This year the USMAART team attended the Call & Contact Centre Expo 2023 at the Excel in London. The event showcases the latest and most effective technologies, strategies and advancements to call and contact centre professionals and those in IT, general management, HR, marketing and operations, who are looking to excel in customer engagement.

We got to witness the latest trends that are shaping the future of call and contact centres through outstanding seminars and panel debates. Over 120 leading exhibitors were exhibiting and over 3500 professionals attended. The event was truly an insightful collaboration in to how the future of call and contact centres look. From the implementation of AI and Chat Bots to how to unify communications throughout the contact centre and new technologies to support contact centres, there was not a stone unturned.

The USMAART team were thrilled to attend this expo as a visitor and to catch up with old colleagues, friends and associates. There is something special about an in-person interaction that cannot be replicated virtually. The meaningful connections made at events like this are invaluable. It was incredible to see some of our peers and partners exhibiting such as DDC Outsourcing Solutions, CXFO and CCF.

Day 1 kicked off with a lively panel discussion lead by Martin Teasdale from Get out of Wrap. This panel was attended by Jo Garland from Webhelp, Sandrea Morgan from Oner Active and Danny Wareham from Firgun. The panel discussion was on ‘Cultivating Commitment: Building Culture, Retention and Development’ and the panel explored how investing in employee development initiatives can elevate customer experience, drive loyalty and ultimately boost business success.

Martin asked the panel “How do you see the importance around culture, retention and development in contact centres?” Sandrea answered this by saying, “Post Covid contact centre leaders are being forced to think about what wellbeing really means- it’s something you have to live and breath in your team – in order to keep great people, it’s more investments in training and development and making sure the team have the best tools to succeed.”

The discussion shifted to a different element of the contact centre, recruitment. Martin asked the panel, “Do you think recruitment processes have changed post covid?” Jo answered this by saying, “Yes- companies now must pitch in a better way to attract the right agent. Now you have to really connect with people and make them want to be a part of your business, there’s a few ways to do this; such as having existing agents involved in your recruitment process. They are the ones who can show potential agents what it’s really like to work in your business.”

The next workshop we headed too was delivered by Chris Agnus from 8×8 who addressed ‘The Role of Humans in An AI Enabled Contact Centre’. This was not only a very popular topic of discussion throughout this expo, but a highly intuitive presentation delivered by Chris. He spoke a lot around the reason as to why agents quit and what can be done to minimise this, he also said “41% of contact centre leaders said increasing support volume is their number one challenge within their organisation- ultimately making it harder for agents to succeed.” He discussed a pivotal point surrounding the speculation that AI will replace agents and said, “tomorrows agent has to be empathetic, critical thinkers, multi taskers and multi skilled; the best way to value from this is to combine AI interface into the workplace but not to replace the agents.”

Chris had some very fascinating statistics throughout this whole presentation but a standout one was that “99% of agents want to see more aspects of phone calls automated. Agents were encouraging AI to relieve them from their workload to allow them to focus on other tasks within their role.” The presentation moved on to exploring the actual productivity of AI and real-world examples, “94% of businesses using AI are already seeing improved productivity, 92% save time resolving customer issues and 74% said it increases revenue.”

We rounded up the day by watching Keith Gait from CX Foundation deliver a presentation on ‘Shaping Tomorrow’s Workforce- The Agent of the Future’. Keith had a lot of points that left the audience with a lot of food for thought but a standout one was that “50% of contacts will be dealt with by AI in 7 years. The future is a hybrid model and consists of humans being supported by tech, not replaced by tech.” This was a common theme throughout the menagerie of presentations, workshops and panels we watched; the collaboration between humans and AI as opposed to the takeover of AI. We wrapped up the day with a series of networking drinks with colleagues, friends, and associates from all over the globe. The Call and Contact Centre Expo 2023 did an outstanding job of bringing everyone together.

The USMAART team kicked off day 2 of the Call and Contact Centre Expo with a presentation delivered by Wayne Mitchell from EE on ‘Is CSAT Possible Without ESAT- Leveraging Automation to Enhance Employee Engagement’.

Wayne made some insightful points around the fact that employers should trust their employees in regard to flexitime and flexiholidays. He discussed the implementations they had made within their own company regarding this and said “it’s not empowering to an individual to be told when they need a break, we are all adults. All we can do is encourage them to be mindful of their health and wellbeing and take breaks as and when they need it.”

We rounded off day 2 by watching the final presentation of the day ‘Does TikTok Hold The Secrets To Maximising Customer Satisfaction’ delivered by Saurav Choprah from 5minsAI. In the world we live in where TikTok has reached 1bn users two times faster than any other app, the implementation of workplace training in a TikTok format was certainly an interesting concept. Saurav stated that “Learning and training on TikTok is already very popular…the hashtag ‘Learn on TikTok’ has 817bn views.”

Saurav explained to the audience how by 2025 “64% of the labour force will be Gen Z or Millennial, so we have to adapt as employers,” and “micro learning has a 50-80% monthly engagement rate and a 6-10 X higher repeat usage rate.”

Overall, the Call and Contact Centre Expo 2023 was a truly insightful and captivating event. It allowed us to catch up with colleagues and associates from all over the globe and meet new people within the industry. The invaluable experience of in person conversations and dinners is truly good for the soul. We look forward to attending again next year.

If you missed us there and would like to arrange a meeting please contact sadiq@usmaart.com.

#CCCE23 #Outsourcing #BPOs