Look who’s getting married – Outsourcing Relationships

An outsourcing contract is like a marriage contract. It doesn’t necessarily define the success of the relationship, but it does go a long way in facilitating it. And like a marriage the relationship should be allowed to grow and evolve over time. Outsourcing deals are becoming more and more complex and dynamic, requiring effective governance …

Employer Brand-led cultural change

A strong employer brand encourages recruitment of quality talent and builds effective employee engagement and employee retention. Engaged and committed employees are the vital ingredient in creating quality customer experiences. The term “employer brand” came about during the mid 90’s. It now covers a range of strategies and activities to enhance the reputation of an …

Smart places and the customer experience

The creation of smart places has become an indispensable feature of the customer experience. For some time, hotels, airports, stores, entertainment venues and other location based brands have utilised mobile and digital technology to measure and analyse the traffic patterns of people. IoT (Internet of Things) is expected to accelerate the growth and evolution of …

Investing in technology: Fad or future?

One of the biggest challenges for any organisation today is knowing what technology to invest in. After people, technology is the biggest investment an organisation can make. With new technology constantly being touted as the “next big thing” to transform the customer experience, it is hard to know what technology will have a positive impact …

Competing in the experience economy

At the heart of the customer experience is the concept that people no longer buy products or services. They are, in fact, looking for outcomes and experiences. The brands they are loyal to consistently provide them with the outcomes they desire. It’s something that digital natives such as AirBnB and Netflix understand. It’s something, however, …

Are contact centres measuring the ‘right’ things?

Measurement has always been important to the contact centre industry and over the last 15 years the way we measure and what we measure has evolved and matured. In the past, we focused on marrying efficiency-based activities, like call durations, with effectiveness measures, like first call resolution to measure our performance. Today, with more channels …

Customer journey maps – From the outside looking in

Do your customer journey maps truly represent your customer’s experience or your own assumptions on what your customer’s experience? For journey maps to be effective, brands need to deploy in depth qualitative techniques that offer true insight into the customer’s experience. Customer journey mapping has become a critical component in redesigning the customer experience. Yet, …