Ideas and opinions – Kenneth Reid

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a powerful contact centre tool … but tread carefully.

Generative AI benefits contact centres in several ways, including:

Reducing costs: Automating tasks such as answering frequently asked questions (FAQs) or routing calls to the appropriate department and freeing agents to focus on more complex tasks.
Improving efficiency: Providing agents with access to real-time information and suggesting solutions to common problems.
Improving customer satisfaction: Delivering quick, personalised responses and shorter wait times for customers and improved customer satisfaction.

AI is undoubtedly powerful, but we need to tread carefully. Continue reading “Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a powerful contact centre tool … but tread carefully.”

Just when you thought your contact centre might be getting back on an even keel…

As contact centres set a steady course following the choppy pandemic waters and look to navigate the impacts of current turbulence it seems that politicians just can’t resist a bit of interference in contact centre regulation. Continue reading “Just when you thought your contact centre might be getting back on an even keel…”

What next for video in the contact centre?

The announcement in July that Zoom intended to merge with Five9 sparked a lot of interest in the use of video in the contact centre. The subsequent announcement that the merger is off leads me to wonder whether another false dawn for the video contact centre might have passed. Continue reading “What next for video in the contact centre?”

Finding the right time to contact

Finding the right time to contact your customers and prospects has been, and continues to be, one of the great challenges in the outbound contact centre. Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are being applied to inbound contact centres. What about AI in the outbound world? Continue reading “Finding the right time to contact”

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there

Stumbling around YouTube I came across this film from the early days of the call centre and Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) – 1977. Continue reading “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there”

Outbound contact centres in a digital, self-service world

Skim the contact centre media and you could easily perceive that we are in the artificial intelligence era; machines learn to understand customer wants and needs and your customers are content to receive information as digital messages. Do you need to talk to customers? Continue reading “Outbound contact centres in a digital, self-service world”

CX: A triumph of hope over Customer eXperience?

Customer Experience is touted as a key differentiator with the experience’ delivered through multiple consumer channels. Barely a month goes by without some new channel being added to the consumer armoury to contact a business. Making it easy to engage superficially enhances CX but if that engagement is a set of silos then a positive experience soon turns sour. Continue reading “CX: A triumph of hope over Customer eXperience?”

Contact Centre video : the next chapter

It’s unusual for Contact Centres to encounter an immediate technical imperative. Contact Centre pace of change has been gradual with 1970s call centre technology still recognisable in today’s contact centre platforms.

The 2020-21 global pandemic has created a technology inflection point which is already supporting some retail processes. Consumers and workers have stayed at home and this has driven expectations and experience of more immersive interactions. Why talk on the phone when a Facetime, Zoom, Teams or Webex chat has become the ‘new normal’?

Continue reading “Contact Centre video : the next chapter”

What are you talking about?

I work with exceptional people, but all too often great products have failed to deliver for the target audience and inventor. Disappointment often comes from a failure to clearly express the benefit: Which means that … Continue reading “What are you talking about?”