Process Automation for Efficient Contact Centre CX
How process automation improves CX.
Recorded: 19 January 2023
Process automation improves CX
Improving the customer experience is the top challenge for contact centre leaders in 2023. The key to improving satisfaction and loyalty is speed of resolution — and automation has a key part to play.
Digitalising customer contact channels has exposed process gaps and disconnected customer experiences. And that’s largely due to CRM applications implemented solely to automate individual processes. Application leaders are now addressing these gaps by reviewing CRM systems in the context of customer experience — and introducing Process Automation technology, including Robotic Process Automation (RPA). This streamlines their internal operation and assists frontline colleagues, while improving the customer experience.
We teamed up with the Call Centre Management Association (CCMA) to find out how Process Automation can impact colleagues and customers. We explore use cases from multiple sectors, to inspire contact centre leaders to consider where and how an operation could benefit from automation.
Watch this webinar to hear from the panel of experts:
- Leigh Hopwood, CEO at the CCMA
- Richard Farrell, CIO at Netcall
- Nerys Corfield, Contact Centre Consultant
- Phil Quickenden, Head of Customer & Registration Services at the London Borough of Camden.
- Atif Rasid – Solutions Director – Technical Transformation at GoBeyond Partners
Learn how to use process automation improves CX in the contact centre — and the benefits and opportunities on offer.
Read the transcript of CCMA Webinar: Process Automation for Efficient Contact Centre CX
0:05
hey good afternoon and welcome today’s online seminar where we’re going
0:11
to be exploring process Automation and how it can help Drive efficiency in
0:16
contact centres and in contact centre customer experience and it’s thanks to Netcall and their amazing panellists for
0:23
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
0:29
hosting today’s session so as always this session is interactive so if you
0:34
have any questions or comments please do use the chat or the Q a and we will bring those thoughts in as we go
0:42
um just so that you’re aware um I just want to make you aware that this session will not be made available
0:49
afterwards so uh hopefully you can all hear me okay
0:55
so with the current economic situation the pressure is on is it not to not only
1:01
to continue to improve customer experiences delivered by the contact centre but to do this more efficiently
1:08
and more cost effectively oh my goodness the pressure’s on so there are many things that contact centre leaders can
1:15
do to really make a difference and automation is a really obvious version but this is a big topic so to help
1:25
us explore what’s possible I’d first like to introduce Richard Farrell who is the CIO at Netcall to join me on screen
1:34
Richard welcome highly welcome so um Richard I want to start by
1:40
asking you the big question what do we mean by process automation
1:46
okay it’s a great question um process automation refers to the use of technology to perform tasks that
1:53
would otherwise be done by humans and this can be linking data from multiple systems allocating tasks to
1:59
workers moving cases through a process the goal of process automation is to
2:05
increase efficiency and reduce errors and it allows employees to focus on more complex and evaluating tasks
2:12
perfect so my next big question is what’s the difference between that and
2:18
robotic process automation okay so robotic process automation RPA from now
2:24
on is a type of pro is a type of process automation that uses software robots
2:29
often with AI capabilities to perform tasks that would normally be done by
2:35
humans RPA software is designed to mimic the actions of human workers such as
2:41
navigating through applications logging in and out systems entering data so the
2:46
tasks can include simple data entry and processing as well as more complex tasks
2:53
and the goal of RPA is to repeat to automate repetitive time-consuming tasks
2:58
of workers allowing human employees again to focus on IR value added work
3:05
and um I am going to ask you the big question why now and I’m so aware of
3:11
the many conversations I have that the conversations that advisors and
3:17
agents are having at the on the front line are so much more complex so much
3:22
more sophisticated than they once were and that technology is obviously taking
3:27
away some of the more mundane conversations and simple queries but
3:32
but why now Richard why is it becoming so important right now I think there are a variety of factors
3:39
that are coming together one is the technology is maturing so it makes it easier to deploy simpler more
3:46
cost effective but the business reasons are customer experience is a priority right across Industries
3:53
costs are under pressure but also employees require more satisfying work
3:59
so we’ve got this real mix of factors and really the automating and removing
4:05
mundane tasks is going to be one of the key ways that we can address all of these issues we can speed up delivery
4:11
and improve service improve accuracy we can keep costs down but also we can keep employees more satisfied as well
4:18
which that’s all such a good thing Richard I know you’ve got more that um
4:23
you can share on the subject before we bring our panellists in so Richard if you’d like to start sharing your slides
4:30
and uh and then I’m going to leave it with you for a moment
4:37
okay thanks very much so hopefully we can see a
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PowerPoint slide yes we can Richard fantastic that’s
4:49
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
4:55
um I think I keep changing it on us um so yeah to put it all into context customer experience is vital because it
5:01
directly impacts the bottom line as we know happy customers are more likely to stay loyal purchase more products and
5:07
services and recommend businesses to others and in contrast of course the X can lead
5:13
to customer churn negative word of mouth and the contact centre plays a critical role in the overall customer service
5:20
experience often the first point of contact for customer seeking Assistance or support and the contact centre is typically
5:27
responsible for managing customer interactions providing timely and accurate information and resolving
5:33
issues so really important in terms of customer Journeys you can set the tone the
5:39
journeys right throughout an organisation and as the front line it has a direct
5:46
impact on satisfaction and loyalty it also provides valuable insights into customer needs and preferences as well
5:53
so contact centres absolutely critical for customer experience
5:58
but we don’t make it easy for everybody working there and partly this is
6:04
historic and we’ve got loads of Legacy systems and processes that are still
6:11
about this is some data from ICMI and it was a
6:16
recent survey post pandemic and it’s asking agents and managers
6:22
about sources of friction in the contact centre and which activities the most
6:27
time consuming it’s a US piece of research I think they’re typically a
6:34
couple of years ahead of us in terms of Technology maturity and um they are also
6:40
um very black and white in terms of how they Define roles in contact centres or call centres
6:46
um they call them agents anyway as we can see um at the bottom there the big
6:52
drains on time are routine or mundane customer interactions and routine or
6:59
mundane administrative tasks and so these highlight good targets for
7:04
investing in Knowledge Management Solutions and also increased automation of routine customer service activities
7:14
I read some Gartner research just last week um
7:19
they report that on average a customer service representative needed seven
7:26
systems to do their job well three to four systems to handle typical issues end to end and five to handle a
7:33
difficult issue end to end
7:38
and automating activities can help improve agent retention by reducing the repetitive and monotonous tasks that
7:45
agents have to perform so as we discussed at the start there are there are multiple benefits in here
7:52
now I don’t want to make this too simplistic um and obviously we’ve got a wide range
7:58
of knowledge in the audience but we’re just trying to keep this conceptual and show where different sorts of Technologies may fit in
8:05
to this landscape on the left here we have our customer or citizen or tenant or patient
8:11
and they want resolution they want quick resolution consistent answers 24 7 and
8:18
of course we’ve got multiple channels traditional phone
8:24
um most contact centres still 60 or 70 percent of volume forms SMS chat and chat bot
8:32
um chatbot of course can deflect some interactions from going to employees and
8:39
then we’ve got email we can add every other channel that comes along in here as well ways of customers wanting to
8:46
interact so WhatsApp social media could be a car or an IOT device a smart meter
8:53
there are lots and lots of channels of information
8:58
that send requests queries questions into organisations and typically we wrap
9:06
these up in some sort of contact centre type technology if we’re lucky we have omnichannel
9:11
routing Omni channel here to employees rather
9:17
than multi-channel just to a contact centre agent increasingly more and more individuals
9:24
within organisations often in traditional back office roles knowledge workers
9:30
are handling customer interactions and of course with a pandemic and more
9:36
remote working and hybrid work the traditional contact centre employee sitting at a row of desks handling
9:43
traditional contact centre calls is changing over time and smart
9:49
organisations also use the same sorts of Technologies to root interactions to
9:55
employees throughout the organisation as well so we will call it Omni channel here
10:00
and then we have multiple disparate systems that we ask our employee to talk about I’ve just mentioned the Gartner
10:06
research and I’ve put case management here and this could be CRM or patient
10:12
Administration system or service management or I.T service desk a system
10:17
to manage customer records and interactions typically the sort of core application that the employee is using
10:25
and then we also have loads of other systems and updates
10:31
that are required by employees and if we do it really well we link that back and
10:37
we report that update back to the customer so this is just our simple view of the
10:43
world today now to really Thrive and to deliver the
10:50
best value to customers through service and Report support there are a number of actions that organisations are
10:56
prioritising one is to adopt a self-service dominant mindset
11:02
another is to make it easy to provide evaluate customer service through a connected agent desktop so this is our
11:09
single pane of glass that I’ve put on the screen and um another factor is to collect an
11:16
action customer data to improve decision making across the organisation so there are a few objectives that we
11:23
have and so there are some areas where automation Technologies can help so
11:30
I’ve dropped in intelligent Automation and machine learning so this is where we have Technologies
11:37
um that often include machine learning to provide data information and engagement
11:45
platforms here can integrate with disparate sources of data and provide insight for customers and employees
11:52
and this can help improve efficiency and productivity so by adding intelligent Automation and
12:00
ml in this area we can provide information to customers to better inform chat Bots
12:07
and increasingly organisations are using some form of customer portal
12:13
and we see a lot of success with customer portals being built on low code
12:18
application platforms so low code application platforms are a form of automation technology
12:26
um they’re really good at integrating with other systems they allow for Rapid development quite easy to use don’t
12:32
require an awful lot of technical expertise and they’re highly customizable as well
12:38
so we see a lot of use of automation Technologies to link up to different
12:44
systems and to provide information to customers more relevant and timely
12:49
information and those factors can contribute to a
12:54
better customer experience and reduce costs and then we also have
13:00
robotic process automation and for we’ll go back to the contact centre for
13:07
the for the contact centre this can provide a number of benefits
13:12
one of the main benefits is improved customer experience through faster and more accurate service
13:18
so RPA can automate repetitive tasks such as data entry freeing up agents to
13:24
focus on more complex and valuable interactions
13:31
and um it’s also important to note that RPA and other automation Technologies can be
13:37
beneficial for contact centre agents as well so by removing those repetitive and
13:42
mundane tasks agents can spend time on higher value activities and have more
13:48
satisfying work experiences now we’ve dropped in a few other bits of
13:53
Technology into the slide here we’ve now got a knowledge base as well and of course in a mature organisation
14:00
there’s a whole load of other bits and pieces in here quality assurance analytics
14:05
a wide range of different Technologies Workforce engagement management quality assurance and so on
14:11
but again we’re keeping it quite simplistic and we’re looking at processes here
14:17
so what we can also do is we can apply the Technologies
14:22
for the creation of custom automation solutions that can be tailored to the specific needs of the organisation
14:30
and this is where we can start to automate the handling of complex customer queries
14:36
there is added potential for automation to drive wider transformations to digital business
14:41
such as the use of omni stack omni-channel strategies and the integration of customer engagement
14:46
Solutions across various touchpoints so we can use automation Technologies in
14:52
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
14:59
it’s going to be customised for your processes and your organisation
15:05
there’s not a piece of software that you’ll be able to buy off the shelf that just fits in
15:10
Forrester research are quite a nice expression they say software is an expression of the business
15:17
and so to enable this, developers must build software that leads to customer Obsession for facing increasing
15:23
pressures to quickly deliver digital capabilities and I’ve got a briefcase study that I’d
15:29
just like to mention um absolutely on topic um ATS Euromaster
15:36
familiar brand and they’ve transformed their B2B customer experience from sign up and credit
15:43
checks to welcoming customers as trade ready with an application that was built
15:49
on Liberty create a low code platform and they use the platform to automate
15:55
and Control process flow and RPA to enhance processes
16:01
the platform integrates three previously isolated systems and
16:07
David Robson is the IS IT director at ATS Euromaster and he makes a number of
16:13
important points he says along with the real efficiency and cost benefits
16:18
we’re especially pleased by the professionalism that the app provides to customers
16:24
so this is on the experience side of things um they started off with the time and
16:30
motion study on processes and they found 15 different processes they could automate
16:36
in just one of those processes they were spending 26 and a half hours a day copying data from one system to another
16:45
and one thing that was really important for ATS Euromaster was to think about the quality of life of their employees
16:53
David says we don’t have infinite resources we’ve only got a certain amount of time with people and the
16:59
important thing is about getting those people to do the important stuff the goal for us is to free up our team
17:06
through these automation tools so our people can do things they are best suited for
17:11
leaving the highly repetitive tasks to the robots who do not get bored or tired
17:18
so my little summary here is that a combination of Engagement Technologies
17:23
and process automation is necessary for contact centres to thrive in the future
17:29
by implementing automation Technologies contact centres can improve customer experience increase efficiency and
17:37
provide more satisfying work experiences for agents
17:46
thank you so much there we go thank you so much riches
17:53
um and it’s really good to hear how ATS has transformed their processes and how they started
18:00
um so obviously anybody that wants to ask a question or has any comments uh on
18:07
what you’ve heard so far please do share them in the chat or on the Q a and feel
18:13
free to ask your questions and uh have your say through the chat
18:18
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
18:26
all let me introduce the rest of the panel while Richard works out how to stop uh screen sharing
18:33
so hopefully Richard you can find you can see a button somewhere that says stop screen found it fabulous
18:41
so coming onto the screen now we have uh Nerys Caulfield who is a contact
18:46
centre consultant who um well Nerys this is how I just what I do um is um you focus on Bridging the Gap
18:54
between the technology and the operation uh for the benefit of all honestly yeah
19:01
that is perfect again is that good um and we also have Phil Quickenden who
19:06
is head of customer and registration services at the London borough of Camden hello everyone welcome Phil and we have
19:14
ate sorry I said that wrong a tea fresh Ed who is part of uh the CX Consulting
19:19
practice at go beyond where you have designed and implemented multiple process automation initiatives across a
19:27
whole variety of sectors so um we have a great panel of folk that are really well
19:34
equipped to answer some of the questions now I am um as much as the panel knows that we
19:40
have a line-up of questions that we will work through I am going to jump straight onto the Q a and start there
19:48
um so how is it best to measure the value of automation
19:54
our teeth I’m going to fire that one at you
20:00
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
20:06
focused around purely cost but there is a value over Arch uh in comparison to some of those some of those kind of core
20:12
metrics the typical you find is very much in the process time or the process length in performing certain tasks now
20:19
what we found certainly within our business the law value have volume demand some of the points that Richard
20:24
raised they’re quite quick and easy to measure against an FTE serving or a
20:29
process or a handle time saving but then overarching to say actually there might be certain
20:34
um type of Demands where we don’t want to necessarily automate and reduce because the dry Revenue the drive value
20:40
it might be a retention in the NDFS OR retail space so I think for us the hard
20:45
and fast measure tends to be driven through the cost but without having to not really forget about the value piece
20:51
but on the flip side it’s not just around the agent experience or the agent cost within our contact centres but also
20:56
from a customer CX point of view as a route to entry and Richard mentioned Omni Channel whether it be voice chat
21:02
chat box email or other channels how do we measure that entire CX Journey
21:07
from Cradle to grief and then all writing a similar metric from a quality perspective as well as the cost and
21:12
value so the new Range um and this could be because the investment to automate investment to rip
21:18
and replace technology might be greater than it would be to maybe um introduce some automation around some of
21:24
those process which are probably simpler and quicker it’s quicker to deploy so I think the metrics question around RPA
21:30
it’s not just RPA it’s all about process orchestration because within that as you do the design and Discovery phase there
21:36
might be process procedures and policies that you may automatically change which already inherently Drive some value
21:41
towards that kind of business case so there’s a couple of kind of moving component parts within that within that
21:46
question perfect thank you Atif um Richard there’s another question
21:51
that’s come through and it’s regarding the ATS case study what was the biggest challenge that ATS faced when
21:58
implementing RPA oh and you’re currently on mute Richard
22:05
yeah three years um one of the biggest challenges and one that they really talk about is they
22:13
headed it off which was a cultural challenge um they wanted to make sure that the
22:19
employees the staff were on board with this that they didn’t see that the robots were threatening their jobs
22:26
um so that was a really important factor so a massive stakeholder involvement
22:31
getting everybody involved and even naming the box as well to personalise them so
22:38
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
22:47
perfect thank you Richard. So I’m going to come back to you and I can see that there are lots of questions
22:52
coming in and some of them um do reflect to how you go about bringing um RPA into
22:59
an into an organisation and I guess that that does come back to the question we put right to the top is why now
23:07
um now it’s why now and maybe um being able to uh sponsor some of the questions as you go
23:13
why now well because the technology is available now like and it is available
23:19
in in with great depth and Agility as well so you know the winter of AI is
23:26
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
23:34
agility much easier to deploy so that’s why those Solutions now
23:40
should be very much part of the thinking and also because of the amount of pain
23:46
that businesses are going through so the amount of pain that advisors are going through you should be in recruiting them
23:52
to Richard’s point to just do the job that you want them to do not to mess around keying here and you know
24:00
processing here and all of that side of things just to talk interact support and service customers
24:06
because the customers are going through you know friction
24:11
enhancing experiences and because to Atif’s point you know this is a
24:17
commercial decision to drive Automation and it is the right decision and there’s
24:23
still lots of gaps and opportunities to improve processes uh through automation
24:30
so yeah businesses commercially have to make some real investment into making it
24:37
frictionless for the customer and the agent and M is clearly and as a chief
24:43
alluded to right at the start there were clearly a huge amount of benefits but automation can bring you
24:50
know you talked about the cost benefits but what can really be achieved and um yes there is the bottom line the
24:56
metrics but what impact does it really have on the customer um because fundamentally that’s
25:01
one of the top priorities um but also on colleagues and ultimately business active
25:09
yeah I mean the CX design is by far the most Paramount component before you even start the Journey of doing RPA because
25:15
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
25:22
we will try this we’ve all tried to force somebody down a particular route a particular Channel
25:28
also failure demand which tends to be some of the core components which um results in probably badly designed and
25:33
badly run automation projects so I think from a customer’s perspective segmentation is extremely important
25:39
especially around the demographics of that business type and the business customer but also tailoring the channel
25:45
of choice and still offering that up as a potential but a lot of the automation tuning and I’ve noticed some of the
25:51
questions around integration uh proof of concept uh kind of Intuit kind of the more industry Enterprise type
25:57
applications RPA traditionally was very much in the back office space well actually we can now incorporate some of the
26:02
methodologies and capabilities in the front office but where we think about self-serve type inquiry so we keep
26:08
saying lower value and high value demand if I think about retail where is my order simple order inquiries which can
26:14
now be automated through the orchestration layer so I think from a customer lens tailoring the experience
26:20
is extremely important because laptop value brand perception uh return business those are kind of core
26:26
components and they’re the metrics which are quite easily measurable in terms of from a from a
26:31
kind of kpi perspective but on the colleague side in terms of my contradiction the future of the agent is going to
26:37
change we’re not going to have necessarily A call sensor agent there’ll be a call centre specialist so if we
26:42
start to remove some of their simple and automated tasks what you’re left with is all of the complex type of activities so
26:49
where there’s a traditional handle time there will be an inherent increase in that particular space so having ahd as a
26:55
measure of success isn’t always the right thing to do assuming you’re not in an isolator department but it’s great
27:02
though I mean I think somebody’s raised a question on knowledge uh knowledge base knowledge base is fine
27:07
um in its current SharePoint form which is uh articles keyword search but we’re
27:12
now moving to position where even in our business using orchestration using automation you can provide contextual
27:18
next best action type knowledge so it’s more specific to where you are within that Journey rather than just a general
27:24
knowledge SharePoint dumps I think the way we now design the interactions is quite critical and the technologies
27:31
that enabler not necessarily the independency and it allows you to kind of unlock some of those capabilities
27:37
thank you Auntie Phil let me bring you into this conversation now your season contact
27:42
centre professional um you’ve got a history of working in Council and Emergency Services
27:48
um contact centre and control rooms what’s your view on why now and what processes do you see that are really um
27:54
better enabled with Automation in your environment yes so the why now question I think is a
28:01
really pertinent one particularly um so from a local government point of view we’ve got a really big why now
28:07
um I’m not normally a fan of sequels and I think austerity 2 is probably going to be worse than austerity one
28:14
um so from that perspective you know we’re really thinking about how do we become as efficient as possible how do
28:19
we streamline that Journey but also the people narrative that comes through austerity in terms of you know we’ve got
28:27
a cost of living crisis we’re seeing people with an exceptionally acute needs now presenting to the council much later
28:33
than they perhaps would have done pre um covid with more significant needs so
28:39
we’re looking at how can we service those people in the best possible way
28:44
and those conversations for my agents are really quite challenging time-consuming conversations to unpick
28:51
and understand somebody’s circumstances to help them on their journey and so
28:57
anything that we can do process wise that creates capacity within the system for
29:03
those staff to do what they do best you know to use the robots to enhance the
29:08
people and give them the time to make the best use of those skills that we’ve recruited them for is absolutely
29:14
Paramount to us at the moment and I think you know spreading that across other Industries
29:21
we’ve seen through the pandemic that we can work in this more enhanced virtual
29:26
way that um we can we can unlock this capacity and actually we’re starting to
29:32
build expectations now you know people come and knocking on our door saying we can’t seem to find the web chat function
29:38
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
29:44
are having to step up towards customer expectation as well as kind of um you know the challenges of working
29:50
against efficiency and everything else um in terms of where I’ve seen that work really effectively
29:57
um or my previous role in Suffolk County Council we did a lot of work around RPA
30:02
during the pandemic and that was all about um stripping out some really manual
30:09
time-consuming tasks from staff we had an inbox that received 50
30:15
000 it felt like 50 000 different automated responses from referrals from
30:21
different partners and the most sole destroying job I think in the entire
30:26
Council was the poor personally managed that inbox and manually transferred all that information into our
30:32
um our case management system and kind of pretty much overnight by turning on the robot we stripped 85 of that demand
30:39
out and whereas I was seeing a pattern of people like phoning in sick when it was their day on the inbox that just
30:45
stopped overnight people were really enjoying that task because it wasn’t kind of monotonous and repetitive so
30:51
I think there are some really good high volume case studies out there now for where automation can really improve
30:57
people’s Journeys thank you Phil um nearest I want to come to you with
31:03
one of the questions that’s on the um on the Q a um how would you prioritise which
31:08
processes you should automate first and what would you need for later well I suppose that all comes down to
31:15
the Discovery phase so really looking at where your key where you’re losing a lot
31:21
of time so operational leakage where is it coming from just basic indicators like what’s your
31:28
ACW so like Atif said nobody wants to look at aht anymore within the contact
31:33
centre and drive that down but ACW is an indicator of a lot of after work you
31:40
know after call processing that has to be undertaken as a consequence of the
31:45
complexities of different systems the amount of keying that has to be done so that’s a good metric to have a look at
31:51
as well as you know hold time transfer rates as well can be indicators but
31:56
the reality is you can only automate processes that are very clearly defined
32:03
if you’ve got exceptions to that it will start to break so again
32:08
it’s understanding some of the processes that a bit admin time as an
32:14
um a disposition as well sorry that’s another indicator advisors taking themselves out of available and into
32:21
admin or whatever that equivalent is and that’s not to manage digital interactions that is to do back office
32:28
work when you have you know recruited them for their skills and to be able to manage customers so I think that looking
32:36
at those two metrics and then understanding which of the processes that are so clearly defined which are
32:42
the workflows that have got key points across it and then thinking right how do
32:49
I automate these and how can I make the business case to invest in determining
32:54
that this is this is something that we definitely want to embrace and see value in
32:59
in fact that’s really good advice Nerys thank you and um it’s interesting listening that
33:04
watching some of the questions that are coming through and um questions around you know what um where does it work
33:11
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
33:16
going to come to uh Nerys and Atif to um further this conversation but where
33:21
have you seen it really work um what are the kind of benefits that you’ve seen as a result of that okay
33:30
um so we’ve got quite a long experience in process automation
33:35
um and we have seen successes right across sectors and with
33:40
a massive Variety in scale so um as you might expect Financial Services
33:47
quite uh early adopters of any sort of technology and long-running mortgage
33:53
application processes were the first ones that were really delivering great value
33:59
and the key one there was um was around customer experience um so it was about proactive
34:05
communication rather than reactive and rather than having to wait for something in the post you get a text message with
34:11
where you are in the process stage um but we’ve also seen that right down to
34:16
um really short processes so um activities
34:22
um much shorter insurance claims for example that could be quite transactional and then when we get into
34:28
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