WEBVTT - LivePerson CEO on Challenges for Call Centers

0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.680
<v Speaker 1>You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and

0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:07.640
<v Speaker 1>Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. Listen. One way of measuring

0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:10.480
<v Speaker 1>the virus and all those individuals now working from home

0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:13.800
<v Speaker 1>like Jason and Sleepy Hollow could be by looking at

0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:17.400
<v Speaker 1>call centers. So Robert Lcacio he is founder in CEO

0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:21.119
<v Speaker 1>of Live Person. It's an AI powered conversational platform for

0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:24.680
<v Speaker 1>consumers to engage with companies. He joins us on the

0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:27.560
<v Speaker 1>phone from New York City. Um, Rob, great to have

0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:31.080
<v Speaker 1>you back with us. Are you're working from home? Actually,

0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:33.160
<v Speaker 1>I'm in uh. I have a farm up in Connecticut.

0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:36.040
<v Speaker 1>Song I'm camping out over here with my family. All right,

0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:37.640
<v Speaker 1>So you're up there in Connecticut, one of the states

0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:40.640
<v Speaker 1>in lockdown. Let me just first tell let's let's get

0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:42.800
<v Speaker 1>that tell us about kind of how this is all

0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:45.600
<v Speaker 1>impacting your life, not you know, on a personal basis,

0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:47.320
<v Speaker 1>but also as a professional basis, as someone who has

0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:50.520
<v Speaker 1>to run a company. Yeah, you know, I've gone through

0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:53.040
<v Speaker 1>I've been running covering over twenty five years, and I've

0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:58.080
<v Speaker 1>gone through the financial crisis, not eleven, the Internet implosions.

0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:00.280
<v Speaker 1>So it's the same thing. You know, we always look

0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:03.400
<v Speaker 1>there's you got a strength in the balance sheet. You've

0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.399
<v Speaker 1>gotta basically focused on your current customers and just move forward.

0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:08.840
<v Speaker 1>But we we I've seen a lot over twenty five

0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:11.120
<v Speaker 1>years and running the business, and I don't see this

0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:14.760
<v Speaker 1>any differently, just a different set of changes that are

0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:17.319
<v Speaker 1>happening in the industry, and especially to my industry. The

0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:21.320
<v Speaker 1>contact center world is really being challenged right now because

0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:25.040
<v Speaker 1>these are fixed locations with thousands of people inside these buildings,

0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:28.280
<v Speaker 1>and yeah, this is this is you know, everyone talks

0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:31.520
<v Speaker 1>about the workers who are in corporate headquarters and offices,

0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:33.520
<v Speaker 1>but there are three million people in United States that

0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:36.679
<v Speaker 1>are in contact centers, sitting three three ft apart from

0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:40.600
<v Speaker 1>each other, and they're they're trying to service you know,

0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:43.560
<v Speaker 1>customers and make sure they're getting their bills paid and

0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:46.200
<v Speaker 1>all that. That's the real thing that we're focused on

0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:48.600
<v Speaker 1>right now. As of last week, it's all all hands

0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:52.280
<v Speaker 1>on deck with my company trying to fix that problem. Well,

0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:55.120
<v Speaker 1>and Rob, it's interesting too, I mean, and I'm I

0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:56.640
<v Speaker 1>know I'm not alone in this. I mean I've got

0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.880
<v Speaker 1>an emails, especially from the big airlines essentially saying don't

0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:03.200
<v Speaker 1>call us, like we just cannot handle everybody who's coming

0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:05.840
<v Speaker 1>out at us right now. Is that a function of

0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:09.000
<v Speaker 1>just huge volume in your estimation? Is it a function

0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:12.760
<v Speaker 1>of staffing it is it a collision of both and

0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:17.079
<v Speaker 1>and how long will that sort of sort of posture continue.

0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:21.000
<v Speaker 1>You think like there's a future contact centers that we're

0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:23.880
<v Speaker 1>selling messaging and chat in AI and automation, and that

0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:26.720
<v Speaker 1>that's why our company is doing very well. We we've

0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:30.160
<v Speaker 1>Service Delta and all these the biggest brands in the world. Um,

0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.240
<v Speaker 1>but the call center fundamently voice and people sitting in

0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:36.280
<v Speaker 1>like a factory line answering voice calls. This is from

0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:38.400
<v Speaker 1>the past, and we're seeing the challenge Like right now

0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:41.080
<v Speaker 1>we're very focused on are getting people in their homes

0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:43.840
<v Speaker 1>the contact center agents. They can message from home, they

0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:46.200
<v Speaker 1>can chat, they can use our software from home, but

0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:49.640
<v Speaker 1>taking a phone call from home is virtually impossible. So

0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:53.320
<v Speaker 1>that's really the past is being challenged, the whole past

0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:56.440
<v Speaker 1>structure of call centers, and they should be digital, they

0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:59.120
<v Speaker 1>should be allowing homework, they should be out of that

0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:01.760
<v Speaker 1>factory model. And that's what we're faced with today. Well,

0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:03.679
<v Speaker 1>I do wonder too, and Jason and I keep having

0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:05.920
<v Speaker 1>conversations with our guests and just even in and around

0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:09.119
<v Speaker 1>the newsroom. You know, is what are the longer term,

0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:12.560
<v Speaker 1>our lasting impact as a result of the virus, Especially

0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:16.239
<v Speaker 1>as more people do work common maybe they'll find out

0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:18.080
<v Speaker 1>that it actually kind of works that way. And I

0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:20.760
<v Speaker 1>do wonder how kind of AI and call centers and

0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:25.640
<v Speaker 1>just having kind of a virtual capability in our world increasingly,

0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:29.760
<v Speaker 1>how that might change longer term. It should have happened

0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:31.840
<v Speaker 1>years ago. You know, this is obviously we've been preaching.

0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:33.120
<v Speaker 1>But when you think of the world we live in,

0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:35.240
<v Speaker 1>you and I were on our devisle. They were messaging

0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:38.120
<v Speaker 1>our friends and family. We want to message brands, and

0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:41.080
<v Speaker 1>we don't expect people just be sitting in these contact centers.

0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:43.560
<v Speaker 1>Why can't they be at home? Why can't they have

0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:46.160
<v Speaker 1>the freedom to work like that? And they can't. Uh,

0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:49.160
<v Speaker 1>And that's really where they all these companies should be,

0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:51.280
<v Speaker 1>and we're taking them there. But I think this is

0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:53.360
<v Speaker 1>really moving it because this is a risk. If you

0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:56.560
<v Speaker 1>look at large banks or telcos in the US, they

0:03:56.560 --> 0:04:02.440
<v Speaker 1>may have twenty people in contact centers per brand, So

0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:05.880
<v Speaker 1>that's the largest employee pool. It's not people working in

0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:08.920
<v Speaker 1>the corporate headquarters or you know, corporate officers, it's in

0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:11.040
<v Speaker 1>the contact center. So now this is sort of a

0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:13.720
<v Speaker 1>shock to the system and saying there's got to be

0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:15.400
<v Speaker 1>a different way to do this. We've been saying it

0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:18.400
<v Speaker 1>like automation in AI and boughts, but now I think

0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.640
<v Speaker 1>just the risk of not of not making the change.

0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:23.520
<v Speaker 1>It's going to be very great for these companies because

0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:25.840
<v Speaker 1>if you call your bank and no one's there, you're

0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.800
<v Speaker 1>gonna get afraid. And so we know you can message somebody,

0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:30.760
<v Speaker 1>you can easily do that, but calling being put on

0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:33.039
<v Speaker 1>hold for four or five hours when you're trying to

0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:36.599
<v Speaker 1>check your balance, people are going to get afraid. Well,

0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:38.520
<v Speaker 1>and that's I'm so glad you brought that up, Rob,

0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:40.919
<v Speaker 1>because there is that. And maybe this is just I

0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:44.000
<v Speaker 1>am of a certain age and maybe a millennial. We've

0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:46.800
<v Speaker 1>been talking a lot about them. Uh lately feels differently

0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:50.760
<v Speaker 1>just thirty seconds here. Do we just outgrow this idea

0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:52.800
<v Speaker 1>of like I just want to talk to a human being?

0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:55.920
<v Speaker 1>Darn it? Is that just something in the past we

0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:59.239
<v Speaker 1>we have in our minds that we should be talking

0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:01.880
<v Speaker 1>to a machine. There are human agents that we want

0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:04.720
<v Speaker 1>to talk to, but our bonds up in the last

0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:09.760
<v Speaker 1>week on our our services in hospitality. So like everything's

0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:13.360
<v Speaker 1>really really going gangbusters, and there's a demand. Whether you're

0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.120
<v Speaker 1>a millennial or eighty years old, you're messaging your grandkids.

0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:17.920
<v Speaker 1>If you're eighty years old, you're not talking to them

0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:21.640
<v Speaker 1>any more. So this plays into really the world we're

0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:23.840
<v Speaker 1>living in today. Especially once again we had all these

0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:26.440
<v Speaker 1>calls from our large enterprise coasters. Can you get our

0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:28.480
<v Speaker 1>agents home? We need to get them out of these

0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:31.200
<v Speaker 1>contact centers because there's thousand of them that stay next

0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:35.040
<v Speaker 1>to each other. Dangerous. All right, Well, it's a really

0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:38.440
<v Speaker 1>interesting perspective. Really glad to catch up with the Reblicacio

0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:41.680
<v Speaker 1>is the founder and CEO of Live Person. He joined

0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:45.839
<v Speaker 1>us on the phone from Connecticut. Great perspectives. The world

0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:49.680
<v Speaker 1>is changing for sure, and Carol, as you said, uh,

0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:53.040
<v Speaker 1>it's going to change a lot long term to that

0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:55.440
<v Speaker 1>kid at home, I know exactly