Exciting New Technologies That Can Transform Your Contact Centre
With Darren Prine and Rob Enslow from Cloud Tech Gurus
Show Notes
Darren is the Co-Founder of Cloud Tech Gurus, and Rob Enslow is Senior Executive Partner.
Cloud Tech Gurus are technology matchmakers. They help call centres to more effectively and efficiently source and procure technology solutions. They invest 40+ hours into each client project, at no cost to you, as they are compensated by suppliers.
Today, they share the little-known next generation of contact centre technology solutions, which can make a big difference in your centre.
You'll Learn:
The technology solutions which are in the highest demand right now (06:35).
The solution which handles better, faster, and cheaper than a live agent. Often with a higher CX score (08:33).
What RPA is, and how it can replace 2 to 6 of your people, for a fraction of the cost (09:27).
The technology that can clone your subject matter experts and high performers, and cut training time for new hires in half. And return your investment in 90 days (11:30).
How you can access a global workforce of contact centre agents on-demand, cutting your cost of talent acquision and staffing in half (13:24).
How a conversational AI tool has generated $25 million in additional revenue for one organisation, in the past year (15:57).
How an AI tool predicts and prevents escalation in customer care, and is creating savings of 30 - 60% of escalation costs (17:01).
The technology solution which enables you to get rid of your PBX and has 100% guaranteed uptime, saving you tens of thousands of dollars (18:14).
Connect with Darren and Rob on LinkedIn.
Check out the Cloud Tech Gurus website, and get updates on the latest technologies.
Transcript
Blair Stevenson (00:00)
Welcome to the Secrets to Contact Centre Success podcast, connecting you with the latest and greatest tips from the best and the brightest minds in the industry.
I am Blair Stevenson, founder of BravaTrak. Our Sales Leadership System enables contact centres to increase revenue and achieve the sales growth targets.
Today I'm joined by Rob Enslow and Darren Prine from Cloud Tech Gurus. Rob and Darren, welcome along.
Darren Prine (00:26)
Thank you for having us.
Blair Stevenson (00:29)
Good to have you here. Darren, let's start with you. Tell us a bit about your background and also about Cloud Tech Gurus.
Darren Prine (00:36)
Certainly. Well, I formerly was in real estate and then commercial real estate until the end of 2008. And you remember what happened then? And I never would have left that industry. I loved it, but it broke me.
So I had to look for something new and I just fell into the contact centre industry. And for about 12 years, I either was in sales or running sales for various SaaS (Software as a Service) companies, primarily cloud contact centre platforms.
And it was a good industry for me. And I'm thankful that I fell into it. Since I couldn't sing or dance, I had limited prospects for what to do after commercial real estate. So I was lucky to find the contact centre industry, and I loved the people and I loved the industry.
And in my time working sales and running sales for companies, I found some commonalities when it comes to sourcing technologies, and I found some common pain points and problems. We'll delve more into those later.
But we actually formed Cloud Tech Gurus to create a better way for companies, a better, more efficient, more effective way for them to source technology solutions, contact centre, and also communications and a few other areas.
And we think we've done it. We think we've come up with something that's revolutionary, and we think that we will transform how companies source technology solutions in the future. So it's been a big passion project for me and my partners. And we're just so thrilled to be on here to talk about it.
Blair Stevenson (02:23)
Cool, thanks Darren. Rob, how about for you? What's your background? And I know that you're passionate about the work that you do with Cloud Tech Gurus. Just tell us about why you're so passionate.
Rob Enslow (02:34)
Yeah, very passionate. I think John C. Maxwell said it best, "Find something you'd like to do so much you'd gladly do it for nothing, then learn to do it so well, people are happy to pay for it."
I entered the contact centre industry working for my first call center in 2009. And then my first CCaaS (Contact Centre as a Service) provider, entry-level sales developer position in 2010, and then worked my way up onto an inside sales floor and then a field sales position in under two years. I was just fortunate, and I worked hard.
But along the way it became something that not only that I become more skilled at, just like with anything, but my background, I'm an entrepreneur at heart. And so when this opportunity with Cloud Tech Gurus came along, it was a no brainer.
I always was fascinated and fantasized about becoming either a Deloitte or Accenture consultant, instead of selling just one solution. And this is fantastic because it gives us that opportunity to walk into a room and help a company, being objective, and having their best interests in mind. That's what I love about it.
Blair Stevenson (04:08)
Cool. I love your backgrounds and it's really clear your value proposition, that you're technology matchmakers. Effectively you're middlemen, so what's the value you add to both your suppliers and your clients?
Rob Enslow (04:27)
First and foremost, to our suppliers, obviously all of our vendors and suppliers are technology providers. I would say around 60% North American revenue for software companies comes from China, and Darren has, I've sat with him and watched him coach and really teach that concept to CEOs of companies that might not have ever heard of that.
And so the advantage to them is being able to help get their product out there with a sales team legion, and sometimes hundreds of independent contractors, all independent consultants, all working with their own books of business and to be able to get it out there without even really putting anything down. So no money down on that sort of investment. Just the willingness to pay on the backend.
On the call centre side, it's truly a no-brainer because not only when call centers come to us, do we invest 60 to 100 hours in painstaking scrupulous research, helping them vet out vendors, but we do it free of charge. Because we get compensated by our supplier base and we're vendor agnostic. And so they like that, and they like not having to be bombarded by salespeople, having just one person to manage all those relationships.
Blair Stevenson (06:18)
Very cool. Darren, one of the things you mentioned to me in a previous discussion was you really want to source ultramodern customer-centric technology with a great value proposition. And I'm just curious about what sort of technologies are in high demand right now.
Darren Prine (06:35)
Right now, I think what's the hottest is solutions to help companies automate. In some cases, in customer care, for example, COVID was sure something because it identified the opportunities where AI and automation solutions could radically improve the customer experience.
So I remember when I reached out to my satellite radio company, and had to wait in queue for over an hour, just wanted them to do the thing they do where they ping my radio so that it would work again, and waited an hour in queue for that. That's something that AI could have handled where they would have had a customer that was much happier, and I would have gotten in and out of their queue in about a minute, instead of it taking an hour of my time, right?
So they're looking at AI, they're looking at what areas can AI handle in customer care, versus requiring a live agent. And the good news is, when I was a call centre agent, those low-level repetitive interactions, that's probably why I quit working for the phone company as a call centre agent in the late nineties.
You just wanted to bang your head on the desk. It was just mind numbing. But I loved when I'd get something complex or challenging or a big opportunity, that took some creativity.
And literally what companies have found is that their interactions are ones that AI can handle, especially it's gotten to the point where the AI can handle really complex interactions. We've got one supplier where it can even handle up to 200 client objections, just mind blowing. It sounds human, it speaks like a human, not like a robot. It can answer, it can go back and forth. Very advanced.
And ultimately, companies are finding that if they look at what can AI handle, the interactions that it can handle - and this isn't just voice, it can be across all the digital channels, and WhatsApp and everything else, too - the ones that it can handle, it handles better, faster and cheaper than with a live agent. And more often than not, with a higher CX score.
And if you've got a problem and you want to interact with your vendor, your supplier, your electrician, or whatever, ultimately you just want what's going to get your problem resolved, or get your question answered, as quickly as possible. And if AI can do that better than a human, and certainly better than a long queue, then that makes a lot of sense.
So they're finding that it's going to improve their customer experience while reducing their costs, and it behooves them to look at solutions like that. So they're more open now to it than they ever have been.
And then other automation, like robotic process automation, we are able to take those manual tasks, processes, procedures, data entry, or even taking data from disparate systems and trying to do something with it. Well, these solutions can completely automate that.
And again, these are all things that when a call centre agent gets a call, and they have to take information from one system, copy and paste it and then put it in another, and maybe there's two or three systems they're doing that with. Well, they hate it. It's time-consuming and mind-numbing.
And again, if you can automate as much as possible manual processes, tasks, data entry, it's going to allow the agents or employees to focus on what's their core competency, and their real jobs, the real point of having that role. And again, it makes their work experience better. They're not doing a bunch of things that they can't figure out why they're having to do in the first place. Right?
And then the end result is AI works 24/7, RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and AI, 24/7, no sick days, no maternity leave, no healthcare benefits, no attrition. So it's working all the time. It does the work of anywhere from two to six humans, right?
Let's say that we look at the time it takes humans to do manual tasks and processes and data entry. And let's say that person makes $30,000 a year, and you have an RPA solution that could do the job of four people. So you have four people making $30,000 a year. Let's make it $25,000, easier math. That's a $100,000 a year. And the RPA does it for maybe $10,000 to $50,000 grand. Boy, that's a pretty good return, isn't it?
Blair Stevenson (11:17)
Totally. So it sounds like you're extremely excited about AI, in particular. Is there anything else that you're excited about in terms of the technologies that are coming through right now?
Darren Prine (11:30)
So I like the AI, I like the AI assistance. And this doesn't have to be just for call centre agents. So imagine in any department of a company, you've got somebody who's the very best, they're your SME (Subject Matter Expert), right? You think to yourself, "Well, I wish I could clone them." Well we've got AI that can clone them, not just what they're saying and doing, but their cognitive reasoning behind what they say or do.
And then here's what the end result is; so you have new hires coming on and they have their training. And let's say training usually takes six weeks. Well, with this AI, you're able to reduce the training to two or three weeks, because it's going to be guiding them through their interactions or, workflows.
So it reduces training in half. It's going to have them performing like your top level person in a matter of weeks, not months. So look at all the costs that it just saved, as far as training time and the speed to getting the agents to performing at the highest level possible.
And then even taking veteran agents or employees, and it's guiding them through their workflows and interactions as well. And the end result is, interaction time is reduced. And so really mindblowing stuff. If you can cut training time in half and get your employees to be peak, top level, performing employees in weeks, and the ROI is 90 days. It's a no- brainer. Disruptive, very disruptive.
And we're always looking for disruptive solutions where there really isn't anything like it in the market, and where the ROI and the value proposition is just crazy. Like we have one for gig workers, for example, the gig economy is here.
And so far gig workers have been Uber drivers, Lyft drivers. Usually had to be doing some kind of driving, right? Delivering food. And now we've opened up gig workers for contact centres and other types of businesses.
And literally you have access to a global workforce of independent contractors that have been carefully vetted, certified, qualified, and that can be used for a contact centre or virtually any kind of role, really. And it reduces the cost of talent acquisition and staffing by about 50%. And you have talent and a global workforce that you couldn't have any other way.
And imagine surges and spikes - back to the contact centre world - you know, during certain times of the year, you need to increase your workforce by 30, 40, 50%. And then other times where you need to reduce it. You can now staff at maybe 80% of what you would typically need, and use gig workers for all the rest.
It's going to transform the way companies are staffing in the future. And it's so great for the public, too. Think about folks that are disabled or think about stay at home mums, they've got degrees and maybe they even had high level executive roles in companies, but hey, they have four hours on a Monday and three hours on a Tuesday morning.
Well, now they're able to find work that isn't driving, and high paying jobs and opportunities with companies that are looking for talent, globally, that they can use.
Blair Stevenson (15:02)
Awesome. Awesome. And is that part of your business? Are you, are you sourcing those people?
Darren Prine (15:09)
Through one of our partners, we are.
Blair Stevenson (15:13)
Brilliant. Rob, coming back to you. Just curious about some of the performance improvements that these sorts of technologies are achieving for contact centres, like real world examples in terms of some of your clients. What are you seeing?
Rob Enslow (15:28)
It just really runs the gamut in terms of what types of solutions you might be referring to, but staggering results when it comes to vendors, for example, that are protecting your existing revenue. Vendors, for example, that will completely quadruple your output in terms of lead generation.
So we've got some incredible success stories, but there's one SMS provider, in particular, conversational AI, that has generated so much revenue, about $25 million in additional revenue for one of their clients, in the past 12 months alone.
And essentially what their technology does is something that is very innovative in terms of the execution of AI and the strategy behind it. And so their technology will tap into your existing database. It will begin to engage with that database via SMS. And when that conversation matures enough, it will send those warm leads back to the call centre. And it's been incredible.
Darren Prine (17:01)
We met with one of our suppliers today for a training session, and basically they have AI that predicts and prevents escalation in customer care. So the escalations to managers and supervisors and everything else, it predicts and analyzes and prevents these types of things.
The savings we learned today was 30 to 60%. I think 60 was like on the high end, but even at 30% or 40% savings over how they're handling escalations and service desk and ticketing, that's mind-blowing.
Blair Stevenson (17:42)
That is. That's incredible stuff. Sorry, Rob. You were going to say something.
Rob Enslow (17:48)
The only other thing I would maybe mention is we have one other solution, and again, these are solutions that you just don't find everywhere. Right? And that's because we're on the hunt. We spend 30 to 40 hours a week at Cloud Tech Gurus, vetting out new vendors and the best technologies out there, innovative cutting edge stuff.
But we've got a provider, that essentially I would describe him as a 'Twilio on steroids', but essentially what it allows you to do as an IT manager is completely throw your PBX (Private Branch Exchange) out the window, throw BGP out the window for backup because this provider provides 100% uptime guarantee, and has a patented data centre architecture, six data centers, they've never gone down. And everything's API based.
So it really becomes impossible to experience downtime. And so the thought of that is a little foreign, I think, to some IT Managers and call centre IT folks, that manage those sorts of things, because we all know how expensive circuits are to maintain it. It's a nightmare, tens of thousands of dollars.
Blair Stevenson (19:22)
You guys are based in the US. I think, Rob, you're in Utah. And Darren, I believe you're in Arizona, am I right.
Darren Prine (19:31)
Scottsdale, Arizona. Yeah.
Blair Stevenson (19:32)
Cool. So for contact centre leaders, either in North America or even in the Asia-Pacific area, or anywhere else for that matter, if they're looking for a particular software solution, but they don't have the time or they may not have the expertise on their team to really do the groundwork to identify the companies that are providing these sorts of cutting edge solutions, how do they get hold of you?
Darren Prine (20:02)
Well, one quick comment, in addition to not want to do the painstaking research, but not wanting to Google search vendors and then have to do multiple discovery meetings with multiple vendors. And then have salespeople where every week after they have their pipeline meeting with their boss, they start pressuring their prospects to close, right? They want to avoid all of that. All of those headaches and frustration.
They can reach out to us by visiting our website, www.cloudtechgurus.com. We have all kinds of really cool marketing about next generation and disruptive technology. They can add themselves to our email list and our newsletter list. And of course on our website, we have our phone number as well.
And through LinkedIn, we live on LinkedIn. And so that's also a great way to reach out to us.
Blair Stevenson (20:55)
Fantastic. Thank you, Darren. Really appreciate it. And Rob, thank you.
Darren Prine (21:01)
Thank you, kindly.
Rob Enslow (21:01)
Pleasure.
Blair Stevenson (21:03)
Well that's it from us today. For listeners, you'll find the link to the show notes in the episode description below.
And if you'd like to connect with Rob or Darren on LinkedIn, you'll also find the link to their LinkedIn profiles in the description too, along with a link to their website.
And if you'd like to follow me on LinkedIn, you'll find links to my profile there as well. Well that's it from us today. Have a productive week.