Blog
Avoiding customer service ‘black holes’ when embedding AI
Nearly all of our regular clients have told us they’re aiming to use more AI-driven solutions in 2024. Every single transformation plan or roadmap we’ve reviewed this year includes it to some degree. But which use case is most likely to deliver efficiencies and cost-savings, without unnecessary disruption – or even the unintentional creation of a customer service ‘black hole?’
Consumer Standards – How can suppliers rebuild trust?
Following the publication of Ofgem's Consumer Standards decision, we look at the practical steps for implementation, focussing specifically on rebuilding trust with the customer, through the development of specific advisor skills, and tailored customer treatments.
Difficult Conversations – Equipping collections agents for optimal support
With Christmas on the horizon, consumer spending is set to face its usual seasonal increase, adding extra pressure to critical areas like credit card payments and energy bills. Inevitably, some consumers will find themselves in financial difficulty over the coming months, leading to more collections conversations with their service provider.
Winter complaints are coming – and this year, the pressure feels different
Lower temperatures, increased energy usage, and more customer complaints. Suppliers face this challenge during any winter, but this year, there's greater pressure at play. Vulnerability and customer support will remain top of the agenda, following last month's House of Commons Committee report, alongside the ongoing focus on Customer Standards by Ofgem.
Service vs Sales – A dilemma for suppliers as the market reopens
With the prospect of a switching resurgence on the horizon, it will be interesting to see whether suppliers decide to chase the volume of new customers, or seek to prioritise customer retention. In short, many are likely to face a ‘Service vs Sales’ dilemma – bringing a degree of unpredictability to the market.
Closing the Service Gap - Developing Great Conversations
Developing great customer conversations - it's an art. To make it happen, advisers need to be maximising the impact of their voice and the words they use, both of which can be the most powerful tools available in a customer servicing environment. As a leader, how can you develop and empower teams to have effective customer conversations, on a consistent basis?
Using accountability and incentives to manage agents effectively
You may feel like you’ve empowered your agents to be accountable for great customer outcomes, but you still don’t feel like you’re getting the results you need.
Leveraging data driven insight to empower agent performance
You may be feeling like you can't see the wood for the trees on agent performance and customer outcomes. You may not be clear on who is performing, and who isn’t – and crucially, why this is the case.
Embracing customer centricity for optimal agent performance
If you feel like problems aren’t being addressed upstream and early in the customer journey, then you may have a problem with a lack of customer centricity.
Achieving quality agent outcomes through quality training
Developing agent expertise is crucial at this stage in the cost of living crisis. Balancing collections with customer support requires a specific skillset, which can be built up through the delivery of quality training. In the first instalment of our Driving Agent Outcomes series, we outline what this training should involve, how it should be deployed, and why it's so important in today's climate.
Driving Agent Outcomes – Insight Series
In our Driving Agent Outcomes series, we're focussing on the actions that can be taken to deliver better outcomes for customers, through higher quality interactions with contact centre agents.
Looking Upstream - The benefits of focussing on your people
Are you focussing on your people? The value of this is sometimes overlooked, and could be impacting your costs. When service metrics begin to dip, like AHT or NPS, it's easy to get caught up in symptom-driven fixes. Rather than questioning process adherence or capacity management, look upstream, and think more about people.
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