How does innovation happen, and how do you disrupt an area of business, such as the call center, that until recently has been woefully left behind? Those are the questions that Pasquale DeMaio, general manager at Amazon Web Services (AWS), asks himself when building and improving Amazon Connect, the company's omnichannel cloud contact center.
Avishai Sharlin, general manager of Amdocs Technology, recently spoke to DeMaio about his predictions around the future contact center and emerging technologies. DeMaio said that anyone working in the contact center space needs to be thinking about innovative ways to make it more personal, dynamic, and interactive, with a mix of technology and a human workforce. All while maintaining a foundation of security, reliability, and scalability. It is only when these factors come together, and we embrace a culture of experimentation that we'll see real innovation and disruptive change.
"The driver of innovation is always need. What is the problem the customer has to solve? How do you help them solve it?" said DeMaio. "So for me, the thing I'm always looking for is what I can do that's going to differentiate and change how a customer can deliver at this point. How can I differentiate and change the way they deliver their customer service?"
But beyond just technology and issues to solve, there is also the constant improvement of the human element that's so critical to contact centers. And this takes a specific leadership approach that DeMaio finds vital.
"Culture really drives behaviors in ways that are incredibly important. One of the ones that drive innovation, in my opinion, is letting people take risks," said DeMaio. "If you empower people with the chance to fail, they may fail, and they may fail more often, sometimes more than you want, and sometimes they may succeed in the first try. But the thing about it is that once you have that permission to go off and try things and to fail, then try again, it fundamentally changes the way people think about their day-to-day. It means that they can go try something out that they wouldn't have felt comfortable doing."
For more on this topic, and how AI and machine learning play a role in the future of contact centers, listen to the Future of Tech podcast series.