With it being Women’s Month in South Africa, Women Advancement in the workplace is quite a hot topic and we’re getting into it. Speaking to Boomerang BPO’s new Head of HR, Jacqueline Kallis – HR Professional, we find out what career opportunities the BPO industry can offer to women in South Africa.

Jacqueline has over 18 years experience in HR and has some great insights to share with other women looking to grow in their careers.

Q1.      What kind of career growth opportunities are available in the BPO industry, and more specifically at Boomerang?

Boomerang as a globally recognized BPO, is committed to fostering diversity in the workplace which includes leadership development and career advancement of women in leadership.

Boomerang proudly advocates gender equality in the workplace, whereby close to 69% of employees are female and close to 12% are occupying middle/senior management roles.

These statistics echoes our commitment to women in leadership, to foster a more inclusive and innovative work environment, where everyone can thrive!

It is no wonder that Boomerang’s women leaders have received awards for their exceptional contribution in the company and the BPO Industry as a whole.

Q2. What type of skills, talents and resources do women typically add to the workplace?

Boomerang is of a strong opinion that women leaders contribute significantly to shaping an inclusive organisational culture and brings a stronger sense of collaboration, empathy, and innovation in the workplace, which are crucial in the fast-paced and competitive BPO industry.

Q3. What are some things Boomerang does to help women employees grow and reach their goals professionally?

At Boomerang we believe that women leaders serve as role models and inspiration for other women within the company.  Their success stories encourage aspiring female professionals to aim for leadership roles and break through any existing barriers.

Boomerang embarks on continuous coaching, mentoring and skills development opportunities with identified consistent top performers in the company.  We believe that our employees are our greatest asset, therefore invest as much as possible in fostering a learning culture with an opportunity to grow within the company rather than seek promotional opportunities elsewhere.  For this reason, Boomerang also launched its own Learning Academy, which provides classroom or self-study training on many different topics and subjects for all levels of skills.

Q4. Can you give any tips and advice for women who work in this industry?

The BPO industry is a dynamic and demanding environment, therefore the ability to adapt to rapid changes with resilience is one of the most important aspects.

It is imperative that you maintain a mindset of continuous learning and seek opportunities for development, which includes identifying mentors to soak up their experience and skills.

Perseverance will absolutely pave the road for women in achieving their career goals.

Most importantly to all the women out there, don’t be afraid to showcase who you are and your accomplishments.

Celebrate your success not just as a Woman; but as a worthy rival and advocate for Women’s Rights in the world of business!

About the team: https://boomerangbpo.com/about-us/

Client Spotlight: 1Life Insurance, our client embarked on their journey in 2006, fuelled by a vision to revolutionise the insurance industry in South Africa. The aim for 1Life was to offer accessible, affordable, and customer-centric insurance solutions directly to South Africans.

As in many businesses, our client encountered challenges over time, in book growth and ensuring fair treatment of customers.

They aimed to expand their insurance book to reach a broader South African market while adhering to ethical practices. Addressing the insurance gap was crucial, but achieving these goals required assistance.

So the partnership between Boomerang and 1Life began, in July 2014 – with a shared dedication to transformation and delivering excellent customer service.

Here we look at 3 key factors that have lead to the success of this BPO partnership over the last 10 years:

1. Leveraging specialised expertise

Harnessing our specialised expertise in sales and contact centres, and expanding on our reach through collaboration – Boomerang has become top sales contributors, enhancing the client’s market position and reputation since the partnership began.

2 . Being dedicated to the customer

Boomerang stepped in to provide solutions for 1Life and its customers.

Through “making meaningful connections” – Boomerang teams across the business apply their understanding of the customer to deliver customer service excellence, consistently.

While always keeping the customer top-of-mind, Boomerang has maintained a good partnership with 1 Life, evolving and adapting as customer needs shift over time.

3 . Maintaining quality standards

Through training, certification and regular audits – Boomerang maintains quality standards in financial products. Maintaining these standards over a decade requires commitment to continuous improvement. With thorough vetting, on-going optimization, and effective communication, Boomerang has proven its role is crucial in achieving the objectives 1Life has.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=287221444431894

Says Cherene Kotze, 1Life Account Manager, “Boomerang has been a leading partner, and I see no reason why they wouldn’t continue to do so in the future with us. Our partnership with Boomerang SA has been a journey of excellence, continually striving for quality and customer satisfaction. The absence of customer complaints underscores their exceptional approach to customer interactions.”

The partnership between Boomerang and 1Life reflects a true commitment to making meaningful connections, changing lives and mutual success through BPO.

Artificial Intelligence in Contact Centres is unleashing the Power of Sentiment Analysis. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has catapulted itself into our world, and swiftly become a transformative force in the world of technology. After decades of slow progress we have reached a watershed moment – a “tipping point”, to borrow Malcolm Gladwell’s evocative phrase. The term ‘tipping point’ describes that critical juncture where the technology crosses the threshold and becomes not only embraced but widely adopted. ChatGPT, for instance, is testament to this phenomenon, becoming the fastest growing application in history.

In the context of contact centres, AI stands to revolutionise customer service offerings. This article explores the multifaceted functions of AI, with an emphasis on sentiment analysis and its growing role at BPO provider Boomerang BPO.

AI, as a simulation of human intelligence in machines, involves crafting algorithms that enable computing systems to perform tasks typically reserved for human intelligence. Intelligence itself, in psychological understanding, is a tapestry woven from two threads: these are its crystallized and fluid components.

Crystallised intelligence refers to the accumulation of knowledge, skills and facts amassed over a lifetime by an individual that are used to inform decisions. In this regard, AI enjoys an unprecedented advantage. It has access to a vast repository of data, and in the contact centre environment can draw not only on individual experience (as humans do) but from the pool of collective knowledge. Known as machine learning, AI systems can continuously learn and adapt as new data is integrated.

Fluid intelligence on the other hand refers to the capacity to reason, think logically and solve problems on the fly. It involves abstract thinking, pattern recognition and problem-solving that is not reliant on previously learned information. Strictly speaking, AI does not possess fluid intelligence in the same way that humans do, as AI systems lack the creativity and often the empathy required to deal with completely novel situations. That being said, AI can mimic certain aspects of fluid intelligence by recognizing patterns and making predications based on prior knowledge. However, this is more a product of statistical analysis than real fluid intelligence.

When we apply these insights to business process outsourcing and contact centres, AI is well-positioned to perform those functions that require crystallised intelligence, while the tasks that draw on fluid intelligence are best left to humans. The future lies in a symbiotic  partnership, with AI picking up the customer service tickets the resolution of which depends on comprehensive systems knowledge, and freeing up time and headspace for agents to manage those enquiries that need both human fluid problem-solving as well as empathy.

That said, cutting edge AI is fast becoming an invaluable personal assistant to contact centre agents with regards to the empathy space. This new frontier of the human/ AI partnership has materialized in  sentiment analysis, or the process of recognising emotions as expressed in text. Sentiment analysis goes beyond identifying words and phrases as either positive or negative and focuses on identifying the tone and emotional nuances within the text.

We spoke to Adriaan Hefer, the digital transformation leader at Boomerang. Adriaan says: “The main idea is to improve the customer journey. We use AI to do sentiment analysis and based on the sentiment, AI will suggest different responses. For example, in an email enquiry, our sentiment analysis software will suggest a response to the Bae (what Boomerang call its agents), and the Bae can edit it. Additionally, AI can be ‘listening’ to a chat conversation in the background, and suggest responses to the Bae.”

This is groundbreaking tech, and the system can triage customer support tickets to the most appropriate persons and teams depending on the urgency, the importance or relevance of the customer service ticket or the emotional sentiment of the customer.    The results are faster turn-around through improved productivity, less friction and a better customer journey and service experience overall.

Adriaan shares a success story, saying: “We have done a pilot with one of our clients, and it went very well. The client was looking to get more control over compensation to customers, so we built an AI model that governs compensation, after feeding in historical data that, via machine learning, it uses to make decisions. After evaluating progress, we keep the machine learning switched on and the AI makes better and better calls over time.”

The groundwork has been laid, and with the tipping point having been traversed, we can expect the use of AI in contact centres to balloon. For the team of Baes at Boomerang, this heralds a new era – a personal assistant for every Bae, a function that can draw on the collective experience as rendered into data and suggest solutions to many incoming enquiries. This virtual assistant stands ready to enhance not only efficiency but also the quality of interaction.

Additionally, sentiment analysis can function as an impartial observer, interpreting mood and feeling as these nuanced emotions emerge on the screen, offering invaluable interpretation that enhances the Bae’s understanding as they navigate the delicacies of customer service. With AI as the guide, human beings are better positioned to offer an enriched customer experience.

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📆 Come join us at the #YouAndAI Event on 16 November 2023 to learn more about The Power of AI in Contact Centres: https://www.linkedin.com/events/you-and-ai7120287781607604224/

“Good-bye agents, Hello Baes”. We are focused on building meaningful connections with our customers. There is much hype about the Metaverse and advancements in AI technologies (just consider recent developments in ChatGPT’s optimised language model for chatbots).  Boomerang’s clients already derive many benefits from advancements in modern cloud and CRM technologies.

Systems to manage workflows, enable self-service options, reduce customer effort, reduce wait, and ticket handling times, sentiment analysis, management information on the fly. One could almost be seduced by all the new and sexy tech into believing that AI will be some sort of silver bullet for delivering great CX.

However, when it comes to solving complex personal issues or providing empathy and care, nothing can replace the human touch. That’s why, at Boomerang, we no longer use the term ‘agent’ which implies a lack of engagement and connection – instead focusing on building meaningful connections with our customers through our team of ‘Baes’.

Bae, an acronym for ‘Before Anyone Else’ and a term of endearment, has been around in popular culture long enough to be universally understood. Our Baes love being called Baes instead of “agents”. They feel even closer to the community we have fostered at Boomerang.

Boomerang Bae Jean-Pierre Myburgh comments that though the acronym BAE usually stands for ‘Before Anyone Else’ he interprets it as ‘Before Anything Else’ as he has discovered through his own experience, he says, “that at Boomerang SA we prioritise our Baes before anything else, and this is the key ingredient that fosters a culture of trust.”

We are committed to creating an environment where our team feels appreciated, valued, and respected – and that’s why we’ve changed the term ‘agent’ to ‘Bae’. Our customer contact team members are not just employees – they are Baes who take pride in connecting with our customers on a deeper level.  In this post, I will explain why this shift in terminology is so important for us as a company, and how it will help create a culture of service excellence.

Our Baes are not just agents, they’re special people who make the effort to build meaningful relationships with our customers and who are empowered with the tools necessary to offer personalised experiences that go beyond the box. We believe in equipping our Baes with the necessary resources so they can truly engage with and find solutions for our customers. Our contact centre provides the technology, processes, as well as the training and development opportunities to enable our Baes to be the best they can be.

 At Boomerang, we believe that valuing people should be at the centre of all we do – which is why making this change in terminology is so important to us as a company. We want our Baes to feel appreciated for their hard work and dedication, as well as empowered to provide exceptional services through genuine human connection. We also want them to take pride in being part of #TeamBoomerang. Ultimately, this shift will help us foster a positive working environment for our staff, allowing us to create lasting relationships with customers based on trust, respect and quality service delivery.  Our Baes are empowered to go above and beyond in customer service – meaning better service overall for our customers.

To learn more about how Boomerang SA can support your brand in delivering excellent customer service experience (CSX) please contact us or request a case study.

Get in Touch Today | Boomerang

The burning question: do you outsource your contact centre and back office process functions, be it B2B or B2C telemarketing, inbound customer services or outbound call centre services, or do you build your own in-house teams?

Growing companies are learning what their multi-national and larger counterparts already know – outsourcing contact centre and back office services can improve efficiencies, reduce costs and done right improve customer satisfaction.

Here’s the usual scenario. Businesses have at its core staff who know its products or services inside out. So when it comes to customers calling in wanting a fix to a problem, or seeking information, employees are brilliantly positioned to help them.

Thing is, there are more and more customer calls, emails and information requests coming in. That’s a great thing because it means you are attracting more customers, but a not-so-good thing in that it is pulling your people away from their primary responsibilities, which is to focus on the core business of making the product or delivering the service.

So, there’s a decision to be made, as telemarketing and customer service now need their very own department (again, a good thing, because it means business is growing). There’s a choice to be made, do you gear up and manage this function in-house or, like other products you may source and buy in, do you outsource the contact centre function. Like most choices, there are the pros and cons but in balance, business process outsourcing (BPO) comes up on top.

Here’s why. First off, at a BPO centre like Boomerang, in the words of CEO Rob Joubert: “Contact centre, telemarketing and customer services – that’s our core business and it’s what we do really well. We know all the ins and outs, so when it comes to these services, we can be more effective than companies who do not have these functions as core business. We have spent years learning the art of delivering professional contact centre services and we have invested in the people, process and technologies required to deliver great customer experience”.

Like other specialist services you might outsource, pay point management for example, contact centre management and staff have honed the service to a fine point. There is the capital investment in appropriate technologies and the associated maintenance costs of running a contact centre that has already been footed by the outsource partner, and there is little reason for your business to reinvent the wheel as it were. In the choice to outsource, your business has immediate access to trained staff and dedicated specialist management resources and your staff can focus on increasing productivity in your core business.

Rob adds: “Not only do we match or exceed the quality of in-house off-shore contact centres, but we are able to do this regularly at a better price point.”

But what about the concern: “My staff know my business best and call centre agents are just not going to have that same passion?” After all, brand loyalty is seen as being strongest in the founding company itself.

Quality outsource services providers will be cognisant of this bias and take active steps to counter it by creating dedicated teams of people who are immersed in the client company culture, people that embody its values and receive ongoing training to keep them up to date with products and services offered. Employees dedicated to a client strongly associate with the client brand.

As a growing business, ever aware of mounting costs in a changeable environment, there emerges a need for flexibility. As business volumes change, you will need to ramp up or scale down the number of call centre or telemarketing agents to meet this change. Here’s where outsourcing really comes into its own, as this risk is passed directly to your BPO partner, and there is no call to suddenly find a budget to meet increased costs.

Rob gives a real time example: “At Boomerang we are geared for short notice scalability. We serve a retailer, for example, in the UK that has demand variations impacted by Covid, where they provide essential services. We doubled up our agents in a month to provide uninterrupted services to them.”

Robert Joubert

Boomerang BPO

www.boomerangbpo.com

Cold calling continues to earn a seat at the strategy table, because it works. But, like good advice, cold calling is only effective if applied correctly. Let’s show you how to close more sales and get hung up on less.

What is cold calling?
When cold calling, a salesperson calls a prospective customer to introduce them to and sell a product or service that the prospect may or may not have heard about before. It can be used to target businesses (B2B0 or consumers (B2C). Cold calling is an intrinsic part of the B2B sales process in that decision makers can be identified, buyer needs uncovered and a foot in the door secured for an account manager or closer sales agent to see the deal through to fruition. Cold calling has traditionally been a cornerstone of new customer acquisition for many insurance, telecoms, utility companies, banks, and financial services providers for decades. A skilled agent can introduce an offering, qualify the prospect, and obtain a buying decision, as well collect payment details from the new customer – all in one call! Managing to connect with the prospective customer on an empathetic level during the call is imperative to build trust and lays the foundation for an engaging interaction and future business relationship.

Does Cold Calling Still Work?
Whether cold calling works or not is a contentious issue, with opinions (and results achieved) varying greatly. There are many who argue that cold calling is intrusive, interruption marketing, that it is overused and doesn’t work. Then there are others, who continue to achieve profitable and high growth sales results. Kenan-Flager Business School records a 2.5% success rate for cold calling and self-development author Brian Tracy (a respected expert on the topic of sales) strongly endorses it. We believe there is enough evidence to show that, done right, cold calling can deliver great bottom line results, but only a few are getting it right. There is a formula for achieving cold calling sales success: A sale occurs when a quality sales presentation is made to the right person and the right product is offered at the right price at the right time. So, cold calling is still very relevant, but it comes with various provisos for success.

How To Make A Good Cold Call – 5 Top Cold Calling Tips

Preparation, preparation, preparation
Particularly in B2B cold calling, various executives and decision makers have complained that their caller was ill-equipped to answer vital questions pertaining to the product / service at hand. Preparation for a call supersedes merely knowing about the history, milestones, and accolades of the individual or company. The caller needs to have an intrinsic knowledge of the prospective customer’s needs and how they can best be met. The sales process, for B2B, complex sales transactions or for sales with high compliance requirements (i.e. insurance sales) may include a fronter-closer method. Fronter-closer method is where a lead warmer (fronter) will warm up, qualify the lead and transfer to a sales specialist (closer) who will close the sale. Shift the focus – it’s all about the customer.

It’s not just business, it’s actually very personal.
How we make people feel is truly what will be remembered – whether making a critical cold call, or simply going about our lives. The prospective customer can instantly sense if the contact centre agent is interested in getting to know what they need, rather than just closing a sale. There’s an inspiring example in the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, where Judi Dench plays the role of an older traveller who lands up in a mentoring role for millennials in a contact centre in India. She cites how she had been spoken to “without a trace of humanity”, when she’d revealed to a contact centre agent that her husband had recently died. In her role, Dench humorously guides a young agent to adapt to the nuances of a conversation, rather than “sounding like a robot”. In the movie, the contact centre agent quickly applied these tips and, sensing that Dench’s character wanted to chat, proceeded to ask her about the TV programme that she mentioned she was watching. So, instinctively, the agent shifted her focus from pushing the sale to the real-time need.

Step into the customer’s shoes
The contact centre industry needs to make empathy sexy. Detachment or indifference can be sniffed out at a distance.
Empathy and authenticity are mutually inclusive, and vital when engaging in a cold call. The contact centre representative must approach the call from a genuine place of humanity, to create a personal resonance with the prospective customer from the start. This is a crucial test that many contact centre representatives fail or are not even aware of. In this regard, it is best to avoid overly prescriptive sales scripts where possible. The telemarketer should certainly not be reading word for word to the prospective customer. When using sales scripting the telemarketing agent should pay careful attention to use the script to structure the call only, to ensure any compliance or communication person-to-person with the prospective client. And, regardless of how the call ends, if the recipient of the call experiences empathy on the other end of the line and an engaging sales experience then the company will gain from brand awareness created and may win this customer at a future date. Be a great listener.

Great cold callers use open-ended questions to uncover the needs and interests of the prospective customer. An open-ended question is any question that cannot be answered with a simple “yes” or “no”. Such questions get the prospect talking and deepen the quality of information provided.
Many believe that great telemarketing and telesales persons are great speakers, but to be an excellent cold caller you need to be a great listener first. Active listening is the art to be mastered here, one that is challenging when having to deal with sales targets and deal with constant rejection. And this applies to both B2B and B2C cold calls. But with concentration and intentional engagement, it is certainly achievable. Active listening shifts the focus from sales to value – a refreshing change for a prospective customer. Prospects often provide clues or buying signals to the telemarketer during the call and sales agents are well advised to listen attentively to expressions of interests from the prospect – including sounds of acknowledgement during the call. For instance, a question from the customer is indicative of interest and savvy agents will leverage on this interest to focus on benefits of the product or service that will be of most interest to the prospect. Sell on benefits, not features.

To the untrained ear a feature sounds much like a benefit, but knowing the difference has a huge influence on sales success. Top salespeople will always sell on benefits of the product, not the product features. So, what exactly is the difference between a feature and a benefit? Remember the “sell me this pen” interview question? It is a question often posed in interviews and is designed to gauge whether the sales agent has mastered the skill of selling on benefits as opposed to product features. A feature is “what it is”. In this case, a writing implement. A benefit is what the feature does for the customer. A pen reframed as a benefit then, is that it is a tool for social connection as the buyer writes a well-worded letter to a loved one. Another example of a feature is, “the battery on this device will last 18 hours with regular use”. Phrased as a benefit this may sound something like “the battery on this device will last 18 hours between charges which means that you can enjoy using your device throughout the day without interruptions or recharging required”. Customers seldom buy a product for its features. They will buy because the product solves a need. Therefore, it’s vital for the caller to frame the product features in a way that it solves a relevant need for the customer.

How To Build A Cold Calling Prospect List
Before you even start, you need to be clear about your product offering and value proposition, the landscape you’re operating in, who your competitors are, and what your buyer profile looks like. Then you’re able to compile your prospective customer criteria, considering important aspects like their pain points, compatibility with your established buyer persona, and their affordability.

Here are some tactics to use to nail that cold calling prospect list:
• For B2B targeting, consider aspects like location, industry, size, and purchase information
• For B2C targeting, considerations should include geographic and demographic information
• Study online reviews on competitors
• Identify your competitor’s prospects through online mentions
• Use LinkedIn to identify and review prospects
• Use your network to match prospects to your buyer profile
• Don’t underestimate the power of producing quality, relevant content
• Review past customers, and establish their updated information

From tracking unique website visitors to creating more pipeline or tracking interaction, there are myriad online tools to use for prospecting. These include Pardot, Leadlander, and Hubspot. Be mindful of data privacy and direct marketing regulations in the territories you operate in. Ensure you comply with the legal requirements to operate outbound cold calling campaigns. Be aware that data privacy legislation is in force in countries globally. For example, the EU has General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR), The United Kingdom has the Data Protection Act and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), and California introduced the California Consumer Privacy Act. In South Africa, the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) will be in full force from July 2021.

Measure The Right Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)
It is important to watch the right numbers not only to ensure your campaign performs optimally, but also to make any improvements that enhance this performance, or remedy obstacles hampering performance.
If your campaign isn’t achieving the desired results, then review your KPI’s.

Key Cold Calling Indicators Include:
• Average call time – what is the duration of the average call? If calls are short, then this may point to a poorly target prospect list or to the caller not engaging the prospect enough to open up a conversation.
• RPC ratio – the Right Party Connect ratio is an important indicator of the quality of the prospect list. Are you getting hold of enough of the right prospects? Poor RPC is a clear indicator that the prospect list is not working.
• Lead to Sale Ratio – what ratio of sales leads are converting to sales? This figure is an indicator of the quality of the prospect list, as well as the effectiveness of the caller. On an individual level, when comparing person-to-person results, this ratio differentiates effective from not effective persons.
• Average sales values
• Refusals – it is also important to record and review the reasons why a prospect refused an offer as much can be learned from unsuccessful sales calls.

When monitoring KPI’s regularly, it makes it easier for the operator to hone in on the focus areas that will achieve the desired result, and how to apply remedies in the form of training, product enrichments, product pricing reviews, selection improvements, and more. For more information on telesales, KPI’s, their meaning and how to manage using KPI’s – request the free info pack from us.

Robert Joubert

Boomerang SA

Learn more about how we can help you: https://boomerangbpo.com/specialised-services/customer-acquisitions-and-retentions/