How to manage surge in your contact centre

Every contact centre leader knows that forecasts don’t always go to plan – from product recalls to data breaches, pandemics and PR disasters, there are a hundred reasons why it makes sense to plan for unplanned (as well as planned) contact volume spikes.  The alternative is to face the wrath of the public and your….

Read more

Best practices in using telephone interpreter services

With so many Australians not speaking English at home, interpreter services play a key role in facilitating communication with Government and business. We sat down with Chris Ngo, Chief Operating Officer, ONCALL Interpreters & Translators, to find out more about this industry and how it has evolved. In which contexts are telephone interpreter services most….

Read more

How Simply Energy is driving seamless CX

For more than 20 years, Terence Alvares has been transforming customer operations in market-leading organisations. At fast growing energy retailer, Simply Energy, Terence is utilising seamless CX to catalyse innovation. In this interview, find out how. Could you provide an overview of your remit as GM, Operations at Simply Energy? I report to the CEO….

Read more

Building a service strategy to support vulnerable customers

This white paper examines the role brands can play to support customer wellbeing amidst an uncertain economic environment. Topics covered include: – the importance of investing in empathetic customer service – recognising vulnerable customers – the impact of customer disengagement – the old way v new approaches to helping customers in need. *This content has….

Read more

Which Australian companies are outsourcing their contact centre services?

Most large organisations outsource at least some contact centre activity while maintaining the rest in-house. This may be referred to as a hybrid, or champion-challenger, operating model. Here is a list of 20 Australian companies that outsource at least part of their contact centre (in alphabetical order):  – AGL (4.2 million customers) – Australian Super….

Read more

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….

Read more

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….

Read more

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…..

Read more

A guide to increasing contact centre agent productivity

While it may once have been seen as counter-intuitive, working from home is perceived as a way to unlock greater employee happiness and productivity. But it’s not the only way to uplift efficiencies. Managers can also leverage enhanced quality processes and training programs, outsource non-core work and deploy smart technologies. Some of the technologies covered….

Read more

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….

Read more

2021 Global Contact Centre KPI Benchmarking Report

This KPI benchmarking report* is based on the average performance of a sample size of 2,200+ organisations around the world, from a wide range of industries. The pandemic has changed contact centre metrics across the board, and those examined include: – average talk time – average speed of answer – abandonment rate – hold time…..

Read more

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….

Read more

Australian Call Centre Outsourcers – How to Pick the Best Provider

Call centres are a hard slog – there’s specialised technology, increasing consumer expectations for 24×7 service, recruitment and retention of staff in a tight labour market…the list goes on. So it’s no wonder call centre outsourcing is the chosen strategy of many businesses. But most people don’t know where or how to find the right partner,….

Read more