For so long contact centres have been seen as a cost centre, a group of people physically required to be in the same space in order to provide a service. And then along came the pandemic. Impacting working conditions, customer expectations and rapidly increased demand. The contact centre game changed and with it the whole customer service function. Through insights from our bi-annual global contact centre survey, we're constantly reimagining the mission of customer service and how it can enhance value for each individual customer as well as the business itself. We've identified five trends the customer service leaders are adopting post-pandemic to spark better operations, provide better customer experiences, and help drive growth

In this conversation Deloitte Digital Australia's Digital Contact Centre Lead, Simon Stefanoff and Deloitte Global Contact Centre Leader, Timothy McDougal discuss how they've been seeing these trends play out in Australia and overseas, and the opportunities and challenges this has created in the contact centre that your organisation should be thinking about.

To access the full report referenced in the show head to Deloitte Digital's 2021 Global Contact Centre Survey

If you're keen to chat about how you deliver assisted customer service, then please reach out to Simon or Tim

Who better to discuss the acceleration of digital government than our guests who are leaders in the public sector

Deloitte Digital Partners, Steve Hallam, and Cecilia Hill were joined by

• Lucy Poole, Head of Sourcing & Governance Division, Digital Transformation Agency
• Dr. Dale Andrea, Chief Information Officer Transport Services, Department of Transport
• Chris Moon, Chief Information Officer, Environment Protection Authority Victoria

Lucy, Dale, and Chris join us to share insights into their experiences on the acceleration of digital government. Shedding light on what it has been like at the forefront of public demand throughout this crisis and how they've been able to operate at a pace of change not experienced before.

To find out more about Conversations with Digital head to: https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/strategy-operations/articles/conversations-with-digital.html

For this conversation, Steve Hallam was joined alongside Tom Quinn, Deloitte Principal, and Global Retail Specialist as we discussed the evolution of the retail landscape with a panel of industry leaders.

Our panellists were: • Sam Bain, Chief Digital Officer, Mecca Brands • Daniel Tollenaere, General Manager - Store Operations and Business, Officeworks • Alan Lowthorpe, General Manager of Advance Analytics Centre, Wesfarmers

In this episode, we discussed how they have navigated fluctuations in customer demand and how they have been able to adapt and respond to the challenges this year has presented. We hope that you find this episode insightful as your organisation and Australia continues to re-open and embrace the new retail normal.

To find out more about Conversations with Digital head to: https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/strategy-operations/articles/conversations-with-digital.html

In this Conversation, Steve Hallam was joined by Katherine Milesi, a co-founder of Deloitte Digital and the Deputy Chair of Deloitte Australia. Katherine has a long history of working with senior executive teams to navigate the rapidly evolving digital landscape and drive large scale, complex change. She has also played a significant role in driving Deloitte's local and global strategies. Katherine opened the conversation with a quote from Anne-Marie Slaughter, "This crisis is a time machine to the future", and discussed how the changes that would normally take decades have manifested in weeks during COVID. She shared with us her advice on how to keep pace with the digital transformation required and the acceleration and agility techniques you could adopt to drive rapid change in your business. To read more about this conversation check out the insights blog post: https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/blog/consulting-blog/2020/accelerate-decision-making-drive-change.html

To find out more about Conversations with Digital head to: https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/strategy-operations/articles/conversations-with-digital.html

In this conversation, Steve Hallam was joined alongside Jessica Mizrahi and David Phillips. Jess and David have been driving quantitative research in market to understand the likely shifts in Australian consumer behaviour in response to COVID.

Jess is a former Director from Deloitte Access Economics practice and is the brains behind most of the data you hear on the news from DAE relating to consumer and marketing in Australia. David is the lead Partner of our Marketing, Data and Technology practice in Deloitte Digital.

The insights they have shared during this episode in May 2019 are based on the first wave of their Australian Retail Consumer Survey of ~1000 Australian shoppers.

To read more about this conversation check out the insights blog post: https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/blog/consulting-blog/2020/long-term-change-consumer-behaviour.html

To find out more about Conversations with Digital head to: https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/strategy-operations/articles/conversations-with-digital.html

In this conversation, Steve Hallam spoke with Andy Main, former Global Head of Deloitte Digital who joined us from his home in Denver, Colorado. Andy and Steve discussed his thoughts on how the pandemic has shifted our focus to basic priority needs and how safety, empathy, and the digitisation of human interaction will have an enduring impact on customers' expectations.

Whilst this discussion occurred back at the start of the pandemic in May, we still find these insights relevant now

To read more about this conversation check out the insights blog post: https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/blog/consulting-blog/2020/learn-from-globe.html

To find out more about Conversations with Digital head to: https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/strategy-operations/articles/conversations-with-digital.html