Getting to Know Your Expert Interview Series: Ibex Global Solutions’s Bob McCallister, Key Expert in the Customer Care Community – [an Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Expert Interview]

Bob previously sat in Power Perspectives Expert interview in 2023, but now that 2024 has launched the digital customer experience dialogue into a new stratosphere, we thought it high time to check back in. 

Matt Chester: We’re happy to have you back on for another Expert Interview. Since we last chatted, the world of customer service continues to evolve. What have been the most notable developments in the customer service arena, particularly for utilities, the past year or so in your opinion?

Bob McCallister: Thanks Matt. It’s been a big year at Ibex and for me in the Energy Central community. It’s it too much of an understatement to say that AI has swept through the customer service industry in general, if not for utilities? I’m sure you’ve heard that before, but it’s really true!

Too soon to say how much of the broader implications of AI on customer service will have on utilities for now, but we’ll have to contend with the questions soon. Customers already have started to form opinions. They really like that AI can personalize experiences and predict their needs. They definitely don’t like chatbots, at least not yet. Customers seem to appreciate the benefits of AI in the contact center, though they may not recognize it yet. AI has a big impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of Customer Service Representatives by boosting first call resolutions, improving consistency, and reducing handle time, which customers love. And AI can do analysis on customer sentiment, which means utilities can develop more insight about which parts of the CX customers like or appreciate most or least in order to make investments. Utilities have a bit of time to evaluate the technology and make some decisions about where to experiment with it, and it can be confusing, so find a few helpful guides.

MC: Let’s Dive in a bit more on artificial intelligence. How do you foresee the integration of AI technologies to enhance the customer service and support experience within utilities, considering the internal operations and customer interactions?

BM: We don’t expect utilities to invest directly in customer facing AI, at least not immediately. It’s not something that fits their risk tolerance and would require way too much integration of customer data systems without time to learn adequate controls.

I think a safer and more effective integration, incorporates AI in the customer service center, but initially as part of recruiting and training to improve the quality and retention of CSR team members. Agent Assist tool, if you will. These AI Assist tools support better candidate screening to ideal profiles, personalized training and development plans, and performance analysis. We’re making use of AI tools for monitoring actual CSR performance and grading or scoring calls for dimensions like customer sentiment and agent empathy. Those same tools foster long term skills development and coaching throughout the CSR lifecycle for peak performance and retention. It’s a safe but very effective way to implement AI in a Customer Service and Support function that adds value, as well as meets the need for a risk averse initial experiment for a new technology.

MC: Can you discuss a comprehensive year-round playbook for managing the collections process proactively to reduce risks for at-risk customers within the utilities sector?

BM: We’ve advocated for a different approach to collections for a long time. Find a balance of a different way to think about the collections process from data analytics to begin to predict customer challenges to a pre-emptive approach to communications and payment assistance to prevent delinquencies integrated to a multi-channel collections program to improve performance and reduce actual write-downs. A lot of utilities have a program that they take of the shelf a few times a year around high bill periods, but since COVID, the game has really changed. From the look of the agenda at CS Week in Ft. Worth this year, I’d say the industry needs to look more closely at a new approach to collections. We’re just glad we have some experience in this area to be of help.

MC: In the context of customer service centers, how can a focus on employee retention and culture building contribute to optimizing performance metrics, particularly First Call Resolution and other key performance indicators?

BM: Great question and a perpetual challenge for customer service professionals. Really high performing teams generally have a lot of tenure, and it makes sense. More experienced CSRs have better mastery of the subject matter, come to the right answer more quickly and can help customers more effectively, so they can answer more calls right the first time, quickly and efficiently. In a perfect world, every Customer Service Manager wants a room full of PhDs with a decade of experience and an abundance of patience and empathy. In reality, we view customer service jobs in the US as entry level jobs for the most part, so it’s very hard to recruit, train and retain top talent.

If the average tenure of a Customer Service Representative is about 12 months, compared to nearly 3 years in most jobs, the difference between average teams and high performing teams comes down to keeping good people a lot longer. The focus on retention starts in recruiting. Did you hire people that really fit the profile of a long term CSR, or did you hire to fit an immediate need? Training gives a bit more insight. Good CSRs understand the information and do well on tests. Great agents demonstrate soft skills like empathy and patience so that they show an affinity for the tougher calls and customer experiences. It’s important for team members to find those CSRs who show promise and cultivate their talents with additional training and mentorship.

The environment matters, too. Post-COVID, it’s really hard to work in an office, so building team camaraderie has become its own special challenge. Team managers have to do more to encourage, even engineer, team building and social connections and learnings among the team to give people a way to share their knowledge and make a contribution to the whole. Making the investment from the start to find and encourage teams of really talented CSRs gives you the best chance to hold onto them for the long term, which means your Customer Service Center will have mastery of the skills and knowledge to perform at peak levels for your customers.

MC: With the challenges of onshore customer service, how can utilities leverage near-shore solutions and live-supported chat to address issues related to wages, attrition, quality, and retention in the customer service domain?

BM: Perfect timing for that question. Historically, utilities have been reluctant to hire outside of the US for customer service. In the past, there’s been a concern that customers didn’t like to hear different accents or people had concerns with language barriers. All of that’s changed a lot in the last 15 to 20 years. And AI Language Assist tools can help out a lot from that perspective. Just with demographic shifts and language proliferation in the home regions, utilities have struggled to find languages skills for customer service. Add to that challenge the difficulty of recruiting qualified candidates and the costs of high attrition, especially since COVID and outsourcing has become a very dependable way to increase customer service quality and consistency while decreasing and managing costs.

Today in some near shore centers that are very convenient to the United States, utilities can improve the availability of language skills, even English, and recruit a much higher quality customer service team over all. We find that the level of education, years of preparation, and desire for the customer service job to be higher in many programs. In the US, the customer service role has been an entry level job for a long time with a lot of attrition, making it hard to recruit, train and retain high performing teams. Near shore communities enable utility partners to develop a well educated, professional and highly qualified customer service team with all of the same data protection, security and privacy standards with better performance, longer retention, and lower cost, making it possible to put budgets to work in other areas of the customer experience. Highly regulated industries have already paved the way and established the infrastructure in key locations to make it a lot easier for utilities to take advantage of those programs for pilot projects, too. You’d be surprised how many utility partners are looking at those programs as they find it just too difficult and expensive to continue programs close to home.

MC: Bob, I also want to make sure to touch on the upcoming CS Week (April 30 – May 2), which I believe you’ll be attending. Are there any themes that you expect to come up during this conference that will set 2024 apart? What are you most excited by at CS Week this year

BM: Always excited to get back to CS Week. It’s the highlight of the year for us, and we’ll be talking about a lot of innovation ourselves this year as we launch new programs for pre-collections and customer service. I’m really encouraged at the Customer Service track at this year’s show. I see a lot of emphasis on workforce management and innovation around analytics. It makes the case that budgets are strained and teams need to find ways to work smarter to find more performance without adding people. That’s been true for years, and I’ll be interested to learn the new insights.

I see a lot of mention of AI on the agenda, so I’m curious to see who’s just talking about AI and what companies have really started to implement the new technology. Should be an exciting event.

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Thanks to Bob McCallister for joining me for this interview and for providing a wealth of insights an expertise to the Energy Central Community. You can trust that Michael will be available for you to reach out and connect, ask questions, and more as an Energy Central member, so be sure to make him feel welcome when you see him across the platform.

The other expert interviews that we’ve completed in this series can be read here, and if you are interested in becoming an expert then you can reach out to me or you can apply here.