Category: Customer Experience

Business, channel, Customer Experience, partnership, Sales

What it means to be a trusted advisor

The most successful sales professionals don’t wait for customers to tell them they have a problem—they help customers identify opportunities and challenges before they become business issues. That is the difference between being a supplier and becoming a trusted advisor.

Building trusted relationships requires a balance of proactive engagement and easy accessibility. Proactive engagement means maintaining regular contact with customers, understanding their evolving business priorities, monitoring industry trends, and bringing forward ideas that deliver measurable value. Rather than focusing solely on products or renewals, effective sales leaders initiate conversations around business outcomes, efficiency, growth, customer experience, risk reduction, and innovation. Customers value partners who help them think ahead rather than simply respond when something goes wrong.

Equally important is ensuring customers have multiple, convenient ways to engage when they need guidance or support. Whether through account management, customer success teams, technical specialists, digital channels, or executive sponsorship, customers should always feel they have access to knowledgeable people who can provide timely advice. Trust is built not only through regular planned interactions but also through being responsive and available when expertise is needed.

To support this approach, organisations need access to a broad portfolio of complementary solutions. Very few businesses can meet every customer requirement with their own products alone. The strongest sales organisations recognise this and develop credible partnerships with trusted technology providers and service specialists. These partnerships allow sales teams to solve a wider range of customer challenges without compromising quality or integrity.

Customers rarely judge you by the size of your product portfolio; they judge you by your ability to solve their problems. Having a carefully selected ecosystem of partners enables sales professionals to recommend the most appropriate solution, even when it extends beyond their own organisation’s capabilities. This reinforces credibility and demonstrates that recommendations are driven by the customer’s best interests rather than by a desire to maximise product sales.

An ecosystem approach also positions the sales team as a strategic business partner rather than a transactional vendor. By understanding the customer’s long-term objectives and drawing upon both internal capabilities and external expertise, sales professionals can deliver complete solutions that evolve alongside the customer’s business.

Ultimately, trusted advisor status is earned through consistency, expertise, and genuine customer focus. It requires proactive engagement that uncovers future opportunities, responsive channels that encourage customers to seek advice whenever they need it, and access to a broad range of solutions delivered through both in-house capabilities and trusted partnerships. Organisations that combine these elements build deeper relationships, create greater customer loyalty, and generate sustainable, long-term revenue growth based on value rather than transactions.

Business, channel, Collaborating, Customer Experience, partnership, Sales

Uncovering the need for Ai in your business

To uncover the real operational need for adding AI to an existing contact centre, you must look past the technology hype. You need to identify specific friction points, cost drivers, and data gaps in your current setup.
Here are the top 15 questions to audit your existing infrastructure and discover if AI is truly necessary.

Current Technology & Infrastructure

  • What specific software vendors handle your current routing, telephony, CRM, and ticketing?
  • Where do data silos exist that prevent a single view of the customer?
  • What are the licensing costs and contract end dates for your current systems?

Operational Pain Points & Efficiency

  • Which routine, repetitive questions consume the highest volume of agent time?
  • At what specific points in the customer journey do users abandon self-service?
  • How much time do agents spend searching internal databases during a live call?
  • What manual, post-call administrative tasks take up the most agent time?

Performance Metrics & Cost

  • What are your current baselines for Average Handle Time (AHT) and First Contact Resolution (FCR)?
  • What is your cost-per-contact across voice, email, chat, and social channels?
  • How many interactions are abandoned entirely due to long queue wait times?

Customer & Agent Experience

  • What are the top three complaints found in your CSAT or NPS survey feedback?
  • What is your annual agent turnover rate, and what drives their exit?
  • How do you currently identify and support frustrated customers in real-time?

Data, Insights & Quality Assurance

  • What percentage of total customer conversations does your QA team manually review?
  • How do you currently track emerging trends or sudden spikes in product issues?

Get in touch if you could do with some help or a fresh pair of eyes on your current challenges

Business, Collaborating, Customer Experience, Customer Focus, productivity

When is a Contact Centre, NOT a Contact Centre

Imagine asking 100 people to describe a Contact Centre. Most would likely envision a bustling office space with employees wearing headsets, sitting in front of computers, and handling phone calls. This common perception, however, limits our understanding of what a contact center truly is and inadvertently excludes other businesses from recognizing themselves as part of this ecosystem.

Yet, there’s a missed opportunity in this narrow perspective. Consider the remarkable advancements in Contact Center Technology.

Technology evolves rapidly, often leaving us struggling to keep up. Just think about the capabilities packed into your latest iPhone or Android device—it’s more powerful than the technology that once took us to the moon.

The ongoing technology revolution brings both complexity and immense capability. Unfortunately, the terminology itself sometimes leads to exclusion, preventing businesses from realizing the substantial benefits available.

Consider this scenario: A business leader or owner dismisses the idea of using contact center technology because their company doesn’t fit the traditional contact center mold.

Remember, every business relies on customers for survival. These very customers interact with your business, reaching out and receiving responses. Are you following so far? Excellent.

These customers are part of the same ever-changing cycle as we are. They, too, embrace technological shifts. Moreover, consider how the demographics of your customer base influence the transition from “real-time live voice” conversations to more digital, near-real-time, or asynchronous interactions—think WhatsApp and similar channels.

Ignore these changes at your peril, because we all know that customers will vote with their feet if you are not able to offer them the flexibility and choice that they demand of us.

This is not about Tech for Tech sake, but embracing the inevitable change that is happening with or without us. 

A word of caution, however. Do make sure that you plan this well and consider the fallout should you get this wrong. And some of the wrongest (I know, but it felt right to use the word) implementations are from some of the largest companies on the planet – why – I can only surmise that they feel they CAN, because they are the 400lb gorilla – but we all know they are wrong don’t we.

So my advice would be to dip your toe in the water and introduce these emerging DIGITAL channels into your NON-CONTACT CENTRE businesses and do it well. Making sure that you are not building them in siloes, but doing it in a joined up and connected way (Omnichannel) that keeps real people at the heart of the changes – your staff and your customers. 

Equally I would also investigate how AUTOMATION can better serve your customers – including Artificial Intelligence solutions using Generative AI. Although there is a place for less sophistication for some interactions 

Want some help and advice – just ask. I don’t bite, even as a Leicester Tigers 🐯supporter 😜

Business, Customer Experience

What is OMNICHANNEL and why would I need it

Omni-channel contact centre solutions are becoming increasingly popular for customer engagement because they provide a seamless experience for customers across multiple channels.

This means that companies have to think more carefully about every touchpoint they have with their clients. An omnichannel strategy will help you create a path for a smooth customer journey and move ahead of the competition when done correctly.

An omnichannel contact centre is a strategic hub within the business that allows brands to provide customer service across multiple channels in real time, providing a seamless customer journey. For example, a customer journey might begin on one channel, such as SMS, and seamlessly continue on another channel, such as a live agent conversation using voice (a traditional call).

Omnichannel customer service aims to provide a seamless customer experience across multiple channels by integrating them within a single system. This gives customer service agents a comprehensive view of a customer’s interactions; enabling them to answer queries more effectively and efficiently, and using other emerging technologies like AI, agents can also receive prompts and next-best-action information on-the-fly.

In summary, an omnichannel contact centre solution will help businesses improve their customer engagement by providing a seamless experience across multiple channels and enabling agents to answer queries more effectively and efficiently.

Business, Customer Experience

Evolving Beyond the Contact Centre:

Embracing Omnichannel Customer Engagement

In today’s fast-paced and interconnected world, the way businesses interact with their customers has undergone a remarkable transformation.

Gone are the days when a “contact centre” referred solely to a physical location where customers made phone calls for support or inquiries. The advent of technology and the rise of multiple communication channels have rendered the term “contact centre” somewhat outdated. Instead, we now find ourselves in an era of omnichannel customer engagement, where businesses must adapt to effectively cater to customers across various platforms. In this blog post, we will explore the evolving nature of customer interactions and the need to embrace a more comprehensive approach to customer engagement.

Old style telephony operators ~1950
Just logging on

The Expanding Horizon of Customer Engagement: 

In the past, businesses primarily relied on telephone communication to handle customer interactions. The term “contact centre” emerged to describe a centralised hub where agents managed incoming and outgoing phone calls. However, the rise of digital channels, such as email, chat, social media, and messaging apps, has expanded the scope of customer engagement beyond traditional telephony. Customers now expect seamless experiences across multiple channels, demanding prompt responses and personalized interactions.

The Limitations of the Traditional Contact Centre Model: 

The traditional contact centre model, designed primarily for voice-based interactions, falls short in meeting the demands of modern customers. Relying solely on phone calls limits the efficiency and effectiveness of customer service operations. Customers may prefer different channels based on their preferences, urgency, or the complexity of their issues. Failing to provide a cohesive and consistent experience across all channels can lead to frustration, dissatisfaction, and potentially losing customers to competitors who prioritize omnichannel engagement.

Embracing Omnichannel Customer Engagement: 

To adapt to the evolving landscape of customer interactions, businesses must embrace omnichannel customer engagement. This approach focuses on seamlessly integrating all customer touchpoints, whether through phone calls, emails, live chats, social media, or any other relevant communication channel. By doing so, companies can provide a unified and consistent experience across platforms, ensuring that customers receive the same level of support and engagement regardless of the channel they choose.

Benefits of Omnichannel Customer Engagement:

  1. Enhanced Customer Experience: Omnichannel engagement allows businesses to provide a more personalized, convenient, and consistent experience to their customers. Customers can effortlessly transition between channels while maintaining the context of their interactions, leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty.
  2. Improved Efficiency and Productivity: By leveraging the power of automation, artificial intelligence, and unified customer data, businesses can streamline their customer service processes. Agents can access comprehensive customer information across channels, enabling them to resolve issues faster, reduce handling times, and ultimately increase productivity.
  3. Deeper Customer Insights: An omnichannel approach enables businesses to gather valuable data and insights about customer preferences, behaviours, and pain points. These insights can be leveraged to develop more targeted marketing strategies, refine products and services, and identify opportunities for improvement.
  4. Competitive Advantage: Embracing omnichannel customer engagement is becoming increasingly crucial in a highly competitive market. Businesses that prioritize seamless interactions across channels differentiate themselves, attract and retain more customers, and build a strong brand reputation.

The term “contact centre” perhaps no longer encapsulates the breadth and depth of customer engagement in today’s business landscape. To meet the expectations of modern customers, companies must evolve beyond the limitations of a single-channel approach and embrace omnichannel customer engagement. By seamlessly integrating various communication channels, businesses can deliver a superior customer experience, drive efficiency, gain valuable insights, and gain a competitive edge. The future of customer engagement lies in the ability to adapt and cater to customers wherever they are, on whichever channel they prefer.

This also means that for many organisations, a shift in thinking from:

“We don’t have a contact centre”, to:

“Yes, we absolutely engage with customers across many different channels and need to embrace technology to ensure we meet the customers’ needs and expectations”.

Business, Collaborating, Customer Experience, Learning

Not quite a public service announcement

What’s a great piece of tech, or app that you’ve discovered and can’t believe everybody isn’t using it?

what3words /// The simplest way to talk about location

w3w

There are so many great use cases for this mapping technology, especially in remote or busy locations. A great use case example for me was a recent weekend break in a very rural location on a sprawling farm with no signs and several different holiday cottages.

We had ordered a takeaway and provided an address (of sorts), which, with the best will in the world was still vague at best.

Enter “what three words” and we were able to provide a pinpoint accurate location that didn’t rely on a vague postcode or mapping address.

I reckon it’s a bit of a game changer even if perhaps could be considered a bit niche.

I have no doubt that there’s a whole world of other technology/applications that I’ve never even seen or used yet that could be a game changer for me or indeed for you.

Why don’t you share your game-changing tech story so that we too can benefit from the experiences that you’ve been having?

Business, channel, Customer Experience, partnership, productivity

New to reseller market:  Daktela UK – One App for All your Business Communications

October 2022: Omnichannel Contact Centre provider Daktela UK announces collaboration with Trust Partner Services, a move which will open significant new business opportunities for a select number of channel partners in the UK.

Daktela UK is an experienced player in the cloud contact centre market. Established in 2010, their senior leadership team have worked in the contact centre industry for over 30 years selling solutions through direct and indirect sales channels.

Daktela have an ambitious recruitment campaign underway with a mission to establish a small number of strategic partnerships within the UK channel reseller community. 

Differentiation is a critical component for resellers, and Daktela enables their partners to do exactly that – instead of being one of several bids with the same technology offer, Daktela is both unique and incredibly functional and feature-rich, across the small to mid-enterprise customer space.

To ensure that they connect with the best possible channel partners, they have engaged Trust Partner Services to guide them.

“We are excited to grow our footprint in the UK with Trust Partner Services. Daktela has the best technology at the best price, and we see channel partners playing a significant role in our expansion plans,” said Steve McSherry, UK Country Manager at Daktela UK.

“Sophisticated customers expect a sophisticated experience. Businesses are turning to their providers to source the right technology, but we understand you need to differentiate to remain competitive. With Daktela, resellers can stand out from the crowd and have a real point of difference.” continues Steve McSherry.

Graham Bunting, Founder at Trust Partner Services, said: “Demand is growing for omnichannel as customers demand a better experience. Daktela helps businesses enjoy a more joined-up approach to communications. We will be working with resellers to help deliver this message and explain the benefits of Daktela. Partners can also bring their expertise with Daktela’s open API, creating a joint enterprise that benefits both parties. This, teamed with their staged approach to Contact Centre deployments, gives ultimate flexibility for resellers.”

About Daktela UK

Daktela UK is a leading provider of cloud-based communication, uniquely combining pioneering digital technology with over 30 years of real-world customer experience. They are on a mission to help UK businesses to create extraordinary customer experiences with their flexible, scalable packages. To find out more, contact:  info@daktela.co.uk or visit http://www.daktela.co.uk.

About Trust Partner Services

Trust Partner Services are a niche consultancy specialising in supporting Technology/Voice/Software vendors’ go-to-market strategy and ecosystem building in the UKI & Europe. Founder Graham Bunting’s experience of local markets, and network, is second to none, having worked at partner, distributor, and vendor levels.

To grow your business, we are committed to innovation, partnership, and a relentless focus on what’s next. Simplification, communication, and localisation provide a clear advantage in any market. We are the company you can trust to help you deliver Experiences that Matter to your channels and customers.

For more information – graham@trustpartnerservices.com

Business, Customer Experience, Customer Focus

The big contact centre disconnect

We’ve all got our opinions and we all feel that we’re sometimes experts in fields that we might appear to know little about. However, we are all customers of someone. That probably places us as expert customers?

So why is it we’re increasingly seeing declining customer service satisfaction, and increasing numbers of customer complaints?

Is it because we have more opportunities to be more vocal by publicly complaining on social channels? And given that they are emotional experiences, often it moves other people to join in and stoke the fires with their own similar hideous experiences?

It’s all about expectation.

We are rapidly accelerating into a society demanding immediate gratification, reducing our levels of patience, such that even microwaves appear slow these days.

Pair this up with businesses constantly looking to do more with less, and it’s a ticking time bomb.

This need not be the case, with a higher degree of awareness within the servicing company, in understanding exactly what the customer experience is for their customers. Additionally, we’re an increasingly digital population and many businesses still struggle on their journey to a blend of digital and analogue services.

So what is the answer?

You might be surprised to hear me say that this is not necessarily about technology! However, it’s more to do with how the technology is brought into play and in what scenarios. But ultimately it’s about the people and process and creating much more personalised experiences for your customers.

I’m here to help, so let me know if this resonates and I can help you and drop me a line ⬇️

Drop me a line
Business, channel, Customer Experience, partnership, Social

Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be

I recently came across some photos and as is often the way, it sparked a bit of retrospection. Thinking back to the experiences I was afforded in a role I held previously when I was employed at global telecoms vendor Avaya – and there were many. These experiences were for the most part shared with the folks working in our channel partners and most of whom I have personally known for more than 30 years. This is going to shock the reader because I know what you’re thinking – you simply do not look old enough Graham! 😉

Anyhoo, back to my reminiscing. The photos that I came across were from a trip we had to the Kruger National Park, followed by a few days in Mozambique. I am going to share these on Linkydink and Twitter for my good companions and friends to join me in the (hopefully fond) retrospection. So no people tags here, but if you are reading and reminiscing too – enjoy

Business, channel, Customer Experience, Customer Focus, partnership, Sales

Physical exhibition events are back it seems

Very recently (well about 7 weeks ago to be more precise), we participated in the annual Channel Live expo, held at the NEC in Birmingham.

We have exhibited there a few times with our partners and had some decent engagement, and this time was no exception. In fact, I would chalk this one down as one of the most successful, in terms of actual potential partnership opportunities for our current vendor partner Inovo Telecom.

AI and Automation

My business partner and I had been asked to participate this year, as presenters for a couple of the theatre topics – “AI and Automation”; and “Creating Sticky Customers”.

Despite it being quite some time since presenting to an audience like this, I was really excited and as a result hugely enjoyed my session, which is a topic I have a particular passion for anyway (thankfully)

Enjoy