Adam Taylor, MD at VeriCall reveals a radical new approach to providing high volume service operations that support redesigned customer journeys across multi platforms.
In the last decade the way people maintain contact with each other has changed immeasurably. With the introduction of SMS messaging in the late 90’s and social media networks in the mid 2000’s, we have more contact with friends, relatives, celebrities and businesses than ever before.
Since 2007 there have been more SMS messages sent than phone calls made and yet the primary method of contact for business is still the phone? Surely there is a better way!
The majority of Contact Centres and BPOs were designed and developed before this change in contact routes took place. In fact, to cope with the changing landscape there has been a race to the bottom to cut costs by moving jobs offshore, resulting in customer frustration as despite the spoken English language being very good in offshore locations, often the language comprehension and understanding of regional dialects are not – leading to poorer customer experiences.
There has also been a move to creating self-service routes that force customers to resolve their own issues and do not provide the expected assistance when things are not straight forward leading to an erosion of brand loyalty.
Research tells us that the most important influence on customer spend and retention is how a company makes the customer feel. When a customer feels valued and appreciated by a brand they are more likely to stay and spend more. The current route of self service and offshore advisors has made customers feel like an inconvenience to the brands they spend their money with and has resulted in a market place where customers will switch more regularly than ever before.
At VeriCall we changed our approach by building the Contact Centre for a new generation by developing our Engagement Hubs, the second of which we opened in Kirkcaldy, Fife in April 2019. Since that time, we have grown enormously as we added customers and agents!
Utilising a blended approach with traditional and new communication channels, VeriCall are able to redesign customer journeys to meet customers new and modern expectations. With a fresh approach to the application of technology we have developed a complimentary AI solution which focusses on reducing customer effort, and routing contact to the correct person, rather than replacing the personal touch.
VeriCall have also partnered with technology providers to develop solutions to take secure payments in Social Media conversations. This allows us to complete the full sales and service process on the customers platform of choice rather than rerouting a customer at the point of payment. Leading the industry with these uses of technology VeriCall are ideally placed to quickly gain market share and reshape the industry.
By using cloud technology and VOIP protocols we are not encumbered by physical hardware constraints. This allows us the ability to scale quickly to meet client requirements, but more importantly, the ability to onboard new clients in a fraction of the timeframes of our competitors.
VeriCall have also diversified their offering by covering multiple sectors. Rather than focussing solely on traditional outsourced contracts, VeriCall have embraced the Directory Enquiries market and captured 30% market share in the first year of operations more than doubling to 68% market share in 2019.
In addition, we are also developing Telephone Answering services – under the brand Pippa the PA – which have not yet been significantly developed in Scotland. Telephone Answering allows us to provide call virtualised reception and message taking services to SMEs and Micro SMEs allowing them to scale without the initial upfront cost of employing extra staff members. By allowing these businesses to answer all their calls, and more importantly capture all their sales leads, we are able to help them grow faster and by extension helping the Scottish Economy to grow more quickly.
The benefit of this radical new approach to customer contact allows us to run the contact centre in a more efficient way than our competitors. This allows us to provide extremely competitive rates to our clients while providing the benefit of onshore UK agents at a price comparable to offshore competitors.
VeriCall is very proud to be delivering a skilled service workforce back to Scotland.
About the Author
Adam Taylor is MD at VeriCall. He has over 10 years’ experience of service operations with a passion for creating solutions that deliver great user experiences and maximise client revenue. His bespoke creations for high volume service operations across multi platforms successfully enable diverse acquisition routes for VeriCall’s clients.
