Here, Business Systems Group (BSL) Head of Consulting Hamish Cliff provides a masterclass on how to differentiate and gain a competitive edge in the thriving and hotly contested contact centre arena.
BSL’s success in the CCaaS space rests largely on the blend of a rich, highly experienced heritage and technological innovation, according to Cliff. He says BSL’s main differentiator is its team’s pedigree and hands-on experience in all key operational areas, and a focus on bespoke outcomes. “Our experts have direct, real world experience in contact centres, covering interaction management, workforce management, quality management, analytics as well as sales and customer service,” he explained. “This allows us to not only understand our clients’ challenges but also bring the technology to life for them. Importantly, as a vendor agnostic provider we offer unbiased, tailored recommendations.”
As well as its sharp focus on delivering an outcome-driven value bonus to customers BSL also has its own in-house development team and IP. The most recent development is a digital customer engagement platform with a deployment tool that enables users to leverage a range of AI-based technologies in the contact centre and customer engagement space.
“This platform integrates key orchestration features, conversational AI and analytics, and is designed to work seamlessly with generative AI, large language models (LLM), natural language understanding (NLU) and various data sources,”stated Cliff. “It allows clients to combine their in-house language models, datasets and systems with the most appropriate technologies, ensuring maximum accuracy, security and automation while optimising costs.”
Cliff explained that the platform spans all commonly used channels and modes, supports predictive and proactive outreach to customers and offers agent assistance. “Our capabilities have been developed in-house, allowing us to provide tailored, high value and differentiated solutions without the need to acquire external businesses for these skills,” he added.
BSL’s expertise particularly comes into play when tackling the three biggest obstacles to realising customer value, pointed out Cliff. He identified the first major challenge to optimising contact centre solutions as working practices and adapting to technology change. “Organisations need to adopt flexible approaches that enable safe experimentation, testing, learning and continuous optimisation,” he commented. “The ability to iterate and improve based on real world use is crucial.”
Our capabilities have been developed in-house, allowing us to provide tailored, high value and differentiated solutions
Focusing on outcomes, not just technology, is the second imperative. “It’s essential for organisations to maintain their focus on desired business outcomes, continuously assessing progress,” added Cliff. “And being brave enough to pivot or change course when necessary – whether something isn’t working or is delivering unexpected value – is important.”
The third area to be addressed is strategic alignment and scalability, noted Cliff, adding that a lack of strategic direction or misalignment across functional areas (customer, contact centre and technology for example) can hinder optimisation efforts. “Also, many organisations struggle to scale effectively leading to performance issues and service disruptions,” he said.
“To overcome these barriers we place significant value on creativity and thought leadership and continually challenge ourselves to improve. We are focused on working with clients on an ongoing basis to make sure they get the return on their investment as well as helping them achieve their business objectives, or address operational pain points.”
Cliff forecasts significant growth in the solutions offered by BSL, particularly those with an emphasis on AI-based technologies. “Conversational AI-powered solutions and advanced agent assistance tools are some of the fastest growing areas, along with predictive and proactive solutions that pre-empt and avoid customer issues before they arise,” he added. “These technologies are gaining traction and various market analysts predict further growth over the next five years.”
The UK contact centre market is healthy and growing, driven by AI, automation and cloud-based solutions, with a focus on enhancing customer experience and reducing costs. “There’s rising interest in digital-only or agentless models, with AI-powered voice solutions and virtual assistants seeing widespread adoption,” observed Cliff.
“At the same time, the value of human support, especially in the voice channel, is being recognised as automation reduces low value contacts, enabling agents to focus on more complex interactions. But despite these tech advancements, traditional challenges like high wait times and low first contact resolution (FCR) remain, prompting organisations to seek innovative ways to manage contact volumes and improve satisfaction.”
This trend is not driving an increase in overall end user tech investment, noted Cliff, but a shift in focus. “Organisations are looking for greater flexibility and scalability leading to continued adoption of cloud-based solutions,” he commented. “While there is still demand for core contact centre capabilities such as traditional voice and workforce management, the focus is also shifting towards more advanced technologies. For example, investing in automation, self-service and conversational AI to help unlock greater value from voice interactions.”
BSL has a strong track record of delivering contact centre solutions across multiple verticals, but it has a particular focus on regulated sectors like financial services, utilities, retail and the public sector. “Security is increasingly a priority for all organisations, especially those adopting generative AI solutions where safeguarding data is critical,” commented Cliff.
“Cyber, data security and regulatory compliance are all core to our proposition, which has a strong heritage in the monitoring and compliance solutions market. Our voice recording, capture and management technologies are trusted by some of the largest financial institutions, contact centres and public sector organisations globally.”
Key points...
• BSL’s main differentiator is its team’s hands-on real world experience in all key operational areas.
• BSL’s capabilities are developed in-house, allowing it to provide tailored, high value and differentiated solutions.
• The three barriers to CCaaS optimisation are working practices and adapting to technology change; focusing on outcomes, not just technology; and strategic alignment and scalability.
• Working with customers on an ongoing basis to make sure they realise true RoI is key to overcoming these challenges.
• Conversational AI-powered technology, advanced agent assistance tools, along with predictive and proactive solutions are gaining the most traction.
• End users are not significantly increasing their technology spend but they are shifting their focus onto greater flexibility and scalability, driving uptake of cloud-based solutions.
• Cyber, data security and regulatory compliance are all core to BSL’s proposition.