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Rethink the Contact Center of the Future

Young bearded man sitting on desk in his home office and working on laptop.

The contact center industry has always needed to look forward. It’s a business so ingrained in the trends and innovations of every industry from healthcare, travel, banking, and more. But the Coronavirus pandemic forever changed our hopes for the future.

We understood that most industries were on the road to digitalization, but the crisis led to a tectonic shift in how people live. Social distancing and stay-at-home orders have affected every major city around the world and has influenced how customers interact with brands and what they expect from digital-first experiences.

An overwhelming at-home workforce and consumer base forced the contact center industry to enforce temporary innovations to handle surging volume and traffic. What we need to do now is understand what strategies deployed during crisis we can deploy for the new-normal:

1. Distributed contact center workforces
The crisis completely turned work on its head. Traditional industries with only a few centralized brick-and-mortar locations or those with limited remote capabilities were surprised by the speed with which business continuity plans had to be enacted. Organizations that fared better had a distributed global footprint already in place, so when the unexpected came, they had resources across the map and were ready to disperse.

Work-from-home proved to be a viable option for companies that had never considered it, as well, which also distributed the workforce out of physical centers.

The post-crisis the old distribution model may be forever changed into a hybrid of remote and brick-and-mortar work. De-centralized physical locations allow for maximum diversification in skills, resources, and locations. The flexibility of being able to deploy workers from anywhere creates a workforce that can be used to suit various volumes and support needs, depending on the situation.

2. Disaster-proof scalability and remote resources
Leaders will be more heavily prepared for the unexpected moving forward. Natural disasters and human factors will always be cause for unexpected volumes of support. The flexibility of service capabilities brought on by remote work will enable organizations to more readily deploy emergency staff in times of distress.

When future customer demand surges unexpectedly, businesses that can pivot and scale support capacity quickly will be invaluable. Additionally, organizations will need to invest in infrastructure and digitally driven training to have all the pieces in place in case the immediate need for contact center scale arises.

3. Digital-first business
Digital transformation tools were once seen as an investment that could be saved another time. Not anymore. Customer-facing organizations quickly woke up to the mission-critical benefits of digital tools when they had to deploy solutions quickly.

Automation, AI-enabled learning, messaging, and cloud-based systems are just some of the digitally driven CX enhancements that are here to last. In many cases, companies have already seen costs decrease while contact resolution, employee productivity, and customer satisfaction increase through a mix of people and technology to deliver great customer experiences.

4. Expanded CX self-service
Massive effort was needed to support the most urgent healthcare, financial services, travel, public sector, and questions when the pandemic hit. The shift of available human resources to the most pressing issues made self-service deflection a strategic imperative. Smart IVR, online FAQs, automated chatbots, and enhanced knowledgebases became critical call deflection solutions for non-emergency calls and common questions.

The push for self-service has enabled organizations to get more out of their service capacity with the same units of labor in this time of emergency. The advancements made here will be incredibly useful for providing customers with relevant information quickly without having to force everyone into the voice channel.

It’s also worth noting the investment made in CX knowledgebases will be critical down the road. Self-service is only as successful as the core knowledge assets and the units that use them. For example, augmented attended service are chatbots being deployed to ride along with agents to suggest relevant content and services to make their jobs easier.

5. Unconventional corporate security policies
People are not the only ones on the move. Desktops, laptops, and all the tools necessary to make a brick-and-mortar center run had to be taken home or shipped out. This opened a huge gap in security concerns. In addition, traditional in-person vetting such as drug testing proved to be incredibly challenging due to facilities being focused on much larger priorities.

As remote work becomes more common, security and policy factors need to be planned for. Security leaders will have to rethink what media can be allowed on agents’ computers, how to block USB storage, enforce hardware restrictions, and activate “dummy” machines when not connected to a secure network. Alternative monitoring through video programs such as Zoom will be also essential to assess an agent’s workplace, as well as provide valuable face-to-face contact.

Rework your contact center from the top
The best resilience strategy is to always plan forward. We need to collectively understand the challenges we all experienced and apply solutions. Digital transformation, remote workers, and physical space issues are all at our doorstep. It’s time to be proactive.

Contact Tracing: 4 Lessons Learned from the Front Lines

Contact tracing is a critical component to containing and flattening the curve of COVID-19. Tracking those who are infected and who may be exposed helps agencies stay ahead of potential hot spots and understand how and where the disease is spreading.

During the TTEC on-demand webinar, “Contact tracing: Why the road to recovery requires people, process and technology,” experts from TTEC and Pegasystems shared insights about how government agencies are ramping up contact tracing programs with a technology-enabled, empathetic approach.

While contact tracing itself is not new, “it’s going to take something fundamentally different than what historically has been done before,” to meet the challenges of COVID-19, noted TTEC CMO Nick Cerise. The speed and scale of the virus means a new approach is essential. Government agencies are looking at the whole continuum—evaluate, trace, and care—to contain the spread and engage the community in new ways.

There’s no standard playbook and different agencies have different needs. As state and local governments look to contact tracing, here are 4 lessons learned from early COVID-19 contact tracing initiatives that show the value in blending technology and humanity on the roadmap to recovery.

1. Centralize the response, but personalize the outreach

Speed is the name of the game. The faster you can identify who is infected and where they might have exposed others, the faster containment can happen. To do that, speed is also essential to get programs up and running in record time. Centralize efforts as much as possible to make decisions fast, get swift budget approvals, share technology, and streamline ongoing contact tracing operations.

A centralized contact tracing effort at the state level is more effective than a patchwork of local health departments with their own small programs. Coordination with local communities is critical, however. Understand the needs of the community before deciding on how to balance technology with humans, such as languages spoken, technology access, and other unique community factors.

2. Avoid getting lost in translation

We’ve seen underestimation in the ability to support different languages in contact tracing efforts. Many communities impacted by the novel coronavirus are underserved and made up of non-English speakers. Residents will be more likely to retain information and build trust with tracers when interacting in their native language. Take the time to understand your local language needs to create relevant materials, support, and hire tracers who can communicate with residents in the language they prefer.

3. Hire right the first time to avoid scrambling later

With a standard of 30 tracers per 100,000 people, there is an enormous need to get people out in the field to conduct contact tracing. There is an understandable rush to get as many people hired as quickly as possible. But take a moment to consider the unique circumstances of potential candidates in today’s environment:

  • High unemployment does not equate to a vast talent pool. Much of the unemployment is temporary and new hires may abandon the program for their old jobs when they become available again.
  • Many programs will be done virtually, which sounds great for some but may be impractical for others.
  • Volunteers typically have a shorter tenure than paid employees. If possible, create a mix of volunteers and paid contact center professionals to mitigate attrition risk fluctuations.

Before blanketing the area with tracers, figure out the right amount for your specific needs. On average, each tracer can make about 16 calls per day. But these can shift based on community factors. If you hire too many people at first, it may be problematic down the road.

4. Create a flexible contact tracing operation that maximizes people and technology

Mobile messaging and automation can be applied right now to quickly make contact tracing more efficient. Messaging allows for 4 times as many contacts as a voice call, which reduces the number of people needed to conduct outreach. And the public prefers it. In one example, a state that offered messaging saw a 50% adoption rate within a few days.

For an efficient and consistent COVID-19 response, some programs use the same agents for both voice calls and messaging, which helps prevent workforce fluctuations and uncertainty.

Automation, meanwhile, optimizes time and energy by eliminating the need for people to do redundant, simple tasks. Online FAQs and chatbots can help the public. And you can simplify the employee experience by using bots to automate parts of their job that cause friction, such as completing forms, logging into multiple systems, or finding answers to questions while interacting with the public.  

Watch the TTEC on-demand webinar, “Contact tracing: Why the road to recovery requires people, process and technology,” to get even more insight into burning questions about contact tracing for successful COVID-19 response.

Data Breach Report: Credential Theft, Social Attacks Lead to Most Security Breaches

person typing on keyboard
Man typing at his laptop computer at night

Cybercriminals, hackers, and fraudsters are, if nothing else, adaptive. In a new study, the 2020 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, researchers identified the patterns and trends behind recent data breaches and attacks. 

This year’s report analyzed more than 32,000 security incidents, of which 3,950 were confirmed breaches—nearly double the number of breaches from the previous year. The majority of breaches (over 67 percent) were caused by credential theft and social attacks such as phishing and business email compromises.

Other findings include:

  • 43 percent of breaches involved Web applications
  • 25 percent involved phishing
  • 22 percent of breaches was due to human error
  • External actors accounted for 70 percent of data breaches, with organized crime accounting for 55 percent of these.


Human error: the equalizer
Data breaches triggered by human error are now as common as social breaches and more common than malware, according to the report. “One of the interesting things that we saw this year is the high percentage of breaches caused by human error,” says David Hylender, senior risk analyst at Verizon Business. “When you look at the breaches by industry, you’ll see that error was usually one of the top causes across the board.”

The report attributes the rise in breaches caused by human error partly to companies failing to enact proper security controls when migrating to a cloud-based infrastructure. “It’s very easy to set up storage in the cloud and start moving things but sometimes you’ll see databases that don’t even have a password and are entirely open to the internet,” Hylender notes. And in other cases, he adds, it may have been due to employees rushing and failing to observe security protocols.

Greater digital targets
Another vulnerability for many companies are Web applications. Industries that are becoming increasingly digital, such as healthcare, can expect cybercriminals to double down on their attacks. In fact, the number of confirmed data breaches in healthcare came in at 521, up from 304 in last year’s report. This number will surely rise as more healthcare organizations open patient portals and digital tools to better engage patients and members.
Web application attacks, stolen credentials, and miscellaneous attacks (e.g., compromised business emails) are among the most common ways for cybercriminals to gain access, says Hylender, who advises healthcare organizations to “look at what you’re currently doing to address those vulnerabilities and put the bulk of your security efforts into closing any gaps.”

The types of cyberattacks that companies are seeing in 2020 are likely to accelerate into the next year. Given that many companies rushed to set up online work capabilities without extensive planning, preparation, or vetting of tools, cybersecurity measures and protections will be more important than ever. “It may sound simplistic, Hylender says, “but a lot of the misconfigurations and errors that we see are due to carelessness, so paying attention goes a long way.”

3 Ways to Revolutionize Customer Service After the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated change in customer service. Daily at-home life for customers and agents has forced organizations to look closer at digital transformation as a serious opportunity to provide scale and cost savings to human touch to people when they need it most.

On Shep Hyken’s Amazing Business Radio podcast, he recently spoke with Jonathan Lerner, president of TTEC Digital, about what it means to move beyond the new normal. Here are three takeaways from the discussion that are essential for providing meaningful engagement in this very different looking world.

1: Employee experience is a necessity

Creating moments that delight customers are crucial during the crisis, but employees need to be delighted too. The move to an at-home environment has given organizations a prime opportunity to invest in technology and digital transformation that make their agents’ job easier. The time to jump into intelligent automation is now.

Advancements in augmented tools such as chatbots proactively give agents information and insights during overwhelming volumes of interactions, which is essentially a digital shoulder to lean on. Augmented tools will be important for a remote-based future where the perks of having a co-worker nearby are all but absent.

Understanding the tools your front-line agents use to free up their time to work on the conversations that need empathy and authenticity will be crucial. Leaders who can orchestrate digital tools into roadmaps and strategies can take the lead.

2: Embrace change and charge

The COVID-19 crisis is and will continue to be incredibly challenging; companies need to embrace the innovations happening now to create moments that truly matter. While brands generally understood the importance of digital adoption for the future, the pandemic made it an urgent priority for the present.

Forced, global digital adoption—regardless of an organization’s readiness—has redefined the marketplace across industries, geographies, and customer expectations. Whereas organizations may have once relied on personal relationships to differentiate them from the competition, effortless experience is the new standard that defines the . In a support world that once operated mainly with voice, video technology can become a mainstay opportunity to deliver face-to-face moments that is incredibly important and will become an integral part of life in the future.

The pandemic has shown how customers can adapt to change. For customer service to be proactive, they need to take the lead on utilizing the channels that are out there.

3. Enable strategies with ROI potential

Your agents and team leaders are on the front line of the innovations happening today. They’re experiencing real changes that are affecting customers as well as themselves. They are dealing with incredibly emotional moments and working under these new conditions has enabled them to create better strategies for the future. Organizations with C-suites that are open to implementing these real-time strategies can better meet the modern expectations.

Proposing strategies to executives takes work. If agents want their strategies to be heard loudly it’s essential to attach an ROI to your strategy. Executives want to look at innovations that are affecting both their customers and employees, this is a very much a numbers game. Sharing an ROI with shareholders will give your strategy the extra punch it needs.

Great CX: A crucial differentiator

As brands exit crisis-mode, their ability to capitalize on these temporary innovations will be invaluable as they move forward. Now more than ever, the future of CX will be won by those able to create the best experiences.

Let’s continue this discussion when Shep Hyken is the featured guest on TTEC’s live webinar, Rise Above the Chaos in Uncertain Times, on May 14th 12:30PM ET.

How to Rebound from the Coronavirus: Your Top Sales Questions Answered

Like a massive tidal wave, the COVID-19 pandemic has upended business operations, supply chains, and economic activity, leaving a path of uncertainty. However, it has not changed the need for sales teams to produce results.

On a recent webinar, “How to readjust and future-proof your sales,” sales growth experts from TTEC addressed prevalent questions about selling in today’s new reality and shared proven tactics, tips, and strategies.

How do I enable a sales environment with at-home sellers?

The key to enabling sellers and other employees to work productively and successfully in a remote environment is to establish regular communication streams. Schedule daily video conferences to quickly review priorities and tasks just as you would for an office meeting. Set up a peer-to-peer communication channel for informal conversations and collaborations, such as over a messaging app, in addition regular training and coaching sessions. Offer virtual coffee breaks, lunch-and-learn sessions, and virtual happy hours to build camaraderie. And don’t forget to acknowledge wins at meetings. The goal is to help sellers feel that they are part of a cohesive team—wherever they are.

How do I justify adding more sellers when budget is tight or non-existent?

Justifying the need to hire new sellers when most companies are tightening their budgets is challenging, but now is the time when talented, experienced sellers are most essential. An outsourcing partner that is experienced in rapidly training and ramping up sales teams is an effective way to extend resources. Additionally, remote workforces can be scaled up or down as needed and increase operational efficiencies while reducing costs.

What should our sellers focus on if deals are on hold?

Check in with clients and listen to what they need at this time. Be empathetic to the challenges that clients are facing. Even if a client puts a deal on hold, continue to reach out, share information, and maintain the relationship. When the client is ready to resume buying, your company will be top of mind.

Be proactive in providing useful insights and value. For instance, bringing your clients together in a group meeting where they can share notes and challenges is a valuable opportunity for your clients and increases goodwill toward your company’s brand. And with deals on hold, approach that time as an opportunity to pursue new markets. Be creative: what products or services could be retooled for a different industry?

How can I use data to deliver the right message?

With market needs evolving so quickly, data analytics and insights are more important than ever. An experienced partner can help companies identify, implement, and deploy the right data analytics tools to understand and anticipate buyer sentiment and behavior. Data insights are invaluable for understanding buyer intent and interest across the entire life cycle to drive growth and retention. These insights are also crucial to uncovering new demographic groups and opportunities.

How do I align field sales with inside sales?

A team effort has always been required to succeed in sales. This is especially true today. Sales organizations must effectively utilize all the available resources and be prepared to work in a more fluid model. Equipping field or outside sellers with the training, coaching, and resources to do inside selling maximizes resources and vice versa. From a tactical perspective, an at-home sales model also allows for greater flexibility and more personalized meetings. For example, a field sales team could line up meetings and pass them on to an at-home inside seller within the prospect’s geographic footprint to provide more relatable conversations.

The key takeaway is that these may be uncertain times, but with strategic planning and creative thinking, sales teams can emerge even stronger and well-positioned to meet their clients’ needs in a new reality.

To learn more, watch the on-demand TTEC webinar, “How to readjust and future-proof your sales.”

Here’s How Sales Professionals Can Succeed in the New Reality

At its best, sales is about helping clients succeed. When we help our clients win, we win as well. But these aren’t normal times and sales approaches that worked a few months ago may not work today. How can salespeople survive or even come out stronger in this new reality? The answer comes down to three core principles: be authentic, buyer-focused, and human. Here are four examples of how sales leaders can do exactly that.

1. Double down on providing value

The most important thing salespeople can do right now is ensure that they understand their clients’ needs. Check in with clients and listen to what they need during this time. Contact centers also hold a wealth of business intelligence and speech analytics resources. Make sure your organization’s sales team is aligned with its customer support team for insights about what your clients and prospects care about, sentiment about your company and your competitors, and emerging relevant topics.

2. Think seamless virtual interactions

In a quarantined environment, salespeople need to think in terms of virtual selling. At the same time, individuals have different preferences for how they want to be communicated with and sold to in the sales and buying process. Be prepared to communicate with buyers through a variety of platforms and devices from video conferencing tools to mobile apps, SMS, web, social, and voice. As buyers come to expect seamless and personalized virtual experiences at every step of the buyer journey, an internal flow of customer data and collaboration across the organization will be more important than ever.

3. Maximize efficiencies

Artificial intelligence and automation are invaluable in enabling effective and efficient selling. Even before the pandemic, AI was streamlining data-driven tasks, boosting productivity, and accelerating lead prioritization and data entry. Now is the time to lean into AI to drive speed to value. A buyer, for instance, could be greeted by an AI-enabled chatbot that quickly gathers information about the type of product that the buyer is interested in and routes the message to the right salesperson. On the backend, AI can provide the sales representative with relevant buyer insights in real time while also performing data entry.

4. Be human

Most sales professionals are already used to conducting business over the phone or video. But many people may not be used to this mode of communication. Remember to be even more conscientious about time spent communicating with prospects, buyers, and clients. Acknowledge that they’re busy and may also be adapting to a new environment. Plan out your outreach conversations as structured conversations, with plenty of research and thoughtful questions to ensure you’re using that time effectively and efficiently.

Recalibrating for a new normal

Sales professionals today are walking a tightrope in acknowledging the COVID-19 crisis without being opportunistic while still producing results. Instead of despairing, sales professionals have an opportunity to find new ways to connect with clients and do what they do best—help clients solve their problems.

To learn more, register for the TTEC live webinar, “How to readjust and future-proof your sales” on April 28 at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Work-at-Home Benefits: A Primer for the Move to a Remote CX Workforce

As COVID-19 spreads and impacts work around the globe, work-from-home options become more enticing to keep contact center business continuity customer operations running smoothly. To help prepare an organization for the shift to an at-home workforce to ensure business continuity and employee health, we’ve outlined key benefits of using home-based contact center agents for some or all of your customer sales and support.

Business continuity

When a crisis hits, geography can be the deciding factor if your business succeeds. Moving work to an at-home model reduces geographical risk of an on-premise contact center. A remote workforce is especially crucial during pandemics like COVID-19, where close contact among large groups of people is discouraged, and in some places banned. Moreover, if unforeseen regional macro challenges occur in offshore contact centers, e.g. ISP failures, remote workforces in more stable regions can offer a viable contingency plan.

Significant cost savings

A home-based model provides much more value to a business (and customers) than traditional contact centers, both in terms of cost savings and the quality of the customer experience. Low operational costs make it an attractive onshore option for companies looking to move back to the U.S., and the highly skilled and trained associates provide a higher standard of service.

When moving to a home-based model from a complete brick-and-mortar contact center operation, TTEC clients typically see real estate and equipment costs shrink by 70% and 25%, respectively. At the same time, employee retention increases by 65%, and performance management efficiencies increase by 20%.

A broader (and deeper) talent pool

Recruiting for home-based associates isn’t limited by geography, so the quality and volume of the talent pool automatically rises. Companies can find the best employees for both part- and full-time work from anywhere. And with an average age of 40 and an average work experience of 11 years, at-home associates bring professional and life experience to a client program, along with higher educational backgrounds.

Keeping data safe and secure

Information security is the number one concern when it comes to the at-home model. Often, fear of data breaches prevents companies from implementing home-based associates. TTEC takes data security very seriously, whether our agents work at home or in our brick-and-mortar sites. We have been operating an at-home environment for different industries for almost five years and can rapidly stand up PCI, HIPAA, HITRUST and GDPR complaint at-home solutions. Our on-going investment in best practices, into training, and vulnaribiity testing positions our clients for success when they use our at-home platform.

Playing the long game

Forward-looking businesses recognize the benefits of flexible staffing far outweigh sticking with a static, traditional work environment. When it comes to meeting customer expectations and maintaining productivity, the more flexibility companies have in ramping up or down quickly with a variety of dispersed staff; the better organizations will be at meeting service levels and delivering a great customer experience—regardless of what comes next.

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