Process Automation for Efficient Contact Centre CX

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hey good afternoon and welcome today’s online seminar where we’re going
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to be exploring process Automation and how it can help Drive efficiency in
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contact centres and in contact centre customer experience and it’s thanks to Netcall and their amazing panellists for
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enabling us to bring this conversation to life I’m Lee Hopwood, I’m the CEO here at the CCMA and I’m going to be
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hosting today’s session so as always this session is interactive so if you
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have any questions or comments please do use the chat or the Q a and we will bring those thoughts in as we go
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um just so that you’re aware um I just want to make you aware that this session will not be made available
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afterwards so uh hopefully you can all hear me okay
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so with the current economic situation the pressure is on is it not to not only
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to continue to improve customer experiences delivered by the contact centre but to do this more efficiently
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and more cost effectively oh my goodness the pressure’s on so there are many things that contact centre leaders can
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do to really make a difference and automation is a really obvious version but this is a big topic so to help
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us explore what’s possible I’d first like to introduce Richard Farrell who is the CIO at Netcall to join me on screen
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Richard welcome highly welcome so um Richard I want to start by
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asking you the big question what do we mean by process automation
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okay it’s a great question um process automation refers to the use of technology to perform tasks that
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would otherwise be done by humans and this can be linking data from multiple systems allocating tasks to
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workers moving cases through a process the goal of process automation is to
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increase efficiency and reduce errors and it allows employees to focus on more complex and evaluating tasks
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perfect so my next big question is what’s the difference between that and
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robotic process automation okay so robotic process automation RPA from now
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on is a type of pro is a type of process automation that uses software robots
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often with AI capabilities to perform tasks that would normally be done by
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humans RPA software is designed to mimic the actions of human workers such as
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navigating through applications logging in and out systems entering data so the
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tasks can include simple data entry and processing as well as more complex tasks
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and the goal of RPA is to repeat to automate repetitive time-consuming tasks
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of workers allowing human employees again to focus on IR value added work
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and um I am going to ask you the big question why now and I’m so aware of
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the many conversations I have that the conversations that advisors and
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agents are having at the on the front line are so much more complex so much
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more sophisticated than they once were and that technology is obviously taking
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away some of the more mundane conversations and simple queries but
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but why now Richard why is it becoming so important right now I think there are a variety of factors
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that are coming together one is the technology is maturing so it makes it easier to deploy simpler more
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cost effective but the business reasons are customer experience is a priority right across Industries
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costs are under pressure but also employees require more satisfying work
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so we’ve got this real mix of factors and really the automating and removing
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mundane tasks is going to be one of the key ways that we can address all of these issues we can speed up delivery
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and improve service improve accuracy we can keep costs down but also we can keep employees more satisfied as well
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which that’s all such a good thing Richard I know you’ve got more that um
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you can share on the subject before we bring our panellists in so Richard if you’d like to start sharing your slides
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and uh and then I’m going to leave it with you for a moment
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okay thanks very much so hopefully we can see a
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PowerPoint slide yes we can Richard fantastic that’s
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always the acid test isn’t it — we were just joking beforehand three years into this and we’re still trying to work out how Zoom is working
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um I think I keep changing it on us um so yeah to put it all into context customer experience is vital because it
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directly impacts the bottom line as we know happy customers are more likely to stay loyal purchase more products and
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services and recommend businesses to others and in contrast of course the X can lead
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to customer churn negative word of mouth and the contact centre plays a critical role in the overall customer service
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experience often the first point of contact for customer seeking Assistance or support and the contact centre is typically
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responsible for managing customer interactions providing timely and accurate information and resolving
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issues so really important in terms of customer Journeys you can set the tone the
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journeys right throughout an organisation and as the front line it has a direct
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impact on satisfaction and loyalty it also provides valuable insights into customer needs and preferences as well
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so contact centres absolutely critical for customer experience
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but we don’t make it easy for everybody working there and partly this is
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historic and we’ve got loads of Legacy systems and processes that are still
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about this is some data from ICMI and it was a
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recent survey post pandemic and it’s asking agents and managers
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about sources of friction in the contact centre and which activities the most
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time consuming it’s a US piece of research I think they’re typically a
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couple of years ahead of us in terms of Technology maturity and um they are also
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um very black and white in terms of how they Define roles in contact centres or call centres
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um they call them agents anyway as we can see um at the bottom there the big
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drains on time are routine or mundane customer interactions and routine or
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mundane administrative tasks and so these highlight good targets for
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investing in Knowledge Management Solutions and also increased automation of routine customer service activities
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I read some Gartner research just last week um
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they report that on average a customer service representative needed seven
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systems to do their job well three to four systems to handle typical issues end to end and five to handle a
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difficult issue end to end
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and automating activities can help improve agent retention by reducing the repetitive and monotonous tasks that
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agents have to perform so as we discussed at the start there are there are multiple benefits in here
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now I don’t want to make this too simplistic um and obviously we’ve got a wide range
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of knowledge in the audience but we’re just trying to keep this conceptual and show where different sorts of Technologies may fit in
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to this landscape on the left here we have our customer or citizen or tenant or patient
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and they want resolution they want quick resolution consistent answers 24 7 and
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of course we’ve got multiple channels traditional phone
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um most contact centres still 60 or 70 percent of volume forms SMS chat and chat bot
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um chatbot of course can deflect some interactions from going to employees and
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then we’ve got email we can add every other channel that comes along in here as well ways of customers wanting to
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interact so WhatsApp social media could be a car or an IOT device a smart meter
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there are lots and lots of channels of information
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that send requests queries questions into organisations and typically we wrap
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these up in some sort of contact centre type technology if we’re lucky we have omnichannel
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routing Omni channel here to employees rather
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than multi-channel just to a contact centre agent increasingly more and more individuals
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within organisations often in traditional back office roles knowledge workers
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are handling customer interactions and of course with a pandemic and more
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remote working and hybrid work the traditional contact centre employee sitting at a row of desks handling
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traditional contact centre calls is changing over time and smart
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organisations also use the same sorts of Technologies to root interactions to
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employees throughout the organisation as well so we will call it Omni channel here
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and then we have multiple disparate systems that we ask our employee to talk about I’ve just mentioned the Gartner
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research and I’ve put case management here and this could be CRM or patient
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Administration system or service management or I.T service desk a system
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to manage customer records and interactions typically the sort of core application that the employee is using
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and then we also have loads of other systems and updates
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that are required by employees and if we do it really well we link that back and
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we report that update back to the customer so this is just our simple view of the
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world today now to really Thrive and to deliver the
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best value to customers through service and Report support there are a number of actions that organisations are
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prioritising one is to adopt a self-service dominant mindset
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another is to make it easy to provide evaluate customer service through a connected agent desktop so this is our
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single pane of glass that I’ve put on the screen and um another factor is to collect an
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action customer data to improve decision making across the organisation so there are a few objectives that we
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have and so there are some areas where automation Technologies can help so
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I’ve dropped in intelligent Automation and machine learning so this is where we have Technologies
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um that often include machine learning to provide data information and engagement
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platforms here can integrate with disparate sources of data and provide insight for customers and employees
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and this can help improve efficiency and productivity so by adding intelligent Automation and
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ml in this area we can provide information to customers to better inform chat Bots
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and increasingly organisations are using some form of customer portal
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and we see a lot of success with customer portals being built on low code
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application platforms so low code application platforms are a form of automation technology
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um they’re really good at integrating with other systems they allow for Rapid development quite easy to use don’t
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require an awful lot of technical expertise and they’re highly customizable as well
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so we see a lot of use of automation Technologies to link up to different
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systems and to provide information to customers more relevant and timely
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information and those factors can contribute to a
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better customer experience and reduce costs and then we also have
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robotic process automation and for we’ll go back to the contact centre for
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the for the contact centre this can provide a number of benefits
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one of the main benefits is improved customer experience through faster and more accurate service
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so RPA can automate repetitive tasks such as data entry freeing up agents to
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focus on more complex and valuable interactions
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and um it’s also important to note that RPA and other automation Technologies can be
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beneficial for contact centre agents as well so by removing those repetitive and
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mundane tasks agents can spend time on higher value activities and have more
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satisfying work experiences now we’ve dropped in a few other bits of
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Technology into the slide here we’ve now got a knowledge base as well and of course in a mature organisation
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there’s a whole load of other bits and pieces in here quality assurance analytics
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a wide range of different Technologies Workforce engagement management quality assurance and so on
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but again we’re keeping it quite simplistic and we’re looking at processes here
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so what we can also do is we can apply the Technologies
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for the creation of custom automation solutions that can be tailored to the specific needs of the organisation
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and this is where we can start to automate the handling of complex customer queries
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there is added potential for automation to drive wider transformations to digital business
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such as the use of omni stack omni-channel strategies and the integration of customer engagement
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Solutions across various touchpoints so we can use automation Technologies in
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a number of ways but it’s not going to be one size fits all it is going to be dedicated and to get the best results
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it’s going to be customised for your processes and your organisation
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there’s not a piece of software that you’ll be able to buy off the shelf that just fits in
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Forrester research are quite a nice expression they say software is an expression of the business
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and so to enable this, developers must build software that leads to customer Obsession for facing increasing
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pressures to quickly deliver digital capabilities and I’ve got a briefcase study that I’d
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just like to mention um absolutely on topic um ATS Euromaster
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familiar brand and they’ve transformed their B2B customer experience from sign up and credit
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checks to welcoming customers as trade ready with an application that was built
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on Liberty create a low code platform and they use the platform to automate
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and Control process flow and RPA to enhance processes
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the platform integrates three previously isolated systems and
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David Robson is the IS IT director at ATS Euromaster and he makes a number of
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important points he says along with the real efficiency and cost benefits
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we’re especially pleased by the professionalism that the app provides to customers
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so this is on the experience side of things um they started off with the time and
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motion study on processes and they found 15 different processes they could automate
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in just one of those processes they were spending 26 and a half hours a day copying data from one system to another
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and one thing that was really important for ATS Euromaster was to think about the quality of life of their employees
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David says we don’t have infinite resources we’ve only got a certain amount of time with people and the
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important thing is about getting those people to do the important stuff the goal for us is to free up our team
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through these automation tools so our people can do things they are best suited for
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leaving the highly repetitive tasks to the robots who do not get bored or tired
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so my little summary here is that a combination of Engagement Technologies
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and process automation is necessary for contact centres to thrive in the future
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by implementing automation Technologies contact centres can improve customer experience increase efficiency and
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provide more satisfying work experiences for agents
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thank you so much there we go thank you so much riches
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um and it’s really good to hear how ATS has transformed their processes and how they started
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um so obviously anybody that wants to ask a question or has any comments uh on
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what you’ve heard so far please do share them in the chat or on the Q a and feel
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free to ask your questions and uh have your say through the chat
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um as uh as we go so I can see that uh questions already come in and I will come to you Dan in a moment but first of
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all let me introduce the rest of the panel while Richard works out how to stop uh screen sharing
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so hopefully Richard you can find you can see a button somewhere that says stop screen found it fabulous
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so coming onto the screen now we have uh Nerys Caulfield who is a contact
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centre consultant who um well Nerys this is how I just what I do um is um you focus on Bridging the Gap
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between the technology and the operation uh for the benefit of all honestly yeah
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that is perfect again is that good um and we also have Phil Quickenden who
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is head of customer and registration services at the London borough of Camden hello everyone welcome Phil and we have
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ate sorry I said that wrong a tea fresh Ed who is part of uh the CX Consulting
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practice at go beyond where you have designed and implemented multiple process automation initiatives across a
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whole variety of sectors so um we have a great panel of folk that are really well
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equipped to answer some of the questions now I am um as much as the panel knows that we
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have a line-up of questions that we will work through I am going to jump straight onto the Q a and start there
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um so how is it best to measure the value of automation
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our teeth I’m going to fire that one at you
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thank you very much Lee and uh great to meet you all guys so good afternoon there’s lots of metrics which tend to be
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focused around purely cost but there is a value over Arch uh in comparison to some of those some of those kind of core
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metrics the typical you find is very much in the process time or the process length in performing certain tasks now
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what we found certainly within our business the law value have volume demand some of the points that Richard
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raised they’re quite quick and easy to measure against an FTE serving or a
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process or a handle time saving but then overarching to say actually there might be certain
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um type of Demands where we don’t want to necessarily automate and reduce because the dry Revenue the drive value
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it might be a retention in the NDFS OR retail space so I think for us the hard
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and fast measure tends to be driven through the cost but without having to not really forget about the value piece
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but on the flip side it’s not just around the agent experience or the agent cost within our contact centres but also
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from a customer CX point of view as a route to entry and Richard mentioned Omni Channel whether it be voice chat
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chat box email or other channels how do we measure that entire CX Journey
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from Cradle to grief and then all writing a similar metric from a quality perspective as well as the cost and
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value so the new Range um and this could be because the investment to automate investment to rip
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and replace technology might be greater than it would be to maybe um introduce some automation around some of
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those process which are probably simpler and quicker it’s quicker to deploy so I think the metrics question around RPA
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it’s not just RPA it’s all about process orchestration because within that as you do the design and Discovery phase there
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might be process procedures and policies that you may automatically change which already inherently Drive some value
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towards that kind of business case so there’s a couple of kind of moving component parts within that within that
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question perfect thank you Atif um Richard there’s another question
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that’s come through and it’s regarding the ATS case study what was the biggest challenge that ATS faced when
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implementing RPA oh and you’re currently on mute Richard
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yeah three years um one of the biggest challenges and one that they really talk about is they
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headed it off which was a cultural challenge um they wanted to make sure that the
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employees the staff were on board with this that they didn’t see that the robots were threatening their jobs
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um so that was a really important factor so a massive stakeholder involvement
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getting everybody involved and even naming the box as well to personalise them so
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um they headed off what they perceived would be the biggest challenge by including the stakeholders and it was a cultural one not a technology one
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perfect thank you Richard. So I’m going to come back to you and I can see that there are lots of questions
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coming in and some of them um do reflect to how you go about bringing um RPA into
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an into an organisation and I guess that that does come back to the question we put right to the top is why now
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um now it’s why now and maybe um being able to uh sponsor some of the questions as you go
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why now well because the technology is available now like and it is available
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in in with great depth and Agility as well so you know the winter of AI is
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very much gone and we’re very much in the spring and summer now so Ai and RPA Cloud apps all of those things make this
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agility much easier to deploy so that’s why those Solutions now
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should be very much part of the thinking and also because of the amount of pain
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that businesses are going through so the amount of pain that advisors are going through you should be in recruiting them
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to Richard’s point to just do the job that you want them to do not to mess around keying here and you know
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processing here and all of that side of things just to talk interact support and service customers
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because the customers are going through you know friction
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enhancing experiences and because to Atif’s point you know this is a
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commercial decision to drive Automation and it is the right decision and there’s
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still lots of gaps and opportunities to improve processes uh through automation
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so yeah businesses commercially have to make some real investment into making it
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frictionless for the customer and the agent and M is clearly and as a chief
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alluded to right at the start there were clearly a huge amount of benefits but automation can bring you
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know you talked about the cost benefits but what can really be achieved and um yes there is the bottom line the
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metrics but what impact does it really have on the customer um because fundamentally that’s
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one of the top priorities um but also on colleagues and ultimately business active
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yeah I mean the CX design is by far the most Paramount component before you even start the Journey of doing RPA because
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it’s a couple of things I will contradict my first initial statement so from a customer’s perspective the one size fits all doesn’t work and I think
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we will try this we’ve all tried to force somebody down a particular route a particular Channel
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also failure demand which tends to be some of the core components which um results in probably badly designed and
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badly run automation projects so I think from a customer’s perspective segmentation is extremely important
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especially around the demographics of that business type and the business customer but also tailoring the channel
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of choice and still offering that up as a potential but a lot of the automation tuning and I’ve noticed some of the
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questions around integration uh proof of concept uh kind of Intuit kind of the more industry Enterprise type
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applications RPA traditionally was very much in the back office space well actually we can now incorporate some of the
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methodologies and capabilities in the front office but where we think about self-serve type inquiry so we keep
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saying lower value and high value demand if I think about retail where is my order simple order inquiries which can
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now be automated through the orchestration layer so I think from a customer lens tailoring the experience
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is extremely important because laptop value brand perception uh return business those are kind of core
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components and they’re the metrics which are quite easily measurable in terms of from a from a
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kind of kpi perspective but on the colleague side in terms of my contradiction the future of the agent is going to
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change we’re not going to have necessarily A call sensor agent there’ll be a call centre specialist so if we
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start to remove some of their simple and automated tasks what you’re left with is all of the complex type of activities so
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where there’s a traditional handle time there will be an inherent increase in that particular space so having ahd as a
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measure of success isn’t always the right thing to do assuming you’re not in an isolator department but it’s great
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though I mean I think somebody’s raised a question on knowledge uh knowledge base knowledge base is fine
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um in its current SharePoint form which is uh articles keyword search but we’re
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now moving to position where even in our business using orchestration using automation you can provide contextual
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next best action type knowledge so it’s more specific to where you are within that Journey rather than just a general
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knowledge SharePoint dumps I think the way we now design the interactions is quite critical and the technologies
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that enabler not necessarily the independency and it allows you to kind of unlock some of those capabilities
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thank you Auntie Phil let me bring you into this conversation now your season contact
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centre professional um you’ve got a history of working in Council and Emergency Services
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um contact centre and control rooms what’s your view on why now and what processes do you see that are really um
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better enabled with Automation in your environment yes so the why now question I think is a
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really pertinent one particularly um so from a local government point of view we’ve got a really big why now
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um I’m not normally a fan of sequels and I think austerity 2 is probably going to be worse than austerity one
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um so from that perspective you know we’re really thinking about how do we become as efficient as possible how do
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we streamline that Journey but also the people narrative that comes through austerity in terms of you know we’ve got
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a cost of living crisis we’re seeing people with an exceptionally acute needs now presenting to the council much later
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than they perhaps would have done pre um covid with more significant needs so
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we’re looking at how can we service those people in the best possible way
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and those conversations for my agents are really quite challenging time-consuming conversations to unpick
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and understand somebody’s circumstances to help them on their journey and so
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anything that we can do process wise that creates capacity within the system for
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those staff to do what they do best you know to use the robots to enhance the
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people and give them the time to make the best use of those skills that we’ve recruited them for is absolutely
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Paramount to us at the moment and I think you know spreading that across other Industries
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we’ve seen through the pandemic that we can work in this more enhanced virtual
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way that um we can we can unlock this capacity and actually we’re starting to
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build expectations now you know people come and knocking on our door saying we can’t seem to find the web chat function
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on your website what’s gone wrong we haven’t got one yet it’s not a good answer so you know I think organisations
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are having to step up towards customer expectation as well as kind of um you know the challenges of working
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against efficiency and everything else um in terms of where I’ve seen that work really effectively
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um or my previous role in Suffolk County Council we did a lot of work around RPA
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during the pandemic and that was all about um stripping out some really manual
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time-consuming tasks from staff we had an inbox that received 50
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000 it felt like 50 000 different automated responses from referrals from
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different partners and the most sole destroying job I think in the entire
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Council was the poor personally managed that inbox and manually transferred all that information into our
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um our case management system and kind of pretty much overnight by turning on the robot we stripped 85 of that demand
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out and whereas I was seeing a pattern of people like phoning in sick when it was their day on the inbox that just
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stopped overnight people were really enjoying that task because it wasn’t kind of monotonous and repetitive so
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I think there are some really good high volume case studies out there now for where automation can really improve
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people’s Journeys thank you Phil um nearest I want to come to you with
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one of the questions that’s on the um on the Q a um how would you prioritise which
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processes you should automate first and what would you need for later well I suppose that all comes down to
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the Discovery phase so really looking at where your key where you’re losing a lot
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of time so operational leakage where is it coming from just basic indicators like what’s your
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ACW so like Atif said nobody wants to look at aht anymore within the contact
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centre and drive that down but ACW is an indicator of a lot of after work you
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know after call processing that has to be undertaken as a consequence of the
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complexities of different systems the amount of keying that has to be done so that’s a good metric to have a look at
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as well as you know hold time transfer rates as well can be indicators but
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the reality is you can only automate processes that are very clearly defined
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if you’ve got exceptions to that it will start to break so again
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it’s understanding some of the processes that a bit admin time as an
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um a disposition as well sorry that’s another indicator advisors taking themselves out of available and into
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admin or whatever that equivalent is and that’s not to manage digital interactions that is to do back office
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work when you have you know recruited them for their skills and to be able to manage customers so I think that looking
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at those two metrics and then understanding which of the processes that are so clearly defined which are
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the workflows that have got key points across it and then thinking right how do
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I automate these and how can I make the business case to invest in determining
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that this is this is something that we definitely want to embrace and see value in
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in fact that’s really good advice Nerys thank you and um it’s interesting listening that
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watching some of the questions that are coming through and um questions around you know what um where does it work
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um you know where is it really making an impact so um Richard I’m going to come to you first and then I am
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going to come to uh Nerys and Atif to um further this conversation but where
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have you seen it really work um what are the kind of benefits that you’ve seen as a result of that okay
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um so we’ve got quite a long experience in process automation
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um and we have seen successes right across sectors and with
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a massive Variety in scale so um as you might expect Financial Services
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quite uh early adopters of any sort of technology and long-running mortgage
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application processes were the first ones that were really delivering great value
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and the key one there was um was around customer experience um so it was about proactive
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communication rather than reactive and rather than having to wait for something in the post you get a text message with
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where you are in the process stage um but we’ve also seen that right down to
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um really short processes so um activities
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um much shorter insurance claims for example that could be quite transactional and then when we get into
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to Phil’s World in local government we are looking at literally dozens of processes where there have been
34:33
successes and um these are right across every sort of Engagement that you might have with your
34:40
local Council so blue badges noise pollution Mr bins potholes
34:46
um it’s really interesting we can see the adoption of the different solutions really tell me what the local government priorities are in each area
34:53
um Kensington and Chelsea it was noise pollution for the Ferraris I don’t know what Phil was top targets are at the
34:59
moment so right across um and as I say benefits are very wide
35:06
there are tangible um process um and productivity benefits
35:13
um just in terms of what Norris was saying about the design um we often find that this is an
35:21
opportunity for our customers to actually redesign the process a bit um so don’t just we used to have
35:28
somebody who was quite vociferous who said don’t automate a crap process now the technology means
35:35
you can do that and I mean some would argue that you could use RPA to
35:40
get benefit from automating crap processes but most of our customers do redesign and think about the Journeys at
35:47
this sort of stage so they know that they can use the automation Technologies throughout Journeys
35:53
um but what should the journeys be rather than just we do this now
35:58
um Health was another really interesting one especially during the pandemic um health was traditionally about
36:05
going somewhere um but if you can’t go somewhere um what do you do you have to redesign
36:10
that process so you get um remote appointments you get virtual waiting rooms you get all sorts of New
36:16
Uses of the technology so everywhere you can automate everywhere where there are people performing tasks
36:23
There’s an opportunity to improve
36:28
Norris where have you seen it work so I know you go into lots of different organisations are there any specific
36:34
processes that you’ve seen really work I think that’s really the focus thus far
36:40
has been on the self-service side of things unless the RPA side because that
36:46
very much has been a back office now I have worked in organisations where we’re cutting across the back office and to
36:52
Richards Point Finance is a real classic example of that where there’s real
36:57
onerous processes in that case management role so I think it’s worked really well in there but specifically
37:04
around RPA it’s just sort of nudging its head really into the front-end contact
37:11
centre to work around the AI side of things the self-service automation you
37:17
know so yeah it’s exciting I’m so certainly judge businesses on it and Johnson and Johnson
37:24
um have written about their half a billion pound saving that they’ve created through RPA so automating the
37:31
thousands of things that were evidentially able to be automated and now the business has said to them right
37:37
you were supposed to do that within three years you’ve done it within less time than that we want to see another
37:43
two times that half a billion saving so you know that that is a massive business
37:49
or of course but we are seeing much you know smaller marginal gains happening in
37:55
in lots of different sectors interesting I’m going to come on to Phil to understand a little bit more about
38:01
his experiences in a moment Atif have you got anything to add to what Richard knows have said around
38:07
um specific processes yeah absolutely I think without naming Brands because we can’t
38:13
um the three sectors certainly around travel tourism um financial services and Retail to an
38:19
extent so if I think about travel certainly during the pandemic period um with disruption delays cancellations
38:25
various guises the claims processing which is a regulatory thing right across here not just
38:31
within the UK business it’s actually automating the entire claims process and that’s orchestration with lots of RPA
38:38
things sitting in the back end and there are some questions around integration certainly nowadays in the absence of APIs there’s lots of things
38:44
you can do Minibots micro services that can sit on top of they can sit behind and it allow us to not only design but
38:50
also build out a proof of concept or certainly a minimal viable product just to Showcase across one particular market
38:56
and it’s a major European Airline so one particular market and
39:01
the value it not only just reducing or removing the demand but it also is to improve the process time for some of
39:07
those claims as well as right the way through to fulfilments that’s a that’s a great example in fashionable Services
39:13
really interesting um based on cost of living and especially during the pandemic period
39:18
again vulnerable customers or customers who are about to go through some form of financial distress and being able to
39:25
contact a bank or that Financial Service to process affordable ability
39:30
assessments having mortgage breaks and I think most would have gone through some form of interaction of some shape in the
39:36
last two to three years but it’s automating certain tasks so that’s not complete
39:41
automation that’s a hybrid of the two that says we will try and almost triage and provide a concierge front end to
39:48
gather lots of information and then it gets passed on to somebody who can provide you that personalised experience so rather than spending an hour on the
39:54
on the call it’s a 15-20 minutes conversation but to get to a decision about 45 minutes has now been replaced
39:59
by RPA Automation orchestration and trying to gather what you can up front so there’s lots of interesting use cases
40:05
and Retail that there’s a there’s a plethora order related inquiry supply chain refund returns and especially
40:12
through the pandemic period where you can physically take your returns to a to a to a shop actually what can I do now
40:18
from home and there’s lots of cases we’ve built out from a design and implementation perspective so there’s infinite use cases in this
40:24
particular space interesting thank you and Phil I want to come to you you’re
40:31
in the space that many of our listeners will be um in you know they’re not the technology provider
40:36
um they are the person that’s responsible for bringing about um change within the contact centre which is uh is where you sit so what
40:45
processes have you seen that really work um but there are surely a shed load of
40:51
pitfalls that um you can fall into it’d be really good to get your advice there
40:56
and um just to throw a third question into that mix bill
41:01
um there is a question on the chat that is what is the opportunity for a group of separate organisations that should
41:07
have the same processes to collaborate now that’s I’m suspecting that that’s a similar kind of environment to
41:13
where you’re in yeah so I’ll probably start with that question first actually so I think
41:20
yeah if you imagine a local government set up we are lots of different
41:25
organisations with different systems we just happen to have the same payroll at the end of it
41:31
um so we kind of work in that environment already so if you imagine one of my contact centre agents could
41:36
access somewhere between 60 and 75 different systems um as part of their day-to-day role so
41:43
you know from back office council tax to booking Pest Control appointments through to social care diaries that kind
41:50
of thing so it’s a really desperate organisation from that regard and so actually a lot of our process
41:57
work will be about doing exactly that how can we um how can we align lots of different
42:04
systems with different data requirements and use the process automation to link
42:10
all of that information together particularly in a way that means that the person answering the telephone can
42:17
see a huge amount of that information and therefore make some sort of judgments about what’s going to be best
42:23
for that individual customer so um so I think there’s a huge amount of opportunity in that space I
42:28
think from our point of view we’re looking at that as part of our prioritisation criteria so we’re going
42:35
through the process that Nerys talked about now you know in terms of how do we how do we align what are the quick wins
42:43
for the organisation with a more strategic approach to where do we get to that kind of holistic view of people
42:49
that we’re really Keen to see so um so I think you know where you’ve got
42:57
those complex processes with different organisational requirements that’s where
43:02
perhaps we would lean more towards the RPA approach where you can automate access to those systems rather than
43:09
trying to combine things and integrate um and I’m sure Rich will have a view on
43:15
that as well um probably a more Technical and an informed view than mine um but back in terms of where are we
43:21
seeing that working I think um you know that’s something we’re really exploring at the moment is
43:28
um in in terms of Camden’s use of automation is really drawing on what
43:36
other people are doing so that’s one of the benefits um with working with Netcall is they’ve
43:41
got this kind of app store of brilliant automated bits of work other
43:47
people have already done that we can just go in and steal for free it’s fantastic I’ve been playing with that this morning looking at all the
43:53
different options there and there’s some really well established products on there you know as a presentation
43:58
yesterday looking at um a register of interest for
44:04
um councillors I’ve seen blue badge processes completely automated that kind
44:09
of thing so really where do you want to start I think that’s the biggest question organisations are going to face
44:15
is there’s so much potential in automation where do you start to get the most out of it
44:21
and so um from your experience Phil um once you’ve started on that road and
44:27
and it might be advice that you’ve had along the way but what are the um what are the biggest pitfalls that
44:34
you because are concerned about maybe even yourself falling into yeah that that’s um that’s a good
44:41
question so I think um broken processes you can try and automate the broken process but if it’s
44:46
if it’s broken before you start it will still be broken when you’ve automated it so I think there is a there’s a
44:53
decision-making process along the way which can tie you up in knots about
44:58
where do I fix the process I’ve already got can I do that quick enough to automate
45:04
it now if I can’t is there a temporary work around that perhaps RPA can
45:10
facilitate for me whilst I try and get to that end goal of a fixed process
45:15
um I’ve seen multiple times in the public sector we get as far as we recognise we’ve got a broker process
45:21
let’s fix it now temporarily with RPA and then we’ll just leave it there and
45:27
so we’ve still got this complex broken process at the end of it and as soon as something changes and the robot can’t
45:34
keep up with that change you’re back to square one so I think you know having a timeline that allows you to identify
45:41
your broken processes put some workarounds in place but fix them and as you move forward with the automation is
45:48
really important thank you Phil and um and one of the things that um that you touched on and
45:56
you mentioned that Richard might have a more technical um response too but it’s not all about
46:01
technology you talked about it there you know you’ve got the process that’s not necessarily technology that’s
46:07
driving that um and there you know we all talk about people processing technology
46:13
um and they’re actually bringing the three together is uh really important Richard what have you experienced in the
46:20
projects that you’ve worked on around what else is needed when
46:25
you’re looking at the technology but what else is needed what else is important yeah um it’s terrible as a tech vendor
46:33
that to know that we come last in the list but yeah it’s either people or process first and we come last
46:39
um you can’t just um buy some technology cloud service and
46:45
expect it to work for you um so we find that organisations that
46:51
have already thought about centres of excellence or digital teams or some form
46:56
of structure not necessarily formally with an I.T very often more business-led but with it participation
47:04
um is the way to do it so technology analysts like Gartner might call it a
47:09
fusion team but basically it’s bringing together the um the people who are closer to the
47:15
business who understand the process and what they’re trying to achieve and then you do need I.T you can’t automate
47:22
without it. Phil also mentioned about the broken processes there
47:28
um and again as a as a business that delivers automation we also know that automation isn’t always the answer
47:35
sometimes it could be system replacement that you really need sometimes it could be integrating systems and sometimes
47:41
it’s Reinventing the process um so there are it’s definitely not
47:46
just about technology um but the um that sort of co-ownership and
47:52
involving stakeholders the business and I.T that that’s really what it’s all about um it’s automation is not for it and
48:00
automation is not going to work if the business just tries to do on its own it has to be a collaborative effort throughout the organisation
48:07
thank you Richard uh now nearest I’m going to come to you with one of the questions that’s um in the Q a as
48:13
announced and I’m drawing on your experience if your time in Outsourcing as an outsourced service provider who
48:21
perhaps don’t own the customer Journey or CX team where can RPA help the outsourced provider okay yeah
48:29
interesting but the reality is it you are very the broken processes are
48:35
very visible to you the failure demand that is being generated is really
48:41
um clear for you and you have a choice of course they generally now because of
48:48
cloud because the client will dictate the solution you’re on but you have a choice as to what that looks like from a
48:54
UI perspective a user interface perspective so there are opportunities there to really clarify in your circle
49:02
of control which are the bits that you think are driving inefficiency at the
49:07
moment I think Richard picked up on this and I think it oh no sorry Phil in terms of it’s so easy to normalie in
49:16
efficiency and that’s very much the case in BPOs who feel like they are aligning
49:22
to the processes that are being dictated but it’s a partnership approach um that that relationship and as such it
49:30
should always be looking for continual Improvement then to Rich’s point I’m working on two clients at the moment and
49:37
both of them have got continual Improvement managers and I think that’s such a breath of fresh air having
49:42
somebody who really is you know outside in looking and looking
49:47
to align all parts of the business and drive that continual Improvement and not
49:53
normalise in efficiency so as a BPO there are parts that are in your circle
49:58
of control that specifically will impact your advisors experience and then I
50:04
think you work with the customer on the other parts as well thank you nurse now Auntie if I know
50:10
you’ve been answering some of the questions that have been on the chat so thank you so much for doing that
50:15
um but actually I want to come to you and ask you and you know what I’m actually going to come to the rest of you and ask the same question
50:21
um what are the critical success factors so we know that automation can have an
50:29
impact it can improve the lives and efficiency and the financial performance
50:34
of the contact centre we know that but what do you have to get right in order for a process automation program to
50:41
really work I want to be controversial and apologies Richard because we do a lot of work with
50:47
Netcall as well in our own business technology is not the answer so and I think Phil raised upon around business
50:54
Society requirements trying not to roam this as an I.T program or an I.T project
50:59
it was run by the business and the customer teams that’s certainly the first asking point success is
51:04
understanding the customer Journey the customer design is there a contact strategy is there a channel strategy how
51:11
does that align with brand principles and brand values then more importantly where we keep saying law value
51:17
um high volume is that waste or is that actually demand we’re more than happy to deal with and then segmenting the kind
51:23
of customer lens around and what do we Define as being self-served and what are those where we do want to encourage some
51:29
conversation taking place so I think understanding that landscape is by far the critical success factor but also
51:35
underpinning with insights and analytics because everyone keeps saying yeah we’ll get a 20 saving and it equates to X
51:40
how about we try and quantify that as a number but also being realistic around the cost investment versus Roi and
51:47
before even venturing down the whole RPA and automation route getting those bases and Foundations right first helps the
51:53
narrative to really exploit and actually execute effectively and the last point I will raise which I
51:59
haven’t raised the previous one is we keep deploying technology deploy services to customer facing and agent or
52:05
colleagues internally but there is a cognitive view around kind of Behavioural Science of things so how do we nudge
52:12
people so if we say we want to be a digital first business how do we take them from an analogue space into the more
52:18
digital space? How do we do sign posting, what’s the value to the customer? We
52:24
shouldn’t be forcing people down it because it becomes a bit of a blind surprise, but there’s lots of ways of wording things effectively. What value does the customer
52:31
have on that interaction by going down the digital routes? I think there’s lots of things that sit around that and I call it hygiene or critical
52:37
technologies that enable it – It’s a given nowadays and we can do more things now Tech is no longer a
52:43
limitation but the design and the effort it takes to get to an effective deployment has to be invested correctly
52:49
thank you Atif, Nerys, you got anything you want to add to that no yeah just to
52:55
amplify that I think it is all about clarifying and quantifying the path where is it that you want to go and then
53:03
what are you coming from what are you moving away from on qualify and quantify your pain and make sure that there’s a
53:10
representation across all business Parts because this is going to get hard and
53:15
people are going to become frustrated across the journey points and when that vision is really clear and you’re trying
53:22
to continue to work towards it and you’ve all bought into that Clarity of vision and what it’s going to look and
53:27
feel like when you get there that makes it so much easier along the way to keep going and keep trying and that side of
53:35
things so that’s what I’d say thank you nearest Richard for you what’s
53:40
critical success factor for you yeah it’s um I think the stakeholder
53:46
involvement is really the key one um so customers citizens patients employees
53:53
managers um Senior Management um everybody has their own slightly
54:00
um misaligned outcomes that they want as the object to the engagement or the
54:06
journey so it’s ensuring that everybody is clear on what the best approach is for all parties it
54:13
shouldn’t be a surprise um as that even mentioned about surprise shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that this is
54:18
happening it’s a continuous Journey um and it doesn’t stop for the organisation either
54:25
um because customer expectations are going to increase and different ways of working and as we said there’s going to
54:32
be more channels coming in, Amazon are going to do something else differently that will again notch up what we think
54:39
about how service should be delivered, so we just have to keep on the journey yeah
54:44
can I just raise one last point which I think is worth one and by the way we we’re not trying to say we’ve done this
54:50
perfectly all the time we’ve also got lots of Lessons Learned where how not to do it which I think is always worthwhile and make sure we dump that into the
54:56
future programs but also try and avoid doing large change programs a large RPA or process orchestration type
55:04
capabilities we’ve got a leap of faith attitude to an extent and also fail fast so if you are going to run because I
55:11
think if you run lots of little individual programs around small bite-sized initiatives the sum of those
55:17
parts is probably greater some of the bigger programs that you might end up running and what we found also from a
55:22
value in our Roi perspective it’s always hard to justify the expense on some of the large programs, but it’s
55:28
how do you reinvest because we keep saying cost savings well actually if I’m making Improvement somewhere could I
55:33
redeploy that cost or that resource to do small value Ad work elsewhere it’s hardly reapportion the business cases
55:39
it’s never just a binary I’ll save x amount I’m on the end of the finance guys pocket look at the benefits is what
55:45
can I do without saving and where does it add value not just to colleagues but also our brand and our customers
55:51
thank you Phil you’re hearing all this you’re living it what has been the
55:56
um the biggest thing that you’ve heard here that you’re going to take away with you after this school
56:02
I think it’s um it’s a reminder that we to really get
56:09
the most out of this you’ve got to look at that process end to end and in
56:14
doing so we’ve got to look at it from the right end to the right end and I think we have
56:20
a real Habit in local government of looking at the problem from a service perspective what suits are it renders
56:26
back office processes rather than where’s that customer starting from and what gets them the solution they need as
56:32
soon as possible so I think for me it’s keeping that end-to-end goal in mind but
56:37
very much from a citizen perspective thank you so much Phil I’d love to come to the um Everybody in the panel and
56:44
get your final one golden nuggets but we are running out of time so Richard I am
56:49
going to come straight back to you and what’s your advice what have you taken from the conversation as well
56:56
today yeah um well one thing for me is that we’re always having to um try and
57:02
simplify our jargon and language that we’re using as vendors so we’ll try it harder and harder to remove
57:10
the jargon from the debate um I think the key thing is um is to get
57:16
started um don’t try and think automation has to be a multi-year transformation exercise
57:23
it’s not a Five-Year Plan think about five weeks five months what can you do
57:29
what are the pain points um get started thank you so much Richard and thank you
57:36
to everyone that has participated for all of your questions for all of your comments um we have been reading them as
57:41
we go and we’ve obviously been bringing them into the conversation where we can so thank you so much thank you also to
57:46
our panellists for sharing all of your experiences and your views to Richard, to Nerys to Phil and to Atif thank you
57:52
so much and um a huge thank you thanks also to Netcall for really enabling us
57:57
to have this conversation I hope you all have a fantastic rest of the day and we look forward to seeing you soon thank
58:04
you very much bye thank you we’ll speak soon thank you bye-bye thanks everyone