Nicola Millard, a Customer Experience Futurologist at BT, helped build the first ever expert system in Europe for call centres. She combines a background in psychology (rather than technology) along with futurology to help BT determine what might be coming up for their customers.
How did you get into customer service?
I got my first job 22 years ago at BT, and I’m still here. I started in research, building the first expert system. It was very research based, focusing on knowledge extraction to build a system which could truly help call agents.
And how did you end up in your current role?
I spent a lot of time in the research organisation at BT; call centres and customer service tended to be a big theme. My role is part researcher and part pragmatic. Call centre agents have a tough job, and it is getting tougher. My role is to liaise with the research and innovation ecosystem, and bring the results to a pragmatic level. I am a psychologist by training, so I know that in a very people centred world we need to take technical information and look at what it means for customers and employees.
How has the industry changed since you’ve been involved in it?
I used to joke the only thing that changed in call centres were the carpets, but at the moment there is a seismic shift in the pressure on call centres. Self service is a large underlying factor in this, if we make a system easy enough our customers will use it. There is an assumption that this means no one will call anymore, and while these is some drop-off, the calls that remain are the really difficult and emotive ones. Call centres processes and scripts are built for predictable transactions, but now we end up with calls that are more volatile, and require a call centre staff empowered to think for themselves.
What is your greatest achievement?
My PHD on call centres. It was a field PHD, so it had me carrying out experiments in active call centres. I was focusing on advisor motivation and technology acceptance, asking how we could help new technology to become accepted.
What is your biggest regret?
The most frustrating thing is that things aren’t growing as quickly as predicted. Five years ago it was predicted that homeshoring would become massive, and its still not where we think it should be. The technology is there, but it hasn’t taken off due to culture and trust issues.
What is the best thing about your job?
My job is endlessly interesting and stimulating, I get to talk to lots of really brilliant people all around the world. There is no typical day, every day is different. It is the best job I’ve ever had.
Who has had the greatest influence over your life or career?
When I was doing my PHD at Lancaster, the earliest work that interested me was by Peter Checkland. I remember having a small geek-out when he walked into a restaurant I was in. His theories make sense; life is a series of interlinked systems. So it is a very holistic view.
If you could change one thing in your organisation what would it be?
Sometimes it’s like turning a battleship, but you could say that of any big organisation. It’s our job to help turn the battleship faster.
What do you do for fun?
I go to the cinema and theatre a lot, I love science fiction. When I am not travelling for business I travel for pleasure.
Tell us one unusual thing about yourself.
According to our family tree I am very distantly related to Ned Kelly.
Which companies do you admire?
I love Starbucks, they are fabulous on a number of levels. Amazon extract lots of money out of me painlessly. I’ve been a customer of First Direct for a long time and I love them. Not a lot of people say that about their bank.
What keeps you up at night?
Most things. I have trouble sleeping because my brain is very active. It’s never bad stuff, I’m just so excited about my job, its hard to switch off.
Source Article from http://www.callcentre.co.uk/page.cfm/Action=library/libID=1/listID=57/libEntryID=4613
