{"id":18947,"date":"2021-06-11T10:00:43","date_gmt":"2021-06-11T09:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/?p=18947"},"modified":"2023-01-16T17:54:58","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T17:54:58","slug":"ringside-insider-interview-with-paolo-fabrizio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/ringside-insider-interview-with-paolo-fabrizio\/","title":{"rendered":"Ringside: Insider Interview with Paolo Fabrizio"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Consumers have changed in meaningful ways in the past year, and now it\u2019s the responsibility of businesses to keep pace with shifting customer preferences and behaviours.<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to Ringside. This is where we talk leadership, technology, organisation and communication with the people who are shaping the way businesses deliver <a href=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/definitive-guide-customer-experience\/\">customer experience<\/a> and more.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paolo Fabrizio is a digital customer service consultant, trainer, speaker and author<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 1990s, Paolo took part in the startup of the first online insurance company in Italy, following the customer&#8217;s entire lifecycle. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since 2013, he has been a consultant and trainer. He helps companies harness digital customer service as a key business driver. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paolo is the f<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ounder of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/urldefense.com\/v3\/__https:\/\/customerserviceculture.com\/en__;!!J-1DKIBqn-Pi!RnIl08Awv4hTW05rf1uAiF8jUtTB_fXcYdlbS6RMf3U-SaJ5XDgakNDEvit-m2bpWO7_WIbj$\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CustomerServiceCulture.com<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and a lecturer at Bicocca University of Milan (Master MADIM).<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Through &#8216;Customer Service Culture&#8217;, what is the thing you enjoy most about helping businesses?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I find it exciting getting to know clients\u2019 processes, procedures and feelings when dealing with their customers. By assessing their conversations, regardless of the industry or support channels they use, I can deep dive into their inner needs and pain points and set up customised roadmaps. I know that\u2019s crucial, having worked for 20 years within organisations before becoming a digital c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ustomer service consultant. This approach works really well and it enables me to become their trusted partner.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>In what ways have you seen digital customer service improve during your career?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2014, when I started my career as a digital customer service consultant, the only \u2018mature\u2019 markets were the USA and UK. Pioneer industries were telcos and a few others, and channels were essentially social media and live chat. From 2018 onwards, online customer support has become widespread all over Europe, Asia and now Africa covering many more industries and businesses (both B2C and B2B). New digital channels such as messaging apps and video chat are growing very fast, and the lockdown period we\u2019ve all been facing has accelerated overall demand.<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t<style>\r\n\t\t\t@media (min-width: 768px) {\r\n\t\t\t\t.bottom-cta .bottom-cta-img {\r\n\t\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\r\n\t\t\t\t\twidth: 50%;\r\n\t\t\t\t}\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\r\n\t\t\t.bottom-cta .bottom-cta-img img {\r\n\t\t\t\twidth: 100%;\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\r\n\t\t\t.bottom-cta {\r\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #001138;\r\n\t\t\t\tpadding: 30px;\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\r\n\t\t\t.bottom-cta .bottom-cta-copy {\r\n\t\t\t\tpadding: 0 30px;\r\n\t\t\t\toverflow: hidden;\r\n\t\t\t\tcolor: #fff;\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\r\n\t\t\t.bottom-cta .bottom-cta-copy .btn-primary {\r\n\t\t\t\twidth: 100%;\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\t\t<\/style>\r\n\t\t<div class=\"bottom-cta  CID-cta-2FdM5dTp IID-cta-6a0bed49ca73a\"\r\n\t\t\tdata-dl-custom-type=\"cta\">\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"bottom-cta-img\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Digital-service.jpeg\" alt=\"Call to action banner\">\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"bottom-cta-copy\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<span style=\"font-size: 24px; line-height: 30px;\">Make the right choice for your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/contact-centre\/overview.html\">contact centre<\/a> \u2013 see how RingCentral can transform your agent and customer experience.<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"text-center\" style=\"display: block;\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"rc-cta-shortcode btn btn-primary btn-lg\" data-dl-element=\"button\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"btn btn-primary btn-lg\" style=\"margin-top: 16px; font-weight: bold;\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\ttitle=\"Discover RingCentral Contact Centre\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/for\/uc-cc.html\" target=\"_blank\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\trel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-dl-additional-info=\"Make the right choice for your contact centre \u2013 see how RingCentral can transform your agent and customer experience.\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-name=\"Make the right choice for your contact centre \u2013 see how RingCentral can transform your agent and customer experience. | Find out more\">Find out more<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\n<h2>There have been a lot of changes across customer service in recent months, what are the biggest challenges to overcome next?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, there have been many changes in just 12-15 months, so much so that consumers increased either their digital support demand or, most of all, they have dramatically raised their expectations. That leads to three frequent challenges that emerge when I have conversations with customer service directors and managers. The first need is to review the way customers perceive them, their corporate values and re-assessing their strategic positioning where necessary. Then updating their infrastructures, meaning getting equipped with omnichannel digital platforms to make front line agents&#8217; lives easier and empowering managers\u2019 360\u00b0 view with customised reports and analytics as per team, and support channel. The need is up-skilling their customer service managers and agents and that\u2019s currently one of the most frequent activities that I carry out for my clients. As a result of this experience in 2020, I\u2019ve shared my <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/DCSP-EN\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Digital Customer Service Personas<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> skill-set model &#8211; to turn agents into digital conversations specialists (over social media, live chat, messaging).<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The saying \u201cwe\u2019re too big to fail\u201d does not apply anymore. The new nightmare is fast obsolescence. Therefore my message is; don\u2019t rest on your laurels even though you\u2019re in a great position today.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2><b>How can businesses adapt their long-term strategy to make the most of digital customer service?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This question touches on an issue for those brands who are reluctant to accept that digital customer service is much more than a trend, it\u2019s a one way road. Whether you like it or not, the era of long term strategies has come to its end. That being said, planning long term goals is still very important, but being ready and willing to make route adjustments in a timely fashion has become paramount.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>What&#8217;s the best piece of advice you can give to an organisation wishing to improve its customer service operations?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The saying \u201cwe\u2019re too big to fail\u201d does not apply anymore. The new nightmare is fast obsolescence, therefore my message is; don\u2019t rest on your laurels even though you\u2019re in a great position today. Otherwise, you might suddenly wake up after a couple of years in totally different conditions, having been overcome by competitors that you had (wrongly) underrated.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>What are the important customer trends you\u2019ve seen over the last six months?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve essentially noticed two main trends. Firstly, a strong demand for messaging channels such as WhatsApp and Telegram, with brands needing to train their front line staff to master conversations with their customers accordingly. As a new digital customer service channel, video chat usage is on the rise and health and financial services companies are going to introduce it soon, with further industries to follow in the forthcoming months. This is also the result of the digital-pandemic-acceleration above mentioned. I\u2019m convinced that these trends will be consolidated in the next 2 years ahead and further, maybe more will follow.<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t<div class=\"uc-expo-cta-2 style-4  CID-cta-2FdM5dTp\"\r\n\t\t\tdata-dl-custom-type=\"ctaButton\">\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"inner-container\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"text\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>Better customer service starts here: give your agents the all-in-one contact centre platform they need.<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"button\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"rc-cta-shortcode btn btn-primary btn-lg\" data-dl-element=\"button\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"btn btn-primary btn-lg\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/for\/uc-cc.html\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-additional-info=\"Better customer service starts here: give your agents the all-in-one contact centre platform they need.\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-name=\"Better customer service starts here: give your agents the all-in-one contact centre platform they need. | Find out more\" target=\"_blank\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\trel=\"noopener\" title=\"Discover RingCentral Contact Centre\">Find out more<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Consumers have changed in meaningful ways in the past year, and now it\u2019s the responsibility of businesses to keep pace with shifting customer preferences and behaviours. Welcome to Ringside. This &hellip; <a href=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/ringside-insider-interview-with-paolo-fabrizio\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Ringside: Insider Interview with Paolo Fabrizio&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":244,"featured_media":18967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,120],"tags":[33,157,61],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ringside: Insider Interview with Paolo Fabrizio | RingCentral UK Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"onsumers have changed in meaningful ways in the past year, and now it\u2019s the responsibility of businesses to keep pace with shifting customer prefere\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/blog\/ringside-insider-interview-with-paolo-fabrizio\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"RingCentral Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ringside: Insider Interview with Paolo Fabrizio | RingCentral UK Blog","description":"onsumers have changed in meaningful ways in the past year, and now it\u2019s the responsibility of businesses to keep pace with shifting customer prefere","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/blog\/ringside-insider-interview-with-paolo-fabrizio\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"RingCentral Team","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":":\/gb\/en\/blog\/ringside-insider-interview-with-paolo-fabrizio\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/ringside-insider-interview-with-paolo-fabrizio\/"},"author":{"name":"RingCentral Team","@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/cc4f043d2b478862a8622c28b0ebd08c"},"headline":"Ringside: Insider Interview with Paolo Fabrizio","datePublished":"2021-06-11T09:00:43+00:00","dateModified":"2023-01-16T17:54:58+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/ringside-insider-interview-with-paolo-fabrizio\/"},"wordCount":938,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["customer engagement","customer experience","customer service"],"articleSection":["Business Trends - 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