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Community Member Spotlight - Ian Palmer

  • 1.  Community Member Spotlight - Ian Palmer

    Level 3 Contributor
    Posted 02-03-2023 11:51
    Let's connect with Ian Palmer of Agilisys.  Please leave your comments and questions for Ian below.  If you are interested in being featured in a member spotlight please email customerreference@8x8.com.



    Tell us about you and Agilisys.
    Agilisys is a cloud, IT & digital transformation specialist to the UK public sector.  We have hundreds of staff across the UK.  I'm a customer services design analyst supporting our customer service team for local councils.  Our agents provide local councils with everything from administrative to meeting support.  I look at process re-engineering.  At the moment, one of the things that I'm looking at is how we can leverage the power of 8x8 to deliver savings for our customers and for ourselves and how we staff our services.

    As a young child, did you envision a career in technology?
    Originally I wanted to be Evil Knievel, but that was never going to be an option in the greater scheme of things!  I'm of that generation where we grew up with those sort of early computers - the Nintendo Entertainment system and the Ataris - and technologies have always been of interest to me.

    What path led you to Agilisys?
    I just finished university and was looking for a job.  A friend from back home was telling me about a job he had giving advice to consumers over the phone.  He got me an interview, I got the job and started training in January, 2007. I've been here since.

    What was your first role at Agilisys?
    I served as an agent, or legal advisor.  I spent 18 months working as an agent, then progressed to senior advisor, then on to key manager and operations manager and then into my current role.

    How has customer service evolved during your time at Agilisys?
    One of the biggest changes has been that omnichannel approach. Although email - and to a lesser extent web chat - have been around for a while, I don't necessarily think that they've been leveraged by a lot of companies in the right way.   In one sense, you can assign someone to answer emails, but the way that it works doesn't lead to prompt resolution. There's the difficulty in the back and forth. Technologies like webchat and social media have allowed people to communicate quicker and deliver on things for customers in a much quicker timeframe.

    Where do you find professional inspiration?
    My colleagues.  There are people I work with at all different levels of the business who provide excellent levels of service, whether it's to people on the phones, or working tirelessly behind the scenes, or the technology teams putting in place systems and processes that make sure that what gets delivered to customers is a really high level. My colleagues inspire me.

    When you approach a problem that needs to be solved, walk us through the steps you take.
    The first thing I like to do is a mind map exercise to look at all the inputs and outputs to a situation, analyze the processes that go on and look at how to simplify those processes. I've always been a visual learner.  If I'm really in a good mood, I might use Visio charts to draw out the process, which obviously aids later on if I have to go back to a customer and work through it. For me, drawing that out makes it so much easier to simplify things, bake them down to their raw components, and take away what isn't actually required to get the process done.

    What advice would you give to someone pursuing a career in customer service?
    Be open to new experiences. If you are open to learning new things, there is so much that you can take on board. When I started out, I was quite fearful and anxious about going on the phones, but generally most people are out to be friendly. They're looking to have an issue resolved and, if you're in the mood to be open to new experiences and the way in which you deal with things, it's just about problem solving.

    On a personal note, what are your hobbies?
    I like painting.  I spent quite a bit of my time doing that during COVID.  I like to put together model planes and tanks.  I enjoy cooking and reading. 

    What was the last book you read?
    Tietam Brown by Mick Foley.

    What is a key trait of a customer obsessed brand?
    The ability to listen and actually act upon that information. One of the things customer focused brands do is that they actually listen to their customers, but also they act upon it.