How to Get the Most out of Disruptive Technologies: Top Tips from Moneypenny

Leading outsourced communications company, Moneypenny, is well known for its first class PAs, who handle calls, live chat and digital communications for companies large and small, across multiple industry sectors.  What is less well-known is that the company is underpinned by leading edge tech and that disruptive technology has played a large part in its rapid growth.  Today the company employs 1,000 people globally and supports over 21,000 clients, offering the perfect blend of people and technology-based communications solutions.

Pete Hanlon, Chief Technology Officer for Moneypenny, is always innovating, with a current focus on Artificial Intelligence, which has seen huge progress. Peter comments: “The current global pandemic has supercharged changes that were already in motion, and we must all implement and embrace disruptive technologies, bridging the gap between how we communicate and what a computer understands. We are also tracking progress in speech detection, to make the interaction between automation and human processes seamless. For example, we’ve found that the voice-controlled switchboard is really gaining in popularity following the widespread adoption and acceptance of technologies like Alexa and Google in people’s homes.”

Pete has put together the following tips to enable business leaders to get the most out of disruptive technology:

Think long term. Most CEOs and business leaders are aware of the direction that their business is going in and how technology will impact them. The mistake some make is in only focusing on short term results.  There are some very well-known examples of companies that failed to either recognise or adapt to new technologies.  In many instances, these companies may have been too large to fail, but they did just that when faced with disruptive technology.

Ensure the right culture. Make sure your business leadership, purpose and vision are set up to deal with a future of disruptive technologies. We’re entering a time when agility and flexibility in business are key, so it’s a good time to revisit your leadership team. Are they equipped to harness the opportunities? Can they challenge the status quo and make bold decisions and are you brave enough as a leader to listen to them?

Embrace emerging technology at the right time. Disruptive technologies don’t just happen. I would suggest that they are inevitable, with some slower burning than others, so, timing is everything. Make sure that you embrace the technology before it becomes truly disruptive.

Sit in your customer’s shoes. Put the customer at the heart of your decisions, as without customers you have no business. Technology is getting so sophisticated at adapting and predicting, so use it to put your customer at the centre of everything you do. For example, during the pandemic a lot of companies were struggling to divert their phones and didn’t have the right tech to manage their outsourced communications. For example, one large business had a receptionist that had to travel into the office each day to listen to the businesses telephone answering machine, while another business had one work mobile which was being used for all calls to be diverted to. We provided the tech companies needed, through products such as our Digital Switchboard which we offered free for a three month period for businesses, to help them divert calls to mobiles and deal with large volumes of calls cost effectively.

Be ahead of the game. Look out for tech that will be big in the future.  For example, we had already seen a rise in Live Chat before the pandemic, but the use of it has been accelerated, with an agent able to handle 10 times more customer Live Chats compared with answering one call in the same time, so it’s much faster for businesses to use this channel and it helps manage the large customer service enquiries that many businesses have seen surge over the pandemic.

Help your team use the tech. It’s all very well having the tech, but teach your teams to use it properly and use tech to help keep your teams joined up.

Improve productivity by looking forward. Sign up projects that allow the team to learn and get ahead of the curve. Keep it going and keep innovating, giving people the bandwidth and the ability to think ahead with new ideas. Businesses have had to embrace the use of digital communication technologies in order to ensure business continuity. This forcing of their hands will see the wider adoption and acceptance of technologies as both the technology advances and the new-normality resumes.