South African companies are at a customer service turning point. The pressure to deliver always-on services while cutting costs and meeting rising customer expectations is relentless. It has become a competitive differentiator and advantage, but equally it has pushed service management to the top of the transformation agenda.
However, according to Dees Pillay, technology and digital service and operations leader at BCX, and Sean Lewis, executive: IT Operations Centre at BCX, this change isn’t about replacing systems for the sake of it – it comes down to rethinking how services are designed and delivered to create tangible business and customer value.
“Service management transformation is both a support function conversation and a strategic one,” says Pillay. “Organisations that get it right can respond faster to market changes, maintain operational resilience and deliver customer experiences that set them apart.”
This is the approach that has framed BCX’s re-imagining of modern platforms and service solutions. The company has integrated AI, automation and analytics into three agile service delivery models designed to improve incident handling, resource allocation and performance measurement.
“IVA is our intelligent virtual agent,” says Lewis. “It gives customers 24/7 access to support that can resolve a large percentage of issues without human intervention.” The result is faster response times, reduced pressure on service desks and more consistent handling of routine requests. IVA uses AI to understand intent and provide accurate responses while escalating complex cases to people so customers are always getting the right help at the right time. The tool has already delivered a 62% ticket deflection in a state-owned utility and is ideally suited to handling the first line of engagement.
Bafo, the other tool in the BCX stable, is designed to elevate human interaction. “Bafo provides us with multilingual capability and inbuilt generative AI capability to interact with users in the language of their choice on the channel of their choice,” says Lewis. “When we connect Bafo and IVA, we can create an end-to-end journey.”
Qonda plays in a different space, bringing the analytics layer to service. “This is our quality engine and its purpose is to drive quality and ensure the support ticket life cycle is managed as efficiently and effectively as possible,” says Pillay. “It makes different parts of the ticket life cycle visible so we can actually fix things that go wrong and pick up things that could go wrong.”
The evolution of Bafo and IVA was built on BCX’s need to change how customer interactions started within the business. The goal was to automate essential parts of the process, managing the huge influx of e-mails and ensuring they were routed to the correct teams. It transformed efficiencies. The result is shorter resolution times, fewer repeat issues and a better experience for customers and BCX teams alike.
Combined, these tools create a more proactive and personalised service ecosystem. “We’re not replacing people, we are empowering our teams to focus on the complex high-value work while automation handles the repetitive, time-consuming tasks,” says Lewis.
BCX sees this as a competitive advantage as well as a powerful way to building lasting customer relationships. “Customers judge you by the speed and quality of your responses,” concludes Pillay. “When you can respond instantly in any language with accurate and actionable support, you build trust and loyalty.”
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