Welcome to the first installment of “Ask Aspect”, where you’ll get firsthand insights from tenured pros in the workforce and contact center spaces. The Aspect team is lucky enough to have numerous team members with decades of expertise under their belts. What better way to share that knowledge than with our community?
Let’s get to know our first expert, Alec Bowman-Clarke, hailing from Rothesay on the Isle of Bute in Scotland. With more than 25 years in the contact center space on his CV, Alec is one of Aspect’s industry experts. He started his career with legacy systems like Blue Pumpkin & Q-Max and has played an important role in customer development at several workforce companies, including Aspect. Alec also has experience as an independent consultant, assisting companies like DHL and Airbnb with implementing solutions to solve their workforce challenges. Alec’s experience at various workforce companies and in several industries offer invaluable insights into the complexities of modern workforce management.
We sat down with Alec to ask a few burning questions related to the workforce world. Some answers have been edited for clarity, but don’t worry—you’re still getting all of the expert knowledge you’re looking for.
Q: Hi Alec. What are your feelings about AI and what place does it (or doesn't it) have in WFM?
A: I should preface this by saying: this is my opinion on AI, and that means that I might be completely wrong. You might disagree but I tried to base my opinion on the conversations I’ve had with customers.
Workforce management (WFM) has always been AI for the specific needs that we have. We give a system a set of rules, we use a load of clever math, and tick boxes in the rules we set. Then the system gives us an answer. We tell it that ‘Alec is part-time’, and ‘Daniella is full-time’, and we have various skill matches. We chuck it all into the system with set rules and get a schedule.
In workforce though, we require numbers, not language like many current uses for AI tools. We ask questions like “What's the optimal time for this shift to happen? When should breaks happen? What happens if I cancel my holiday? What are the implications of that on my on the service level?” Workforce technology helps us understand those things. We've been using AI for years.
Q: What are some of the biggest things customers are asking for with AI tools?
A: Customers aren’t asking for AI just for the sake of having it. They’re looking for use cases aligned with problems they’re trying to solve. Aside from that, people are really asking for training. They want to know how to use the technology.
Think of this analogy: A workforce tool isn’t the magic that makes something possible. A workforce tool is just the wand. And the workforce planner is the magician. If a customer asks “how can I be a better magician?” a better wand can help make things possible but you still need to be skilled at the trick.
Q: With experience using so many workforce tools, what is Aspect’s biggest differentiator?
A: Aspect tools can be complex. This isn’t a bad thing. It can have all this massive complexity if that’s what a team prefers. Workforce planners love complexity.
Back to the wand analogy, bear with me. We've got the best wands, ours does stuff that no one else can do. But if you don't need those complex functions today, don't worry. You don't have to use them yet. You can set up a really basic situation. Forget all the rules in that menu. When you’re ready to upgrade your wand, there’s a whole training suite here that you can access that will help you to do it.
Q: Do you think potential complexities can be a bit daunting for users though?
A: An expert user can have a depth of knowledge but sometimes, there are bits they just don’t know. If they work through a process and don’t get the results they like, they’ll sack a tool. Sometimes going through a complex maze leaves users at the end, not wanting to ask for help. This is where training modules and support services swoop in. The things a workforce planner needs to do are perfectly reasonable to ask for and doable in Aspect tools, they just need support and we’re here to provide that.
Q: You’ve been in the WFM and WEM space for a long time, so you understand the complexities. What challenges you today?
A: We need tools to be complex. But we need a framework that offers direct solutions to the problems that customers are trying solve, giving users confidence that they’ll have support through any complex challenge they face. They need to know we have their back during the complex problems, and finding solutions is just our day-to-day, it’s what we do.
Q: I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of developments over the years. What is one of the most significant innovations that’s changed workforce tech?
A: Two big things come to mind.
One is the integration of quality management to develop workforce optimization (WFO). This changed the game overnight. The availability to offer schedule preferences based on quality score gave planning teams a wand that was twice as good as it used to be. It helped planning team understand that call quality assessment can now be part of their remit.
The second thing is when we started using WEM. There was initially skepticism in the market but I saw a huge positive impact on both planning teams and agent populations. This shift to focusing on employee engagement gave everyone more job satisfaction. The idea was that we weren't solely focusing on efficiency trying to meet our service targets (although of course we want to do those things), but instead asking questions like “How can we make an agent population have a better experience at work?” The shift to focusing on making work easier for agents changed the market for the better.
Interested in hearing more from our team of WEM experts? Stay tuned for the next installment of "Ask Aspect" and explore our training services to learn more about how our experts will support you through your workforce journey.
