How Contact Centers Keeping Up With Gen C

” Hello, how may I assist you? ”

A warm welcome greeting with a question that is already familiar in our ears whenever we call the helpline or customer service of one company or business organization. But little did we know that to be able to deliver such a welcoming greeting over the phone, it involves a lot of training.

When I was still a kid, I don’t remember this kind of service was even exist through phone calls. We still had to meet face to face at the counter or front desk for our queries. It was years later I think when I was in my late primary school days, there was a TV advertisement that says they are only a call away if we want to get fast foods delivered to our doorsteps – just dial XXX XX XX. It’s not a local advertisement though but at that point of time, I noticed that there is a change in the way of delivering product or service to the customer.

But to be honest, as the young Tracy, it wasn’t really a big deal for me at that time. Phone call cost was still quite expensive and we only had one fixed line at home – no mobile phone yet following us everywhere. So, I don’t really know how effective it was to have that service available for us during that time. But one thing, I still remember the hotline numbers and the jingle clearly. And I believe, many of those who were in the same generation as I would still remember that as well.

Which generation are you?

” Baby Boomer, Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z. No matter which generation we are, now is the era of Gen C – Generation that is 24 hrs digitally connected and has a high demanding attitude. “

Besides freelancing as a Designer, I work as a travel planner as well. Often times, I have to deal with ticket booking for myself or even on behalf of my customers. Some other times, I would need to find something for my travel needs that are not easily available, such as training or trekking pants or simply camping equipment. Meanwhile, I still have to finalize all the travel planning and arrangement that requires me to stay in front of my computer to do the job. In such condition, rather than I force myself hard to squeeze out times to go to the brick and mortar stores, I would usually settle as much as I could or even everything digitally.

I will search and do the flight booking online via Traveloka or other similar merchants and make purchases of my travel needs on an online marketplace including top-up value for my phone card. I know some people that are still not confident yet with all these online services, however, I must say that all those digital solutions that available nowadays really help me much in terms of time-saving, obviously.

When technology is getting more advanced and all things around are going digital – from shopping, banking, flight booking, hotel booking, any products and services, you name it, most probably we only need to lift up one of our fingers and with few clicks, we will get what we want without a need to take even a single step out of our house. And the best part is most services are available 24 hours a day around the clock.

Meaning, we can do transactions anytime we want as long as we have our smartphone on hand. Are you one of them who enjoys such facilities? I admit I AM. Especially, in Jakarta that never failed to leave me amazed with the traffic every time I am on the road, I must say I super love the efficiency – to get things settled without wasting time to travel to the location. Save time, cost, and energy. Most of all, emotionally, no stress caused by hitting the road.

How do Companies Keeping Up With Gen C?

By giving proper training to those who are working in contact centres.

Like I mentioned much earlier, to be able to deliver such a welcoming greeting over the phone, it involves a lot of training. Apparently, there is a company called 168 Solution that provides training and also developing the system of contact centres.

The easier for customers to access information online means that customer service officers, or nowadays are more popular as contact centres, have to be multiple times more ready to assist customers queries that may also multiply many times compared to the past. Recalling that we are, regardless of which generation we belong to, we are considered as the Gen C where we have a high demanding attitude and we want it fast. If the company isn’t ready for this, it will only cause a backfire.

That situation likely will happen if I have a problem with the flight booking or any online purchases I made. Since I am given such a convenient way to complete my transaction, so I will expect the same convenience in getting in touch with the contact centres of the company as well when I encounter issues with my transactions with them. Otherwise, an unhappy customer I will be. Won’t you also be one?

Fortunately, during the #NewCX17 New Customer Experience in Digital Era Seminar last week, I could see that many companies are aware of this Gen C symptoms and they started to provide more ways for customers to reach them if they need assistance.

One of the local financial institution, Bank Central Asia (BCA), has started offering solutions through what most people love to do nowadays – chatting. Customers can chat with VIRA, the Banking Chat Virtual Assistant of BCA, to answer queries that customers likely to have through Facebook Messenger, LINE, or Kaskus. Besides that, customers also can receive updates on BCA latest promotions, the latest foreign exchange rate and so on.

In my opinion, this feature helps to give faster responses to the same queries that come from different people. It helps to simplify the job of the contact centres while still meeting customer’s needs. A win-win solution.

112 – Emergency Hotline in Jakarta

By the way, have you heard of 112, one and the only emergency hotline in Jakarta? or Qlue apps that can be downloaded for free with a similar purpose? These are another two examples that show the importance of having a well-trained contact centre in serving the community. If there is an emergency, whatever it is, just dial 112 for assistance. Or if there is a problem in your neighbourhood, use Qlue apps to ask for help and the right person will be sent over to solve the issue.

Living alone in this great city of Jakarta, I ever thought that who should I call to if I were needing help in the middle of the night? You know, we never know when there is such an emergency state comes up. Who will standby 24 hrs, anytime to receive such calls? Now I know who to call to and where to seek help.

Will such technology take over the jobs that usually done by humans? I believe technology will support what we have been doing all along but not taking over. After all, technology is created by humans and it still has capability restriction within itself that can’t replicate exactly what human can do. The real interaction between real people and between chatbot as an example is incomparable.

Digital technology helps to simplify human jobs. That’s what I think. How about you? Spill.