5 CX innovation opportunities for financial services

The banking and financial services landscape is ever-evolving. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic causing reduced operational efficiency and profitability in 2020 and 2021, the industry has proved its resilience with its innovation and adaptiveness. However, customer needs and behaviours are constantly changing, with a steep increase in digital adoption and a surge in demand for hyper-personalisation…..

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Interview with Auscontact CEO, Fran Southward

Following a long and distinguished career as Assistant Commissioner at the Australian Taxation Office, Fran Southward was recently appointed CEO of Auscontact Association. She gave this exclusive interview to Matchboard.  At a high level, what is the vision and mission of Auscontact? Our vision is to build, evolve and promote the customer contact community. We….

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The Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing to the Philippines

For companies throughout the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, the Philippines is the first country that comes to mind for offshoring services ranging from contact centre to back office and I.T.  The benefits of outsourcing to the Philippines are numerous and the country has successfully built a powerhouse BPO industry. However it’s important to be….

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An inside look at the National Coronavirus Helpline

One of the most important contact centre initiatives in Australia over the past 2 years has been the establishment of the National Coronavirus Helpline. Managing the Helpline is Denise Tan, Service Director at Healthdirect Australia, who gave Matchboard this exclusive interview. Tell us about the National Coronavirus Helpline – when did it launch? How many….

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Behind the scenes of service delivery at Lifeline Australia

Note: the below interview was conducted in 2023 and Beth Parkin has since moved to a new role at Air Services Australia. Please visit LinkedIn for up-to-date information. Beth Parkin is Executive Director, Service Design and Delivery at Lifeline Australia, a national charity helping thousands of Australians every day experiencing a personal crisis. In this….

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Customer experience consulting – what it covers and how much it costs

If there’s something all businesses have in common, it’s a desire to have happy customers. After all, happy customers translate to a healthy business and bottom line. So it’s no wonder that customer experience (CX) consultants are in high demand, working with executives and business owners to understand customer wants and needs and translate them….

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How one education company successfully pivoted operations during Covid

Note: the below interview was conducted in 2023 and Steve Culpeper has since moved to a new role. Please visit LinkedIn for up-to-date information. Education was one of the hardest hit sectors in Australia during Covid. Through an innovative approach to cost reduction and course delivery, Gradability – Australia’s largest dedicated graduate employability specialist –….

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Trends in inbound and outbound call centres in Australia and offshore

Back in the good ol’ days, when life was oh so simple, most call centres were either inbound or outbound. Inbound teams dealt with customer service, and outbound teams focused on sales. In the last 20 years, the rise of omnichannel and the demands of customers have blurred the lines, and changed both functions completely…..

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Interview with Bizcover CEO Michael Gottlieb on winning with customer experience

BizCover is a market-leading online insurance service, with 170,000 SME customers across Australia and New Zealand. In this exclusive interview, CEO Michael Gottlieb talks about Bizcover’s winning approach to customer experience, and where the future opportunity lies. How does the customer experience at BizCover, differ from traditional insurance brokers? Most SMEs are time poor and….

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Top tender tips for a winning proposal

With face-to-face meetings declining since Covid, producing a stand-out tender submission has never been more crucial for winning new business. A proposal that effectively demonstrates your understanding of what’s required, how you’ll provide a successful solution, and a clear picture of what your solution will deliver for the client, are all compelling reasons to choose….

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Interview with Celeste Carnovale at Hertz: Customer Service, Culture and Covid

Celeste Carnovale is Customer Care Centre Lead, Asia Pacific at Hertz. In this exclusive interview, she shares Covid learnings, cultural differences in customer service, and the big trend in contact centres.   In what ways did customer service at Hertz change during Covid? As you can imagine, when the breakout initially happened, many customers had….

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Recruitment Process Outsourcing: RPO benefits, models and services

In this article, we describe everything you need to know about RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing), from models and services to cost and operational benefits! What is Recruitment Process Outsourcing? RPO is a form of outsourcing whereby one organisation contracts with a specialist company to handle all or parts of its talent acquisition and hiring process…..

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Behind the wheel of Member Experience at Car Next Door

In this exclusive interview with Matchboard, Glen Robinson takes us behind the wheel of Member Experience at Car Next Door (since rebranded to Uber Carshare) – Australia’s largest peer-to-peer car sharing platform and recognised as one of Westpac’s top 20 businesses of tomorrow. What are the key metrics you use to measure customer success and….

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Offshoring and Outsourcing: Definitions, Models and Segments

Outsourcing is the contracting of a service to a third party. The outsourcing industry is broken down into segments, the largest of which are BPO and ITO (collectively referred to by some as IT-BPO). These two segments are estimated to represent a global market value of US$700 billion.  ITO is the larger of the two…..

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What differentiates Sri Lanka for Business Process Outsourcing

Sri Lanka is steadily making its mark as a global hub for business process outsourcing (BPO), IT, and knowledge services. While many industries have faced volatility in recent years, Sri Lanka’s IT-BPM and BPO sector has demonstrated remarkable resilience and growth. Supported by a highly skilled workforce, reliable infrastructure, and government-backed initiatives, the country is….

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61 Essential Facts about Outsourcing to Fiji

Fiji has been called “the contact centre industry’s best-kept secret” and the “new frontier” of business process outsourcing. It may not be the first country that comes to mind for Australian and New Zealand businesses looking to outsource, but that is changing – rapidly. Government and industry are making a concerted effort to make the….

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Interview with Mattie Minas, GM, Customer Contact Centres at Spotless Group

In this exclusive interview with Spotless Group, Mattie Minas, General Manager, Customer Contact Centres, reveals COVID learnings at one of the largest providers of integrated facilities services in Australia. How did the Spotless contact centre change through Covid? The biggest change for our Contact Centre was a transition from a 100% office-based environment to a….

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NSW Minister for Customer Service reveals top 5 digital transformations

Note: Victor Dominello has left the NSW Government and now runs an independent management consultancy. Please consult LinkedIn for further information. He says he’s “proud to be a geek”, but that’s an understatement: in two short years as Minister for Customer Service, Victor Dominello has systematically transformed the way the citizens of NSW interact with….

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Contact Centre Gamification

Part psychology, part technology, gamification is about more than providing staff with incentives. The aim of a gamification program is to influence behaviour so that the tasks required to achieve the organisation’s goals and objectives get done, and get done correctly. It essentially means codifying and systematising the rewards process which runs informally in most….

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Conversational AI: use cases and benefits

Imagine if 80% of all your customer contacts could be handled automatically by machines. Human agents would then be able to give all their attention to the remaining 20% that either have complex issues or create genuine value for the business and customer. The limitations to automating the routine queries and transactions that take up….

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Knowledge Management Software for Customer Service

People have always loved finding out things for themselves. It’s just that, prior to the digital and mobile age, getting access to information was more difficult. Now that technology has solved that challenge, contact centres are capitalising on this behavioural trait by providing customers – and their own customer service agents – with the tools….

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CX Challenges & Cloud Contact Centre Solutions – a quick overview

For most businesses, the question is no longer whether to move their contact centre and telephony to the cloud – as the answer is almost always yes. The focus is rather on what specific technologies they need in order to deliver the right customer and agent experience. It then comes down to finding the right….

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So you want to renegotiate your BPO contract…

1 in 3 marriages end in divorce, but the rate of relationship breakdown between clients and vendors in the BPO (business process outsourcing) world is certainly higher. There are many reasons for this: for example, when new executives arrive at companies, they bring with them change, which may include preferred vendors they’ve worked with before,….

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Accounting for a great customer experience at Reckon

Reckon is a leading provider of accounting software trusted by 600,000+ customers globally.  In this exclusive interview with Alex Alexandrou, GM Operations, we explore why Reckon continues to score so highly in customer ratings.       Can you describe the customer service environment at Reckon? Reckon is known for its great customer service and we pride….

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Behind the scenes of customer service at I-MED Radiology

Note: since this interview, Susie Morgan has moved to a new role as Beyond Blue Support Service Manager at Remedy Healthcare. Please consult LinkedIn for up-to-date information. We talk everything customer in this exclusive interview with Susie Morgan, National Contact Centre Manager at I-MED Radiology. What does the contact centre at I-MED Radiology look like,….

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Call centre and customer service training – the ultimate guide

If you believe competitive advantage comes from an ability to deliver a great customer experience, it follows that the people who interact with your customers are one of the most important assets you can invest in. Even with the best designed processes and smartest software, if a customer service agent messes up, that’s potentially a….

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