Tag: Leaders

Leaders Talk CC-APAC: Enable Ecosystem for CX Innovation

Friday, March 11, 2022 – The 11th Leaders Talk CC-APAC hosted by ICCA discussed “Enable Ecosystem for CX Innovation” by inviting a professional speaker to the Asia Pacific contact center. This discussion was presented by Andi Anugrah, Chairman of ICCA Indonesia. The speaker Manoj Menon, Founder/CEO Twimbit.

Manoj starts the discussion by asking about the new definition of CX. He explains using a Gashapon machine as an example. “How many of you have played on this Gashapon machine. You know, how many have a lot of you played on this machine? Or you have children or you have taken the children to this machine?” ask Manoj.

He said what usually happens in this machine, the child will come, take a coin, and then play with this machine. Manoj also said that after we or our child get the toy, we 99% of the time don’t even use that toy. “We will leave it there and we go back to the machine to do it again,” said Manoj.

Then, Manoj explains that the machine is not for us to buy the product. The machine is making an experience for us. He said that we have to learn from Gashapon and make some more money from it. He also said that is what has happened in the world today. The only way we can differentiate is how you orchestrate that experience. And he said that is why we know and believe the experience is about the customer journey to use our product.

Manoj explains it is from the moment that the customer even thinks about using our product to the journey then consuming the product then to be a community member of our product for the rest of his life.

Manoj also shared about the ecosystem. He said that he is not making any money from the ecosystem, “I’m a research company,” said him. He wants every company to build a better strategy to grow their business. He also thinks building the ecosystem strategy is very important for every company. Either we build and develop our ecosystem, or you become part of somebody else’s ecosystem then, that we can innovate them because the future is an ecosystem.

Now, Manoj said that we got to move to the new era of strategy, which is to build that digital. Then, that is why he is talking about the ecosystem. We help companies develop and define and design their ecosystem strategy that is what we do (his company) as one of my offerings, but that is not the only offering. The ecosystem becomes a platform where everybody will be networking, such as networking for their potential and competency to deliver something.

For a closing statement, Manoj said that we have to learn about what is the ideal experience. And also, if we can start doing that automatically, he thinks we will see the improvement. For him, the biggest inspiration for customer experience is in sports. Because sport has fans and the fans are very loyal to their club. “Manchester United is not doing well for so long, but the fans are still so loyal,” said Manoj.

He said that what made them so much obsessed with it? Because there is that human connection. Then, now how do we create that because he thinks the sporting clubs do it very well. Technology is important but it is not the technology, it is about ritual. He explains that is about a great stadium, great stories of great players.

Then, the point he said is that customer experience for the companies is about great leaders in the company. “It is about the great physical storefront of the company. It is about great technology, and it is about great employees,” said him. Therefore, he asks all leaders to draw inspiration for their company and country, “Let’s make Indonesia very well known globally, for great customer and human experience,” said Manoj. (ANF)

Leaders Talk CC-APAC: Data Science and Data Analytics in Contact Center

Friday, March 4, 2022 – The tenth Leaders Talk CC-APAC hosted by ICCA discussed ” Data Science and Data Analytics in Contact Center.” by inviting a professional speaker to the Asia Pacific contact center. This discussion was presented by Andi Anugrah, Chairman of ICCA Indonesia. The speaker is Manish Shah, Vice President SE Asia Verint, Customer Engagement Solutions.

He thinks that basically, the biggest science is a practice that is happening right now because organizations are building analytics, who’s working there, and those with these rich datasets, like voice conversations and email conversations and chats. Then, he said that data science is more used to gain lessons that can improve marketing campaigns, improve customer service, or increase cross-selling opportunities to gain sales insights. In addition, it can also measure the best quality metrics for agents for employees and empower them to make decisions for successful outcomes.

Meanwhile, Manish explained that data analytics are used within the contact center where they focus on the entire company. Analytical data is not only applied to the voice channel or just to the email channel, but also to the entire channel.

Manish said that data analysis is more about how to study the practice, learn about what customers like and don’t like, and anticipate the next customer’s needs. Companies rely on data analytics not only to determine actions that are more focused on the contact center but for those who are more focused on the business. Then, data science is not only needed today but also needed in your future and it makes you ready to face the competition in the future.

He also gives tips for leaders if they want to develop their contact center in the era of data analytics in data science. He thinks that the most important is identifying the right partners, the right technology, and the experience behind supporting your companies.

And then identifying the right process and executives bringing executive sponsorship to it and then allowing the insight to be axed enable creating the process of culture to apply those inside to measure his impact. “I think this is what the leaders of today’s CXO and CEOs should be doing so that they could keep learning and keep improving,” explain Manish. (ANF)

Leaders Talk: Prepare Your Team to be a Great Leaders

October 15, 2021 – Interactive discussion initiated by Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC), Leaders Talk: Young Leaders in Contact Center, which invited three professional speakers in the Asia Pacific contact center.

One of the speakers, which invited to this discussion is Anne Purba. He is Corporate Secretary Vice President of KAI Commuter Indonesia. The company is engaged in organizing commuter rail transportation services using electric rail train facilities in the areas of Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi (Jabodetabek). 

As a young leader, Anne needs to change the method from the traditional to the digital platform. She thinks that human touch and behavior change not about one or two years, but also every minute the technology is changed. 

Anne also agreed about how important communication is. Because make the expectation clear and with good communication, can also make it together even there is young people or old people. Our team can pour it and we make a communication to them and they also make feedback to us. Make your expectation clear and reasonable, make the communication building, and expectation clear. Also, make a winning team and then encourage them to do something and make it together.

At the end of the discussion, Anne gives some tips about how to be a good leader. First, you do not have to delay your past because it makes ease stress and then makes it hassle-free for others. Then, try to do one date every day. Within a year, there must be significant takes and beliefs. Regarding prosperity as a religious people, rest assured that it will not be replaced. 

For young leaders, don’t forget to prepare your team to replace you. As a good cleaner, we want a great leader to replace us. Therefore, we should make room to share our experience and get more feedback to make every single improvement and do our best. “Let’s get do the rest. And don’t forget to pray and call your mom and say thank you because she has warned you and made you a leader now,” said Anne. (MAF)

Leaders Talk: 5 Things that Young Leaders Should Do

October 16, 2021 – Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC) present Leaders Talk discussion with the theme ” Young Leaders in Contact Center.” CC-APAC invited three professional speakers to the Asia Pacific contact center.

One of the speakers is Dian Ratna Furi. She is the Operation Manager of VADS, Indonesia. Dian said that so many young leaders would be born. They came up and brought new ideas and new perspectives. It is affected to contact center to leave all the traditional methods. Contact centers need to change and fast adapt to the condition.

For all young leaders, Dian said that we need to lead by example which contains the action to inspire. As a leader, she explains that we need to commit to the vision, mission, and even share the passion during coaching when meeting or individually. She also shared the experience when she got a big challenge for developing people who were older than her. She said that good communication is important to do.

Dian also explains that having good communication for dealing with elder people is very necessary. The young generation needs to understand their sensitivity during the works and their sensitivity about what they need when they aim in this organization. On the other hand, she found a millennial who likes to speak faster than action. Like she said before, the leader needs to give them an example containing action that can inspire them.

At the end of the discussion, Dian shared some tips about how to be a good leader. Dian said, “Leadership is not based on your age, not based on your rank, not depends on your job title, not depends on your position.” Then, she said that leadership is a choice, we choose and decide whether we want to throw out the rest of our team. Whether we want to look after them or us you want to give them without any direction.

It is your choice and you decide whether you want to lift the others in your team. She also said that young leaders have so many steps that they can do in their leadership quest like, first their need to walk the top, and then the communication. Also, the engagement, young leaders should have inclusion and sensitivity, integrity, and trust here. (ANF)

Leaders Talk: Be a Good Young Leaders by Learning New Things Everyday

October 15, 2021 – Interactive discussion initiated by Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC), Leaders Talk: Young Leaders in Contact Center, which invited three professional speakers in the Asia Pacific contact center. 

One of the speakers who is invited to this discussion is Somruedee Songsoengrit. She is the Distribution Manager in Roojai, Thailand. The company is engaged in insurance. Somruedee said that the young leader’s generation is changing very fast. That becomes a challenge for her to follow them. The impact is a consistently changing environment. It means one situation maybe work one way, but on the other hand, maybe can bring another huge problem. Then, Somruedee said, “And how do we do that? How do I develop my capabilities?”

She also said that to lead the contact center you will have to prepare yourself for that change. You must be ready, be positive, and also dealing with change, whatever it comes, and then we will use our skill set for any experience that we have learned from the past and apply it.  And to develop skills, Somruedee does from learning and practicing. She said that when she is learning, she is knowing, and then do coaching, especially when she led a contact center team.

Somruedee said to manage and communicate with older teams or generations, we should make a relationship with them. We should talk to them to understand them more because we need to spend time with this kind of generation more than the young leaders and the young generation. We should learn together and then, if we understand them for sure, we can work together with them. Team bonding is important. 

Somruedee also shares tips about how to be a good leader for the young leader, especially women, millennials, and the older generation. She said that every day we have learned new things from day-to-day routine. That those lessons we have learned in the day-to-day operations. Even if we are not at work, or our house, or outside the work, it can be helpful to enhance our development skills, especially communication which is very important nowadays. Then, do not stop learning. (ANF)

Leaders Talk: The Questions That Leaders Must Answer Before Create Roadmap in Contact Center

August 27, 2021 – In this Leaders Talk, the Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC) discussed “A Leader’s Roadmap to Contact Center Success.” We invited three speakers who are professionals in the Asia Pacific contact center industry. 

One of the speakers is Byron J. Fernandez, Former Chairman of CCAM Malaysia Group CIO, Country Director Teledirect Malaysia. Byron said that in the beginning, especially people from the BPO industry disagreed and said, “No” if do work from home. At first, they were worried about how can we know they were working or not, how the data was secure, and other issues. But when the pandemic hit, they had no choice. In Malaysia, because the technology is sufficient, they finally decided to transition more than 95% of organizations to work from home. 

The next discussion is talking about technology in the contact center. Byron said that technology is not important in the past. But in this current situation, technology is important and very useful. Some of the advanced tools we use can monitor the screen of a particular agent. In addition, there are also very interesting technologies, such as using facial recognition. With this technology, we can see people’s facial features, whether they are smiling, whether they are happy or not based on what they are doing. Also, the company can make it possible for agents to work from home in the long term and with good results.

At the end of the discussion, Byron gives his opinion about how to create a roadmap in the next five years. He thinks five years is a very long timeline. We never know whether there will be another pandemic in the next five years or not. Therefore, it is better to plan work in 18 months. What is your 12 to 18-month plan? Then make a roadmap by seeing what problems you face today. Then, what has changed and what will develop in the next 12 months.

That is where you must start thinking about where you invest. Do we invest in change management ratios? Do we invest in online tools to monitor people’s well-being? Do we invest more in insight and big data analytics to see where people are spending their time and what they do? Or invest in HR to see employee engagement? Those are the questions that leaders must answer that they can give excellent employee experience.

Byron thinks that the roadmap for the next 12 to 18 months is to figure out how we bring normality to our workforce. Therefore, we can provide our workforce with an employee experience that will make them want to stay. (ANF)

Leaders Talk: Tips from Chapman Lam How Leaders Face the Changes in Contact Center

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)

Leaders Talk: How to Be a Strong Leaders in Contact Center

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)

Leaders Talk: Create a Better Workplace for The Future with Millennial Leaders

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)

Leaders Talk: How to Deal with Millennial Leaders in Your Company

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)