At KPN, the content of customer contact work is gradually changing. Products and services are evolving and improving; the contact center is embracing GenAI solutions. Together with Randstad, KPN has developed a new profile for the customer contact employee.

 

Martin Bus has a track record in customer contact. But the foundation wasn't laid in the contact center. Instead, Bus spent over sixteen years in KPN's retail organization. He held various positions there: salesperson on a sales floor, store manager, regional manager, regional director, and director of KPN Stores. But the experience he gained on the sales floor—with his hands-on experience—remains essential today, Bus believes: "The bigger the company gets, the more important it is that you can still evoke what it truly feels like to be a customer expert or salesperson."

A few years ago, Bus moved from the KPN retail organization to KPN's contact center, where he initially took responsibility for "The Hub." This hub was created during the COVID-19 pandemic—in addition to KPN's physical contact centers in Enschede and Groningen—and further developed by Bus as a virtual branch. Currently, around 300 employees work there, primarily from home. The Hub is the first thing we mention when we ask about how KPN and Randstad collaborate. Bus emphasizes that the Hub was established in co-creation with the HR service provider.

KPN customer service (BtC) is spread across several locations. The Groningen location, where Bus is responsible, employs approximately 600 people, while Enschede and De Hub have around 500. Amsterdam Sloterdijk, where XS4ALL also operates, has a walk-in contact center where head office staff can easily watch and listen to the agents working there. A total of over 1.200 agents work in KPN's contact centers, accounting for 70% of all traffic. Currently, 30% of that traffic is handled by the facilities contact centers Yource, Continuum, 2Contact, and Concentrix. The total customer contact operation (internal, external, staff, and management) comprises approximately 3.500 employees.

Virtual contact center

The Hub is a way for us to recruit more broadly, namely throughout the Netherlands. With such a digital office, you have to carefully consider the employee profile. A regular employee spends most of their time in the office, which makes it easier to build loyalty with KPN. With a digital employee, many of these issues disappear. We asked Randstad at the time: does the digital employee exist? What do we need to do to engage and retain them? At the same time, a digital office offers clever opportunities to recruit from target groups with disabilities. For some people, working outside the home is difficult. We believe we can offer these people a job. I think that's great. Randstad conducted labor market research and provided advice for this purpose. The profile for The Hub's employees was developed entirely in collaboration with Randstad.

Customer contact work is changing

The Hub is a prime example of the changing world of customer contact work: remote working in customer contact was more of a social than a technological leap. With the rise of new technologies like generative AI, change is once again at the top of the agenda.

"As a society, we're at the bottom of the 'hockey stick' when it comes to the current technological revolution. I deliberately say revolution, because new technology, just like the previous industrial revolution, will impact the entire world of work," says Bus. "Adoption is a key concept: which skills and tools do I embrace to do my work better, smarter, faster, more attractively, and more pleasantly? I see it as my role to encourage the people in my teams to approach technology with that same curiosity."

Other contact volumes?

New technology impacts not only how we do our work, but also the volume and nature of the customer contact work we face. Bus believes the total volume of contacts will decrease. "At the same time, human contact will continue to exist because customers will continue to call when there's urgency. I also think we're seeing a kind of counterintuitive movement. Call it a societal movement that's reassessing the value of human contact. I think there will remain groups of customers who, as a matter of principle, don't want to deal with a robot or other technological aids."

Fewer reasons to call

At the same time, the technology KPN offers its customers is constantly improving, Bus explains. "There's less need to make phone calls. A router fails less often. A fiber optic cable is more reliable. Customer contact is becoming more proactive and personalized. This starts with offering customers control—think flexibility in the composition of the service package they purchase."

In any case, the importance of good customer contact becomes even more crucial. "Because the contact center is no longer the first or second line of defense; the customer has already tried everything with the technology. The leeway for not getting it right the first time becomes much smaller." First contact resolution will thus become a company-wide responsibility: from someone managing a tool to someone designing a customer journey, or someone developing a new marketing campaign. An elderly man or woman might just keep calling, says Bus.

The agent's workload is changing

Bus explains how GenAI has been incorporated into various customer service processes. “We use automated summarization. It takes time for all employees to trust such a tool, as some employees have been providing good summaries themselves for years. This transition is a good one, as blindly trusting new technology is unwise. Another example is our AI helpdesk, which employees can literally use to ask questions; the result is a customized answer. For our customer service representatives, we have the digital coach, which allows you to listen back to your own conversations and thus gain insight into your personal improvement potential and training opportunities. The digital coach ensures that our employees and coaches have more time together to focus on the content—how to make your conversations even more effective—and on development potential because they no longer have to spend time collecting data. Our team leaders use KPN GPT to bring internal communications into line with KPN’s corporate identity.”

There are also significant changes on the client side. "We offer our clients the Invoice Explainer, an online tool that can handle invoice queries. We use real-time insights from our network to proactively inform clients, for example, about peaks in the network that could potentially cause problems."

New profile

This list shows how the customer expert's workload gradually changes, says Bus, but that process is also partly unpredictable. "Last week, we didn't expect generative AI applications to be this good. What we accept as truth today is outdated tomorrow."

Does this also change the profile of the customer service representative? Yes, KPN primarily focuses less on diplomas and education level and more on qualities, Bus explains. "We primarily look at desire, ability, and courage. Only if someone doesn't want to do it does it stop. However, aspects of the profile are being refined – think of technical affinity, because that's important at KPN."

Bus also believes the contact center representative role could use some upgrading. "In the US, it's a very serious job, one that's proudly displayed on your resume. Here, we've taken the approach that it's a glorified student job. But it really isn't. Perhaps, as you say, it's become a dovecote, but I'd like to have some influence on that. We'll really need people in contact centers in the near future."

Discussing change

Randstad is one of two suppliers KPN is collaborating with. "Randstad's labor market experts are currently examining how the skills of customer contact employees are developing. We're doing the same, and we're currently in the midst of discussions about the similarities and differences between these two analyses and perspectives," says Bus. "It's about the adoption of digital tools, about digital affinity, about extra-large analytical skills. If conversations become more complex and the proportion of complex conversations increases, what does that mean for the skills? If not everything can be captured in tools, what do you need to have in-house?"

resilience

Another key element in the customer service profession is resilience. “I recently saw one of our employees start a discussion on our intranet about 'Good Contact'. She's inviting colleagues to talk about resilience in customer conversations. Are you sometimes called names? Do they ever make a funny comment about your tone of voice or accent? These are also topics I discuss with Randstad. The employee of the future must also be resilient. Customers who contact us by phone have often already tried everything and can be frustrated. Resilience isn't so much about having a thick skin—thumbs up and moving on—but also about consciously connecting and disconnecting and setting boundaries in conversations.”

Future capacity needs

Randstad is a capacity provider par excellence, but that's not possible without a vision for the future. "Our WFM director has his own lines of communication with Randstad. We create a two-year strategic plan with a five-year outlook. Policy decisions, therefore, pertain to a two-year period; visionary decisions have a five-year scope."

Looking two years ahead, doesn't that (compared to a few years ago) mostly raise more questions than answers these days? Bus thinks that's a good argument, but planning is still perfectly possible. "We're often overtaken by reality; in that respect, flexibility has become more important. We're therefore paying more attention to how we can adjust today so that we don't end up at a different destination tomorrow than planned."

Oil tanker

With over a thousand employees in customer contact, making adjustments is no easy task. “In the quarterly reviews with Randstad, I always prepare a few thematic questions. For example, 'What will be the impact of AI on the future of work within the next year?' That naturally leads to discussions with Randstad about our agility. But the partnership with Randstad can also be about completely different things. Last week, we had a party at our branch, a barbecue. I hadn't thought about it, but the Randstad team showed up with a gift.”

Randstad recruiters are in-house with us two days a week. They have their own access badge to the office and are free to move around the work floor. They maintain close contact with the employees they've placed with us. Even at the higher levels, there are short lines of communication: with team leaders, managers, and directors. A good partnership requires investment in the relationship, but afterward, you collaborate more effectively on both content and process.

Collaborate at content and process level

"On the content side, it's about the things we're creating together, like the new substantive profile for customer contact employees we've developed. At the process level, we know how to be truthful, which is sometimes necessary to maintain momentum, as we've gotten to know and trust each other through our strong working relationship. Think of the feedback I receive about what I can specifically improve to make the lives of temporary employees in this organization more pleasant."

“And conversely, Randstad also involves us in their processes: think of organizing an in-house inspiration day for leaders in customer contact during the National Customer Contact WeekThey then ask if they can invite KPN team leaders. And if we have any special requests? Or if I might be interested in telling a story myself. National Customer Contact Week is actually focused on the agents, who are the ones being put in the spotlight. But Randstad is taking a broader approach and organizing something for the team leaders as well. That's valuable."

(Ziptone/Erik Bouwer)

Case, Featured, Human Resources Randstad