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5 keys to putting a Total Experience into action

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This article first appeared in the Customer Strategist

There’s a fundamental shift happening when it comes to customer experience, both in expectations and capabilities, but too many brands aren’t prepared to meet the moment.

Until now, it’s been enough for brands to eliminate friction and deliver seamless customer interactions. But not anymore. To truly stand apart from competitors and be something customers want to keep coming back to, brands must embrace the Total Experience – a more holistic, unified experience for everyone who engages with a brand (employees, customers, partners, and other key stakeholders).

But many organizations have responded to changing consumer behaviors by implementing rapid, disparate, find-and-fix solutions. They may intend to improve experiences, but this approach actually has the opposite effect. It has created a set of fragmented experiences for customers that are far from the consistent, dependable, predictable, and brand-aligned characteristics representative of a true Total Experience.

Today’s consumers expect seamless, consistent, proactive, predictive, and dependable interactions – within and across every interaction channel, platform, and business function throughout the entire customer journey. They want a Total Experience, and they want it from the moment they become aware of a brand throughout their entire customer lifecycle.

So, how can brands embrace the Total Experience? Here are five ways to get started:

1. Meet people’s emotional needs

Anyone who engages with a brand wants their interactions to get the job done as efficiently and effectively as possible.  But today’s employees and customers also want an emotional connection with brands.

With so much technology at our fingertips to make processes and interactions easier, it can be easy to overlook the emotional aspects of business. But at the crux of every organization are people – the customers, employees, and partners that make it all work.

People want to engage with brands where they feel a connection. Focus on people’s emotional motivation and triggers, then balance those with their functional needs. Getting to the heart of how people feel before and when they interact with your brand will provide meaningful and actionable insights.

Total experience in action: Earlier this year, Disney earned the top ranking in MBLM’s Brand Intimacy Study, which means more consumers have a stronger emotional connection to Disney than any other brand. Consumers in general are connecting more deeply with brands since the pandemic began, and “intimate brands” outperform other companies when it comes to profits and the stock market, the report found.

2. Anticipate what customers want

Savvy brands know that being proactive is key to delivering seamless experiences. It’s not enough to respond the best way possible once a customer contacts you; companies need to be proactive, not reactive.

Invest the time and resources to design experiences that proactively move and motivate customers to the next best step by orchestrating a cohesive journey – not only within channels, but across them.

One key aspect of this is incorporating a “human” touch wherever possible. Design a Total Experience were the digital touchpoints feels like a more personal set of meaningful moments within the journey. Sophisticated automation and artificial intelligence can move the needle in this important aspect.

Total Experience in action: When a telecommunications provider wanted to reduce customer churn, proactive solutions helped. Associates quickly presented offers tailored to each customer and proactively contacted high-value and at-risk accounts before their contracts expired – leading to a 20% increase in sales win rates, and 56% of customers becoming more likely to upgrade their service at the company.
 
3. Make things personal

Use hyper-personalization to make every touchpoint more impactful. If personalization is the first step toward creating more meaningful interactions, then hyper-personalization takes it a step further by recognizing people’s unique needs and preferences – even within the smallest moments along their journey with a brand.

Don’t forget about employees when it comes to getting personal. It’s important to personalize customer experiences but equally critical to make sure employees feel like the brand truly knows them as well. Crafting an employee experience that resonates with workers on a personal level will make them more connected to their work, more loyal to their employer, and more empowered to generate strong CX.

Total Experience in action: Wanting to deliver more meaningful customer experiences, quick-service restaurant chain Chipotle began using Microsoft Customer Insights to learn about existing and potential customers. Through merging more than 400 million records, the company projects a 34% increase in new customers and cross-sales opportunities, potentially leading to $280 million in annual sales.

4. Do an honest assessment of the customer experience operating model

Evaluate your current operating model with brutal honesty. Even if you have deep investments – monetary and otherwise – in the current way things are done, it’s crucial to take a hard look at whether the processes, technology, and people you have are what’s needed to achieve the total experience of the future.

Similarly, perform due diligence on your current technology stack. A Total Experience is impossible without the right technology, so it’s important to optimize a brand’s technology ecosystem by focusing on cross-platform integration, collaboration, utilization, and custom technology creation.
When implemented well, the right mix of technology tools, processes, and people makes it easier for companies to deliver a Total Experience across all channels.

Total Experience in action: As it moved toward a Total Experience, Schwan’s Home Delivery, a pioneer in frozen food delivery, developed a comprehensive working knowledge of the current state of its customer experience. This included journey mapping, persona development, a review of objectives and insights, and more. Visits to distribution centers, employee interviews, and ride-alongs with sales representatives were all parts of the process.

5. Align with broader goals

There are so many components to consider when it comes to the Total Experience, brands can easily get lost in the minutiae. But Total Experience won’t work if it’s not aligned with broader business objectives, so be sure to take a step back to look at the bigger picture.

Investing in best-in-class tools and people won’t help if there’s not a consistent buy-in from the top down, throughout the organization. Everyone – each team, every business unit, the IT department – needs to share the same mindset and believe in the value of a Total Experience.

When everyone shares the same vision and goal, they’ll be more inclined to adopt the potential new lexicon of terms, tools, and methods that will lead to success.

Total Experience in action: Once Schwan’s Home Delivery had a complete sense of what its customer experience was really like, it developed a detailed plan for achieving a Total Experience transformation by focusing on what was needed to reach the goal and workshopping ways to get there. All departments, including marketing, operations, e-commerce, IT, and finance were involved in the process.

The right partner can help

The benefits of a Total Experience approach are clear: increased loyalty, improved brand reputation, more engaged customers and employees, and higher revenue.

Learn more in the Total Experience Playbook, a comprehensive guide showing what a Total Experience approach means, how it benefits brands, and how to achieve it.

Happy customers are closer than they appear

Smiley face on rearview mirror

This article first appeared in the Customer Strategist

The automotive industry has been on a roller coaster ride of profit and loss in recent years. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, automotive sales tumbled in 2020 before surging demand and a global chip shortage sent prices skyrocketing in 2021. The ongoing chip shortage as well as major supply chain disruptions, however, have led to delays and inventory shortages that continue to upend new and used car markets.

There’s very little that automotive groups and dealerships can do about these global conditions. Areas that they can control are the customer experience and their brand reputation. In its latest Automotive Industry report, Reputation, an online reputation management provider, analyzed online reviews from more than 20,000 automotive bands and dealerships in the United States and Canada and 15,000 more across Europe and ranked the automotive brands, dealer groups, and dealerships based on their response rate to negative feedback, engagement scores, average scores across dealerships, and other criteria.  

For the third year in a row, Hendrick Automotive Group was the top overall ranked public or private dealer group for online reputation in addition to earning the highest sentiment and visibility score among all private and public automotive groups. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Hendrick Automotive Group represents 130 franchises across more than a dozen states and employs about 11,000 people. We spoke with Brian Johnson, vice president of marketing at Hendrick Automotive Group, about the company’s customer strategy, the evolution of how car buyers shop, and the connection between the employee and customer experience.    
 
Customer Strategist: What is Hendrick’s approach to the brand experience and customer experience and how do you differentiate yourself from your competitors?

Brian Johnson: While they [our competitors] are certainly worthy competition and doing a tremendous job, we just stay focused on ourselves. We really start with our people. And that’s Mr. Hendrick’s philosophy. I know that’s a little bit of an odd approach, but it works really well. We just feel if we take care of our people, our people will take care of our customers. You can provide an excellent customer experience and be focused on that, but we choose to focus on providing an excellent experience for our teammates and when they’re happy, our customers are happy. Our approach is leaning into our culture and our core values of prioritizing people first.

Even during the pandemic, we didn’t lay anyone off. We guaranteed everyone’s salary at 80%. A lot of these folks are commission-based folks. And I think we were able to bounce back much quicker because we still had our team intact and our folks have really taken care of our customers.
 
CS: Can you give me an example of how you took care of your employees even before COVID?

BJ: Yeah, we have all kinds of tremendous programs here. We’ve got some of the best facilities in the automotive industry that our teammates get to work in. We provide free healthcare to our teammates. We provide scholarship programs. We provide onsite free training for our technicians. We offer supplemental learning classes through our partners to be able to stay up to date on your certifications.

And we do that across all departments, whether that’s marketing or technicians or sales. We also have finance classes and sales seminars to help people stay as sharp as they can on their skills. We’re constantly giving reviews, and constantly having one-on-ones with our teammates so they feel connected with their leadership and they feel connected with the organization. And it’s just a part of what we do. It’s part of what we ask our store leadership to do. So we feel pretty good about all the things we were doing even before the pandemic, and it just really reinforced that we were doing the right things to start with.
 
CS: Let’s talk about Hendrick winning the highest sentiment and visibility score. Could you give me an example of how you did that? How did you take a customer insight from a sentiment analysis tool and act on it?

BJ: During the pandemic, if it was about a store not having masks available—we have stores in 14 different states and every regulation is different—we were always monitoring that very closely and we used those type of insights to be able to arm our stores with what our customers needed. And we still do it today.

You know, inventory availability is a big thing right now in the automotive space. We’re used to having a couple hundred vehicles to sell on average at every one of our lots. And right now, if you see five or 10 available, that’s a lot. So, we’re constantly using sentiment tools to monitor our business and see what we can improve. I don’t think there’s any secret sauce to this other than we want to pay attention and be the best.
 
CS: How often do you monitor customer sentiment and other scores?

BJ: For us, it’s a daily, weekly, monthly measurement. Some look at it every day. Our leadership looks at it every week and Mr. Hendrick looks at it once a month. It’s a core tenant of who we are, just like, did we hit our sales objectives? Did we hit our service objectives? Did we hit the manufacturer objectives? All of the different things that we measure, including these reputation scores, are a part of that.
 
CS: What types of things have you done to raise your visibility score?

BJ: The [Reputation] platform itself will give you some insights, like, “Hey, you need to focus on Google reviews or Facebook reviews or diversify on different channels, especially in the automotive space.” But again, I think it just comes back to us paying attention. If we get a negative customer review, our general managers who lead the store have to deal with it. It’s not something that just gets handed off to a marketing person or a guest services person.

And most of the time it’s just a communication error. Maybe a car part wasn’t ready, or your car took longer in service, or your sales experience took a little longer than normal. The tool gives us the insights on what to do there. But again, we deal with very few negative reviews and the ones we do get, we require our leadership to handle them, as they should.
 
CS: Would you say that the majority of your customers come to you through an online channel first?

BJ: Yeah, I mean, look that’s the world that we live in today. And I think it’s why we put a tremendous amount of focus on it. I believe that it’s a major piece of the consideration when customers are considering where they’re going to go, what dealership are they going to do business with. They look at those reviews across Google, the social channels, etc., to see what type of experience others have had.

I wouldn’t say that every customer experience starts with an online channel. You know, the touchpoints are anywhere from 30 to 50 different touchpoints before a customer even shows up at our store or contacts the store. But most of it is through an online presence to start.

The days of, let’s hop in the car on a Saturday and go visit four or five car dealerships and find the one we want, you know, those days are long past. People are looking at manufacturer websites. They’re looking at our websites, they’re looking at competitor websites, they’re looking at auto traders of the world. And then once they zero in on a car, you know, we’ve got to nail that experience and we’ve got to get it right. Because they have a lot of information at that point. They understand what it is they want, what they’re looking for, and if we can deliver on that expectation, it’ll be a world class experience. And we do that more often than not.
 
CS: What other challenges has the company had to overcome to maintain these high scores? Do you find that customers are comparing your experience to an experience they might have received from another industry?

BJ: I think every customer does that in my opinion. If you’re doing to go to a restaurant that you’ve never been to before, you’re probably going to look at the reviews and see what others have thought about it. And I think people do the same thing when they visit a car dealership.

But when you visit a dealership to purchase a car, this is something you’re doing once every three to five years. So these reviews are critically important. It is important that people see that others have had tremendously positive experiences when they’re making that decision, especially if, you know, we’re new franchise dealers. We’re selling BMWs and Chevrolets and Hondas, just like the other BMW and Chevrolet and Honda stores are. We have the same products and the manufacturers tell us what the price is going to be. So, our niche and our advantage is to provide that great experience.
 
CS: What advice do you have for other companies on how to maintain customer loyalty?

BJ: I don’t mean to sound redundant but take care of your people and they’ll take care of your customers. It’s been successful for Mr. Hendrick, so it should be successful for any industry out there.
 
CS: When it comes to taking care of your employees, are you doing anything differently? For example, are more employees asking for hybrid schedules or an opportunity to also work from home?

BJ: We have certainly adjusted our workforce to meet that when possible, but you know, our core business is retail operations, and we have to be available when the customers are available. And a lot of times, holidays are big for us. Memorial Day weekend is a big weekend for us.

Sometimes it means working the day after Christmas or on Christmas Eve. But we do try to meet our teammates’ needs wherever possible. We are in the retail business, but we have adjusted, and we will continue to look at it and do what it takes to be competitive and to keep our teammates.

Business intelligence vs. predictive analytics: Turn key differences into advantages

Employee studying data on computer screens

Think fast: What is the difference between business intelligence and predictive analytics and why does it matter? While many companies use these tools to better utilize the big data at their disposal, a quick Google search shows that these are still common questions.

Business intelligence and predictive analytics are often used interchangeably to describe tools and methods for utilizing data to make informed decisions. And in this digital age, using so many tools and techniques can be confusing. Read on for an explanation of the major differences between business intelligence and predictive analytics so that you can choose the right approach for your business needs.

What is business intelligence?

Business intelligence or BI is comprised of procedures and infrastructure for collecting, storing, analyzing, and interpreting data that is produced by a company. It encompasses data mining, data visualization, performance benchmarking, and descriptive analytics—techniques for parsing data to generate reports, performance measures and trends to reveal insights and make better business decisions.

Business intelligence answers the questions, “who are our most valuable/least valuable customers?”, “when is the best time reach out to our customers?”, “when do callers experience the longest wait times?” and much more.

What is predictive analytics?

While business intelligence focuses on what happened in the past, predictive analytics answers the question, “what is most likely to happen?” It is a form of data analytics that estimates future performance using historical and current data. Predictive analytics utilizes data modeling and statistical algorithms to determine the probability of future outcomes.

It provides forecasts based on data science and often algorithms that make use of multiple data sets. Uses of predictive analytics include workforce forecasting, sales forecasting, and brands’ suggestions for what customers may want to purchase next.

What are the benefits of business intelligence?

Virtually every area of any business would benefit from turning raw data into meaningful and useful insights. Business intelligence supports numerous functions across an organization from recruitment and hiring to training and compliance, as well as marketing and sales.

For instance, by providing faster, more accurate reporting and analysis, a BI tool could identify bottlenecks in a contact center and help refine operational processes to improve customer support. BI can also reduce costs, increase revenue, and improve employee satisfaction.

What are the benefits of predictive analytics?

Predictive analytics are particularly helpful for planning purposes. For instance, staffing contact centers with the right number of associates is difficult, especially during dynamic markets. By analyzing current call patterns, along with data from past periods and economic factors, predictive analytics can help by using regression models to predict how much call volume a contact center should expect on a particular time of day or week. This insight can help managers determine how many associates they’ll need to ramp up or down.

Regression models are also commonly used to anticipate customer buying patterns – what product a customer will buy, when, and through what channel. Marketing organizations apply these models to target the right customer at the right time with the right message.

Another type of predictive modelling—an outlier model— can identify unusual increases in customer support calls or product returns in a short period of time, as a red flag for a larger problem, such as a product failure. An outlier model can also be used to predict fraud by highlighting outliers in financial transactions or insurance claims.

A brave new data world

Meaningful insights can be found nearly anywhere—if companies know where to look. Business intelligence and predictive analytics are some of the most effective tools for optimizing and improving business operations and other functions. And understanding the nuances between these tools makes all the difference in positioning a business to succeed both now, and in the future.

Learn more about business intelligence and predictive analytics.

Three Data Innovations Changing the Pace of Business – Not only is BI technology changing rapidly, but the techniques that are used to extract value from data are evolving as well.

Intelligent Automation Tools: Optimize your Contact Center with Intelligent Automation Software – Let’s explore how intelligent automation technologies can accelerate your brand’s digital transformation.

Crystal Ball, No – Predictive Analytics, Yes – Our client was transitioning from a product-led culture to one designed around service.

Marrying Predictive Analytics with Sales for Greater ROI – sales teams need to gain a real-time understanding of the conditions driving sales data and to act on that knowledge in the most efficient way possible.

Captive contact center vs. outsourcing: The most overlooked part of retail CX

Smiling woman text messaging on smart phone. Happy female customer with curly hair is wearing casuals. She is shopping at supermarket.

Jon Stough

As retailers contend with the latest slate of challenges—inflation, snarled supply chains, the return to experience spending—there’s no overstating the importance of having a high-quality contact center. Contact centers are often where customers directly interact with a brand, and their experiences can bring swift consequences: positive experiences can lead to sales and repeat business, while negative ones can turn customers off a brand for good.

Deciding whether to manage a captive contact center or partner with a customer experience outsourcer is critical to delivering a customer experience that is aligned with a retailer’s rate of growth and meets customer expectations.

In this blog post we’ll look at the pros and cons of a captive model versus outsourcing models and explore five ways that outsourcing contact centers can provide your company an ideal approach to improve CX, empower employees, accelerate digital transformation, and improve contact center operational KPIs.

What is the difference between a captive contact center and outsourcing?

Captive centers are those that are client owned and operated and provide resources directly to their organization. The associates working in captive centers are employed by the company, not a vendor. Outsourcing, on the other hand, is a process in which an organization recruits another company to carry out tasks, handle operations, or provide service delivery.

When choosing between managing a captive contact center or entrusting tasks to a CX partner, a few things to consider include:

1. Hiring the right people

A survey by PwC found that 73% of consumers said that a good experience is key in influencing their brand loyalties and 52% would pay more for a speedy and efficient customer experience. These findings call attention to the fact that more is expected of service and sales associates than ever before. Today’s retail workforce must possess complex problem-solving skills, excel in people management, coordinate well with others, adapt to changing consumer demographics, and have high emotional intelligence. In an era when so many simple tasks are being handled by AI, the complex problems are left to the people – so finding the right ones is key.

Finding contact center employees with the right skillset can be difficult for brands to do efficiently. At the same time, it is important to ensure all associates remain on-brand and embrace the corporate culture. An outsource partner, which has experience and expertise in this area, can take the burden off the brand so that it can focus on its core competencies and business mission.

With the right associates, everybody wins: employees feel empowered to make decisions that benefit both customers and the company, customers have positive experiences, and companies’ bottom lines will benefit as a result.

2. Becoming more efficient

Business takes place in the global marketplace 24/7 these days, and customers expect to be able to access brands whenever it’s convenient for them. This means retailers must be ready to offer support at any time, on any channel, in any language. Associates who don’t meet these expectations risk a frustrating and disconnected experience.

While this can be challenging for a captive center, a benefit of process outsourcing is that an outsource partner has resources around the world – with physical space, technology, and staff at the ready for short term or long term. During periods of high volume, such as the holiday season, partner experts and delivery centers know how to act quickly and move to the next objective. Tasks get completed faster and more efficiently, which can improve KPIs and provide cost reductions.

3. Faster and more effective training

When supporting customers, speed and efficiency are the names of the game. An outsourcer can help you get there by training more contact center associates faster and more effectively and business processes and customer support. Well-versed in industry best practices, outsourcers are equipped to use the latest technology to boost productivity and bottom lines – like TTEC’s RealPlay Bot, which lets associates practice with and get real-time feedback from a bot that acts like an AI-powered customer.

An outsourcer can work to make sure retail employees are motivated and equipped with the right skills to deliver great customer service experiences during each interaction. In giving the right tools and training, they help retailers build a workforce that is competent, collaborative, and connected.

4. Tapping into expertise

Too often, customer service serves a secondary function because brands are so focused on their products and services. This doesn’t bode well for those brands since, more and more, customers are looking to customer experience as a differentiator, even ahead of products and price in some cases.

The right outsource partner, on the other hand, lives and breathes customer experience. They specialize in end-to-end CX capabilities, can leverage digital and next-gen strategies, provide operations rigor, have global depth of best practices, and hire and retain world-class associates who serve as brand ambassadors. The expertise a brand may lack in-house can be found in the right partner.

5. Optimizing digital

Not surprisingly, digital plays a growing role in retail. Another difference between captive centers versus outsourced ones is that outsourcing partners can give brands the digital edge. Customers want more digital and technology options, meaning brands must provide multiple channels of support. Not only that, but they also need to understand which channels work best for various types of interactions. An outsourcing partner has the resources and expertise to manage multiple digital channels, freeing the retailer to focus on other areas of the business.

Choose wisely

A captive center may make sense for retail organizations with low customer support volume and simple customer requests. For organizations that understand their core competency is something other than delivering great customer experience but seek to differentiate themselves with world-class customer experience, working with a CX partner is key. The right partner will bring expertise and tech know-how in digital channels, and balance people with technology in a cost-effective manner – all in a way that allows retailers to concentrate on their core business mission.

Omnichannel vs. multichannel support: key differences

Group of friends in the street with smartphone

When it comes to customer service, customers expect fast and accurate support through the channel of their choice. It’s up to businesses to figure out how to best meet those expectations. This typically means choosing between omnichannel versus multichannel support.

And while both terms are often used interchangeably, there are distinct differences to these approaches. We’ll review those key differences, how to select the right approach, and best practices for delivering customer support that results in happy customers.

What is omnichannel support?

A defining characteristic of omnichannel support is that customer support is available across all communication channels, delivering a consistent customer experience. The key to an omnichannel approach is giving the support team access to customer data and metrics across any channel. In an omnichannel contact center, associates can share notes about previous interactions with the customer across touchpoints. It also saves customers time from having to repeat their question or issue.

What are the benefits of omnichannel support?

Customers want fast and convenient service through any channel. Omnichannel support does exactly that by connecting the customer experience across channels and touchpoints, allowing brands to deliver the quick, personalized resolutions that customers crave.

Omnichannel support has also been shown to increase customer satisfaction and retention – a significant benefit to a company’s bottom line. In addition to making customers happy, an omnichannel contact center adds value by centralizing data and tools under one system, which reduces resolution time while increasing efficiency and savings.

What is multichannel support?

In contrast to omnichannel support, multichannel support means a company provides customer support through multiple channels, but those channels are not necessarily connected. In a multichannel contact center, for instance, associates would not be able to tell that a customer who reached out through live chat is the same customer who later made a phone call, since each channel accounts for different streams of conversation.

What are the benefits of multichannel support?

The benefit of a multichannel approach is that it allows brands to offer many support options without taking the time to unify them. This approach could be ideal for a new company that wants to quickly engage with customers through their preferred channel of communication. And if a company doesn’t have high customer volume yet, associates may not need to transition customers from one channel to another or track the context of previous interactions.

So, is one approach better than the other?

The bottom line is that companies must assess their needs, resources, and goals when choosing between omnichannel or multichannel support. Omnichannel support’s emphasis on interconnected channels might seem to be the better choice, but only if a company’s people, processes, and technology are appropriately aligned. It is also possible to start with a multichannel support experience before transitioning to omnichannel.

The application of a few simple best practices helps to make the process of planning, investing, and implementing a customer support approach even easier.

1. Identify and prioritize high value service experiences. Is the goal to give customers as many options as possible to engage with your company or is it to ensure that customers have a seamless service experience? Focus on the experience that would deliver the biggest payoff. For some organizations, that might mean enhancing the quality of service versus focusing on acquisition processes or vice versa.

2. Be agile. Keep track of new software developments and learnings, adopting a more iterative approach to implementation versus a one and done. Capture value immediately by embracing progress over perfection with the knowledge that the experience will be improved over time.

3. Be bold. The benchmark for reshaping the experience cannot be internally focused. Keep track of the marketplace and understand that the expectations of customers are shaped by their best experiences in any space or industry. Making investments to optimize a bad or even average experience might be worse than not investing at all.

Omnichannel vs. multichannel support in a nutshell

Selecting the right customer support can be difficult but understanding the nuances of each makes the decision easier. Both omnichannel and multichannel support enable brands to assist customers via different channels but they offer different experiences. With omnichannel support, all the support channels are interconnected, creating a seamless experience for both employee and customer. Associates can share information about customer interactions across channels.

Multichannel support doesn’t require integration processes and technology, which could appeal to new companies. The drawback is less insight into how customers interact with the company. This could potentially increase average handle times and churn due as associates repeatedly ask for information from customers. Regardless of the support option, ensuring that it meets your customer experience goals and expectations will put you on the road to success.

Intelligent automation vs. RPA: Avoid these common mistakes

Customer service is demanding. On average a contact center associate needs to handle complex applications, urgent customer needs, and all the manual inefficiencies that come with service inquiries. They need the right tools for the job.

Intelligent automation and robotic process automation (RPA) help free associates from simple, time-consuming tasks to focus on meaningful, high-tier, and often stressful customer requests. But even modern tools can be damaging for the employee and customer experience if used at the wrong place and time.

So, what’s the difference between intelligent automation versus RPA? Let’s do a deep dive into the differences between these digital tools, common mistakes to avoid, and explore how they can successfully empower associates.

What is intelligent automation?

Intelligent automation is an umbrella term for several automation capabilities working in unison to deliver improved business results. This includes, but is not limited to, business process automation, intelligent virtual assistants and, as we’ll explore further, RPA.

Intelligent automation is a proactive part of an organization’s digital transformation. Contact center leaders often use intelligent automation tools to automate processes, business operations, and manual tasks, reducing the amount of human intervention needed to complete repetitive tasks. It helps orchestrate keys areas in the customer journey to ensure the experience is the same in every channel.

Intelligent automation do’s:

Use intelligent automation to empower associates. Automation in the contact center is moving beyond cost containment and self-service, we are now looking at tools that empower associates to make better, quicker, and more impactful decisions, as well as scale up digital service knowledge capture, codification, and application, to enhance service quality over the long term by using AI to identify patterns in interactions.

Intelligent automation don’ts:

Only deploy intelligent automation capabilities where it makes sense. Customers aren’t impressed by technology alone; they are impressed by the quick and impactful help it provides.

Deploy automation technology to enable capabilities such as self-service where it makes sense in the customer journey and make it easy for customers to reach a human when needed. Overall, intelligent automation technology is built to make processes more efficient, allowing associates to focus on more meaningful tasks and delivering empathetic support.

What is RPA?

Robotic Process Automation also known as RPA, can be attended or unattended software powered by AI and machine learning that handles common, high-volume, repetitive tasks. Think bots that imitate human work, such as data entry.

RPA is quickly gaining popularity in both the front- and back-office to streamline operations and free-up customer-facing employees to focus on more meaningful customer interactions while also lowering cost to serve and improving customer satisfaction.

RPA do’s:

Apply RPA to simple workflows that can be laid out step-by-step and do not need constant human intervention such as invoice processing, claims management, and fraud detection.

Tackling time-consuming tasks reduces the physical and often mental drain on associates to focus their energy on high-tier interactions.

RPA don’ts:

Do not rush AI technology. It’s important to ease RPA capabilities into your human workforce. AI technology can make their jobs easier but it’s incredibly important to be transparent on how it’ll strengthen, not replace, their position.

Only introduce automated tools when they’ve been thoroughly tested and trained alongside your workforce. And as automation takes over the easy tasks, begin retraining your staff on the soft skills needed for an increased focus on customer centricity.

What is the key difference between intelligent automation and RPA?

In a nutshell, RPA follows a set of rules to automate work that doesn’t vary. Intelligent automation includes RPA capabilities and more. It includes capabilities that allow bots to learn and adapt in real time. Think machine learning and natural language processing.

Deploy AI technologies meaningfully

Intelligent automation and capabilities like RPA are incredibly powerful tools at your contact center’s disposal. Augmenting an employee’s everyday work schedule with automation lessens workloads, increases customer satisfaction, and could uncover new areas of interest for the employee. Especially when they are deployed strategically and with purpose.

Stay tuned as we explore more intelligent automation tools in future content.

To learn more about intelligent automation and RPA

Contact Center Automation: Tools and Trends for the Decade Ahead: In this article, we explain the most important approach to successful contact center automation.

RPA Trends Report: Read this white paper to discover research to support the positive economic impact that intelligent RPA creates for enterprises of all sizes.

Optimize your Contact Center with Intelligent Automation Software: Explore how intelligent automation technologies can accelerate your brand’s digital transformation.

RPA Gets to Work at Du Telecom: Discover how TTEC and Pega worked together to share automation expertise and enable intelligent automation for their client Du Telecom.

Accelerate Digital Transformation by Making Automation Intelligent: Here are ways that intelligently automated journey management can supercharge digital initiatives.

How to keep and engage your top talent (even if they don’t want to come back to the office)

There’s no question: communications and media companies face a unique set of challenges. Employees increasingly want flexible work environments that include remote or hybrid options, but companies also must keep their business needs top-of-mind and keep rising labor costs in check.

Employers face major hurdles when it comes to luring workers back to in-person work. Research from Prudential, Envoy and Jabra show:

  • 1 in 3 workers don’t want to work for a company that requires them to be 100% in-office
  • 66% of workers are worried about returning to the office
  • 77% of workers want more flexibility in how and where they work

But against this backdrop, communications and medica companies still have a job to do. And they still must deliver the amazing experiences customers expect. Much has changed in the wake of the pandemic, but one thing hasn’t: companies still need talented employees to deliver seamless customer experiences.

So, now what?

Look at-home for the long term

If the pandemic has taught anything, it’s that employees want flexible and supportive work environments. By and large, the work-from-home model is here to stay for many contact center associates.

But there’s no need for brands to lose the expertise of long-standing employees, or the seamless CX they deliver, just because those workers don’t want to return to in-person work. A remote work option is a great solution that has quickly moved from a nice-to-have to a must-have for savvy brands. Communications and media companies that don’t embrace work-from-home opportunities risk losing talent to those that do.

That’s where TTEC’s Retain 2.0 solution can help. It lets companies transition associates who previously worked in contact centers to TTEC’s proven @Home model.

What does this mean? Companies can retain top talent who may otherwise leave simply by migrating them to TTEC @Home. And CX and EX will both improve along the way: customers continue to get the great experiences they expect, from knowledgeable associates who have experience serving them; and associates get the flexible work environment they crave.

The right CX partner is essential

For many companies, the move to work-from-home marks a big organizational shift. That’s why partnering with experts is key. Why try to do it alone when a partner has the expertise to make the transition seamless for employees and customers alike?

With Retain 2.0, TTEC works with companies every step of the way through – and beyond – the employee transition process.

One of the biggest benefits of Retain 2.0 is that is works quickly. Employees are efficiently transitioned within weeks to TTEC @Home and set up for success starting on Day 1. Onboarding ambassadors ensure workers are fully supported and have everything they need to jump directly into the work they do so well – delivering experiences that delight customers.

Best of all, Retain 2.0 can move your associates quickly – in less than 12 weeks.

TTEC @Home combines the quality management and security of our brick-and-mortar operations with the flexibility and cost structure of a variable tool. Our partners benefit from the experience and best practices of an industry leader, while cutting costs and improving CX.

For more on how Retain 2.0 can benefit your business, check out our latest strategy guide for communications and media companies, “Send the right message with flexible remote-work options: Communicate, innovate, and retain top CX talent.”

EX = CX: How to create a thriving gigCX model

Gig customer experience (gigCX) workers—independent contractors, freelancers, and other temporary workers who provide customer support and other related services—are a natural fit in the contact center space. Individuals who are looking for a remote work environment with flexible hours are increasingly joining customer care, back office, growth services, data annotation, and content moderation teams.
 
However, in order to attract and retain gigCX workers, especially in a tight labor market, it’s essential to approach engagement and retention with strategies that are customized to fit their needs and interests. Here’s how to engage and motivate a gigCX workforce that delivers exceptional results.

The rise of the gigCX worker
The number of participants in the gigCX economy has rapidly grown since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase is partly due to an increased reliance on gig workers to handle a variety of jobs from food delivery to answering the phone, in addition to more people pursuing gig work for supplementary—or primary—income during these tumultuous times.

For gigCX workers, the benefits include an opportunity to work with multiple companies simultaneously, which can potentially translate into a higher earning potential, and greater scheduling flexibility. Indeed, “heavy attrition is a common challenge in the contact center industry,” says DC Wright, chief transformation and innovation officer at TTEC. “The traditional model is very inflexible which people find unappealing.” An on-demand model like gigCX, Wright continues, solves some of those challenges by “allowing people to work when they want to work.”

According to a Pew Research Center report, “The State of Gig Work in 2021,” 9% of U.S. adults are current or recent gig workers. This figure is expected to grow in the next few years, with some analysts predicting gig workers will represent more than half of the U.S. workforce by 2023.

It behooves companies from across a wide range of industries to consider making gigCX a part of their regular operations. As an on-demand model, it offers greater staffing flexibility; during periods of high-demand, companies can activate a talent pool of gig workers and scale back when the volume decreases.   

In addition to greater flexibility, gig workers are less restricted by geographic limits, reducing the need for physical infrastructures reduces costs and increases efficiency. Companies can also recruit brand advocates or domain experts as gig workers, creating a highly informed and passionate service experience.

Imagine a music store (online or brick-and-mortar) where tier one gig workers field general inquiries and requests while other gig workers such as professional musicians handle calls related to instrument recommendations and technical questions.

Think like a gigCX worker 
On the surface, gigCX work is incredibly transactional—workers are there to complete a task, get paid, and move on. But just because a job may be short-lived on a task-by-task basis, there is still much that companies can do to motivate talented gig workers. The first step is to recognize that gig workers are not motivated by the same things as full-time employees. “To be successful, companies must remember that gig workers respond less to recognition among peers or professional mentorship and more to transactional benefits that support their flexible lifestyle,” according to a blog by Everee, a payroll and payments systems provider. Adjust your perspective on strategies for gig workers to build programs that successfully engage your workforce and promote loyalty in a short-term work culture. Other tips and best practices include:

1. Focus on flexibility
The evolving state of the workforce presents employers with a new challenge: how to attract and retain workers. Small and medium-sized businesses, especially, can only raise wages so much. And so, even ensuring that gig and part-time workers remain loyal to an organization has become mission critical.

According to a 2019 study by researchers at Yale University, flexibility was the main driver among gig workers. Organizations that are accustomed to having workers clock in and out for a 9-5 job will need to reassess their workforce planning processes to identify areas that would benefit from flexible staffing and work backwards to fill those roles.

2. Double down on onboarding and setting expectations 
It’s a mistake to assume that gigCX workers don’t need to understand a company’s culture or the brand that they’re representing. Make it a point to help gig workers feel welcome and part of the company, even if it’s temporary. Providing interactive training, introducing them to internal staff, and including them in team meetings can make a difference. In addition, communicating clear performance expectations is key. Make sure gig workers understand how their performance will be measured and policies that they’re expected to abide by, even though they’re setting their own hours.  

3. Provide regular feedback
Being a gig worker can be lonely, isolating work, especially if team leaders don’t communicate often or provide feedback. Being transparent with a gig worker about areas where they’ve excelled and opportunities for further improvement can encourage them to strive harder to meet the client’s expectations. Quickly communicating over a chat platform to simply thank workers for a task well done can drive loyalty and increase enthusiasm for the role. Another important part of feedback is timeliness. Managers that rarely communicate with their teammates may miss an opportunity to easily address an issue and improve performance.

4. Make payments easy and fair
It goes without saying that workers should be paid fairly for their work in a timely manner. However, delivering fast payments with a nimble payment system that is customized for gig work is still a work in progress at many companies. TTEC’s Wright predicts that eventually companies will adopt a pay-for-performance model through digital payments. “Companies need a platform that is able to track the quality and throughput of each transaction and in a perfect world, use a pay-for-performance model where workers can easily see how much they’ll earn for each transaction and get paid as soon as they’ve completed each task.” The more positive a payment experience workers have with a company, he adds, the more likely they are to choose it over competitors for similar work.

5. Provide transparent tipping
Payment terms for tips are another thorny issue. Learn from companies that have been hit with lawsuits from workers for unfair and dishonest tipping policies and clearly communicate terms. “When advertising gig opportunities at your business, be transparent about material terms,” states the Federal Trade Commission. “Like other objective claims about product attributes, performance, or price, companies also must live up to their representations about tipping policies and practices.”

Measure the right behavior
Make sure a gigCX worker’s performance metrics are aligned with the right results. For a gigCX worker completing back office work, it may make sense to rate their performance based on number of tickets closed and other efficiency metrics but not for a gig worker who interacts with customers. Rating a gigCX worker who answers customer inquiries, for instance, by the number of jobs completed doesn’t reveal the quality of the customer experience. In this case, customer satisfaction or effort scores are more relevant. Be strategic and creative about using performance metrics and milestone incentives to promote the results that matter and reward talented workers.

6. Work with an experienced CX partner for faster and better results 
A gigCX model is only as successful as the quality of the workers who are powering it. But not every company has the resources to attract, onboard, and train gig workers in addition to managing them and ensuring that they’re properly compensated. An experienced outsourcing partner already has the knowledge, technology, and expertise to ensure gigCX workers are prepared to deliver excellent services and alleviate angst for the client.

Redefining work
As the economy becomes increasingly digital and connected, opportunities for different forms of work continue to emerge. For many job seekers, working in a conventional 9-5 job is undesirable or it doesn’t fit their lifestyle. And employers are exploring new ways of delivering products and services that reduce costs. GigCX workers are a natural result of these trends, but companies need the right approach to build a successful gigCX workforce.

Ultimately, the customer experience is still shaped by the employee experience. The companies that understand this and treat gigCX workers with honesty, respect, and provide the tools they need to succeed will thrive in a new economy fueled by innovative work.

How to win back the hearts of your at-home workforce

At-home work, once a necessity during the pandemic, has become a make-or-break characteristic for future career choices. Access to a wider selection of jobs and personal flexibility has made remote job positions incredibly tantalizing. Many workers ask, ‘why go back?’

This leaves the American workplace at a crossroads. Tensions surrounding the pandemic appear to be decreasing, polling from Morning Consult found that as of Feb. 2022, 68% of remote workers surveyed are comfortable returning to the office, compared to 46% in Feb. 2021. But there are many who remain uncertain or adamant not to return to pre-pandemic working conditions. Research from Jabra showed that 77% of workers want more flexibility in how and where they work. 

It’s essential to retain talent who may gladly turn to a competitor. With the Great Resignation in full swing, a record 47 million Americans quit their jobs in 2021.

Here are 3 employee experience strategies to keep your remote and hybrid workforce engaged in 2022 while balancing a return to the office.

Strategy 1: Engaging a remote workforce
First, we must recognize that some of employees simply do not want to return to in-office. In fact, they may rather leave than work for an organization that requires so. Research from Prudential showed that one in three workers don’t want to work for a company that requires them to be 100% in-office.

Inspiring and retaining a completely remote segment of your work population means understanding what makes this environment essential to their success and how to accommodate it today so their career can flourish.

Connect the communication gap
Remote work has increased accessibility for a larger spectrum of employees from various backgrounds. In a statement on CNBC’s Make It, Maria Town,  president and CEO of The American Association of People with Disabilities, said, “Now we know these jobs can be done remotely—and people don’t want to see these options go away the moment we decide the pandemic is over.”

Retaining employees who see remote work as an opportunity to remove barriers begins at a human level: Connecting the social divide that isn’t present in-office. In a Remote Work report by Nira, communication and social opportunities were the top two challenges with remote work.

Inclusivity with virtual game nights, fitness and mental health activities, happy hours and discussion boards can help bridge that gap between coworkers who may never meet in person.

It’s also incredibly vital to maintain individual or small group conversations with leaders and coworkers to discuss employee needs and ambitions without the interference of larger virtual calls that may be recorded.

Note this can be easier said than done, as webinar and virtual chat fatigue are also factors in the remote and hybrid workplace (which we will discuss in the next strategy).

Recognize the nature and needs of remote work
Remote work is not the same as in-person work. It’s an obvious statement but organizations need to see that the perks and benefits of the traditional office place do not always apply to at-home. While remote work in-itself can be viewed as a perk, employees need recognition and incentives to continue a successful at home career. 

This begins with rethinking the at-home schedule. Research from Reclaim AI conducted between Feb. 2020 and Oct. 2021, revealed some of the time-consuming stats behind meeting fatigue:

  • The total amount of meetings has increased by nearly 70%
  • Over 40% of one-on-one meetings are rescheduled weekly, taking on average over 10 minutes each to coordinate again.
  • Professionals average 21.5 hours in meetings a week, over half a 40-hour workweek

Dropbox is acting to solve this problem at its core. As a part of its Virtual First initiative, the file sharing company embraced a non-linear workday approach. This enables employees to choose their own workhours, cutting out unnecessary time that has no effect on a day-to-day work schedule or conflicts with personal responsibilities. It also deployed a Virtual First Toolkit, which shared tips for collaboration, time management, inclusive language and team unity skills.

While a non-linear format may not be applicable for various industries, an important takeaway from Dropbox is to listen on a personal level to the concerns of at-home employees. Remote work has opened the door to employees of various backgrounds to collaborate meaningfully. Sometimes the best perk isn’t a free t-shirt, it’s being to hear your team and skip a meeting that isn’t essential.

Strategy 2: Mix and match a return to the office with at-home work
The choice to return in-office or remote is not cut and dry. Don’t assume employees want it one way or another.

Measure your workforces’ actual needs and desires for digital activities with internal discussions and surveys before being put into action.

Ask them and see how you can balance what they want with operational needs to return to the office. Determine what is necessary to do in the office and what’s ok to do from home, then build employee schedules and job responsibilities around those. Then agree to a hybrid schedule with employees. But don’t forget to have individual discussions and consider the entire team’s impact on some people’s choice to work from home or in the office.

Strategy #3: Bring employees back to the office and outsource remote talent to a CX partner
In some cases, a return to work is the most logical business choice. This decision may be met by resistance, leading to potential employee turnover and churn from those with critical brand knowledge and expertise. But there is one way to compromise so that both parties will win.

Team up with a CX expert to outsource on behalf of your brand with remote workers (who worked for you remotely). TTEC’s Retain 2.0 deploys a safe and secure approach to keep valuable, expert talent engaged and supporting customers  from home, even as others go back to the office. Employees who choose not to return to the office can become TTEC employees working on behalf of your company. TTEC manages the remote staffing, and your brand keeps institutional knowledge and employees happy.

Forge a new future for at-home
Retaining exceptional at-home talent is a balance of managing the right mindset and resources to keep employees engaged and productive outside of the office.

Staying one step ahead of your competitors means making remote work not just an alternative but an opportunity to build on amazing employee (and customer) experiences.

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