However, significant gaps often exist between the in-store service and that offered via contact centres, as they are often considered two very separate functions.   

Understanding the Silos: The Gaps Between Employees 

Studies show that up to 49% of companies struggle with breaking down silos when serving customers through various channels. While contact centres invest in integrated solutions like CRM systems and AI tools to support their agents, these employees often lack detailed product training. Conversely, in-store staff receive extensive product training but may lack the knowledge of wider issues such as delivery and ongoing product quality issues. This disconnect results in disparate customer experiences across touch-points when consistency is key. 

Why the Employee Gap is a Problem 

To thrive, organisations must adopt a holistic ‘customer-first’ approach, ensuring all customer-facing staff are equally equipped with training, guidance, and tools. Viewing contact centre agents and in-store representatives as separate entities ignores their shared goal: delivering excellent customer service. 

Merging the Customer Experience Across Channels 

1. Provide Uniform Training 

All customer-facing employees should receive comprehensive training on emotional intelligence, brand ethos and product knowledge. This ensures everyone can handle complaints, guide customers to the best products, and deliver consistent service regardless of the channel. 

2. Empower with Technology 

Equip in-store staff with tools and platforms used by contact centres, like inventory management systems and CRMs. Mobile-ready interfaces enable quick access to necessary information on the shop floor or at a desk. Ensure that contact centre staff have access to extensive product information and easy points of escalation to support customers at the first time of asking.  

3. Foster Collaborative Growth 

Create a unified team by encouraging collaboration across all customer-facing roles. Conduct regular cross-channel meetings to share insights and strategies to enhance the customer experience. This strategic alignment drives innovation and cohesive company culture. 

4. Integrate Customer Feedback 

Gather and integrate customer feedback from both in-store and contact centre interactions. Use this data to continuously refine and improve service delivery across all touchpoints. 

5. Real-Time Data Sharing 

Implement real-time data-sharing solutions to ensure that both in-store and contact centre teams have access to the most current information. This enhances response times and accuracy in customer interactions. 

6. Maintain Unified Customer Profiles 

Develop unified customer profiles that are accessible to both teams. This will personalise the customer experience and ensure continuity across different channels. 

Align Your Teams for Better Customer Service 

In-store and contact centre interactions can be integrated to provide seamless, consistent, and efficient customer experiences. By aligning training, technology, and teamwork, retail businesses can bridge the gap between in-store teams and contact centre reps, ensuring every customer interaction is positive and professional. The more effective you are at aligning your teams, the more your customer satisfaction rates will grow. 

Partnering with an outsourcing expert like DDC Outsourcing Solutions for your contact centre can significantly enhance your customer experience strategy. Benefit from their extensive market exposure and specialised expertise in customer experience (CX). To start that journey, get in touch with DDC today. 

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Recently, a report from the BBC showed just how important this is, drawing attention to the increasing number of complaints faced by broadband and telecom companies in the UK.  

What’s interesting about this report is that while many organisations in the market offer similar services, the level of satisfaction among their customers differs drastically.  

Ultimately, companies can’t avoid receiving complaints but can take the right approach to dealing with them.  

The Value of Effective Complaint Management 

Customers complain about a range of reasons, and those complaints are often more valuable than you’d think. Reports tell us that only a handful of customers actually complain to a company directly; the rest (91%) leave and buy what they need from a different company.  

This means a complaint is an opportunity for you to prevent your customer from abandoning your brand. Studies show that 83% of customers feel more loyal towards brands that actively respond to and resolve their complaints. 

Complaints are also a chance for you to spot problems that might cause other customers to churn before they have a massive impact on your retention rates.  

Even complaints about things beyond your control can be helpful. If you notice that customers regularly complain about service outages and issues, proactively contacting them when there’s a problem with the service could reduce their frustration.  

How to Handle Customer Complaints Correctly: Top Tips 

Dealing with a complaint quickly, effectively, and empathetically can be an excellent way to turn an unhappy customer into a valuable advocate for your brand. One report from the Harvard Business Review found that customers who have their complaints handled in five minutes or less often spend more time with a company in the future.  

So, how do you master complaint management? 

Step 1: Listen and Empathise 

Listening is the key to resolving complaints correctly. It’s easy to get defensive when speaking to a frustrated customer, but they’ve contacted your company for a reason. It’s your job to get to the bottom of the problem with empathy.   

Train your agents to use active listening practices like open-ended questioning to ensure they understand the root cause of the customer’s problems. Collecting details about a customer’s order history, details, previous complaints, and issues will make it easier to resolve customer issues quickly. Plus, it ensures that if, for any reason, an agent needs to transfer a call to someone else, the customer won’t have to repeat themselves and start from scratch—a very frustrating practice that’s all too common.  

Of course, only if you are in the wrong, but sometimes, all your customer really wants is for someone to apologise and acknowledge their frustration.  

Studies have shown that customers are more willing to forgive and keep buying from a company that apologises for its mistakes. However, don’t just stop with an apology; thank the customer for bringing the issue to your attention. Then, if possible, it’s time to solve the problem… 

Step 2: Find a Solution 

Some complaints are easy to resolve. If a customer is unhappy with the quality of a product they’ve bought, you can offer them a refund or replacement. Other issues are a little more complex. For instance, a service outage can’t always be resolved quickly. Have clear guidelines available for the team so they know how to handle the issue, clear lines of escalation, and empowerment to make judgment calls to resolve issues to the customer’s satisfaction.  

Step 3: Record Their Feedback  

As mentioned above, complaints are more valuable than they seem. They can offer incredible insights into ways your company can improve and evolve. The only way to detect opportunities for growth is to record your customer’s feedback and look for patterns.  

Examine any complaints you have received and brainstorm ways to prevent the same issue from happening again. Detailed data dashboards can be key to help quickly analyse and action such insight. 

Step 4: Be Proactive  

Complaints might disappear when you solve a customer’s problem, but the frustration they feel towards your company can linger. The best way to repair the relationship is to follow up. Send an email or SMS asking for feedback on how the complaint was handled and if you can do anything else to aid them. Maybe offer a further discount or promotion or flag their account to prioritise care should the issue re-arise. Is it something you are looking to fix on your transformation roadmap, why not keep your customers updated?  

Optimising the Complaint Management Process 

Complaints are important. They offer feedback on your product and service and give you a second chance to retain and develop a loyal customer. However, handling complaints well and consistently can be challenging.   

At DDC OS, we offer a solution. We can provide access to an outsourced complaints service team, expanding your capacity or handling complaints management as a whole, ensuring you can respond quickly and compliantly to customers when complaints arise.  

With a little extra help, you can turn complaints from a daunting prospect into something that helps your company grow.  
 
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Knowing how to capture the right data and use it efficiently isn’t just helpful; it’s a necessity. Capturing and processing data still requires significant human intervention; whilst automation (in the form of Robotic Process Automation or RPA) and now AI continue to refine and enhance the process, it is yet to eradicate the need for data capture specialists.  

These technological advancements have certainly, over the years, helped to greatly increase processing volumes and the speed at which they are handled. They minimise inaccuracies and can even help identify patterns. The question is, what does all this mean for the future of data capture workforces?  

The Impact of AI on Data Capture Processes 

Data capture has long stood as a pivotal process in the realm of information gathering. It encompasses the collection of data from various sources (text, images, PDFs, voice recordings, and more). The primary objective is to collect valuable data and convert it into a format that can be processed, analysed, sold, and so much more. 

For years now, technological advancement has been revolutionising the data capture landscape. AI and automation tools have helped to drive an efficient, streamlined, and powerful process. In fact, the market for automatic data capture and identification tools is expected to grow to a value of $134.7 billion by 2032.  

How AI Improves the Data Capture Process

AI-driven solutions offer sophisticated capabilities for the extraction, recognition, and interpretation of data, potentially minimising human intervention.  

With artificial intelligence, companies can: 

• Improve data quality: With adaptive learning and machine learning tools, companies can benefit from systems that automatically adjust processes and improve the accuracy and quality of the data captured for assessment.  
• Translate raw data into insights: Data analysis is a complex process which requires significant expertise. While AI may not yet be able to match the skills of an experienced data analyst, it can help identify data and rapidly offer insights into potential trends and patterns, making the data captured by businesses more valuable.  
• Streamline complex data capture: AI tools can capture complicated data from a variety of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured documents. Pre-processing tools can even annotate key data fields and ensure data is labelled correctly for analysts.  
• Accelerate data capture: AI tools can capture data from systems, processes, and interactions in real time. This reduces the need for employees to spend endless hours creating notes and uploading documents into systems. Real-time tracking also ensures companies can maintain complete visibility into their operations.  
• Automate data validation: Manually validating data can be a time-consuming and error-prone process. AI-based solutions can enhance the processing workflow, using templates and pre-implemented methods to validate and identify data. The right tools can even ensure data is stored in the right place or sent to the correct teams.  

AI and Data Capture Experts: Better Together

So, if AI in the data capture landscape is so powerful, does it eliminate the need for data capture experts, such as data entry professionals and analysts? Simply put, the answer is a resounding no. While McKinsey suggests about 64% of data collection activities can be “automated”, many companies have discovered that the best results come from using AI tools and human skills in tandem.  

AI can certainly help data capture experts accomplish more in less time and even improve the accuracy of data capture strategies. However, data capture experts are still necessary for many parts of the process. For instance, AI can use machine learning to attempt to determine which forms of data need to be captured for your business, but it can’t effectively separate the best insights for your business goals from endless volumes of data points.  

AI tools also have a number of limitations. AI tools, despite their capabilities, do come with certain limitations. Even if they’re trained to detect and redact personally identifiable information from documents, there are instances where important details can be overlooked – particularly where the format of the data source varies or is inconsistent in structure. Some solutions can make mistakes when processing data, and others struggle to process certain forms of unstructured data with a high level of accuracy. Such limitations can have significant impacts on businesses when it comes to data protection regulations.  

Additionally, AI can only handle so much of the data collection and analysis process. It can collect data rapidly but can’t always check it for correctness or convert information into valuable formats, consider medical data or allergen information, for example. The accuracy of this data is essential; mistakes can be a danger to life. Can we, or would we, ever be inclined to trust that process to ever go ahead without human interaction? Many of our client projects use a blend of OCR technology and human agents in a hybrid solution, leveraging both the advantages of technology and the skills of a data capture specialist. For example, OCR might read a form/document/label image of a product, and a human data capture agent perform a QA check to ensure the data aligns with processing rules and third-party regulations and corrects any OCR errors, thus feeding back to the OCR system and improving the technology.  

Ultimately, AI is having a positive impact on the data capture landscape, just like it’s leading to progress in various other business operations and tasks. However, it’s simply a tool that can help to improve efficiency, scale data processes, and boost productivity. It’s not a replacement for human experts. AI should be seen as an assistant for data professionals.  

It should empower these experts to be more effective, efficient, and accurate in their roles than ever before, allowing them to unlock better results for businesses. While AI is a powerful tool for positive change, it’s not a magic solution for every data entry or management problem. If you’re planning on implementing AI into your ecosystem, don’t rush it. Consider what you want to achieve and engage with those delivering that task currently; they are the data experts and will have valuable perspectives and insights into the best use of AI technology and where it can play the most effective role. 

Take the time, consider the applications that can best benefit your business and teams, and make sure you’re leveraging the right combination of machine intelligence and human expertise.  

Why not engage with an expert data capture outsourcer who can help you identify the right approach to solve your challenges and unlock value in your data?  

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The global cost of living crisis has had a profound impact on consumers and businesses alike. Consumers are struggling to pay for life’s essentials whilst business leaders are dealing with supply chain issues, resource costs and rising competition.  

The challenging environment has prompted government officials and regulatory bodies to act, imposing price caps on energy costs and previously offering supplements to help customers in covering the cost of energy.  

What is the Energy Price Cap?  

As energy bills have continued to rise during the cost-of-living crisis, the “price cap” has become a hot topic among worried households. Yet, despite this, around 54% of customers still aren’t sure what the “price cap” is or how it affects them. 

The energy price cap was introduced in 2019 to place limitations on the maximum amount energy suppliers can charge consumers on “default tariffs”. It aimed to ensure that consumers could compare vendors effectively and evaluate deals easily.  

Now that cheaper fixed rates have almost disappeared from the market, the energy price cap is more important to consumers than ever before, with millions of households sitting on a default tariff. 

The price cap consists of various costs, including the wholesale cost of electricity and gas, the cost of supplying energy and VAT. Notably, the cap controls the amount a supplier can charge for each kilowatt hour of electricity and gas, as well as standing charges – it doesn’t guarantee any consumer’s annual bill will be below a certain amount.  

The 2023-2024 Price Cap Changes Household energy bills increased by 54% during 2022, despite the best efforts of government and regulatory bodies. However, in Autumn 2023, Ofgem announced an impending update to the price cap, which is now set to fall to under £2,000 per year for the first time in 18 months. From October 2023, the cap will be reduced from an average of £2,074 per year to £1,923 per year. This number is based on a “typical household energy bill”. For energy companies, the cap may seem like a worrying concept, reducing potential profits and placing more pressure on their bottom line. However, it also represents an opportunity for energy brands to reignite the loyalty of their consumers and improve long-term retention rates.  

The Growing Focus on Customer Experience 

Ofgem’s decision to lower the energy price cap is part of a much broader overall strategy to improve customer experience in the energy sector. Earlier this year, the organisation introduced a variety of new rules for energy teams to follow when interacting with consumers.  

For instance, starting this year, Ofgem will require energy companies to offer more comprehensive service to consumers across a range of channels (such as voice, text, and chat). Additionally, they are demanding 24/7 service for emergency situations, alongside an increased focus on assisting vulnerable customers with payment issues.  

Ofgem is also exploring other ways to repair the fractured relationships between consumers and their energy suppliers. For instance, compensation for consumers and businesses that lose power due to bad weather events has almost tripled.  

The maximum compensation consumers can receive due to severe storms has now increased to around £2,000, up from £700. This change follows a review of how distribution network operators responded to Storm Arwen in 2021, which left 40,000 consumers across the UK without power for more than three days.  

What Will Energy Suppliers Need to Do Next? 

• Invest in preparation: As compensation for outages increases, energy companies will need to take extra precautions to ensure they’re prepared for unexpected issues.  
• Expand the customer service team: Ofgem will now require energy companies to deliver 24/7 service for emergencies, as well as comprehensive support across a variety of channels. This could mean not only hiring and training additional in-house staff but leveraging outsourced support from experts to ensure round-the-clock service.  
• Leverage analytics: Going forward, energy companies will be required to share insights into their customer experience metrics and satisfaction scores. Investing in robust analytical tools will help businesses detect potential causes of diminished customer satisfaction, so they can take a data-driven approach to growth. 
• Prioritise customer loyalty: When consumers look to switch energy suppliers again, they’ll make decisions based not just on pricing, but on the customer service companies can provide.  
• Be ready to innovate:  Leveraging self-service AI tools, omnichannel communication methods and robust AI solutions for insights will help to give these businesses a competitive edge. 

As ever, the utilities landscape is one of change, but this change can be really positive for suppliers and customers alike. Here at DDC OS, we are specialists in utilities outsourcing. We have supported new entrants, challenger brands and market leaders in delivering exceptional customer service and an efficient back-office operation focused on continuous improvement. Why not see how we could help you…  

Contact us today! 

DDC in Utilities  

Our solution offering for New Era Cap involves providing customer services in five languages – which made our multilingual hub in Sarajevo the ideal choice of location. “As a major retail brand, it is crucial that our customers feel the essence of our brand in every interaction, whether it’s over the phone, through email, or on social media,” said Michael Nong, Head of E-Commerce. Our team takes immense pride in delivering the highest level of service to every customer. While statistics on quality and productivity reflect this commitment, nothing compares to witnessing our team in action – delivering on Michael’s objectives.  

With all our clients, we strongly believe in fostering strong relationships between teams, irrespective of the distance between them geographically. This partnership is an excellent example of that; the teams have developed a remarkable bond, functioning as a cohesive unit. The thoughtful gifts they had gotten for one another in anticipation of the trip represent that bond. 

During their visit, our clients had the opportunity to spend valuable time with their dedicated team, observing procedures, participating in brainstorming sessions, discussing best practices, exploring innovations, and witnessing problem-solving firsthand. These trips are the perfect opportunity to further develop these relationships both in and out of the office…  

Beyond work-related activities, we ensured the team from New Era Cap had the opportunity to explore the beautiful sights of Sarajevo. Our colleagues, with their extensive historical knowledge and expertise, provided fun guided tours full of interesting facts, which gave us all a better understanding of the wonderfully diverse culture. Of course, no visit to Sarajevo is complete without indulging in its exquisite culinary delights, washing it down with the local drink, rakija. 

Michael Nong, New Era Cap, Head of E-Commerce, who had the opportunity to meet the DDC team during the site visit, said: “After meeting the DDC team in Sarajevo, it is evident why they are regarded as one of the best global customer experience service providers. Their team exhibits great professionalism and consistently delivers high-quality work. The exceptional customer feedback we have received is a testament to the outstanding service and dedication they provide for New Era Cap.” 

Sarajevo provided the perfect backdrop for celebrating our five-year partnership whilst providing the opportunity to look at the project’s future. Thanks to all the team that made it such a memorable experience. 

To learn more about the benefits you could gain from our nearshore outsourcing facilities, please get in touch.

The good news is that companies recognise the need for exceptional service, with 65% of brands saying they plan to increase their investment in customer experience solutions during 2023.  

The bad news is that many companies still don’t know where to get started with their strategies to boost client satisfaction. As the landscape we know continues to change at a phenomenal rate and customer expectations evolve, it’s challenging to determine where organisations should be focusing the majority of their efforts. Fortunately, if we look at the current patterns in the customer service landscape and the statistics surrounding CX, we can see some emerging trends. 

Here are 5 of the key customer service trends businesses will need to prepare for in 2023:

1. Customer Service Channels Continue to Evolve 

First, companies need to be prepared for the channels they use to interact with customers to change more aggressively in the years ahead. Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a range of new platforms for customer communications emerging around the world.  

Consumers have started connecting with brands on social media, interacting via video, and even using instant messaging tools like What’s App. Going forward, experts predict the lines between the digital and physical world will become increasingly blurred, thanks to the emergence of the “metaverse” and XR technology. “Phygital” experiences, which blur the line between physical and digital with AR-enhanced apps, and QR codes, are likely to increase in the years ahead.  

We’ll also see a larger number of companies investing in extended reality to meet their customers in the digital world. Brands like Nike, Wendy’s and Gucci have already started expanding into these areas.  

2. Hyper-Personalisation Becomes Crucial 

Consumers are becoming increasingly less enamoured by their favourite brands. Customer satisfaction levels have dropped to their lowest point in 17 years, and clients are becoming increasingly frustrated by one-size-fits-all experiences. Analysts like Gartner believe the companies who will succeed in the years ahead are those who focus more aggressively on “hyper-personalisation”. 

Companies will need to think more carefully about how they can transform customer service experiences to suit the individual needs of each user. This will mean not only giving customers more say over how they interact with a brand (in person or on digital channels) but also providing each customer with unique offers, guidance, and support during their purchasing journey.  

Going into 2023, we can expect to see more companies exploring ways to help customers have more of a say in the services, support, and offers they get.  

3. Companies will Leverage AI for Proactive Service 

Demand for artificial intelligence in the customer service landscape has been increasing rapidly in the last few years. Brands have begun to learn that leveraging AI allows them to provide more personalised and unique experiences to their users across virtually every channel. Already, we’re seeing companies utilise intelligent tools to automate customer service requests, route conversations to the right agents, and analyse sentiment during conversations.  

As customer expectations continue to evolve, one key area where business leaders are likely to increase their investment in AI is to develop proactive services. Artificial Intelligence can use historical information to pinpoint trends and patterns and provide business leaders with insights into how they can solve customer issues before they even begin.  

Moving forward, we’re likely to see more companies looking for ways to get one step ahead of their customer needs with proactive support, assistance, and sales.  

4. Automation Will Continue To Increase 

As staffing concerns and shortages continue to wage war on company productivity levels, countless businesses have begun turning to automation to reduce the pressure on their teams. Intelligent chatbots and conversational AI tools have emerged as valuable resources for businesses looking to reduce the number of support and service requests actually requiring human interaction.  

At the same time, businesses are also leveraging automated systems to help reduce the number of repetitive tasks their team needs to complete daily. The right systems can automatically store information, record conversations, and even follow up with customers without the need for human input. This gives team members more time to focus on the conversations that really matter.  

In 2023, these intelligent automation tools will likely become indispensable tools for companies that need help making the most of their human resources. Unfortunately, they won’t be able to address the staffing shortage alone, which leads us to our final trend prediction. 

5. Service Teams Will Invest Substantially in Outsourcing 

While automation and AI will go some way towards empowering companies to accomplish more with fewer employees, they won’t eliminate the need for informed, educated, and empathetic human interactions entirely. As consumers continue to demand more hyper-personalised and engaging interactions across every channel, companies will still need to ensure they have access to the right human resources. 

Since cost constraints and severe skill/people shortages will make it difficult for business leaders to hire full-time employees to fill the gaps, many will begin looking into outsourcing strategies to augment and supplement the workforce.  

For those who are looking to engage with outsourcing for the first time, those returning to the solution, or those looking for a hybrid approach, DDC OS can support you from a range of global locations to suit your requirements.  

Get in touch to learn more.  

DDC OS was shortlisted for three awards: Best Multilingual Customer Service with Boohoo, Best BPO Partnership – Large with Photobox and Best Pan European Contact Centre.  

In what was a very glamorous evening, with appearances including Fiona Bruce and Linford Christie. Guests were entertained with performances of Moulin Rouge and Lion King, amongst an array of acrobatic acts.  

As ever, the competition was fierce, with the best in our industry shortlisted. Along with the anticipation of categories we were shortlisted for, Joe Beal (CCO) presented the award for Small Contact Centre of the Year to Estee Lauder. Huge congratulations in order for all of the team there.  

First up Best BPO Partnership – Large. Big cheers followed to mark a fantastic first year in partnership with Photobox as another silver award was presented to the team. 

Up next for the DDC OS team was the Best Multilingual Customer Service category, and we were delighted to take home the Silver in partnership with Boohoo. 

In the penultimate award of the evening, Best Pan European Contact Centre, whilst not taking home silverware, we did receive a High Commendation – the only shortlisted business to receive it in the category.  

All in all, a wonderful evening for DDC OS and the teams from the UK to Bosnia & Herzegovina and beyond. Thank you to all involved, from our internal teams to our clients who made this a possibility.  

To discuss your outsourcing project with us (so we can enter many awards together!), then please get in touch.  

Until next year, when we hope to be even more successful, all the best…  

Team DDC   

In the UK, 81% of consumers have said they’re planning to shop more during the Black Friday period to help manage the cost-of-living crisis while still ensuring they can stock up on gifts. All over the world, these trends can present excellent opportunities for retailers to increase revenue and loyalty. However, it’s crucial to have the right plan in place to handle this demand.  

As tempting as it might be to double down on your marketing and try to cultivate additional sales during the holiday, the promise of short-term revenue wins shouldn’t come at the expense of long-term loyalty. After all, while 58% of consumers say they’re willing to accept long waiting times and delays during the holidays, only 8% will accommodate bad customer service.  

Perfecting Customer Service at Peak Times 

Peak periods, ranging from Christmas to Black Friday to other seasonal events, can be a double-edged sword for brands. On the one hand, they’re a chance to connect with engaged customers and accelerate sales. On the other hand, they can often lead to issues with inconsistent customer service and overwhelmed operational facilities.  

Implementing an enhanced sales strategy for the holiday season means not only creating the right marketing campaign but also ensuring you have the right resources on-hand to support an increase in demand. More sales mean more questions, service requests, and demands from consumers.  

If you can’t handle this extra pressure, pushing your business beyond its limits could cause more damage than good. In 2020, a report found that around 50% of Brits began actively avoiding companies with bad service at Christmas, leading to a loss of around £1.9 billion for those brands.  

Before you dive head-first into a peak retail season, you’ll need to ensure you’re not over-promising and under-delivering. Ask yourself: 

• What do customers expect from you? Start by assessing the kind of expectations you’ve already built in terms of customer experience for your customers. Does your company offer ultra-fast delivery, convenient returns, and rapid customer support? If so, can you continue to deliver on the same promises as demand increases?  

• Do you have a stable supply chain? Do you have what it takes to continue delivering products to a higher number of customers? If your current suppliers are unable to deliver on-demand, do you have backup options in place? How will you deal with popular goods going out of stock during the holiday period? How are you going to manage fulfilment and ensure items arrive at customer destinations on time? Even if the answer is no to some of the above, you can alleviate some inbound traffic by proactively updating your customers and them offering options.

• Can your existing team members handle extra work? Any increase in sales will automatically lead to an increase in work for your team members. If your staff are already overwhelmed, how will you provide additional support? In-house recruitment, outsourcing partners? Short-term solutions can pose a range of problems.  

Plan for Peaks Beyond the Holiday Season 

While the holiday season may be the most common time for many businesses and retailers to experience a peak in demand, it’s important to remember that there are other peaks to think about too. Different brands have different peaks and troughs depending on their industry and target audience. A sports company might see an increase in sales around annual competitions, while a florist may have additional demand during Mother’s Day and Valentine’s day.  

There are even instances in which retailers can manufacture peaks and demands with sales, events, and clever marketing. Ensuring you’re effectively prepared for the unpredictable nature of retail is crucial to ensure you retain loyal customers. Because of this, simply hiring seasonal staff for a couple of months each year may not be the most cost-effective and resourceful strategy. Could it be tied into other activities? Where else could you benefit from support? Can you create long-term solutions to short-term demand?  

Rather than having to find, hire, and train temporary team members on a consistent basis, many brands will benefit from creating more consistent agreements with third-party customer support agents, which allow them to structure a steadier flow of orders and maintain customer satisfaction throughout the year. Companies could even assign their outsourced specialists to different tasks each month to ensure they’re leveraging their available resources effectively.  

A consistent and holistic strategy will allow brands to manage not just holiday peaks but unexpected changes in customer demand whenever they might happen. Make sure you can always take full advantage of peak sales times without compromising on customer service.  

To learn more about the work DDC OS do in retail, please get in touch. 

So, delivering good customer service must be balanced against keeping costs as low as possible. At the same time, it’s vital to understand and manage compliance with ever-changing industry regulation – balancing a complex set of requirements around the Licence Conditions is tricky – and understanding the constant flow of information from the regulator and changing government policy is vital to ensuring that your business model stays compliant. 

Sounds simple, right? Of course not! That’s why partnering with organisations across the sector that can specialise in certain aspects can be so fundamental to success.   

Why is getting it right from the start so important? 

We’ve been working with energy suppliers for many years and have seen the full range of issues as they occur. Experience tells us that energy is not an industry that forgives easily – It can be very difficult to recover service levels from a build-up of errors– but can you stop issues from occurring in the first place?

The first critical stepping-stone is to try and solve customer problems on first contact, which can stop issues from escalating and means less bad debt further down the line. A customer is unlikely to settle a bill in dispute – so as soon as you can resolve the issue, the sooner the bill will be paid, and the debt is unlikely to escalate, compounding the problem. But how do you avoid those expensive customer contacts in the first place? 

Reducing Customer Contact  

Getting the first bill right is critical to preventing errors from snowballing (and avoids that first customer inbound contact) and means you can build up a trusted relationship with a consumer.  That means suppliers should be taking a razor-sharp focus on the onboarding of new customers. 

Some key questions that you should be asking yourself before things start to go wrong. Do you have the correct data from your customers, and do you know what your system does with that data?  Where are the gaps?  Who is working on the issues, both in terms of preventing them and solving them? 

First things first – have you gathered the right data from customers to make sure you can bill them?  Has the first Direct Debit been collected correctly? Are you actively checking for failure, and is the data you’ve got from the previous supplier correct?   

Getting your systems set up correctly is critical here, too – have you got debt tolerance and meter read tolerance set correctly, for example?  Too tight, and you will get ‘pinged’ with errors and failed bills constantly, and too loose, you’ll set yourself up for disaster further down the line when large amounts of debit or credit may build up in the system, impacting cash flow and damaging customer trust. 

Lots of questions, but how about some answers?  

Granted, we focussed a lot there on potential pitfalls and things to consider. But, when in business are things simple, when do we get the luxury of having to consider only one or two things? The good news is that there are people and organisations that can help.  

As an outsourcer with extensive experience in utilities, we have helped solve many of these issues for energy suppliers. From end-to-end processes to a more modular approach. Each supplier is different, and therefore, so is our approach to solution design.   

Key to our offering is being able to support from both a customer-facing perspective and also working on back office tasks in the background, ensuring everything is running smoothly. It gives us a holistic view so our experienced agents can truly support customers and avoid future contact.  

Get in touch to learn more.  

Countless “traditional” brick-and-mortar stores transitioned to hybrid and omnichannel selling in 2021 and 2022, introducing new ways for customers to shop online, leverage delivery services, and even take advantage of click-and-collect opportunities.  

While softening restrictions in 2022 have allowed some companies to re-open their physical locations, retailers’ challenges are far from over. Not only do these companies need to adhere to new customer expectations for contactless, personalised service, but they’re also now dealing with a different set of threats imposed by impending recessions and energy crises.  

So, what will these changes mean to the future of retail? 

The Impact of Rising Energy Costs on Retail 

At present, the biggest threat facing stores strong enough to survive the pandemic comes in the form of rapidly rising energy costs. Throughout the United Kingdom, energy prices have soared to record-breaking levels, leaving many unable to pay their monthly bills. These huge energy costs aren’t just a major concern for consumers; they present a significant problem for business leaders too, who are already struggling with depleted post-pandemic budgets.  

According to one report from the Federation of Small Businesses, around 15% of SMBs believe they may have to either downsize or close completely due to spiralling energy expenses. With the energy pricing cap set to continue rising into 2023, the issue could soon become a lot worse.  

It’s not just niche businesses feeling the pinch either. The Association of Convenience Stores, which represents around 48,000 stores in the UK said energy bills had soared to an average of around £45,000 for some smaller members. Collectively, the ACS says its members are facing energy bills worth approximately £2.5 billion.  

If government bodies don’t step in to reduce the expenses these companies face, the average UK consumer could find themselves with a lot fewer options in where to shop going forward.  

The Trends Likely to Emerge Going Forward 

While it’s difficult to know for certain what the new energy crisis challenges will mean to the future of retail and commerce, there are some trends which are likely to be important for today’s companies. First and foremost, the transition away from in-person retail into omnichannel and digital commerce is likely to continue as fewer businesses can afford to run their own physical location. 

During the pandemic, many businesses already began creating e-commerce versions of their stores to give consumers a way to continue purchasing essentials when brick-and-mortar locations were closed. The use of e-commerce opportunities may continue to accelerate as businesses look for ways to reduce the overheads associated with running a physical store.  

Outside of the transition to more digital commerce options, we’re also likely to see an increasing focus on customer experience to help “recession-proof” struggling businesses and maintain customer loyalty as retailers are forced to raise their prices. If bills continue to accelerate for retail stores, there’s a good chance the cost of common products will also rise to ensure these businesses can stay open. Unfortunately, many consumers will quickly abandon a store with rising prices.  

Fortunately, better customer service could be the answer. According to one study by Ipsos, around 70% of women and 75% of men say they’re more likely to continue buying products from brands even after they raise their prices, if they feel “valued” by the company.  

Ipsos isn’t the only group to establish the benefits of maintaining high levels of customer experience in an economic downturn either. Leading analysts like McKinsey and Forrester have found customer experience leaders have 3 times higher total returns than their counterparts during difficult periods.  

What Does the Future Hold for Retail? 

With economic uncertainty on the rise, along with business energy bills, retail companies have a number of challenges to deal with in the pipeline. However, there may still be ways for these companies to protect themselves. Embracing new forms of digital commerce and doubling down on excellent customer service will give more organisations hope for the future.