The future of work and contact centers

At British Telecom (BT) hybrid working has been recognized since the 1990s, however, it was not until 2020 that it became central to business continuity across the board. Witnessing a rapid change taking place, the telco’s principal innovation partner Dr Nicola J. Millard embarked on a data gathering project to gauge what was happening and what it would mean for CX.  

Millard shared her findings with CX Network ahead of her day two session at CXN Live: Contact Centers 2022.  

Surveying CX agents during a crisis 

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, Millard surveyed 300 agents in the US, UK and India with the resulting data confirming that agents, team leaders and managers were struggling. Responding to the trends uncovered here, Millard conducted a second, longitudinal study, with 40 UK-based agents, managers and team leaders to see how their sentiment was evolving.  

This research was conducted over a 12-month period and confirmed a series of positive trends such as increased perceptions of productivity, reduced commuting costs, more time flexibility and, crucially for some, better work/life balance.  

However, in step with her hypothesis, it was not all good news and Millard saw that positives were counterbalanced by negatives. Some respondents, particularly those in management, reported a worse work/life balance and a lack of ‘communities of coping’ in the face of more complex and emotive contacts. Millard said they also noted “a lack of buzz – and birthday cakes – and difficulties with new joiner induction and training”. 

Managers were anxious about managing hybrid teams and go-to collaboration tools were hindered by the development of an open and honest sharing culture. Most respondents enjoyed the autonomy and trust of working in a more flexible way, however, one-size does not fit all in a diverse workforce.  

“Admittedly, this hasn’t been ‘normal’ working from home as many people didn’t do it voluntarily, but we’ve been able to gather lots of data to show what worked, what didn’t and, critically, what might be the best direction for the future of work and the contact center,” she said. 

Tools for the task

Many see technology as the answer to such challenges and, when applied to contact centers, Millard’s top tools are based on the “holy trinity” of cloud, connectivity and collaboration – all of which have been essential to making hybrid work a success. 

“Many contact centers were also held back by concerns about security – which is also vital to get right. Over and above all that, a good chair is a must,” Millard notes.  

In addition to the expertise that comes with being a principal innovation partner for a major national telco, Millard describes herself as a futurologist. Bringing this mindset to her research, what do her finding say about contact centers in a hybrid working world, that still expects pre-pandemic levels of CX?

The answer is increasingly emotive and complex demands, which will call for greater innovation – and no excuses.

“Expectations of customer experience have bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, so using the pandemic as an excuse for bad service will not wash with customers now – even though [the pandemic] hasn’t gone away,” she remarks. 

“Faced with complex and emotive demand, contact centers are having to be innovative. Not all these innovations have worked, so having the humility to admit that this is the case and learning from mistakes is key to future progress.” There are also new technologies, for example, proactive service that can push some of the demand out of the contact center, and such solutions will come into their own over the coming years and decades. 

“We could see augmented reality for remote diagnostics and, pushing further out into the future, customer experience delivery in the metaverse using photorealistic avatars,” Millard concludes.