Category: News

New research published by Textlocal, one of the UK’s SMS marketing platforms, highlights how a third of respondents feel that they are addicted to their smartphones, with 15 percent checking their phones within 15 minutes of waking.

The research also highlights how smartphones are now an intrinsic part of everyday life, often at hand for more than 16 hours a day with the average user checking their phone 10,000 times a year, 4,000 of these entirely out of habit.

The research was commissioned to find out exactly how consumers are using their phones and what they think about mobile communications, found that currently 85 percent of the adult population now own a smartphone, an increase of more than 63 percent in the last five years. This figure is forecast to grow to 93 percent of adults by 2023, with the 55+ the fastest growing age group.

The findings illustrate how smartphones are now part of everyday life and that the primary role of making calls is becoming less important, with only 59 percent saying they make calls via the phone every day. Other than making calls, the other most popular functions include sending SMSes (92 percent of respondents), taking photos (91 percent) and checking emails (86 percent).

More than 60 percent of people use at least one messaging medium daily, meaning that it has become a more popular way of communicating than making calls. Other popular daily activities uses include browsing the internet (75 pecent), checking social media (67 per cent) and sending SMS (61 percent). Of those who check social media and regularly send SMSes, a third responded to say they were ‘constantly’ checking social media and 22 percent constantly using SMS to message friends, family or colleagues.

The growth in online shopping via mobile is also evident with three quarters (75 percent) using their phones to browse every day and with an average monthly spend growing to £21.15 (Ofcom 2017). The average person now spends 40 hours per week browsing internet on their mobiles – six hours a day – and in 2017 smartphones overtook computers in terms of devices being used to get online.

Jason Palgrave-Jones, Managing Director of Textlocal said: “Smartphones have truly revolutionised the way we work, rest and play. People of all demographics have embraced the convenience and advancements in technology, allowing the devices to play a vital role in how we live our lives today. These technologies have bought convenience and connectivity to our lives and if used appropriately provide excellent opportunities for businesses and consumers alike.”

The advances in technology, connectivity and availability mean that smartphones are typically ‘to hand’ for more than 16 hours a day with 56 percent using them as their daily alarms, more than half (55 percent) tracking their well being on their phones and just under half watching video clips every day on their phones – less corporate videos but more ‘how to’, humour or influencer marketing videos.

Rather than fear robots taking over the contact centre, Teleopti’s Business Manager for UK and Ireland Nick Smith says it’s time to harness the power of both worlds to improve the customer’s experience.

Smith said Teleopti’s experience suggests that both human agents and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have a powerful role to play. On the one hand, AI and chatbots are simultaneously revolutionising customer service and elevating the status of agents.

WeChat in China is one of the most successful pioneers of chatbots supplying 10 million businesses and enabling people to hail a taxi, order food, pay a bill and book a doctor’s appointment without human intervention. However AI is only as good as the data that fuels it and the things AI finds hard are the qualities that make humans unique: conversation, empathy, creativity, intuition and negotiation, Smith said.

He said a combination of AI and well scheduled human agents, with the right skills, might be the silver bullet for effective customer service.

Smith said by the time a customer gets to speak to a live agent, the chances are they have already used their mobile app, searched for answers on websites and trawled numerous YouTube clips to no avail.

“They are frustrated and want to speak to someone who knows all the steps they’ve taken, why they are frustrated and how to solve their query from one single encounter of the human kind. In short, they are looking for a superagent”, he said.

To create a team of superagents, organizations need to re-think their learning environment, capture an organization-wide talent pool in a centralized Workforce Management (WFM) solution and then add Real-Time Adherence (RTA) to re-allocate idle time to training. Through advanced forecasting, scheduling and competence management, human agents will remain more productive and valuable than robots can ever be.

While AI is radically transforming customer interactions but there is no substitute for the human touch when it comes to closing sales calls or delivering an exceptional, personal customer experience, Smith said.

More women than ever before are joining IT businesses as contractors, attracted to the more flexible working practices.

According to a study by accountancy business Nixon Williams, the number of female IT workers switching to self-employment increased by almost 25 percent between 2016 and 2017. Women now account for 16.5  percent of the total IT contractor market, up from 13.8  percent in 2016.

Chief executive officer of Nixon Williams Derek Kelly said that there were more women in IT in both permanent and contracting roles, but the increasing proportion of contractors who are women is particularly significant as contractors tend to earn more than their permanent counterparts, which suggests that the pay gap between men and women in the IT sector is likely to be narrowing.

Generally the number of IT workers now self-employed has increased by 4.5 percent over the last 12 months – more than the general IT workforce increase of 3.9 percent year-on-year.

“The increase in the proportion of the IT workforce operating as contractors has been driven by demand from both IT professionals and the end users of their skills. The shift in the composition of the IT workforce since the financial crisis is doubly remarkable because much of the change is due to an influx of women into contracting.”

Although contracting is generally riskier than standard employment, more people are recognising the benefits of working for themselves as in-house benefits are losing momentum, he said.

“In areas which suffer from chronic skills shortages, such as IT and engineering, many contractors are rarely out of work, and higher levels of pay generally more than compensate for any gaps between contracts”, Kelly said.

It has greater benefits for cash-strapped businesses too. Because firms can’t guarantee their cashflow with the threat of Brexit, businesses are favouring using contractors, which present a smaller financial risk.