Tag: Leaders Talk

Leaders Talk: What Managers Should Do First Before Making a Strategy

September 24, 2021 – Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC) present Leaders Talk discussion with the theme “Workforce Optimization in Contact Center.” CC-APAC invited professional speakers to the Asia Pacific contact center.

One of the speakers is Andy Hardy, Strategic Director of Employee Engagement for Genesys in Australia, and New Zealand. Andy explained that optimizing the workforce in the contact center is very important at this time. Investment in employees is typically the most expensive cost to any organization and business. Therefore, it’s more appropriate not to replacing our employees with new ones because it will cost more. Then, it will help us manage employees easily and engage them to be more involved in the work. Because by keeping our current employees, we will get a better level of service.

The next discussion is talking about the strategy of optimizing the workforce in the contact center. Andy said that we need to use the information and insight that we have on our employees. He tried to get back the basics of service, such as what service to provide to customers. Then moving on to the employee experience, think about service providers. 

Andy also shares some tips for managers regarding the implementation of workforce optimization. He said that we must think bigger and higher when we are starting a strategy.  Think about our customers first and what service we are trying to give to our customers. Then, build our strategy off the back of that for our employees, align the two. “If they are going in two different directions, neither are going to be successful,” said Andy. He thinks that is an important thing to do.

About the workforce, there is a study that said. If we keep our employees within our business and keep them engaged, then we are going to see higher productivity. We can notice this claim of 17 to 20% higher productivity by engaged employees. If we have engaged employees, we are going to see much lower attrition then, our investment isn’t just about people, but it’s about our organization. Then, he thinks that the engagement thing is important. (ANF)

Leaders Talk: Placing a Right Person in the Right Place to Optimization Workforce

September 24, 2021 – In this Leaders Talk, the Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC) discussed “Workforce Optimization in Contact Center.” We invited three speakers who are professionals in the Asia Pacific contact center industry. 

One of the speakers is Mark Harington, Vice President Solutions, APAC at NICE Ltd. Mark said that the industry has now come to a better. He said that we need to engaged workforce. Because today’s workforce they don’t do receptionist anymore because they answer the questions so hard. Compare it to chatbots and any other websites that can’t answer some of the questions, the receptionist is still better. And that is why you need to keep them more engaged in work and make their life easier, faster, better, and engaged.

About workforce optimization strategy in contact center, Mark shared his perspective. He calls that strategy a thick layer on the boiled egg. The thick layers are what our company decides on how to talk to our customers. Every company decides differently because some companies want to keep their customers happy and want their customers to love them. Some companies just don’t care about their customers and do the basic stuff only.

Mark also shared a summary of today’s discussion. He said that the way to deal with the shifts and markets, as the old man said that make sure you have the right person in the right places. Customers have to meet the right people who can answer their questions. Make sure you are there to answer what they need to answer. And if you can get to them before they even come to you, then that is great. That is the simplest way to organize your workforce.

He said that you can choose another option. You can go through technology, but you have to think about which vendor has the right experience in your domain. Who can understands your organization much better, what is the amount of changes management you change to adapt the staff.  Then, all of these things are what allow you to have the right development. Spend more time asking about change management, what will happen in three months or six months, how have you done this before, what are the challenges in getting technology to another technology. (ANF)

Leaders Talk CC-APAC: How to Increase Workforce Optimization in Contact Center

Friday, September 24, 2021 – The fourth Leaders Talk organized by Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC) discussed “Workforce Optimization in Contact Center” by inviting three professional speakers to the Asia Pacific contact center.

This discussion was presented by Andi Anugrah, Chairman of ICCA Indonesia. The first panelist is Andy Hardy, Strategic Director of Employee Engagement for Genesys in Australia, and New Zealand. The second is Mark Harington, Vice President Solutions, APAC at NICE Ltd. The last one is Sunil Aryan, Director Practice Backoffice and Retail, Asia Verint. 

The first discussion is talked about optimizing the workforce in the current contact center. Andy said that optimizing the workforce in the contact center is very important at this time. Investment in employees is typically the most expensive cost to any organization and business. Therefore, it’s more appropriate not to replacing our employees with new ones because it will cost more. Then, it will help us manage employees easily and engage them to be more involved in the work. Because by keeping our current employees, we will get a better level of service.

Aryan also explained that optimization or workforce engagement management is evolving and has become very important, especially for the contact center. In optimizing the workforce in the company, we must consider the perspective from the employee’s side while trying to achieve what our contact center is. 

For example, a receptionist. Some people’s perspective of a receptionist is they job is just to answer the call. We don’t see them as a fancy calculation mechanism. We treat them well. They are here not just to answering the call, but they are here doing business and have taken a very remarkable journey. 

Because no one saw that they were here for company business purposes then, this optimization concept is the way for us to develop them more engagement if we see it as a good calculation mechanism. We must be able to determine the right number of people at the right time or look at the quality. That will have a lot to do with how we deliver better and faster results to our customers.

Mark has a different opinion from other speakers. Mark said that the industry has now come to a better. He thinks that we need to the engaged workforce. Nowadays they don’t seem like a receptionist because they answer the questions so hard. Compare it to chatbots and any other websites that can’t answer some of the questions, the receptionist is still better. And that is why you need to keep them involved and make their life easier, faster, better, and engaged.

The next discussion is talking about the strategy of optimizing the workforce in the contact center. Andy said that we need to use the information and insight that we have on our employees. He tried to get back the basics of service, such as what service to provide to customers. Then moving on to the employee experience, think about service providers. 

Then, we can start thinking about how we engage our employees and what technology we need to provide that service. If we can start to correlate those two things together, we can start to be very smart around. Also, think about how you start to build your strategy. He would start there and use the data and insights.

Mark also shared his perspective about that strategy. He calls that strategy is a thick layer on the boiled egg. The thick layers are what our company decides on how to talk to our customers. Every company decides differently because some companies want to keep their customers happy and want their customers to love them. Some companies just don’t care about their customers and do the basic stuff only.

Aryan’s opinion of that strategy is sometimes we need to look at it from a third perspective view because we need to look at what matters to the center at that moment. Are we looking at cutting down costs or are we trying to increase our service because it depends on the stage of the organization? We may have to take one of those steps.

Workforce optimization integrates technology into a single point of management to increase the visibility of customer interactions, employee performance, and business processes. By analyzing all customer interactions, businesses can leverage insights to train their employees and streamline workflows to improve the overall quality of customer service.

We also discussed the importance of collaboration in the application of technology. The important thing is having a partner in building a contact center. For this reason, users need to build engagement with vendors then they can get maximum results in the application of technology. Because all speakers in this discussion are vendors, they hope to build relationships with users, then they can maximize the functionality of the technology and provide benefits according to business goals.

At the end of the discussion, all panelists give their summary and tips about the implementation of workforce optimization in the contact center. Want to know more about their opinion? For details, stay tuned for another article on the CC-APAC website. (ANF)

Leaders Talk: Get Out from Comfort Zone and Know Your People

August 27, 2021 – Interactive discussion initiated by Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC), Leaders Talk: A Leader’s Roadmap to Contact Center Success, which invited three professional speakers in the Asia Pacific contact center.

One of the speakers, who was invited to this discussion is Ts. Saravanan Belusami. He is CEO of VADS Indonesia. Saravanan explained that the contact center faces many transformations. It strengthens us to be more agile in accepting change. If we talk about working from home, there is always the question of whether this is possible or not. Then the pandemic happened and made us agree that this is possible, and we can’t deny it anymore. 

To face this change, he is talking from the perspective of a leader. He always looks from two angles, such as internal factors and external factors. The internal factor here, he sees how the role of the leader manages the organization from a perspective that requires their involvement as a leader, not only looking at your well-being.

Then external factors, such as from clients. In the BPO industry, they are very important. We have to be able to merge them in a situation like this. Also, how you can convince them and make your company a trusted BPO for them. 

Saravanan has a different perspective from other speakers. He said that the only important element that we cannot deny in dealing with this particular situation is communication. When referring to what is going on in technology that Raymond said before, technology can easily be bought and incorporated into organizational structures. But what matters now is communication, how we can translate something using the right delivery for our people during work from home. 

Therefore, this is where the role of a leader is so important to bring them to have a substantial understanding and make it happen, not only from the internal stakeholder perspective but also from they are external. 

According to the discussion about transformation and digitalization, Saravanan also shares some tips that we need in the contact center industry. First what we need to do and find out is we must get out of our comfort zone. As a leader, we have to know what is going on out there then, you can translate it into the internal organization. You should also encourage and ensure that they agree to and accept these changes. As a leader, you need to lead your teams by example or demonstrate, such as how you conduct meetings, how you allow them to advance, and many more. 

The second tips are you need to know your people, such as their strengths and weaknesses. You need to ensure that you are preparing to anticipate what is happening out there will not happen to your team. You must get yourself to prepare and have a proper development plan for your team. The last, Saravanan said the last thing that the role of a leader is not to come up with all the great ideas but, “To create an environment in which great ideas can happen,” said Saravanan. (ANF) 

Leaders Talk: Improve Yourself and Follow the Changes

August 27, 2021 – Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC) present Leaders Talk discussion with the theme “A Leader’s Roadmap to Contact Center Success.” CC-APAC invited professional speakers to the Asia Pacific contact center.

One of the speakers is Raymond Devadass, Chairman of CCAM Malaysia, Founder & CEO Day Three. Raymond explained that today’s gameplay is play for a change. In the contact center industry, change is nothing new. They accept and experience many changes, just like the internet. We’re turning mobile because all millennials are now using their phones to reach out on social media and other things like that. Then the contact center industry has also gone through and followed this change very quickly and rapidly.

He also agrees with other speakers that it is a dynamic process that moves very quickly and adapts. And he thinks the organization has a great roadmap to say, “Okay, we will embrace machine learning for two years or AI for three years.” 

Raymond thinks as leaders that are the most important thing to keep abreast of what’s going on with the different technologies. How does it apply to your business? Not just to take a new technology and imitate it. They should see that implement technology works for the contact center and make a better customer experience.

Raymond also shared some tips in this digital era in contact center. Today, technology has grown so fast. There will be more sophisticated tools that will emerge over time and will change the industry moving forward. Therefore, as a leader, we must learn and adapt quickly to these changes. We must not be out of date or allow ourselves to become obsolete. He had heard the expression, “Machines will not make us obsolete. But our complacency will make us obsolete.”

As a leader, we must learn how to co-exist with technology. If you don’t improve yourself, don’t upgrade or re-skill yourself, then you will become obsolete. Therefore, the leader roadmap in this era is not only to implement some technological advances but also to improve our knowledge. We must always follow the flow or various changes that appear then we do not become obsolete. (ANF)

Leaders Talk CC-APAC: How a Leader’s Roadmap to Contact Center Success

August 27, 2021 – The third Leaders Talk organized by Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC) discussed “A Leader’s Roadmap to Contact Center Success” by inviting three professional speakers in the Asia Pacific contact center.

This discussion was presented by Andi Anugrah, as Chairman of ICCA Indonesia. First panellist is Byron J. Fernandez, Former Chairman of CCAM Malaysia Group CIO, Country Director Teledirect Malaysia. The second is Raymond Devadass, Chairman of CCAM Malaysia, Founder & CEO Day Three. Then the last one is Ts. Saravanan Belusami, CEO VADS Indonesia.

The first discussion is related to the leader’s roadmap in the contact center, especially during the pandemic. 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. 

But in reality, Byron said that working from home is going well because the people in the contact center have good competence, are responsible, and care about others. Therefore, in this situation he is 100% more focused on taking care of everyone who works for his company, making sure they are successful, and that they continue to do well in their home environment that they adapt to this change.

Raymond also explained these changes. He explained that today’s gameplay is play for a change. In the contact center industry, change is nothing new. They accept and experience many changes, just like the internet. We’re turning mobile because all millennials are now using their phones to reach out on social media and other things like that. Then the contact center industry has also gone through and followed this change very quickly and rapidly.

He also agrees with Byron that it is a dynamic process that moves very quickly and adapts. And he thinks the organization has a good roadmap to say, “Okay, we will embrace machine learning for two years or AI for three years.”

Raymond thinks as leaders that are the most important thing to keep abreast of what’s going on with the different technologies. How does it apply to your business? Not just to take a new technology and just imitate it. They should see that implement technology works for the contact center and make a better customer experience.

Saravanan also agrees with Byron and Raymond that the contact center faces many transformations. It strengthens us to be more agile in accepting change. If we talk about working from home, there is always the question of whether this is possible or not. Then the pandemic happened and made us agree that this is possible, and we can’t deny it anymore.

To face this change, he is talking from the perspective of a leader. He always looks from two angles, such as internal factors and external factors. The internal factor here, he sees how the role of the leader manages the organization from a perspective that requires their involvement as a leader, not only looking at your well-being.

Then external factors, such as from clients. In the BPO industry, they are very important. We have to be able to merge them in a situation like this. Also, how you can convince them and make your company a trusted BPO for them.

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.

What about training? Byron also explained that we are in a pandemic and cannot hold training. Therefore, they take advantage of the learning platform with concepts that are important for developing their people and then launch this course using the electronic platform. With this technology, he thinks in the coming months, all this thing will be done to support human development and the ability to work in the current situation.

Then, another perspective from leaders about technology. Raymond said that leaders must adapt and build the culture of digital internally. It means, if you want to create a great digital experience for your customers, you have to start with the employees. Therefore, everything you do internally needs to be more efficient through digital processes.

He also shared that people in the contact center are very energetic and thrive the social interaction. Raymond said that it is different today that we are restricted to do physical interactions, it is the challenge. Now, we have a hybrid model. Some of the agents work from home, some from the office.

Saravanan has a different perspective to other speakers. He said that the only important element that we cannot deny in dealing with this particular situation is communication. When referring to what’s going on in technology that Raymond said before, technology can easily be bought and incorporated into organizational structures. But what matters now is communication, how we can translate something using the right delivery for our people during work from home.

Therefore, this is where the role of a leader is so important to bring them to have a substantial understanding and make it happen, not only from the internal stakeholder perspective but also from they are external.

At the end of the discussion, all panelists give their final opinion and tips about the roadmap for leaders to succeed in the contact center. Want to know more about their opinion? For details, stay tuned for another article on the CC-APAC website. (ANF)

Leaders Talk: 3 Skills That a Leader in Contact Center Must Have

June 25, 2021 – Interactive discussion initiated by Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC), Leaders Talk: Role of Leader in Contact Center Change, which invited four professional speakers in the Asia Pacific contact center.

One of the speakers who is invited to this discussion is Riri Amalas Yulita. She is the Director Solution & Business Development of Infomedia Nusantara. The company is engaged in the BPO industry. Riri said that a pandemic is an opportunity to care more about contact center services. BPO is here to support the contact center operations and contribute by standing with the agent to face the changes.

Riri said that adaptation is important in this digital era. More than 70% of employees in her company are younger millennials then all leaders must adapt to them and try to understand their work. She also gives them a mission on how to grow in this situation. And every Wednesday, leaders also have an agenda to make them stay informed by sharing to update and distribute new information.

Riri states that Infomedia has a new normal work system because they think that work from home is not a big deal. Maybe in the future, they want to continue this WFH and WFO system. They will divide that which people who can work from home and who is not. Which technology will apply and so on. They also have to protect their team, because it is important to make sure their health condition.

In the contact center during this pandemic situation, she said that we need to create competent and adaptive because their industry has very dynamic. Then as a leader, they have to capability to empower their team. Then the other thing is utilizing the system and technology.

Riri also shared three tips for the leaders based on her experience. The first one is analytics skills. It is also important to have the analytical skill to know the real situation and provide a solution. The second tip is they also have to be consultative. We push our team to has that capability to make sure our client is confident that the transformation can be running well. And the last one is collaboration. She thinks that collaboration is very important, especially in this situation. With that collaboration, we can share, we can go hand in hand to solve the problems. (ANF)

Leaders Talk: Attitude is the Key for Being a Leader

June 25, 2021 – Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC) present Leaders Talk discussion by the theme “Role of Leader in Contact Center Change”. CC-APAC invited professional speakers to the Asia Pacific contact center.

One of the speakers is Lisa Widodo, Executive Vice President Operations from BLIBLI.COM. Lisa states that the e-commerce industry faces public behavior which wants everything fast and gets instant solutions.  When the pandemic has happened in 2020, especially in Indonesia, everyone’s needs are increasing so we must particularly move and adapt with interactions. Lisa said that managing communications and the right agent to handle customers is the key to today’s contact center service.

Lisa shared that BLIBLI has a policy of following government regulation during this pandemic. Around 25% of customer care agents in BLIBLI still need to work from the office. According to that, the safety and health of agents are becoming their priority now. 

Leaders in BLIBLI do management in millennial ways which concern connecting each other by communicating agents’ language and open mindset. Lisa said, do not think the way that leaders used to do things is the best, even though the company has 20+ years of experience. They should have an open mindset as a leader and listen to what agents think. To make it more fun and relevant to millennial generations, they optimize social media as the media to stay connect and give appreciation. In BLIBLI, social media such as Instagram is used for creating a monthly magazine just to share achievements over the other’s agent.

Lisa also shared that what is key to being a leader. She quotes a word from John Maxwell which relates to this current situation. The words are, “People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.” Then, Lisa concludes that attitude is key. As a leader, it doesn’t matter what you say, the matter is what you do and what your action is. She thinks that it is a privilege to be a leader, lead a team, manage a team, and have a responsibility. (ANF)

Leaders Talk: 3E as a Key for Leader in Contact Center

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)

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)