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)
Gratiano Yeung Chief Customer Officer Roojai Company Limited.
20+ years Contact Centre start-up and operation experience in Asia Pacific regions, more than 15+ years on lifestyles assistance service and insurance experience. Early this year, she’s been recognized as one of the TOP 25 Women Leaders in Financial Technology of Asia for 2020.
She is COPC®️ CSP Registered Coordinator, COPC®️ High Performance Management Techniques certified individual, ISO10002 Customer Satisfaction trained and certified individual. She joined Roojai in 2015 for the start-up and launched the operation in 2016.
Her expertise areas mainly focus on the best customer experience delivery and deploying customer engagement activities through Insurtech e.g. video car inspection and claims reporting via mobile app. She manages the Roojai Omni-channel contact centre with high level of customer satisfaction that NPS at 88% and 4.9 out of 5-Stars Service Rating. In the past few years, she solidly built the Roojai Award Winning Contact Centre: • Contact Center Asia Pacific Innovation Award 2019 – Platinum Award • The Best Contact Center of the Year 2019 (TCCTA Award 2019) • The Best Contact Center of the Year 2018 (TCCTA Award 2018) • The Best Social Media Contact Center (TCCTA Award 2017)
Sarun Vejsupaporn President of Thai Contact Centre Trade Association ( TCCTA ) Managing Director of Nice Call Company
With more than 12 years of experiences in Contact Centre business especially Telemarketing, Sarun is one of the Top executive Telemarketing and Direct Marketing in Thailand. He is the Direct Marketing person who experienced many kinds of Direct Marketing include Telemarketing, TV Shopping, Digital Marketing, Printing etc. He also was President of Thai Direct Marketer Association and was one of the boards of Office of the Consumer Protection Board (Thailand) in Direct Marketing Law Subcommittee.
He is also very capable in Database Management System and Database Analysis for Direct Marketing and Digital Marketing both in the view of Marketing and in the view of Technology and Network. He used to be responsible for more than 500 Telemarketing Agents and now he is the owner of Telemarketing and Digital Marketing Company with more than 150 Tele Agents.
Sarun has also been working with Contact Centre Association Of Asia Pacific ( CC-APAC ) for many years and also be President of Thai Contact Centre Trade Association at present.
Education:
First Graduated in Mechanical Engineering, Kasetsart University Post Graduated in Technology Management , University of New South Wales; Sydney Australia Strategic Financial Management (CFO) from Thailand Stock Market (MAI) The Boss and Counseling for The BOSS from Management phycology Institutes
Business: Consultant of Ministry of commerce in Retailing Business for SME and OTOP Marketing Director of Direct Marketing Business in TV Direct Public Company Limited Director of Outbound Telemarketing Business in TV Direct Public Company Limited Managing Director in Nice Call Company Limited running Database Marketing and Telemarketing Services Business
Social:
President of Thai Direct Marketer Association
Director of Direct Marketing board in Office of the consumer protection Board
International Director of Thai Contact Center Trade Association
Director of Asia Pacific Contact Center Leader Association
President of Thai Contact Center Trade Association
Thailand Contact Center Award Judge 2014 – 2019
The Best Contact Center Indonesia Award Judge 2015 – 2019
The Best Contact Center Malaysia Award Judge 2015
The Best Contact Center Singapore Award Judge 2017
Kenneth Chong Head of Sales, AWS Cognitive CX (ASEAN) Amazon Web Services (AWS)
With more than 20 years of experience in Contact Centre, Unified Communications, Telepresence and Collaboration Technologies, Kenneth is well-versed in consultancy, integration and enabling end-user adoption of enterprise voice, video communications and contact centre solutions across Asia Pacific. With his knowledge and experience on business operations required for an integrated communications practice, Kenneth has also worked closely with business process organizations such as outsourced contact centres in delivering top-notch services to their customers and end-users.
In his current role, Kenneth plays a pivotal role in AWS Cognitive CX Business Unit, by leading and ensuring execution of AWS Connect, Digital Customer Journey & Contact Centre strategy across ASEAN. Kenneth is also instrumental in deepening the engagement in enterprise segments of FSI, Public Sector and Service Providers, leveraging insights and understanding of enterprise communications trends, digitalization, automation, data analytics and deployment for optimal customer user experience for business outcomes. Kenneth also works with strategic partner alliances – Verint, Calabrio, Acqueon, Salesforce, etc.
Prior to joining Amazon, Kenneth led and managed the Cisco Customer Journey Solutions in ASEAN. His responsibilities include market development, sales management, applications, solution innovation and partner alliances.
Being an active member with Contact Centre Association of Singapore (CCAS), Kenneth championed the inaugural Regional Contact Centre Symposium since 2005. Kenneth is also the Chairman of CCAS since 2012.
In addition to being the executive lead in CCAS, Kenneth is also one of the founding member of Contact Centre Associations of Asia Pacific (CC APAC) since February 2019. (**)
Chapman Lam FWD Life Insurance Company (Bermuda) Limited (Incorporated in Bermuda with limited liability)
Chapman is the Immediate Past Chairman of the Hong Kong Customer Contact Association (HKCCA) and the current Treasurer and Board of Director of the Association. He is the founder of Asia Pacific Contact Centre Association Alliance and the founder of Greater China Contact Centre Alliance, representing Hong Kong Contact Centre industry for awards judging and best practice sharing.
He has over 15 years in senior executive positions in insurance industry under both local and regional capacity for driving customer value propositions and customer engagement transformation through emerging technologies. He is the thought leader in Customer Experience, Customer Strategy and Direct Distribution across Asia Pacific, including leading 3,000+ contact center professionals to generate hundreds of million revenue through direct channel and deploying best in class customer experience practices to achieve market leading position.
Chapman holds a Master of Science degree in Information System and a Bachelor degree in Business Administration. He is a certified COPC Registered Coordinator (both CSP & VMO). Outside of work, Chapman loves sports, particularly tennis and volleyball. He also devotes to community services supporting ethic minorities and elderly. (**)
Join our interactive discussion with Contact Center Leaders. Registration on bit.ly/ccapac_leaderstalk
Riri Amalas Yulita Director Solution & Business Development PT. Infomedia Nusantara
One of the spoke-woman at the monthly CC-APAC Leaders Talk this week will be filled by Riri Amalas Yulita. Equipped with more than 30 years of experiences, Riri Amalas Yulita shall explain about topic of “Role of Leader in Contact Center Change and how Infomedia Nusantara successfully adapt to the dynamic of Contact Center through the pandemic”
Started her carrer in contact center in 1991, Riri Amalas Yulita has develop her experiences on many aspect of the business and become pioners of the customer experience at Telkomunikasi Seluler Indonesia in 1995 to 2017. Continuing her growth, in 2017 Riri Amalas Yulita was trusted by Telkom Indonesia group to be Director of Infomedia Nusantara and succesfully making Infomedia to be the largest Digital CX Partner in Indonesia. Also succesfully develop digital channel for more than 200 company with each of their uniqueness on Customer Relationship Management method.
Through her career, she have attained three gold medals on Jakarta Marketing Week from 2020-2021. Winning BUMN Anugerah in 2021 for her concept on digitalization in the next normal era, and one of a notable person who honored Satyalancana Wirakarya from the President of Republic Indonesia, due to Her contribution on empowering omnichanel system for contact center in Indonesia.
Graduate from Institute Technology Bandung in 1990 as Physics Engineering, and obtain Master Degree on Management at Institute Management Telkom in 2010 with cum laude predicate. Author of five books with each of the books filled with her dreams to create an amazing costumer experience and to transform Indonesia contact center into digitalization era in the next normal. (**)
Join our interactive discussion with Contact Center Leaders. Registration on bit.ly/ccapac_leaderstalk
Lisa Widodo, Executive Vice President of Operations Blibli.com.
Lisa Widodo
One of the speakers at the monthly CC-APAC Leaders Talk is Lisa Widodo. Lisa is trusted as Executive Vice President of Operations Blibli.com. Let’s look at a few things about Lisa and her career journey as a leader at blibli.com.
Lisa Widodo is one of the pioneers who has contributed to the growth of Blibli.com since it was founded in 2011 to become one of the leading e-commerce companies today. With a background in Mechanical Engineering, an Honors graduate from The University of Texas at Austin and an MSc in Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering from the same university, Lisa has also led several important projects as a Project and Process Engineer at SEMATECH, USA. She then decided to return to Indonesia in 2005 because she wanted to start contributing more to Indonesia.
In line with Lisa’s dream, Blibli.com is a company that has always dreamed of empowering the Indonesian generation through the e-commerce ecosystem. “I realized that my goal in life is to use what I have learned and gained from my experience in America, to participate in developing Indonesia. I want to build this nation. Right now I feel fulfilled because I work for a company that also loves Indonesia very much and shares a dream to empower Indonesia,” said Lisa.
Lisa’s journey and struggle to become the successful woman she is today is also not easy. While still a student majoring in mechanical engineering, to have the opportunity to get in-state tuition (tuition fees that are three times cheaper than international tuition), Lisa had to work 20 hours per week. The job she got was working in a computer laboratory with technical work related to infrastructure.
Furthermore, after graduating with a Master of Mechanical Engineering, Lisa got a job related to the future of semiconductors, which is usually only given to Electrical Engineering graduates. There Lisa conducted various experiments and wrote publications on silicon wafers which are the basis of microprocessors used for many hardware devices. Likewise, while working at Citi Indonesia, Lisa was involved in the Operations and Technology department. Until finally Lisa got the opportunity to join Blibli.com. (**)
