Zoom ’ s contact centre offering is another core area of focus at the moment , Hawthorn highlights . “ I don ' t really like to call it contact centre , because it makes you think of that old traditional way of working , and it ' s anything but . If you look at our contact centre , it ' s more about customer engagement and how do you get that best experience , especially when end-users are demanding so much to be spoken to , or reacted to , in the way that they want to be reacted to .
“ I ' ve always had a bad time using virtual assistants . I ' ve come to Zoom and yet again been blown away by what we ' ve been able to achieve . It ' s just phenomenal . We call it AI , but in my day you called it bots – it ' s the same thing with a different name – but that ' s pretty cool and sets us apart from a lot of our competitors .”
How has Zoom advanced hybrid work solutions ? “ When I started at BT , on my first day I was handed a laptop and told to go home . That was 25 years ago . I ' ve always worked in that manner , so it ' s always shocked me that others haven ' t . You expect everyone to have the same experience .
“ Of course , COVID-19 pushed a lot of hybrid work forward which is important , but I ' ve always worked like that . I went into an office when I needed to go into an office for specific things , but the work-life balance that hybrid working enables is really , really important .
“ But then how do you then bring that back into the office ? Because those engagements that you have face-to-face are super important . It is the way that you build relationships , especially
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