Tag: Leadership

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: Do the Strong Execution for Make Things Happen

December 17, 2021 – Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC) in collaboration with Verint, presented Leaders Talk discussion with the theme “Digitalization in Financial Services.” In this leader’s talk, CC-APAC invited professional speakers of the contact center in the Asia Pacific. 

One of the speakers is Apirom Sutthinats, Contact Center Manager (Sales and Renewal Division), Roojai, Thailand. Apirom explained the challenge of digitalization and also the opportunity for financial services institutions. She said the challenge is they are really difficult to encourage and educate people. They are too difficult to tell everyone that online services were the best way to serve people for this time. This online makes flexible, and people can manage what they want anytime. 

She also shared that when the pandemic comes, she sees that the people’s behavior is changing. People are mostly more on their mobile phones and that is a mobile phone becomes the more essential into their life. Then, she advantages that situation now. They take the opportunity, such as improve a lot of customer experience, customer engagement, customer relationship, and also customer satisfaction. 

She also explains that people are not easy to adapt or accept this fast change, especially in this time everything is self-care online. “What do we need to do to handle these challenges, when we do change anything online?” ask her. Before we share with our customers, we need to prepare the training and ensure our staff clearly understand the rationale behind that change, such as what is the benefit to them? And also the benefit to the customer.

Same as another speaker, Apirom also gives tips to leaders to develop digital financial services. She said that leaders in the contact center are playing a really important law in business contribution, especially when it’s related to the customer. 

Therefore, leaders must be able to deal with any situation, such as paying attention to the customer, making what we doing currently better, and serve to the customer better. 

And also, as a leader, we always need to find a way to make our people work smart, minimize unnecessary work, and use technology or innovation to improve our contact center operations to work more efficiently. The last thing is execution. Not only plan and talk, but how strong our execution and action to make things happen. Therefore, she believes that everyone can make that change. (ANF) 

Leaders Talk: How to Build Momentum for the Leadership in Contact Center

December 17, 2021 – Interactive discussion initiated by Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC) in collaboration with Verint, with the theme, “Digitalization in Financial Services.” This event is invited four professional speakers from the Asia Pacific contact center. 

One of the speakers who was invited to this discussion is Novie Marlika. She is Vice President Customer Experience, OVO, Indonesia. In this discussion, Novie Malika said that OVO are contribute the solutions to this challenge, especially financial literacy and inclusion. Why financial services? Because she thinks, financial literacy is an important thing in the country for the economic process. “The challenge is always to find the right products and services that are easy to use, secure, and affordable,” said Novie. 

Novie also said that is why OVO particularly adopts the open ecosystem approach, such as being open to collaborating with other stakeholders. By doing this, Novie thinks OVO can expand from digital payment, also can over-like investment insurance bonds to meet the growing needs of the community with ease. 

Not only that, Novie explains that is basically on the challenges, but the way OVO sees the digital payment as a gateway to the larger digital financial ecosystem, whereby it is an opportunity for financial institutions. Then, “During these four years, I think, OVO has received a positive acceptance amongst Indonesian people and to the general public itself,” said Novie. She also thinks OVO is committed to continuing to bring financial literacy and inclusion through accelerating digital transformation in Asia.

Novie also shared tips for leadership development. She said that the main word for the leadership in the contact center is building momentum. Before building momentum, there are things that we need to do. First, we need to keep up with our customer’s needs. “What do we say by keeping up with this customer’s needs?” said Novie. We have to ask them to join our journey. Because it’s digital, we have to understand them, and we should make it easier for our users to understand. 

In the long term, she thinks when we keep up with the customer needs is not about how we reach the specific finish, but we need to create a higher purpose. And we also need to consistently adapt to the changing environments. 

When the pandemic comes, we need to send more people to work from home. Then, they can stay safe, but on the other side, we need to make sure our operations will be able to monitor and run smoothly. 

The last from this, we need to gain CSAT. Then, it’s not only learning the satisfaction level, but we need to learn the dissatisfaction level. Furthermore, we need to look from a bigger lens, such as from social media. We can see the satisfaction level that we want to achieve from all those activities, such as in terms of efficiency, in terms of operational excellence, and also can see are they achieved all the performance or yet. 

The second thing we need before building momentum is to set up our team for success. She said that whenever we will start something new, we need to give our teams a higher purpose, such as why we need to go there. 

Therefore, she said that we should help agents with the suggested actions, and they need to do some escalation. She explains that we also need to optimize our contact center with data analytics. Then, of course, “Improve ourselves and it makes sure that we’ll be able to help all the operations,” said Novie. As a leader, we have to stand by and make sure that we provide the solutions, even though we do not have the answers to that agent’s problem. As a leader, we don’t have all the solutions in the world for all the cases. But we can help all the team to drive a solution for us. (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 CC-APAC: How To Be a Good Young Leaders in Contact Center

October 15, 2021 – In this Leaders Talk, the Contact Center Associations of Asia Pacific (CC-APAC) discussed “Young Leaders 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 Somruedee Songsaengrit, Distribution Manager, Roojai, Thailand. The second is Dian Ratna Furi, Operations Manager, VADS Indonesia. Then, the last one is Anne Purba, Corporate Secretary Vice President KAI Commuter, Indonesia.

Andi Anugrah as Chairman of ICCA Indonesia has led the discussion. The discussion started about the workstyle of young leaders can impact contact center operation. Somruedee said 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.

Dian also said that so many young leaders would be born. They came up and bring 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.

Another opinion from Anne, she said that she has a work style urgency is efficiency. She 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 change.

The next discussion is regarding the capability that young leaders need. According to Somruedee, the young leader needs to get ready, be positive, and deal with a chance whatever is come. She also said that use skills and experience that learn from the past is necessary to apply. 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.

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 sharing 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.

Anne also agreed with Dian 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.

In the middle of the discussion, there is some question from a participant regarding how to deal with the old and the young generation. Somruedee gives the opinion about how to deal with the old generation, she said that it’s a little bit difficult because they are experts in something and sometimes, they have more experience than the young generation. However, understand the older generation is needed and knowing them in person and make a good relationship is helpful.

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.

The Leaders Talk event closed with tips from all three speakers about how to be a good leader in the contact center, especially for the young, women, and old generation. Want to know more detail about their opinion? Check the newest article on the CC-APAC website. (ANF)