Author: Ryan Falkenberg
There is no escaping the fact that South Africa has a severe and deep-seated debt problem. The average household spent nearly 62% of its income on servicing debt in 2022. While that’s slightly down from the 66.1% they spent in 2021, there are other indicators that consumer debt troubles are getting worse. In mid-August Absa revealed that the number of bad debts in its home loan portfolio tripled year-on-year. There are a number of macro-economic factors behind this surge, including rising interest rates and rampant inflation. With even middle-income South Africans spending 80% of their salary within the first five…
When you think about the businesses most affected by load shedding, chances are contact centres don’t immediately leap to mind. But, as with so many other companies across the country, it has played havoc with contact centres. The problem doesn’t lie so much with the contact centres themselves, which use generators and other tools to stay online, but with being able to contact potential and existing customers. The contactability conundrum Already an industry-wide problem (one survey found that 87% of US adults mostly ignore calls from numbers they don’t know), contactability is massively exacerbated in South Africa by load shedding.…
ChatGPT, the latest artificial intelligence (AI) application, has grabbed the world’s attention. You may have seen ChatGPT write new song lyrics in the style of your favourite artist (something they don’t always appreciate) or read that it’s passing MBA exams. It’s hardly surprising that people wonder what jobs ChatGPT and technologies like it might replace. Customer service agents jump to mind. After all, if it can convincingly tackle an MBA exam question, why shouldn’t ChatGPT be able to deal with your average customer query? It’s not that simple though. As exciting a leap forward in AI technology as ChatGPT is,…
If you watch the customer service space closely, you may have noticed that in late November, US-based low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines shut down its customer service phone line. Anyone with a query or dispute has to now rely on a chatbot on the airline’s website, a 24/7 live chat option, its social media channels, or WhatsApp. While the move is largely unprecedented in the airline sector, where most maintain call centres, it’s hardly shocking. Human agents are already forced to act like robots, following prescribed scripts and logic flows for most service queries and disputes. What they say and do…
For some companies, selling and servicing their products digitally is relatively simple. You upload your products into an online store and ensure the buying and delivery process is slick and seamless. To help answer basic product questions, you offer them a digital assistant or chatbot. Take a company that sells sunglasses. Customers just need clear product photos, relevant product information and access to product reviews and they will happily make their online buying choices, unassisted. For regulated companies such as mobile networks, banks, and insurers, it’s a little more complicated. Their products and services are more complex to understand, and…
COVID-19 looks to be the tipping point for the world of work. Traditional organisations, which for so long demanded their employees’ physical presence have been forced to rethink their views. Thanks to South Africa’s lockdown, the impossible has rapidly become the new normal. Take sales. It’s becoming clear that you don’t need to be in the same room as your customer to have a successful sales engagement. Customers can and do adapt. What they really want is to have their situation properly understood, and a solution shaped to their needs and context. They are tired of being treated as a…