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Moving at pace while delivering value

October 2, 2020 by

This was first published as a guest article in partnership with Netcall, read the original piece here

Our previous interview with Dave Pattman, MD for Solution Development and Richard Farrell, Chief Innovation Officer at Netcall titled Shifting automation up a gear, focused on technology as the central key to unlocking efficient digital transformation with Richard and Dave exploring how customer support service levels can be maintained in these uncertain times, while accelerating change.

Continuing the conversation, we discuss how organisations can drive and improve customer service levels while driving digital transformation at pace. Knowing how tough it is to deal with the continuous uncertainty that the pandemic has caused, we ask how can organisations work through the changing policies and processes and get to the value quicker?

When you are working at pace, how is it possible to design processes which are going to be adopted and successfully meet the needs of the customer?

Richard: It’s a human-centric issue. The key to getting the processes right, is using your customer-facing people as a major part of the building process. They have amazing customer insight and also understand where the issues are with your current systems which prevent work from flowing effectively.

With Liberty Create, your customer experts can collaborate with IT to develop solutions to common customer experience issues. We call them citizen developers, as anyone can be taught to build with our drag and drop tech, they don’t need to be a seasoned developer.

By working together, they can build applications quickly and easily with IT controlling the secure and compliant environment and approving the build. Our studios within our low-code software create a nice line of demarcation between building, coding and testing.

Dave: When working at pace, it’s really important to have the right level of expertise to fall back on. While internal teams may have a strong grasp of the problem to solve, finding a suitable delivery partner who understands the technology and can deploy in appropriate areas is key to maintaining momentum.

The teams I lead hold a great degree of experience in technology deployment. When partnered with a client team who are able to bring their deep knowledge and proximity to the customer together, we’re able to both move at pace. This ensures that all-important scale and longevity of impact. Without that critical partnership, there’s too many false starts, single point solutions that only serve to move demand downstream or are unable to reach the scale required to realise ROI.

It seems automation isn’t simply about automation. People, process and technology are at the heart of it. So, how do organisations shift gears to adapt to this way of digitising?

Richard: I’d say the first objective is to opt for tools which allows you to add and prove value, quickly. That means that you can demonstrate the improvements and return on investment or efficiency savings, fast. You can show how reducing mundane tasks and refining the processes improves staff job satisfaction, making them more engaged and efficient, and also the positive impact it has on customer experience. Then, the next project gains momentum and you can work through several change projects, at a great pace.

Dave: Many examples of automation projects to date have seen large centralised functions created, who then hunt for opportunities to deploy automation. We’ve found that engaging colleagues much closer to the customer and providing easy tools to support has an evangelising effect, being an active part of change and transformation. This must continue to be grounded by, and supported with a clear strategic rationale, with a universal understanding of the customer service and wider brand proposition, and ultimately the customer journeys that deliver it. This avoids the nightmare ‘wild west’ IT scenarios that shutter initiatives and provide a framework for knowledge sharing.

Low-code provides many advantages for accelerating change in business led automation, can you outline the key rewards?

Richard: Aside from the collaboration between IT and business-people, it’s the pace at which you can make changes to systems adaptations, it allows you to work through the customer journey and resolve issues one process at a time. This means regular operational UK wins and as well as CX.

These changes are business led, and often automating mundane processes, so it can result in higher satisfaction for employees as it removes many of their mundane tasks. So rather than fearing job loss due to automation, they can deliver better service to customers and be more productive. For the employer, they are getting to the value of transformation much quicker – customer issues are reduced and staff have time to deal with the problems.

Dave: Where low-code is facilitated and encouraged by central teams and specialists, there’s huge opportunity to be more ‘fleet of foot’ in developing, deploying and iterating ‘best practice’ across functions and geographies.

When governance requirements are carefully balanced with the freedom for those closest to customers to develop innovative solutions; standards, particularly for heavily regulated businesses can be maintained and even improved while channelling the enthusiasm of colleagues to bring forward their deep understanding and co-create impactful solutions, leveraging internal expertise as required.

Shifting automation up a gear

September 22, 2020 by

This was first published as a guest article in partnership with Netcall, read the original piece here

We are moving away from firefighting mode and thoughts have turned to future planning, though it feels a little like we are all planning for the unknown. Agility and the capacity to adapt rapidly are high on the agenda. The challenge of switching to digital, automated journeys remains a key part of the bigger picture. But economic challenges, staffing decisions as the furlough scheme comes to an end and the need to drive out costs are likely to be fighting for focus.

Technology will be the central key to unlocking focused and efficient digital transformation. But the question is, how do you retain customer support service levels in these uncertain times, while accelerating change? We spoke to our Solution Development MD, Dave Pattman, and Richard Farrell, Chief Innovation Officer at Netcall for their perspectives on how organisations can move at pace with their digital transformation, balancing the need to optimise the efficiency of interactions, with driving and improving customer service levels.

In this post-COVID era, can automation provide a solution to reduce headcount without reducing customer service capacity?

Richard: There’s no doubt that Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and self-service are powerful tools to utilise in your operations. They offer excellent options to reduce simple, repetitive tasks which your staff may be currently handling and they can even improve efficiency as human-error mistakes are limited to the customer’s side. But, your people are vitally important. By moving the mundane tasks into automation, you can elevate the value that your staff provide. They’ll get some extra capacity which can be spent dealing with customers on the more complex transactions.

Dave: Automation certainly has the capability to deliver this, however there must be careful consideration as to where technology is deployed throughout the customer journey. As journeys and processes become far less linear, careful mapping and planning to avoid dead-ends and automation loops, while providing the ability for customers to deal with a person where required can reduce unnecessary friction and service need faster, reducing demand further down the chain as customers become ever more frustrated.

We view automation not just as a cost-reduction tool in it’s own right but as a vehicle to redistribute demand, which can either reduce headcount or place people in roles that add greater value to the customer thus boosting profitability. Taking the right approach means that cost and customer experience levels don’t always needed to be traded off against one another.

What sort of simple transactions can be automated successfully – can you offer an example?

Richard: As millions of people come off furlough and our unemployment rate rises, defaulting on bill payments has never been so high, it’s surely set to continue to increase, sadly. Therefore, for many organisations, bad debts and defaulted payments were a relatively minor issue before the global pandemic, but the situation has now got worse. It’s causing issues with debt recovery which produces a huge amount of work to process. And also extra demand into your contact centre.

Traditionally, back-end systems are not known for flexibility. At Netcall, we’ve shown how low-code can automate back-end processes, building a self-serve portal for customers. Building applications in low-code is fast.

In fact, at a recent innovation event, our team created a working prototype in a hackathon in the duration of the event, specifically to demonstrate the speed of designing and building in Liberty Create, our low-code solution. This application captures the customer data and provides an optimal user journey. This reduces administration work and speeds up the delivery of the debt recovery process for the organisation.

It’s a perfect example of how something which was “on the list” has just leap-frogged in importance post-COVID. It’s now needed immediately to deal with the new normal. Low-code has enabled a very fast solution which resolves the issue and also refines the customer experience at the same time.

What advice do you have for businesses seeking to accelerate adoption of automation technologies?

Dave: A culture of ‘test, learn and scale’ is critical to successfully accelerating the automation agenda. By engaging colleagues much closer to delivering for customers, providing them with tools such as low-code and supporting them with a clear governance framework, problem statements are easier to identify, solutions delivered, iterated and scaled. With the growing democratisation of tools, automation can be seen by colleagues as another powerful enabler, not a harbinger of cost-reduction through mass layoffs.

More insight into successful automation

For further insight on accelerating change, join Richard and Dave on a 15 minute webinar on 8^th October, sharing an agile automation framework and explaining how to effectively prepare your organisation for uncertain futures.

Human connection in a digital age

September 21, 2020 by

Why is it that some restaurants are busy, even with major restrictions and social distancing measures, while other businesses next to them are empty?

Leveraging insight gathered from design research, Leo Della-Moretta explores how a human connection is supporting retailers, restaurants, and services to evolve post-COVID.

A brisk walk down a regular high street quickly reveals a high volume of sales and promotions, attempting to attract customers into stores. Observing the footfall, it still seems that customer traffic has yet to return to pre-COVID levels, with the world often feeling very quiet.

This is supported by recently released data from the Office of National Statistics showing that footfall remains significantly depressed when compared to 2019.

ONS-1 Source: Coronavirus and the latest indicators for the UK economy and society: 27 August 2020

The drivers of these changes directly linked to COVID-19 can be broken down into four categories:Health – Customers are still fearful and conscious of the health risks
Habits – Customers are shifting into, and sticking with, digital channels
Capacity – The social distancing measures are forcing limitations on capacity in stores
Economic – The economic challenges of the lockdown have negatively impacted customers’ ability to spend

These are all obvious observations that have been discussed in detail by many. However, if you were to keep walking down that same high street you may come across some businesses that are much more popular; and are more likely to be a restaurant or café. The UK’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme, offering 50% off bills, pushed up meals served to ~70 million over the month of August, but this promotion alone does not explain why restaurants remain popular on non-supported days in the current trading conditions.

Seeking connections

Lockdown and social distancing measures have changed how we interact with the world, both physically (i.e. wearing masks and liberal use of hand sanitiser) and emotionally (i.e. considering if a trip out is worth the risk). What has not changed though is our innate desire to connect with one another. Video conferences and virtual ‘house parties’ have allowed us to remain connected to our friends and families during the last few months, yet people desire more. A laugh with a friend over a video chat does not necessarily feel as full or as enjoyable as one enjoyed at a picnic in a park. This realisation has led many to seek out these connections and experiences, even if the form of them has changed recently to accommodate the latest social distancing guidance.

In this context, restaurants are busy because they enable human connections to flourish in this new world.

What can other sectors learn from this?

Businesses must be able to provide a truly omni-channel experience, meeting customers on their terms. While there has been talk for years about integration of digital journeys, in-person touch points, and contact centres, this shift towards becoming an entry level requirement to engage and connect with customers is only accelerating. All too many businesses still work within channels, shifting customers from silo to silo and running the risk their customers will give up and go elsewhere.

What will ultimately distinguish those businesses that thrive is the ability to provide a human connection, even as consumer habits continue to shift towards digital-led journeys.

Peloton, an exercise equipment company that streams live exercise classes to apps and connected equipment, is one such example of a business focusing on human connection and thriving in the current conditions. Peloton’s revenue has grown by 66% year on year and average monthly workouts per user have increased by 18%. While this may not seem overly unexpected with the current home-fitness surge, their customer attrition sits at an enviable 0.46% as compared to a fitness industry benchmark of 29%. This success is in large part driven by an approach to customer experience firmly based on human connection.

How do you create human connection?

Human connection is a feeling, one that can be created or destroyed in an instant. To create the connection with your customers, you must recognise them, understand their needs, and then use that understanding in your operational delivery. Tangible ways to achieve this include:

Understand your customer journey at every touch point.
Invest in technology that allows for customer journeys to be continued without additional effort when changing channels, avoiding frustrating repetition and the feeling of being a number in a system, not a human being

Focus on inclusive journey design.
While many digital natives are easily interacting in the new world, many are not. Understanding and meeting their needs will increase revenue and decrease customer effort for all your customers

Make it obvious.
Intelligent use of next best action signalling (such as intelligent use of interstitials to guide your customers to the next step of their journey) will increase revenue while reducing demand on contact centres

A simple example of where this focus on human connection has translated into business success can be found in our work with a high street bank. We worked together to improve the first-time success rate for verifying the identity of customers calling their contact centres. Here we focused not just on the task but the tone of the interaction as well, leaning into human connection and shifting from official to friendly, increasing pass rates considerably.

These actions are not new, but the value and pace with which businesses need to integrate and innovate has accelerated as COVID-19 moved us further and faster into a more digital world. By designing and delivering service with human connection in mind, businesses can continue to offer unique brand experiences and create lasting connections with customers that will be valued

Reimagining service for the new world

July 20, 2020 by

In just a few weeks, the pandemic has forced shifts in behaviour that may otherwise have taken years. It has forced organisations to question whether digital transformation programmes are moving with enough pace, or in many cases whether they are even fit for purpose at all.

Working practices and expectations have changed, and many consumers have been forced to adopt channels that they are now unlikely to abandon. It is clear that as organisations, we all need to think differently about the future if we are going to survive and succeed.

Alongside Craig Gibson, Chief Commercial Officer at Webhelp UK; we have drawn together our knowledge across business operating models, end-to-end customer journeys, and customer engagement to provide our views on how organisations can shape the future.

More than that, we have then tested these views with senior leaders across a variety of sectors, developing four vital characteristics that we believe will help us all to be fit for the future:

More adaptable
Possessing inherent agility that can rapidly course-correct and flex to shifts in demand across channels, geographies, and customer needs

More focused
Using limited resources wisely, setting clear priorities that deliver rapid, effective change that is focused on reducing the number of initiatives to the vital few

More digital
Delivering easy to access service which is technology enabled, rather than technology-led, across multiple channels and touchpoints

More human
Demonstrating transparency, empathy and an ability to form deep emotional connections with both customers and colleagues

For organisations there is an opportunity to build afresh, using the same core capabilities that have helped many of us during this crisis: a strong sense of connection between colleagues, a common purpose, and the coming together of human ingenuity with technological innovation.

Our latest whitepaper ‘Reimagining service for the new world’ explores these themes in more detail, and how we might harness them to build the resilient, customer-focused businesses of tomorrow.

Achieving data-driven performance management

June 24, 2020 by

Recent events have accelerated a topic that has long been debated in global, dispersed operations. How do you drive performance in a consistent and data-driven way? And how do you make sure it is personalised, targeted and human? Most importantly, how do you deliver it in such a way that it is moving the needle on your day-to-day metrics, strategic goals, and your customer experience?

In this article, key members of the Gobeyond Partners team give their views on how this can be done holistically, by leveraging our Achieve Performance Management analytics tool.

New challenges

With very different and unsettling realities previously unthinkable for many now the norm, two major challenges have presented themselves.

1. Dispersed teams need a fresh approach to work management

How teams communicate and the rhythms they use to deliver work will both need adaptation. With the near removal of opportunity for spontaneous conversation, ideation and collaboration commonplace in physical environments, the dispersed nature of operations for the foreseeable future will require far more structure to function effectively.

With 48% of leaders believing their current performance management processes are weak at driving business value, structure and discipline matters now more than ever. Whether conducting purposeful virtual meetings, acting on Key Performance Indicators or utilising intelligent analytics to highlight trends and outliers, there must be a considered adjustment of plans and priorities to reflect reality.

As we continue to support clients, we’ve observed that teams with strong operational discipline already in place are finding it easier to transition and adjust, with the learning curve much steeper for those with less mature approaches.

While we may not see quite the same levels of volatility and change as we did at the outset of the crisis, an ability to review, interrogate and drive action based on real-time data is paramount.

2. Colleagues need tailored support

Relative performance between colleagues can and will differ. In some cases, performance may improve due to home circumstances being more conducive to their personality types; for others, declines can be expected. This should influence the management focus individuals should be receiving, and the coaching style that is most effective.

With 37% of colleagues currently unhappy with the support and coaching received as they adjust to new ways of working and expectations, there is still much more to be done here.

Employee profiling can help explore the drivers and preferences of team members, and better distribute work according to ability; however, caution should be applied to ensure people aren’t placed into arbitrary categories.

By understanding behaviours and performance for each individual, you can establish actionable recommendations and tailored coaching to provide timely support. When this can scale across organisations, blending operational data and predictive analytics to model the impact of change and incorporate real-world performance in shorter loops, you empower everyone in your business to deliver improvements.

Our solution, successfully deployed in multi-site and virtual operations – empowering managers, team leaders and advisors to take control of their own performance

As understanding of drivers and outcomes increase, this may require teams to be reformed, based as much around the qualities and characteristics of individuals as it is around their professional skillset and functional responsibilities, with organisational design operating models adapting and flexing to enable this.

An opportunity to become better

While these challenges can seem like another problem to address alongside the changes in customer demand and logistical or technical hurdles of working differently, we should view them as a unique opportunity to reset and deliver a strong sense of value for everyone in your business.

We believe three significant opportunities should be recognised:

1. A focus on outcomes, not tasks

Clear, defined outcomes that are understood by all become more important than the ‘to-do list’. There is often a tendency in remote environments for teams to become more focused on tasks to complete, with interactions becoming more transactional in nature.

To align teams, embed disciplines and maximise connection are important bedrocks. However, delivering these in the context of ‘principles over process’ where possible will deliver the real transformation and performance gains.

Becoming more outcome driven drives further focus and scrutiny on the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Where dashboard reports are typically packed with multiple metrics and visualisations, now is the time to ask whether measures such as Average Handling Time or more transactional based satisfaction measures are really the right way to assess how effectively broader customer need is being met?

2. Balance frequent interval controls with a view of longer-term goals

With a focus on outcomes and a slimmer set of measures comes a broader understanding of how every colleague brings value to the organisation, increasing their ability and propensity to deliver during critical moments.

It is important, though, to strike the right balance between maintaining a manageable cadence, keeping energy levels and focus up, while reflecting on wider business objectives. Regular ‘social time’ for teams to decompress, reflect and realign their focus should feature in calendars, with more structure and frequency needed in remote working scenarios.

3. Use data more effectively

Combining disparate data sources, understanding end-to-end performance and identifying remedial action was an increasing priority pre-COVID. As teams are increasingly dispersed, this need becomes ever-more critical.

Combining key operational metrics into a high-level dashboard alone is no longer enough. We must also overlay customer and colleague engagement metrics including sentiment and emotional analysis, with algorithms highlighting overall trends and outliers, to drive further investigation of future roadblocks or areas of untapped opportunity.

While better use of data will play a huge role in building understanding and delivering improvements, it should never wholly replace ad hoc human interaction and more anecdotal sources.

Our key recommendations

The potent combination of uncertain global economics, rapidly shifting customer demand and reduced interaction, particularly between front-line colleagues and leaders, is creating a need to double-down on key operational disciplines.

In summary, our recommendations to ameliorate the challenges and seize the opportunities we discuss above are:

Maintain focus on the core KPIs that are closely entwined with your organisational objectives. Not every manager is comfortable analysing data, but there are now lots of new ways you can introduce real data into 1:1 performance discussions
Acknowledge any issues and communicate them broadly to build trust, camaraderie and a sense of everyone pulling in the same direction
Take a whole company approach with consistency across all functions, aligned to strategic objectives

While micromanagement may be required in certain situations to manage performance and maintain focus, this should be done by exception only. Empowering colleagues to understand their own performance and drive improvement will help sustain highly motivated, adaptable teams for the future.

Retail, but not as we know it

June 12, 2020 by

Non-essential retailers in many countries are reopening their doors following their toughest ever period of trading.

Vanessa Flather, Managing Director of Retail and Travel, looks at how the current situation might influence the future of retail and the transformation agenda over the coming months and years.

Some telling trends

Adoption of ecommerce and mixed models such as click and collect has accelerated throughout the entire retail sector. This has led to a boom in areas such as home fitness, cycling, gardening, and DIY where many of these organisations simply have not had the stock levels or service capacity to meet demand.

For multichannel retailers, this digital growth has of course helped subsidise bricks and mortar revenue. But cutting through the hype, we need to be clear that most have been hugely negatively impacted by the current crisis.

Much media coverage has focused on the grocers and the initial spike of sales driven by panic and uncertainty. For many, sales were exponentially matched by the service levels needed to support them – in other words, orders became less profitable as cost-to-serve increased.

Two months on, with consumers’ cupboards fully stocked, most projections see sales levelling off to below pre-pandemic levels. Yet it is still hard to find a home delivery slot online, and many businesses are still experiencing high volumes of contact and capacity issues compounded by the struggle to play catch-up.

These combined challenges around stock levels and customer service have driven consumers to shop around. Perversely, this has provided a unique opportunity for the right organisations to acquire new customers, growing brand awareness and market share in a mature environment where short-term switching is usually driven purely by pricing and promotions. The common traits of these successful organisations are more established and robust digital channels, a modern and scalable attitude to customer service, and less exposure to costly store portfolios.

What do we think the future holds?

In our crisis curve phases, we talk about ‘business as unusual’, being a phase where businesses recognise the longer-term impact of Government interventions, such as social distancing. This has a fundamental impact on retail, possibly more than any other. As we transition slowly through this phase and think about what the new normal might look like post-COVID, leadership teams will have some challenging decisions to make, based on limited insight.

As retailers begin to open their doors and consumers start to venture out to shop there are several factors to consider. Being hopeful, we may see some sales spikes due to pent-up demand. However, it is also likely that there will be some nervousness from consumers about returning to the shops, not to mention the impending impact of a global recession.

It’s important to realise that many bricks and mortar stores and even entire portfolios are already only just viable, and reduced footfall coupled with social distancing measures is going to render many more of these unprofitable. Continued Government intervention may help to subsidise these in the medium term, but as retailers use up their cash reserves, this is likely to drive insolvencies and consolidation of the market over the next few years. It will also fundamentally accelerate the changing face of the high-street as stores are either repurposed or disappear completely.

A few businesses will emerge winners. For example, over 50% of customers that have switched grocery providers during the crisis say they expect to stick to their new suppliers afterwards. Those companies who have an established digital or multichannel proposition, or can bring one to market quickly, will fare better. And those who can be brave enough to devise a way to reimagine their bricks and mortar portfolio, either through restructuring, or focusing on a more omnichannel or experiential usage, may survive and even thrive.

So what do retail leaders need to consider?

There is no template for this journey. Retailers are going to have some difficult decisions to make on where to place their investment.

In a world that is already increasingly digital, COVID-19 has only accelerated these trends. Those organisations that were already behind the curve are going to suffer the most.

The online market is going to become even more competitive, so those brands who rely on their people, in-store experience and merchandising – such as luxury fashion – are going to need to understand how to recreate brand and human experiences digitally and/or how to reimagine their bricks and mortar stores.

With balance sheets already under attack, P&Ls are not going to fare any better. New digital customers are going to need additional support which could increase cost to serve in the short term , and with a recession on the way, people are not going to expect to pay more for the privilege. A key lever to consider is the overall operating model for customer service. A clear customer contact strategy , incorporating demand deflection from low value interactions, underpinned by AI and intelligent automation will be absolutely critical, but it must start with the customer – customer centricity is as critical as ever to understand new needs and also enable improved resilience for the future. In cases where human support is still required, it needs to be delivered by the right people, with the right training, in the right location.

In summary, the key considerations are:

Many legacy multichannel retailers are set up with separate retail and digital teams, which is long overdue a rethink. Now is the time to embrace a truly omnichannel operating model and organisational design, breaking down silos once and for all and ensuring the customer really does come first
A wholesale move to digital is inevitable for many, but it will be easy to get this wrong in haste by layering digital onto an outdated operating model and/or “broken” customer journeys. The critical point is to understand your new-world customer journeys and re-design and re-build, rather than assume that pre- or during- COVID is valid . The effort you put into understanding these and re-engineering them will be rewarded in the long-term
Bricks and mortar will become significantly less profitable (but it may not be possible or desirable to exit this channel rapidly) and digital marketing costs will rise as competition increases. Therefore cost-to-serve will become a major lever for profitability, as will the re-purposing of retail outlets to ensure omnichannel relevance. There has never been a more critical time for retailers to harness the power of their data to understand channel costs and their role in the overall customer journey – and how these play into cost-of-acquisition, basket size, and lifetime value
Balancing experience and efficiency has never been more critical. In a world moving away from physical interactions, you need to think about how your brand promise can be differentiated and delivered effectively through your online and telephony channels
Delivering seamless, consistent service through a blended home/office model is critical and will be a difficult balance to strike. Employees and customers have been relatively understanding as companies have navigated this unprecedented change, but moving forward they will become less forgiving. Being human and transparent with your people and your customers has never been more important – whilst at the same time having a laser-focus on performance management and repeatable customer experience, irrespective of location and model

Some of these considerations will seem like a tall order for those retailers with limited transformation funds, who are only just embarking on their omnichannel journeys, and are already reeling from the current shock.

As is often the case, the solution to these problems is nothing new. One of the first lessons in retail is to start with an innate understanding of your customers, and whilst data and insight have never been more prolific, the power of these assets remains under-utilised. Harnessing this insight is the critical starting point for retailers to succeed on their omnichannel journey.