Thankfully the end of February is in sight and whilst we’ve been battered and bruised by the horrendous weather and travel conditions from the storms, luckily this week I was in the Glasgow HQ with no need to travel.
 
Each year we have a consultation with the the Bank of England industry representative to test the temperature of our service sector in terms of what’s ‘hot and not’ in the service sector network that CCA is involved with.  We’ve certainly noticed a renewed level of optimism across businesses large and small and in different sectors. After the turmoil of the last few years there’s definitely a ‘let’s just get on with it’ kind of attitude and whilst there are many bumps expected on the road ahead, many are eagerly moving ahead with decisions which may have been on hold for too long.
 
CCA’s Advisory Board also met this week in Glasgow, a select cross-section of leading experts and authorities in our network from operators, outsourcing and BPO and the supplier community. We have a challenging agenda to cover this year, and it’s always good to stop for a while and sanity check plans with a cross section of experienced 'sages’.
 
The focus for this first meeting’s debate was ‘Can and should we reinvent CX?’ – a topic we will be covering in-depth in our events and research throughout the year. The consensus from the group was we will begin to see increasingly real disruption in the coming 5 years as more and more ‘start-up’ brands bring a whole new CX offering to the table. We tend to overstate the changes for the near horizon yet understate them for 10 years ahead; this is certainly the case for this debate as it is likely that it will be 10 years before we see the seismic shift where we have a try automated seamless experience backed by highly qualified experts who are freed and trusted to be truly human in a interactions.
 
So we WILL see better application of technologies to not only support customers more effectively, but critically will make life simpler and more improved for our teams who talk to customers each day. 
 
It’s unlikely we will recognise the roles we have today in 10 years’ time, so important building blocks need to be laid between now and then to ensure service offerings are fit for purpose and can be better applied to meet customers where they need you to be. Ultimately, a new profession will develop with critical thinkers and astute problem-solvers with a high-tech literacy. 
 
Core to the success of these new professionals of course is having the best leadership, mentoring and support from their team managers – often cited as the fulcrum any business. We’re already helping organisations prepare for that change with CCA Inspire – a new industry initiative that is purposefully designed to build and develop the leaders of the future as their roles transform. To find out more click here.
 
I’m taking a half-term break and heading off to the ski slopes next week. I’ll most certainly be taking ‘wise counsel’ from my instructor to keep me on track and will try my best not to reinvent any new, unintentional techniques!
 
Have a great weekend!
 
Anne Marie