pandemic situation, the leaders start building management of a virtual workforce. Kenneth said that their team or other team had not met each other in the last 18 months. How we work as a virtual team, we have seen this skill as different. The way we communicate over a video call is no longer involves physical touch. Kenneth states that make sure business still running and well-managed.
Kenneth also shared that contact centers in Singapore have evolved, such as training or engagement in these conditions has also become online. All the training sessions for agents are delivered online. Therefore, it takes different skills when operating or managing a team in person compared to a virtual team. The level of communication or empathy can be different.
Kenneth gave three tips for leaders in the contact center. The first is empathy. Be empathetic to your people and staff. The second is, engage. All critical engagement is vital during this period because your team may not be just in front of you, but they may be virtually anywhere. It is how you stay connected with the key members right now through virtual chat or other means to communicate.
The last key is empowerment. In the team, earning trust and empowering is probably the next area you will be looking for. Leaders are operated to move up the chains, so they can be the next successor. You need to empower someone around you to train them out, and then you can move for a new adventure. (ANF)
June 25, 2021 – In this Leaders Talk, the Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC) discussed “Role of Leader in Contact Center Change.” We invited four speakers who are professionals in the Asia Pacific contact center industry.
One of the speakers is Chapman Lam, Former Chairman of HKCCA Hong Kong. Chapman said that the contact center now faces changes every year. From omnichannel, workforce, and care more about customer value. Also, people and technology management are needed to be utilized optimally.
For example, Chapman also shares the changes that happened in the Hong Kong contact center insurance industry. He said optimizing applications and other technologies are the recent projects to make better customer service. In Hong Kong, his insurance company operation is 20% handled by their live agents. Therefore, his channel optimization mission is fulfilled. He moved more towards how to enable the chatbot to enhance that structural processing. The customer can get many instant responses, such as for claim approval or a chatbot answer instantly.
Further discussion about what is the leader’s key roles or what they must do. Chapman said that the contact center is full of talented people. As a leader, we need to push them to take advantage of another role in the organization. It’s not about age or educational background. If they have the passion for making a new customer experience through different channels, they are the best candidates. Let them know that we are supporting them. The more bravely to take on new challenges and push them to take advantage of another role in the organization, the more they can deliver a benefit to their company.
This contact center operation has many university graduates who may not be graduated from the top-tier university. Still, Chapman thinks this industry is one of the best environments for them to grow. Academic will be beneficial, but the staff has many opportunities to demonstrate other qualities to the top management.
Chapman also shared some tips for a leader to face all the changes in the contact center. He is concern more on “why” to move forward in a few directions. You should walk the talk. Whether you are genuine or not, we need leaders’ credibility and motivation to lead the people. It would be best if you drove your staff more towards the purpose of the company. Then, be creative, innovative, inspire your team, and make sure they know the purpose. (ANF)
Customer Experience, Operational Excellence, Digital Innovation, and Business Continuity are in focus. The lessons of the past 18 months have been valuable, but how would these “Now Norms” shape up the future of the contact centers?
Contact Center Association of Malaysia (CCAM) presents the 10th National Contact Centre Conference (NCCC) 2021, to be held from 6 – 10 September 2021.
If you get ten thousand customer data complete with phone numbers and email addresses, then what will you do with the data.
Hmm… think for a moment, and then you’ll try to find a business opportunity that can be done with that data. As long as the data used is obtained using the customer registering voluntarily.
One example is the service at the contact center. It is possible to record customer data who contacted the contact center, so the contact center can collect customer data and can be used for certain purposes. The availability of records in the service allows the agent to completely record customer needs and data.
Unfortunately, not many contact centers use customer data for the benefit of their business development. The data they collect only accumulates in the application and is rarely analyzed to obtain or know the needs of these customers. The availability of customer data and their needs will make it easier to build programs or products that can be offered.
Let’s ask the contact center manager, how many customers contact your contact center? Most of them will find it difficult to identify the number of customers who contact the contact center. Maybe they know the number of services such as the number of calls or the number of emails. However, many cannot identify the number of customers who use their products or services.
If a contact center receives 100,000 calls in a month, then we can identify how many customers are using the phone. It could be that only 20% of the callers are customers, the remaining 80% are the public. If many who contact are the public, it can mean that the contact center has been promoted well, so that many potential customers need this information or promotion.
On the other hand, if 80% of calling or contacting the contact center are customers, then the possibility of the contact center is only known to a limited extent. For this reason, the contact center must look at opportunities that can be done to reach other potential customers. Likewise, we must identify how many contact center users have used the service compared to all customers owned by the company. Thus, the contact center can promote itself to other customers to use the contact center. It can also be done proactively contacting certain customers so that the contact center can provide services or interact with customers.
The data owned by the contact center can be used to promote something proactively. This can be done with a telemarketing program and packaged with certain attractive product packages. Of course, to do this it is necessary to consider aspects of the benefits and costs that must be incurred. (AA)
I recently had the privilege of sharing the story of my quest for Digital Transformation glory to some senior level government personnel who had been identified as digital champions for various government agencies. This was in fact part of the federal government’s Digital Government Competency and Capability Readiness initiative.
It was clear as day to me that the need for a more agile and innovative government ecosystem is ever more important to deal with rapid changes in citizen expectation. In many ways, it is no different in the corporate world dealing with the evolving consumer behaviour and expectation. After all, we are primarily serving the millennials and generation Z, who account for almost 65% of the global population and demand for convenience, accessibility and smarter ways to transact.
Although I was tempted at first to share my views on the mega-trends and cutting-edge technologies shaping the industry, I eventually decided to share my experience in cultivating a digital culture in an organization.
In recent years many companies have started to embrace a digital culture in their workplace. We already know how important it is to develop the right corporate culture. This can define how efficiently your team works as a whole and what values your organization hold. Having an excellent culture is one of the defining features of a successful organization.
There are a few different types of corporate culture that you can implement in your organization. However, if you’re looking to bring about a digital transformation in your company culture, then this article is for you.
So, what exactly does digital culture mean?
Digital culture refers to an organization that transforms their corporate culture into one that incorporates technology into its aspects. Instead of merely adding a bit of technology into the workplace, this culture encourages staff to maximize their productivity by using digital means. When it is implemented well, a digital culture will help your company to become extremely efficient.
Why exactly is this culture important? Isn’t it enough to incorporate a few digital technologies into the workplace? A survey done by McKinsey Digital in 2017 demonstrates that one of the major barriers to digital technology in the workplace is culture. To ensure that your corporation maximizes its digital efficiency, you need to incorporate this into your organization.
How has Digital Culture evolved over the years?
Let’s take the customer experience industry as an example. The traditional contact centre, or what was perhaps commonly known as call centres, became popular in the 1990s. It was the ‘Landline Era’ where call centres mushroomed addressing only the basics. Although call centres aren’t exactly what you think of when you consider digital culture, this is where it started. Call centres then mainly provided a transaction-based service. There was not much variation in the customer service you could offer here; it was purely product or operations driven.
The Rise of the Internet Era between 2001 and 2009 saw the advent of ‘Internet Contact Centres’. The creation of the internet changed the face of digital culture completely. This enabled companies to offer Online Customer Service, which drastically improved customer satisfaction. It also opened up the possibility of multichannel customer service.
The Mobile Internet Era between 2010 and 2015 saw the rise of Omnichannel Service Centres. This type of customer service was a huge step-up from the multichannel systems of the previous era. It became possible to focus on optimizing the service to focus on creating positive customer relations. This was also the era when the e-commercialization of the corporate world started.
Today, in this Multimode Digitalization Era, we are beginning to see the rise of Intelligent Solutions Centres providing Best in Class Service Delivery. The advancements that technology has made in the past few decades have changed customer service drastically. Artificial intelligence is enabling chatbots to provide customers a personalized experience while also being effortless to implement. Process automation is making customer interactions much more seamless. These new cutting-edge technologies have opened the doors to many innovative opportunities. It allows companies to have a more proactive approach to customer experience.
The three stages of a Digital Journey.
It’s essential to realize all the steps that you will require to digitalize your culture. To simplify this process and make it easy to understand, I have broken it down into three steps. The three stages of a digital journey that you need to undergo to attain a digital culture are:
1. Digitization: Convert data into digital The first stage you need to complete is to move all your data onto a digital platform. This step is also the easiest to do, although it’s not possible to move forward if you don’t complete this stage. We recommend working in small portions so it’s not overwhelming.
2. Digitalization: Digitalize your business This is the stage where you start to integrate digital methods into your usual business processes. Use this step as a way to check how your team copes with the changes. For example, you can introduce a few different programs into one part of your company. Then ask your team for some feedback about these programs. Use this feedback to implement processes that work for your team.
3. Digital transformation: Change your model by incorporating digital Now that you’ve finally changed all your business processes it’s time to begin the process of digital transformation. This step is the hardest one to do because it includes changing your entire business model. To digitalize your culture, you’ll need to make drastic changes in your customer service and your corporate culture. Keep in mind that the ultimate goal of digital transformation is to facilitate an improved customer experience so remember to make changes in your corporate culture with this goal in mind.
How you can develop this digital culture in your organization?
If you want to bring about a digital transformation in your business, it’s imperative to take a step back and check if your company has the cultural and leadership readiness required for this change. To put it simply, you need to make sure that everyone on your team is ready for all the changes that will come.
A digital transformation will change how your organization works as a whole. If there are even a few people that aren’t on board to make this transformation a success, then it’s highly unlikely that your project will succeed.
How do you tell if your company has a team that’s ready for a change this drastic?
You will be able to figure this out by observing what your team considers most valuable. If your team has the following traits, then you know that they’re ready.
Firstly, your team has to be focused on ensuring that your clients get the best service. One of the main purposes of digital culture is to improve your customer’s experience. If your team doesn’t fully understand this, then you’re not going to have an easy time.
Secondly, you must look at the nature of your workplace environment. Your workplace needs to have an environment that promotes team building instead of competition. Digital transformation requires a good amount of teamwork. This won’t be possible in a competitive environment.
The last trait that you need to look for is if your staff has members that prefer taking action over planning. Employees that are ready to take the initiative will be a good fit in a digital culture. If you have a team with this trait, it will also be easier for you to transition into a digital culture.
Although it might seem like the primary goal of digital transformation is to make your business more technologically advanced, this is not the case. A digital culture values customer experience above all else. Technology is just a tool that can help to facilitate this. When you’re figuring out if your team is the right fit, it’s not vital to check how tech-savvy your team is. Instead, your main deciding criteria is to figure out how much your employees value customer experience.
Building Your Culture Around Digital Megatrends.
You’ve now adequately analysed and have made sure everyone in the organization is on board with this transformation. You’re ready to move to the next step, but where do you start? I recommend that you look at the digital megatrends in your industry and build your culture around them. My previous article for example, looked at the megatrends reshaping the customer experience industry.
Although you’ll need to research which of these megatrends works best for you and your industry, here are a few that would probably be a part of your research. Three of the most valuable digital megatrends that have emerged in recent years are social media, cloud computing, and analytics.
Social media platforms have millions of users, and as more time goes on, this influence will only grow larger. If you use it well, it can drive collaboration between employees by strengthening the employer brand.
Cloud computing is a great way to work with individuals that you might not be able to meet with. Emails and chat apps can help you to gain remote access to talent pools from different countries. This also allows for a lot of mobility in the workplace as it’s possible to transfer data across continents without much trouble.
Analytics will give you the feedback you need to better your customer service. This data will help you to gain deeper insights into employee performances and behaviours. You can use this to learn exactly which areas you need to improve in.
These megatrends are redefining the way corporations all around the world conduct business. You will want to utilize these tactics to make your business as successful as possible.
A Few Tips to Ensure That You Have a High Digital Success Factor.
To have the most successful outcome in this endeavour, you need to keep digital transformation at the core of your organization. From my personal experience, compared to culture-building, the technological aspect of going digital is the easy bit. You may want to focus on changing the different aspects of your organization. Here are some of the changes that we made during our company’s digital transformation that might be helpful to you.
Our company started by revamping all our workspaces to fit the digital change. We let our employees create their digital studios. This gave them the ability to tailor their workspace; however they wanted to. One of the main goals that we had when we began this change was to promote more employee centricity. This is one of the reasons why we started our digital journey with this step.
Next, we changed our entire process to make the customer experience more personal. We wanted to provide the best customer service that was possible. So, we analysed our entire process completely and after making a lot of alterations, we ended up with a system that far surpassed our previous system. Remember that there’s no format that you have to stick to. Use this to your advantage to create a better customer experience.
Finally, we altered our recruitment process completely. We needed to change this process to enable us to build a team with more like-minded individuals. Don’t just pick digital talent with the right skills. Make sure that all the candidates are the right cultural fit for your company.
To make it easier to implement this change, here’s an example of an idea you can use. When our company started with digital transformation, we created a separate digital unit to develop digital services, then re-integrated that unit into the core business.
To unlock the true potential of digital transformation, it is necessary to bring about a digital culture that is employee-centric and value-focused.
Make It a Point to Enable a Digital Culture by Driving Employee Centricity.
Creating a digital culture is a massive task that will require you to revamp your system. This is why you need to focus on the employees. To enable employee centricity, you’ll want to engage and inspire the entire workforce while empowering them to drive the cultural change together.
This empowerment can happen by re-skilling your staff on trending digital skills, leveraging collaboration tools to improve productivity, using metrics to enable measurable value through key performance indicators (KPI’s), and adopting a systematic approach to drive this change.
One of the defining features of digital culture is that it improves customer engagement. Adopting the practice of digitalization can make employees more involved in customer service. This can enable customer-centric engagements and in creating better solutions relevant to their business needs.
I recommend making use of a transformation framework to monitor how much progress your company has made. Build this framework in a way that makes the employees the agents of change. Make use of the framework to bring in a work culture that empowers employees to make informed, context-aware decisions, focus on continuous improvement, and take calculated risks.
What You Can Do to Guarantee the Success of Digital Culture in Your Organization?
It’s not an easy task to change your entire corporate culture. To guarantee your success in this field, you must put in a lot of time and effort. Because of how hard it is to implement a digital transformation; it should come as no surprise that it’s easy to slip up now and again.
You’re bound to run into a few pitfalls along the way. For example, your team will take the time to learn how to incorporate this culture into their work. If you don’t take this factor into account, it will lead to your team getting overwhelmed by all the changes. If you want to give your company the best chance at success, there are three main things that you need to keep in mind to avoid these pitfalls.
You need to start at the top first and make sure that the leader leads by example. Leaders must be at the forefront of this change. They should be able to set clear goals for the employees. The person-in- charge should also know how to pick out the essential characteristics of their preferred culture. They must encourage their team to stick to these characteristics. Leaders should also continuously assess the changes to identify any faults and fix them. If the person at the centre of the organization is not fully committed to the digitalization, then you can’t expect the transformation process to succeed.
Keep in mind that a new culture doesn’t mean that all old methods should be scrapped entirely. Don’t make the mistake of trying to replace every single aspect of your corporate culture with something new. Make use of all the best practices from the previous culture. You can start slowly by incorporating the new tactics with the old ones. The previous plan’s best culture practices can be blended with the current ones to create new employee behavioural patterns in a digital ecosystem.
Another thing that can lead to the downfall of this whole operation is if you try to rush the process. Before implementing this change, you must experiment to figure out what works for your company. Different teams will adapt differently to the changes. You will need to pay attention to how your team works and plan accordingly. Pilot programs are a great place to start when you’re enabling culture change. You can use these programs to elicit new behaviours from your team. You could start by focusing on one area first and see how the team deals with the new challenges. If the criteria are met, you can begin to implement this culture in other ways. Based on the success of the pilot, leaders can alter their transformation plan accordingly.
Hopefully, this guide has given you everything you need to know to implement a digital culture in your company. Keep in mind that this process is not going to be quick. Because of the nature of digital transformation, it will likely take your company a while to gradually incorporate these changes. In fact, in the initial stages, the results aren’t going to be very apparent. However, if you continue to stick to this path, then the long-term benefits are enormous.
Companies such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and IBM are well known for their innovation. They were able to disrupt the technology world through their widely acclaimed digitized cultures. One of the reasons they managed to become so successful is because they embraced digitalization. Your organization will need to make drastic changes to excel in this competitive digital age, so why not start now rather than later? (RD)
July 23, 2021 – Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC) present Leaders Talk discussion by the theme “Millennial Leaders in Contact Center”. CC-APAC invited professional speakers to the Asia Pacific contact center.
One of the speakers is Lily Shen, Senior Vice President of HSBC Global Contact Center Shared Operation, China Region. Lily began the discussion with her explanation about the working style of millennial leaders. Lily Shen said that about 70% of employees in her company are young employees. She also explained that the working style of millennials, in general, is quite adequate, attractive, and dynamic.
In addition, Lily also shared what she and her team focus on for millennials. The focus consist of nine future skills: curiosity, creativity, connectivity, customer engagement, human development, communication impact, transformation change, resilience, and growth.
Lily also shared three tips about how to become a strong leader in contact center. If millennials decide to progress in the contact center, they must know it is a very challenging but meaningful business. It is emotional, needs a lot of connectivity, and the human touch is precious in business. Contact center has a crucial role in all kind of business, especially in this covid situation. Therefore, the first tip to be a strong leader is to add or link the purpose of contact center with the individual, then they will find a way to learn and also to grow.
The second tip, Lily knows that millennials focus more on instant return. We can challenge them to understand the efficient looking, especially the future trend of digital interaction that is linked with the human touch. This challenge makes them know how far they can understand that they focus and how far they can progress their careers.
Last but not least, do not just learn from the senior. Millennial leaders must build their own leadership style and branding. Be yourself and show respect to people. Lily also shared that diversity is a strength and a core value in contact center. The customers are diversified and we are all diversified, so build your own leadership style and then it would be great. (ANF)
July 23, 2021 – The second Leaders Talk organized by Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC) discussed “Millennial Leaders in Contact Center.” We invited four speakers, who are professionals from the Asia Pacific contact center.
One of the speakers is Joyce Poon, Vice President of CNCCA (China), Vice Chairlady of HKCCA (Hong Kong) & CEO of Equity Global Consultants Ltd.
Joyce said millennials are tech-savvy and are actively attached to the digital world, such as social media and gaming. Not only that, but they are also independent with a strong entrepreneurial mindset. Millennials show concern about the work environment with friendly teams, learning & development opportunities, and work-life balance.
She said that we should empower the millennials to be future-fit by building up their soft skills, such as empathy, collaboration, coaching, persuasion, creativity, adaptability, and more. We should offer learning opportunities for hard skills, such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, UX design, and even video production. They can be role models and leadership brands for contact centers.
Joyce also gave some tips for millennial leaders who are struggling in this pandemic situation. She said millennial leaders are very agile and resilient, and there are many opportunities for them to be involved in digital transformation. They can be the key enabler for digital success, and millennials can make a better work environment for future generations.
She wants to challenge millennial leaders to move from a “know-it-all” culture to a “learn-it-all” culture and nurture their “Growth Mindset.” As the Chinese proverb says, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” We need to nurture the culture in contact centers.
For millennials, you must take a chance, and Joyce hopes we can strive together to create a better workplace and a better experience for the next generation. She said that she feels grateful because we can do it together for the generation coming behind us. The last message to millennial leaders is: “you gain the upper hand and good luck in getting ready for a brighter future,” said Joyce. (ANF)
July 23, 2021 – Interactive discussion initiated by Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC), Leaders Talk: Millennial Leaders in Contact Center which invited four professional speakers in the Asia Pacific contact center.
One of the speakers, who is invited in this discussion, is Sarun Vejsupaporn. He is the President of Thai Contact Center Trade Association and the CEO of NICE Call Company. The company is engaged in telemarketing and healthcare industry.
He also shared stories about millennials in Thailand who are so brave and talk a lot. He also has the key success to develop millennial leaders which are attitude, training, and incentives. With a good attitude, millennials will be easier to be trained so that they have good skills, then practice what they have thought. If they pass on the training, they will get what they want, such as incentives.
Sarun gave some tips about what you should do, if you have a lot of millennial leaders in the company. First, treat them as friends regardless of what they have been achieved. Do not tell them that you are his or her boss, they will not listen to you. If you consider them as brothers or sisters, they will listen to you. The second tip is you should listen to them first before you tell them to do a job or do something. Do not give them orders, but it is better to give them the targets.
Third, let millennial leaders find their ways to achieve their own goals. Do not tell them, immediately, what they have to do. The fourth tip is support what they ask for and read some of their recommendations.
Next tip, give them more authority to supervise their team because that is what they want as a leader. They want to have the authority to control and get their team moving forward. The sixth one, give them reward or appreciation as soon as possible when they have done a great job or got success in achieving something.
One more tip from Sarun, millennial leaders are fast and aggressive. Therefore, you should keep them exciting, like a horse which will run faster when they feel ignitable. Then the last one is, if they are not the right one, do not try to change them because it will waste your time. (ANF)
July 23, 2021 – In this Leaders Talk, the Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC) discussed about “Millennial Leaders in Contact Center”. We invited four speakers who are professionals in the Asia Pacific contact center industry.
One of the speakers is Gratiano Yeung, Chief Customer Officer of Thai Insurtech Roojai.com, from Thailand. In Thailand, Gratiano said millennials have courage to speak up and accept challenges. Every month, her company holds monthly meetings for their agent/staff with managers to discuss about their working conditions. The goal is to make all employees feel heard by giving them the opportunity to speak. Roojai.com also provides training and certification to improve their employees’ skills.
Further discussions about the right time to assign an agent contact center to another department. Gratiano said that 2 years is enough time for an agent to be assigned to another department. During this time, they can learn various knowledge from contact center teams and other departments. Before getting the assignment, they must go through the interview process first. “If they apply for those positions, they still need to go through a proper interview by the department head,” Gratiano said.
Gratiano shared some tips and gave motivation for millennials. She talked about her concerns. First, she thinks people in general prefer to stay in their comfort zone, so Gratiano thinks we need to challenge ourselves. Just like her, she challenged herself to leave her home country to a foreign country and built start-up business from the scratch.
It does not mean that you must leave your country for a change, but she thinks it is always good to ask yourself, what you can do for make things better. The second is digital transformation in the contact center. She thinks, as a leader we also need to be humble to learn and equip ourselves very well.
Gratiano believes that these days, a lot of contact center still use on premises solution or still have legacy system. Roojai.com has been decided to give up the heritance system from their parent company then started their own solution contact center. It allows us to have more flexibility. The key is do not be afraid to make changes. We must try to think outside the box and always challenge ourselves. Gratiano said it is going to make a difference, so go ahead. (ANF)
Friday, July 23, 2021 – In this Leaders Talk, the Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC) discussed about “Millennial Leaders in Contact Center” by inviting four professional speakers in the Asia Pacific contact center.
This discussion was presented by Andi Anugrah, as Chairman of ICCA Indonesia. First panellist is Joyce Poon, Vice Chairlady of HKCCA Hong Kong & CEO of Equity Global Consultants Ltd. The second is from Thailand, Sarun Vejsupaporn, President of Thai Contact Center Trade Association & CEO of NICE Call Company. The next panellist is Lily Shen, Senior Vice President of HSBC Global Contact Center Shared Operation, China Region. Then the last one is Gratiano Yeung, Chief Customer Officer of Thai Insurtech Roojai.com.
The discussion was started with an explanation of the working style of millennial leaders in the contact center. Lily Shen said that about 70% of employees in her company are young employees. She also explained that the working style of millennials in general is quite effective, attractive, and dynamic. They are quite influential in their work system and highly appreciate the work-life balance.
According to Joyce, millennials have an interest and are actively attached to digital things, such as social media and gaming. Not only that, but they also have a very strong entrepreneurial mindset. Millennials are also more concerned about the work environment with friendly teams, job training, and development opportunities, and work-life balance.
In Thailand, Gratiano says millennials have the courage to speak up and accept challenges. So, every month, her company holds monthly meetings for their agent/staff with managers to discuss about their working conditions. The goal is to make all employees feel heard by giving them the opportunity to speak. Roojai.com also provides training and certification to improve the skills of their employees.
Sarun also shared stories about millennials in Thailand who are so brave and talk a lot. However, there are challenges if we talk specifically about contact center. Millennials are very hardworking, but don’t know much about targets. They only know, if the company has a budget, such as a bonus, then they will reach the given target.
The next discussion is how to deal with millennial leaders. According to Joyce, millennials in contact center should improve their soft skills to face the future, such as empathy, collaboration, persuasiveness, creativity, and more. They also need to learn hard skills about technology and data analysis, such as UX design or video production.
In addition, there are two important processes that must be considered by company when dealing with millennials. First, how they get through the training and how they understand their needs. What they need and what they expect from the company. This is done to achieve the balance between the two in achieving the company’s goals.
As same as Joyce, Lily states that we must truly understand their aspirations, as well as understand their ability gaps. The way Lily does for them there are two aspects, one of which is build their exposure. Expand their exposure and make them have stronger connectivity with others outside of the contact center in order to support their careers.
In addition, Lily and her team also focus on nine future skills, such as curiosity, creativity, connectivity, customer engagement, human development, communication impact, transformation change, resilience, and growth.
Another opinion from Sarun, he has the key success to develop millennial leaders. The key is attitude, training, and incentives. The first thing is attitude. With a good attitude, millennials will be easier to be trained so that they have good skills, then practice what they have thought. If they pass on the training, they will get what they want, such as incentives. Mention what incentives they will receive in the future to encourage their spirit.
Gratiano also agreed with other speakers regarding career. Agents must be given the opportunity or career path to become leaders. In this case, Roojai.com also has a career path where agents are welcome to apply for jobs in other positions or teams according to their abilities. Their company also provides a month-long basic training agent consist of inbound, outbound, social media, and other competencies to develop their skills. This training is very important for them, so they can understand the entire customer journey and provide the best experience for customers.
Gratiano explained that in the current pandemic there is a challenge for contact center because they must enforce their employees to work from home. Lack of visibility and monitoring of what they do at home and how to control data security. This is when the role of technology is needed. She explained about the technology used by his contact center company. Her company uses Cloud, so they can work from anywhere. They can keep an eye on the agents via their CRM system. The technology allows them to know the details of activities, reports, and other functions of the agents.
In the middle of the discussion, there was a question from a participant regarding the high turnover rate of millennials. According to Sarun, this can be overcome by making competitive salaries especially for millennial agents. Also give other offers, such as travel gifts, meal vouchers, and others. Companies should give them more benefits to overcome the high turnover.
In addition, Joyce also argues that turnover can be handled by managing their work, having good allocation, giving clear targets, as well as training or coaching. Millennials also have pressure to compete with gen Z. So, the solution is company must equip them with hard and soft skills like Joyce mentioned earlier.
The next discussion is how to be a good leader for millennials. Lily says that a good leader is has strong character and self-esteem, so they can have experience and be inclusive leaders. Inclusiveness means respect diversity. Leaders should be able to connect everyone on the team with all their diversity with respect and care. In addition, millennial leaders must also have a lot of sense in terms of connectivity and knowledge. Another important thing is have a heart to help in providing sustainable excellent service and become a role model in the team.
Further discussions about when is the right time to assign an agent contact center to another department. Gratiano said that 2 years is enough time for an agent to be assigned to another department. During this time, they can learn various knowledge from contact center teams and other departments. Before getting the assignment, they must go through the interview process first. “If they apply for those positions, they still need to go through a proper interview by the department head,” Gratianosaid.
Different from Gratiano, Lily says that her company gives agents 18 months to learn through this transfer system, “Our kind of standard time range would be 18 months,” Lily said. According to her, millennial leaders should be given some opportunities to change frequently by make some modifications, facilitate their wishes, and let them choose. This is the environment millennials want, so they don’t get bored easily.
At the end of the discussion, each panellist give some tips to millennial leaders, so they could adjust their abilities in the contact center.
Do not miss the next Leaders Talk with topic of discussion “A Leader’s Roadmap to Contact Center Success” on August 27, 2021. Please check CC-APAC Instagram for further information. (ANF)
