Succesvolle inspiratiesessie

Our colleague Menno Leenart opened the session in which we dove into this afternoon’s theme ‘Do not call me’ with various speakers. An approach that plays a role in many organizations because of the costs involved in telephone contact. But when (potential) customers run into something and can’t solve the problem themselves, they want contact. And especially with urgent and complex questions, they prefer a real conversation, i.e. the telephony channel.

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Endre Davids from ​​Seamly told participants about the world of conversational technology. What can you do with voice in your customer service and how do you ensure that customer contact is set up as optimally as possible for customers, organization and employees? In such a way that customers are less affected by disadvantages such as opening hours, difficult IVRs, unnecessary connections, long queues and restrictions on being able to arrange things themselves. And organizations are less confronted with challenges such as the shortage in the labor market, the higher expectations of customers and the required training of employees.

At Seamly they developed a conversational interface for this, in which they look at how best to use this technology for each company. This depends on several factors.

Endre talked about six applications of using voice in customer service and showed several examples of this. A chatbot uses speech-to-text and text-to-speech to answer various questions from the customer before a call reaches an agent. This way, organizations can easily tackle the aforementioned disadvantages and challenges and increase customer satisfaction while reducing costs at the same time.

Where Endre focused on developments in inbound customer contact, ​Tibout Hemmes

of the Nationale Postcode Lotterij/Vriendenloterij (National Postcode Lottery/Friends Lottery) focused on outbound customer contact (telemarketing). He started his story with the results of the DDMA Dutch telemarketing benchmark of 2022 from his role in various committees at the DDMA (Data-driven marketing association).

This benchmark shows that more than half (51%) of the consumers selected for an outbound telemarketing campaign are reached. 1 in 5 of the consumers reached (18%) respond to the offer and 4% want to be able to indicate by means of the right of objection that they no longer wish to be called. The fact that many people are happy to receive a call was remarkable, also for Tibout and those present. It’s great that the benchmark has made this so transparent.

Tibout also sees this reflected in practice in the telemarketing campaigns of the Vriendenloterij. Especially now that the Vriendenloterij informs people in advance by email that they will soon be called. This gives people the opportunity to indicate when it suits them best. Similar to the emails sent by couriers about when a package will be delivered.

Since the Vriendenloterij started doing this, the conversion has increased by up to 10% and the number of registrations for the right of objection has decreased by up to 20%. Calling is therefore more appreciated when people know what to expect.

Voice is also a hot topic at ​Talkdesk. In recent years, the company has developed various innovations to support contact centers in this field. Jordi van Lent took a closer look at conversational AI during his session. Customers are making increasingly higher demands on companies and by using AI in a smart way you can continuously improve that customer experience.

Many customer services already use AI and companies are increasingly understanding the risks they run when they don’t use AI, especially in the long term. Without the use of new technology you can’t continue to provide the same quality and attention to every customer. That’s why the various Talkdesk AI products aim at helping contact centers do their work faster and more efficiently.

Together with the customer, they define the important and often customary ‘jobs-to-be-done’, i.e. which customer problems companies want to solve with the help of AI. For example, the Talkdesk AI tools can be used to improve self-service, identify the causes of customer problems and help agents solve problems faster and better. And thus contribute to the improvement of important contact center KPIs.

Where the internet was purely one-way traffic in the beginning, it has become more interactive and personal in recent years. In the last session,  ​​Ivo Wander from ​​Dapper-the growth agency discussed this development and the possibilities that Web 3.0 provides us today and in the future. The customer journey will be leading for systems and strategy. And systems are set up based on the behavior of the customer.

There are however some challenges to solve to achieve this. Think of certain expertise and investments that are required to implement new technological developments such as AI, finding the balance between human interaction and automatic processes, increasing pressure on the security of personal data due to more data being collected and stored, and the costs involved in the development of such new technologies.

But this is offset by important benefits such as increased loyalty and satisfaction because products and services are more in line with customer preferences, increased customer satisfaction because automation and AI ensure faster handling of questions and complaints, and the competitive advantage of companies that are already using AI.

After all the knowledge sessions, there was a short quiz, in which some important points from the various sessions were repeated. The winner walked off with a retro brass rotary phone. Following that round-up, it was time to eat, chat and network on our terrace with a view of the harbor. The BBQ and the evening sun, together with all those present, created a wonderful atmosphere, which we look back on with a smile!