Improved capabilities will drive demand for virtual contact centers thereby influencing the future of customer service; Greg Hanover, CEO at Liveops delves deeper in this chat with MarTech Series:

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Welcome to this MarTech Series chat Greg, tell us about your role as CEO at Liveops and more on how Liveops have evolved in the last few years?

After 10 years with Liveops Inc. in a variety of senior leadership roles, I was named CEO in 2017. Liveops is a leading virtual contact center with a flexible workforce of over 25,000 agents. Over the last few years, Liveops has made it a priority to  optimize processes and technologies to improve the experience for our agents and clients. This past year alone, Liveops launched a new applicant tracking system to provide prospective agents with a faster process to becoming a home business owner. Additionally, Liveops Nation, an interactive community for agents contracting with Liveops to network and support each other, was upgraded to a new platform that features challenges, points, and badges to incentivize agents to complete certifications, review program updates, and engage with other agents. Our growth strategy to improve the agent experience, empowered by efficient onboarding and learning tools, allowed us to achieve 103% of our goal for filling classes in the fourth quarter.

Liveops is a virtual contact center that solves enterprise customer experience challenges by offering an agile, skilled workforce. Organizations leverage Liveops as an outsourced solution for a better talent profile delivering better customer experiences.

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How are virtual contact centers today aiding businesses/industries in delivering better experiences to end users? How do you feel virtual contact centers will grow/evolve in future to deliver more features / services to B2B and tech service brands?

Virtual contact centers help businesses across a variety of industries scale their customer service operations quickly and maintain business continuity, especially when unexpected events, such as the pandemic, labor shortages, or supply chain challenges disrupt operations. As experts in offering flexible talent, virtual contact centers are able to deploy skilled and experienced remote agents within hours. Virtual customer service agents are typically dispersed across different geographies and can connect with customers any time of day. This model attracts more professional and empathetic agents, who efficiently deliver amazing customer experiences. 

Virtual contact centers are the future of delivering excellent customer experiences. They will continue to attract the right talent to meet the demand for flexibility within the workforce. In a virtual environment, integrating the right technology is imperative, and the industry will continue to see cutting-edge innovations that improve the agent and customer experiences. 

A few thoughts on the benefits of in-housing the virtual call experience versus outsourcing it?

There are benefits to organizations whether they leverage an in-house virtual contact center or outsource it. Remote environments are a must-have for the workforce today, and allows organizations to attract a better agent profile.  Organizations that source an in-house virtual team must have the bandwidth, appropriate technology stack, adequate subject matter experts and adept leadership to execute on this unique model. 

Outsourcing virtual customer care transfers these pressures, and the outsourcer absorbs the responsibilities of attracting, retaining, onboarding and maintaining productivity within the agent network. Successful partners, like Liveops, are experts in creating and executing excellent distance learning that quickly educates agents on the client’s brand and culture. Paired with a strong and engaging virtual community and a robust technology stack, outsourcers are an efficient solution for enterprise organizations. 

When companies have difficulty sourcing adequate talent or encounter unexpected events, such as natural disasters or supply chain shortages, an outsourced virtual contact center is able to step in to maintain continuity.  When outsourcing your customer care operations, you leverage a broad spectrum of  experience and expertise.

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What should younger teams and businesses who are looking to strengthen this part of their function be focusing on more as they build processes and systems here?

It all starts with identifying the target agent profile for your business, and how you can attract and retain them. With the right agent, everything that follows will be easier. Next, focus on enabling these agents with the tools and technology that allows them to provide great customer experiences. Invest in distance learning tools and provide them not only with the learning materials they need to perform their role, but also regularly seek out their feedback on their experience. Creating channels for agents to interact with and support one another fosters a community and fulfills social needs. For example, Liveops Nation allows agents to share tips for building their business, find study buddies for certification courses, and interact through community forums on topics outside of work. Put your agents at the forefront of your customer service planning, and they will be loyal to you and your client’s customers.

A few thoughts on how you feel martech as a segment will move in 2022?

Personalizing and improving experience across all audiences will continue to be a large focus in 2022. Optimizing omnichannel interactions with technology that focuses on making the journey easier and more intuitive. For clients and prospects, this means understanding their needs, personalizing their experiences and supporting the partnership with data and transparency. For new team members, it starts with an efficient onboarding process. In today’s labor market, attracting and onboarding new team members must be quick and seamless across all channels, especially mobile. For the existing workforce, it’s about working smarter across technologies, embracing digital transformation to smooth out processes and make them more efficient. 

Some last thoughts, takeaways, thoughts, tips and business growth best practices before we wrap up!

The great resignation (or great reset/reshuffle as we like to call it) has taught us that the workforce demands flexible and remote work options, and they are willing to leave their positions in search of it. They are taking control of their work life balance, and searching for meaningful work with purpose-led companies.  People have proven their ability to work productively and efficiently in remote environments. We’ve seen this trend for the last 20 years, and it has only accelerated since the pandemic. Liveops attracts entrepreneurial professionals who thrive  working from their homes, and work around their lives with flexible scheduling. The Liveops Virtual Flex model has allowed the company to continue growing and contracting agents despite all the challenges the past two years have presented, while delivering excellent customer experiences to our clients.

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