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Inside the BPO: How 5CA Powers Player Support for Global Gaming Studios with Łukasz Cieślak
39 Plays7 days ago
Episode Summary
In this episode of the Player Driven Podcast, host Greg interviews Łukasz Cieślak, Senior Operations Manager at 5CA. Łukasz shares his journey from support agent to senior operations manager and provides deep insights into the role of BPOs (Business Process Outsourcing) in the gaming industry. He explains how companies like 5CA help gaming studios scale their player support, the essential KPIs that drive player satisfaction, and the growing role of AI in modern support operations. The episode also highlights career advice for those looking to grow from support agent to management roles and explores emerging trends like VIP support and hybrid AI-human models.
This conversation offers valuable lessons for gaming studios, support professionals, and anyone curious about the future of player support.
Key Takeaways for Indie Developers from the Podcast with Łukasz Cieślak
Outsourcing Player Support with BPOs
- BPOs like 5CA allow indie devs to scale support without hiring in-house teams.
- Outsourcing lets devs focus on core tasks like game development while ensuring players get timely support.
Essential Player Support KPIs to Track
- Track key metrics like service level, quality assurance, and player satisfaction (CSAT or NPS).
- Consistent support responses are crucial since players share their experiences on platforms like Discord and social media.
The Role of AI in Player Support
- AI tools can handle repetitive inquiries, freeing agents (or indie devs) to focus on complex issues.
- Hybrid models (AI + human support) are the future, offering faster, more efficient player support.
Career Growth and Leadership Lessons
- Łukasz's journey from agent to senior manager shows the value of proactivity and continuous learning.
- Indie devs can apply this approach by taking initiative, helping teammates, and being curious about better ways to operate.
Emerging Trends in Player Support
- VIP support is growing in popularity, offering white-glove treatment for high-value players.
- Personalization and proactive support can build community loyalty, especially for indie devs running Discords or Kickstarter campaigns.
These takeaways offer actionable insights on support outsourcing, key metrics, AI, career growth, and player experience trends.
Notable Quotes
"The companies that will be most successful will have a hybrid model, where agents are equipped with super-advanced AI tools to help them be more productive." – Łukasz Cieślak"If you’re a support agent and want to grow, focus on helping others — help your boss, help your colleagues, and stay curious about how things work." – Łukasz Cieślak"Players are vocal on social media and Discord, so if one agent gives one answer and another gives a different answer, it’s going to cause issues." – Łukasz Cieślak"AI is more than chatbots. It’s everything from data analytics to moderation to making workforce management more efficient." – Łukasz Cieślak"BPOs give game studios the ability to focus on their core competency, like building great games, while outsourcing the complexity of player support." – Greg
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Transcript
Introduction & Guest Announcement
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Player Driven Podcast. Thanks for listening today. Before we jump into today's podcast, let's talk a little bit about what we're about to listen to. Today we're talking to Wukash Cheshrock from 5CA.
Overview of Discussion Topics
00:00:15
Speaker
He is a Senior Operations Manager, and we're going to talk about things like the role and purpose of a BPO, which is a business process outsourcing, the challenges and benefits of remote teams,
00:00:26
Speaker
career growth and leadership at BPOs. What are the key metrics and KPIs that they take a look at? And emerging trends in player support and AI integration.
Community Engagement & Feedback
00:00:36
Speaker
It's really a great way to take a look at how different remote teams are managed and how they're measured and being able to understand how you can scale at large. It's a really cool episode. We hope you enjoy it. And don't forget to check out our playerdriven dot.io blog. We have community that we're building up on discord. We have social channels. We're throwing a whole bunch of stuff out there to see what works. So if you have any feedback or any thoughts, please never hesitate to reach out and love hearing from everyone. So thank you. And I hope you enjoy this episode.
Guest Introduction and Background
00:01:04
Speaker
Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the player driven podcast. Greg here. Today, we are joined by Wukash Cheslak from 5CA. And I butchered his name, even though we practice it, and I apologize ahead of time. But ah he's been with 5CA for about four and a half to five years now, I believe. He's yeah senior operations manager, so he's in charge of a lot of different types of people doing a lot of different tasks. And it's exciting to understand, A, what is the role of a BPO? It's specifically, what are the metrics and KPIs? Wukash, thank you so much for joining us today. Anything you'd like to say about yourself?
00:01:39
Speaker
Thanks, Greg. Your pronunciation of my name was almost perfect. So thanks for
Role of 5CA as a BPO
00:01:43
Speaker
that. ah What else? had um As Greg said, I'm senior operations manager at 5CA. I have over 10 years of experience in customer services, player support, and overall in BPO industry. um I'm really passionate about what I'm doing, about delivering kick external exception service to to the to the players and to our clients. And but on personal note, I'm proud father of free amazing children, um huge fan of ARPGs. And really that's what brought me to 5CA. It's on one hand a passion to games and on the other and opportunity to to work for a remote first company.
Managing Remote Teams
00:02:25
Speaker
That's great. And let's start with this high level, right? I've heard 5CA a lot. I've seen 5CA a lot. What is a BPO and what is 5CA? Sure.
00:02:38
Speaker
um so Overall, BPO stands for business process outsourcing. So usually when a company would like to outsource part of of their business, what we are focusing at is is customer support. We are reaching out to a company that is offering offering such service. And now moving to 5C8, 5C8, we are mostly focused on um on player support and customer support to to tech companies.
00:03:07
Speaker
um So whenever a company would like to or realizes that they and they need some support with their um with their support department or and they would like to to outsource some of that work to someone else, um such companies would reach out to us and what we provide is on one hand so it's agents um who are who are providing support on behalf of such companies. They are in direct contact with with players, with with customers. But on top of that, of course, whole management of that um to not only agent roles, but also um senior agents, team leads, quality specialists, training specialists. So we could say that we are able to
00:03:58
Speaker
fully take take over the support and responsibilities for for a company and really provide exceptional service to them. ah But on it's not only about people, but also about um data,
00:04:15
Speaker
analytics, ah workforce management. So we could say it's like a whole package.
Outsourcing Partnerships
00:04:21
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of questions I feel I can go from here and i am we're on a timer stream. So I'm going to try and focus some of my questions, but they might wander to all these other places. The first one I think about it is how does a, and maybe this isn't where you kind of sit on a normal basis, but how does a company realize like.
00:04:38
Speaker
Now is the time to look for an outsourcing partner. right like I feel like a lot of companies might have a little bit of pride and they be like, no, we can do this. We can do this. like Have you noticed that there tends to be this point where it's like, okay, I need to look for someone else?
00:04:52
Speaker
um um I would say that there are two two options that I'm thinking of. The first one is is a scale, where you really see you have a lot of tickets, you have a lot of backlogs,
00:05:06
Speaker
You need to start growing your team. You realize that it's it's becoming a burden for you. um I think that that's usually one of them um one of the the reasons why companies will start start to look to outsource their their support. and
Game Support Variations
00:05:24
Speaker
The other is when they really want to have someone who has a knowledge, experience, they don't feel like focusing on something that they are not experts to, so they want to focus on their like for gaming on delivering great game, great product, and maybe they don't want to lose focus and they look for ah for for a partner who can provide that.
00:05:45
Speaker
That's two great reasons, right? Just to kind of rehash them, right? When you're ready to scale and perhaps you can't scale quick enough, right? You might as well look to an outsourced partner that does this for a living. They understand the challenges that you're focusing on. And the other side of that was, you know, your best practices, you might be really good at making video games and you don't want to focus or technology, right? And you don't want to focus on the support side of it, right? So do what your core competency is and learn to ask for help when you need help in these other fields. Yeah, exactly.
00:06:14
Speaker
um The other thing you mentioned in your intro was that part of the reason you like 5CA and you went with 5CA is for its remote slash hybrid working environment, which for a period of my life, I managed a support team and that wasn't a very large support team, but I can imagine managing a remote support force. And that's obviously one of the reasons you want to go there, right? Was there a challenge or like new learnings you had to learn on how to help manage a remote team?
00:06:44
Speaker
yeah For me, it was a brand new experience. Previously, I was working in an open space, up to 150 people, everyone in one building, sometimes in one one room. and ah There were a lot of areas where it was easier. right I could just go to someone, ask for something. We were all finishing at the same time, ah starting at the same time, so it was relatively easy. so Definitely a lot of challenges, but I see more opportunities in ah ah in ah in ah in remote work. So for for past almost five years, I'm i'm fully remote. ah Unfortunately, I haven't seen in person majority of my ah of my of my of my team. um So that's definitely the negative side of it, but it's had much, much more more benefits than than than those negative sides. ah What I think really helps here is
00:07:40
Speaker
that I mean 5C for a long time for before I joined its sir ah remote first company. So all press processes and everything that was built built here ah had this remote part in focus. So um all the tools, all the automations, everything ah is based and built for for for a remote for workforce. so that' what makes it what makes it definitely definitely easier. um You asked about what are some challenges, ah definitely moments where you need to meet with a group of people, and this group of people is located across the globe. I frequently try to meet with my colleagues from um malay Malaysia and um san so El Salvador, for example, at the same time. Those things are difficult, but
00:08:36
Speaker
ah Luckily, the majority of the processes that I have in my teams are asynchronous, so we try to make things work so that we don't need to be here at the same time in the right moment.
00:08:48
Speaker
Yeah. We've, I mean, all the companies I worked for, whenever you go over multiple time zones, right? It becomes a challenge remote or not. It's just when you have teams that are are scattered all over the place, how do you focus? Are there any specific tools that you guys utilize internally that you rely on, whether it be tools to help monitor performance or tools to help monitor workflow or just like a Slack type of tool? Yeah. Um, yeah,
Tools in Remote Work
00:09:12
Speaker
definitely. Um,
00:09:15
Speaker
First thing I would say here is that at 5CA, we are Microsoft's first company. um So we utilize majority of the of the of the tools offered by by Microsoft and it makes things easier um because of the integration and how, let's say, all those tools interact with with each other. ah So for for me, the learning properly how to use Teams, how to use SharePoint,
00:09:44
Speaker
how to use all the all the functionalities there. I think that was the first first step to success really. But whatever tool you are using, I think it's good to know what are exactly the the features, what are the new things that are popping up because they become really, really useful. My favorite feature now from from Teams is transcripts of the of the calls, making recaps.
00:10:09
Speaker
makes things really easier to to track tasks and um and just what would happen preparing meeting minutes. Absolutely love it. Every tool that has those transcripts now, especially when they have the transcript and then the summarized bullets of what was talked about. Amazing. I feel like that is such a game changer in productivity. It's just like, a wow, I can digest this so easily now. Yeah. We kind of got ahead of ourselves. ah Your role as a senior operations manager.
00:10:38
Speaker
What is the role of a senior operation manager? um I would say it has three parts. I mean, that that's how I usually explain this. um So on one hand, I'm responsible for for my teams. um So I have a teams who who are supporting um different clients, different, different, different games. So on one hand, it's like a team manager role ah for for for my teams, for my for my team lead. So I need need to be for them.
00:11:08
Speaker
ah Second part is so the client, clients so building relations, delivering delivering results, making sure that their needs are are met. And the third part of it is 5CA, so making sure that we deliver the results internally, that everything is so is taken care of for the company. So it's like a triangle and you need to make um, need to make all those, uh, pre-parts and all those, let's say, stay stakeholders happy. When it comes to things like, I'm going to say schooling and I don't mean it like that, but you learn different skillsets, right? It can be project management to be in terms of game creation, right? Engineering, developing, right? Like what are the skillsets that you tap into mostly on a day-to-day basis that, that you like to hone in on? Um, um in,
00:12:05
Speaker
In my role, we need to be a jack of all trades because on one hand, as I mentioned, it's it's project management. So you need to you need to deliver certain things in a certain way and and in a time. Then we have workforce management, making sure that we have right people yeah at the right time, in the right place, ah human um relations,
Responsibilities of a Senior Operations Manager
00:12:30
Speaker
ah payroll. and So we need to really focus on on on on a lot of aspects.
00:12:35
Speaker
What I personally like, I really enjoy working with data, so all the all kinds of analysis, looking at at things from from different perspective, looking for for for for new solutions to to to resolve the problems. Those are the things that I really really enjoy and focus with focus on and try to and develop. It seems like you have this fun kind of balance between different tools that you're using and technology as well as the human side of it. You keep saying workforce management, and that's something like i never I understood, but like I just never mess with any of those tools. but or they're like With AI taking a big jump into any of this stuff, have any of the workforce management tools improved? like Do you like using these tools? I know that's a really vague question, but like I'm just curious on workforce management.
00:13:25
Speaker
yeah um ah On AI side, for workforce management, I didn't deep dive into that. It definitely helps with data analytics, which is a huge part of workforce management. But um how to summarize this? um I mean, a lot of companies, especially in BPO, have separate workforce management departments. And those people are supporting um operations. So people like myself and my my teams in making sure that we have
00:13:57
Speaker
enough people to work to handle the incoming volume of their tickets or phone calls, ah making sure that we have right skilled people here at this moment, ah managing all the um all the older breaks, um things that are happening, incoming volume, predicting what would be the volume. So overall, they are just trying to make sure that we will really meet all our quantitative KPIs Uh, consistently. Good thing you like data. Cause it sounds like you got a ton of it that you can, you can kind of dig through and and analyze out of. Absolutely. Yeah. Um, when, when a studio or a gaming company is looking for a BPO, right? And, you know,
00:14:44
Speaker
They ask themselves, how do I know this is the right BPO for me? I have this question. I don't know the proper way to ask, but like are supporting games the same, or does it become different based on genre? Do you get asked, hey, we need we're special, we need this, or we have this type of program going on? like Do you fit the mold that the studio needs, or do you provide best practices and say, you should fit this mold? and Again, really broad question, so take it as you see.
00:15:10
Speaker
you um yeah about differences. So um I wouldn't say it's um there there are differences on on on genres, but I would say it's more on ah on what type of games we are we are we are supporting. So that would be a different support for for for a PC game ah that For example, it doesn't have any live ops or it's not an online game. That would be a different support that we provide to MMORPGs and absolutely different to free to play mobile games, for example. So definitely those, I would say that those would be the um the key key factors here. And, um, when companies are looking for, for, for BPOs, they definitely need to, uh,
00:15:59
Speaker
Yep, figure out what they what they what they really need. from but Do they only need someone to provide them with agents and nothing else? Do they want a partner that will help them with the you know managing the whole structure, whole whole department for them? I think that would be a key ah key role here. um What I really like about gaming and and comparing it to various different industries that I worked in with customer support is that it's much easier to find people who really like your product and to to find people who will work for you who who like this product. And it's, I would say it's so, so much easier because as an example, in the past I used to work for, um we're providing support for super innovative medical product, but
00:16:50
Speaker
It was kind of niche product. And even though it was a life changing, it was hard for people to be accustomed with this product or be like fans of this product. We all liked it because it was great, but it's so much easier with games because a lot of people who we are hiring on, especially on agent levels, I think it's like 90% of them are gamers. So even if you are not a huge fan of this game,
00:17:18
Speaker
but you like games in general, it would be so much easier for you to provide support. Yeah, I mean, it's the beauty of gaming is that most people who are supporting are probably playing the same games on their phone, if not already, and they're at least familiar enough with either the genre or the type of game or the game itself, right? ah And when people like the game, they're probably providing better support in the way to the game because they're excited to be able to help people with stuff like that. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
00:17:45
Speaker
plays a huge, makes a huge role in in in all of this. And yeah, but but that's what we observed. And that's why we are also looking for people who are actively looking for gamers to to for for for our teams because they they understand the struggles of players. what What do they need?
00:18:06
Speaker
um that so Even the tone of of how we we are speaking, there are some terms All of this really, really helps and make it easier. You yourself started as a support agent. You're now the senior operations manager. How do you think the experience as a support agent kind of shaped your perspective into the leader that you are now? yeah ah Greatly, shortly they did greatly because um that's definitely one thing that I recommend to to every everyone to at least if they don't have a chance at least
00:18:42
Speaker
to spend a lot of time with with people who they are who they are managing for me. and As you mentioned, I was support agent for I think two years before before I got promoted. So there were things that were natural to me. I completely understood what my coaching sessions, what people are speaking to me about. I know the struggles, I knew the limits. I wasn't blindlessly giving targets because I knew that some of those are just impossible to to to achieve. So it really helped me understand their role and all the all the all the struggles that but you go through as an agent. And there is a lot like incomplete the databases, your knowledge basis, handling difficult customers, going to work and seeing that there is a backlog that you will not handle for 10 upcoming days. And all of this really makes you more, I would say, empathetic in in such situation.
00:19:40
Speaker
and It really helps me now ah because when especially whenever we are creating creating some new processes or or automations, we we should always think about the end users of that. ah you In this case, it would be agents. So it helps me really and understand what's needed and how I could make agents' life easier.
00:20:06
Speaker
I love that. i ah First job out of school was a support agent. And I remember our sales team used to sell products that we didn't really support. And i was ah and then they eventually, years later, they offered me the job of a sales engineer. And I was like, you know what? I am never going to screw over my support team the way that I've been screwed over by my sales team. I'm going to be the honest sales engineer that comes in. And that was like always what I based my life off of. I think you know starting down as a support agent, right you get to see crap, right? You get to see the worst of the worst. You get to see the best of the best too, right? But like you tell yourself like once I get to that next level, I am going to support my team. I'm going to do what's ever in their best interest to protect them. ah And I think starting at those levels are super important. You need to be able to see what it's like on the floor. And if you don't know what it's like, it's going to be hard to come in and start managing something like that. Yeah, fully, fully agree. um With all that stuff that you've learned, have you
00:21:03
Speaker
the KPIs that you measure and the
Key Metrics in Support Teams
00:21:05
Speaker
success metrics that you have, right? Do you who do you take a look at those? like What are the ones that you take a look at? ah That would depend on on, let's say, the clients that we are where we are supporting and also type of type of customers. But um there are a few that are general, and I think there are industry standards for for for what managers are looking at. ah The first one would be service level.
00:21:32
Speaker
and So how fast we are responding to to to player inquiries on on average. um So, of course, on live channels, that would be a very short period of time, like when you are having a phone support, for example, the target could be replying to 80% of incoming phone calls within 30 seconds. um For gaming, usually we are um we are looking at channels that do not require live support on tickets, but here absolutely those service level supplies too. So how often are we replying to um to to players within 24 hours or within two hours? That's one thing. The other that is super important is we are measuring quality assurance of agent replies. So we are looking at, we could say how well they are adhering to to processes and to
00:22:28
Speaker
to the way how we would like them to to to to provide support. That's really, really important because we need to make sure that we are speaking the same language. And I think that's one of the things that's really important in in in gaming because players are really vocal and they are all over social media, all over Discord, and they would quickly figure out if something is not consistent.
00:22:54
Speaker
They are sharing your tickets. They are sharing the experiences that they have. So the moment one agent says one thing and the other says a second, you have a clash because immediately everyone knows that we are providing two different different answers to the same solution. and So those two, and as a third one, I would say um in some way measuring satisfaction. Either it would be through CSAT, maybe some companies would like to do the NPS surveys.
00:23:22
Speaker
ah But definitely analyzing the player feedback, it's it's a super, super important thing because that helps us on one hand improve support, but on the other, improve the the games and provide some feedback to product teams. Going back to kind of your journey, right? As Senior Operations Manager, have you considered what the next logical step in your career is or are you happy where you're at? Like, where where does one go from here?
00:23:51
Speaker
um I would say that this journey started for me when I became a team lead a few years back. So at first I was was was an agent, then became a team lead. And that was the moment where I realized that this is something interesting for me that I would like to would like to stick with. Because on one hand, it was very dynamic. A lot of things were happening at the same time. And I really feel comfortable in in such an environment that Everything is ah is is burning, a lot of questions, different different different tasks to and different goals to achieve. So I really we like that. And what would be the logical logical step? For me, definitely going either a step higher to to becoming a director, more involved into, say, strategical thinking and strategical approach to to developing the clients we are working with.
00:24:50
Speaker
or potentially going more into into sales, account management area. ah We'll see, but definitely staying stay where where I am terms of in terms of player or customer support. That's what I really like.
00:25:09
Speaker
Would you say you've become more of a people person as you've kind of moved up in the industry or organization or I guess, you know, I always imagine you said sales, right? And salespeople and and I think kind of support people. I have different.
00:25:24
Speaker
mindsets, right? And you know as a support person, your skillset isn't doesn't have to be like, hey, I'm going to communicate with you all the time, right? We're not proactively communicating. Whereas now where you're managing, it's up to you to reach out, be start those conversations. like Have you found that you loved that type of thing more? Do you miss kind of just closing tickets? ah Closing tickets was definitely easier because it On one hand, it was mindless because you you know what you need to do, you know your products, your tickets, and then you could forget about forget about anything. And here it's ah ah it's different because you have plenty of stakeholders, plenty of people, plenty of problems that you need to you need to take care of. um I wouldn't say I miss ah ah going back to the times when I was handling tickets because I ah really like where I am at the moment.
00:26:19
Speaker
really like working with the people, gathering ideas, um brainstorming, developing something new, improving. That's what really drives me and what keeps me motivated. How do you remain educated on the latest trends in in support and gaming and all that stuff?
00:26:44
Speaker
A lot of reading um either on LinkedIn, new articles, being on different Slack channels, Slack groups, different Discord groups, ah really listening carefully to your to your clients, to to your competitors as well, ah just being being there. So definitely reading a lot um or or listening a lot about what's what's what's happening around.
00:27:13
Speaker
ah But then also testing testing things on your own. For me, that's the best way to to to to learn something. With AI, for example, which is the most common topic ah topic recently, i started power using it from really prompt engineering to really using it for very basic basic basic tasks.
AI's Role in Player Support
00:27:38
Speaker
So instead of theoretical reading about something but putting it into practice, into into action.
00:27:46
Speaker
Do you, um with that, I'd love to talk about the future of player supporting gaming, the different tools and AIs, one we hear about all the time. Everyone knows everything about AI and what's happening, but like there's a lot of good use cases out there for AI. Is that stuff you're playing around with on on your own? Is it things that you are eventually looking to implement? And I realize these are probably going to be your own personal views, but like how do you view AI ai in the industry?
00:28:11
Speaker
Uh, it will, it started playing a huge role, uh, whether you like it or not. Uh, but it is here and it will, it will, it will stay here. Uh, that's, that's, that's for granted. Um, what I think it would be the most useful, uh, useful in, um, I see it like that, that the companies who will be most successful will have some, let's call it like a hybrid model where they will.
00:28:38
Speaker
have support agents, but though those support agents will be equipped with super advanced tools that will help them being much more productive than they ah than they are at the moment. um Because they will be, on one hand, AI will for sure help us deflect some of the easier player questions. That's for sure, that's already already happening. um So that would help agents focus more on those really either important tickets, urgent tickets, or something that requires much more much more investigation. ah So definitely it will it will it is already going into into the direction. An example of
00:29:25
Speaker
Tickets where I think we would be able to fully automate or some companies are already fully automating are those that are based on knowledge. You don't need to require, you don't need to do any investigation. So it's a pure, for example, ah game related question or some process related question. And there is always the the same answer to this. So for this, you just need to have a really solid knowledge base, um teach the the AI and it will be able to to provide.
00:29:55
Speaker
such answers quickly. On a different note, you are the father of three children. You you said yourself are an ARPG player. but it What's the game you're playing right now? Oh, right now. ah So I'll start with the the games with kids. I mean, I only play with my my daughter. She's eight at the moment.
00:30:19
Speaker
We love Mario Party. It's a really, really cool game. And I really let enjoy all the LEGO games on Nintendo Switch. They're super cool for co-op sessions. I really enjoy those. And um when I'm alone, I'm currently into Power of Exile 2 for last last week, but previously to Power of Exile 1.
00:30:48
Speaker
But I really, really enjoy all the ARPGs, last epoch, all the Diablo series. Yeah, really, really enjoy those those games are appealing to me. Currently, very little time for for for such things. So I usually stick to one game at a time for a very long duration because I like to master what I'm doing there instead of jumping to for a few hours to different games.
00:31:15
Speaker
That's something that I wish I had more time for. When you were growing up, was there a specific game or moment that you realized that you said, I want to do this for a living. If I can be in this industry, like was there that moment? ah There was a moment that I wanted to that suddenly realized I want to do it for ah for ah for a living, but definitely there were moments that I knew that I will be playing games for a very, very long time.
00:31:44
Speaker
So starting with them, I think there will be two titles that were the most impactful. ah It was Warcraft, Warcraft 1, Warcraft 2, Warcraft 3. I didn't spend too much time playing WoW, but those free first three Warcrafts that I spent really, really a lot of time on those. And similar with Diablo and Diablo 2, Diablo.
00:32:09
Speaker
to a lot of destruction and free. I would say those those few games had the biggest biggest biggest impact. Took me a lot of time, met a lot of friends and thanks to that stayed in touch with a lot of them still. So um really great memories. That's all part of the Microsoft umbrella. Who would have thought years later, but all related, right? I love the original Warcraft. So, you know, not many people talk about the RTS Warcraft. Always goes to WOW, but those were Those are Starcraft, right? Those were like the... Yeah, yeah the original. I i spent a good few, if not several years on on on a Warcraft 3. Really, really like the... I remember one summer I was even climbing the the ladder. I think too I was top 10 in Europe for free for all games, but that was a heavy grind. I was at school, so I was just waiting for my mom to leave, to to work, and then my PC was already switched on.
00:33:06
Speaker
So the moment she closed the door, I was climbing the ladder and until she came came back. And then that was difficult. Right. To be young again and be able to do that. I used to sleep over my buddy's house and ah I was a Command & Conquer fan. He loves Starcraft. I um actually hated Starcraft because I like Command & Conquer, but we would just play RTS's all night and just all those. And he would play Diablo. and night there But like again, those are the days you'd stay up until whatever time in the morning and no worries in the world.
Trends in Player Support
00:33:37
Speaker
you know um I'd love to, on this final question, pick your brain a little bit more on the future of customer support, mostly focusing on kind of any trends in the gaming industry. yeah We were a while ago taking a look at things like trust and safety was becoming a little bit bigger. VIP support was becoming a little bit bigger. Are there any additional trends or things that you're seeing in the industry that you think will take a hold in 2025?
00:34:02
Speaker
for For gaming support. um I would say and that's that's what we what we see being more more and more popular. It's the VIP support. and And I think it started developing more like two two, three years ago when I first first encountered that. There are much, much more companies looking into this.
00:34:28
Speaker
and And it's quite, I would say quite complicated topics because a lot of people have mixed, mixed, mixed approach to these. So there is definitely not a golden rule here that we can, we can apply to, to, to, to all the companies. Everyone needs to ask themselves who are their VIPs? Do they want to provide an exceptional service to them? And if yes, what would be that service?
00:34:50
Speaker
And I think it could be done through through gathering some feedback from um from those those players one day once they define them, ah figuring out what are their needs, whether it's faster support, maybe some dedicated managers or some sort of sort of social club just for that.
00:35:09
Speaker
for the VAPs, but that definitely that's a topic to to to look at because those people are heavily influential. They're really knowledgeable and passionate about the game, but at the same time, they are much more demanding. um So that's definitely one of the trends. ah We spoke about AI and it will be here not only for for player support, but overall for for all the support companies. so ah You really need to pay attention to to it, even if it's not only for actual player support, like creating autonomous bots, but just supporting your um your other departments, because it has a great use in data and analytics, ah in workforce management, but also in moderation, for example. right So that's definitely an area to to to look at. area to look at
00:36:05
Speaker
And remembering that AI is not only this bot that you hate that it that keeps on repeating the the same answers. it's It's much, much, much, much more. And your competitors are using that. So really good time to to look at it if you if you haven't already. Cool.
00:36:26
Speaker
Well, Lukasz, I think that's all I have for you today. I really enjoy our conversation, learning more about an operations manager, your background, how you got here and kind of things that you look at. I think it's tons of cool information here. Before we do say goodbye, is there anything you just want to say or? Yeah. um Yeah, thanks for having me. Definitely really, really liked it as
Career Growth in BPOs
00:36:50
Speaker
well. And so maybe at the end,
00:36:54
Speaker
A few short tips for people who who are agents and would like to like to develop in BPO or service industry. um Because I know that a lot of people who are working as support agents really um really have future and would like to and would like to develop. ah So one thing I would say it's for granted is that in BPO is super dynamic and sooner or later there will be opportunities for for for you.
00:37:24
Speaker
One day you will come to work and you will see that your company won another client, they're ramping up, they require support leads, senior agents, be ready for this. And it can happen anytime, but sooner or later it will happen if you are you are in in in VPO. um One tip that helped me was really focusing on doing my job really well. And whenever I had opportunity to helping others.
00:37:52
Speaker
helping my boss, helping my colleagues, learning new stuff, being curious about what you are doing and not mindlessly replying to tickets, but just asking yourself some some questions and why does it work this way, providing some feedback. And yes, I mentioned really helping helping helping the others. That helps to build your image in the in the organization and just be better at what you are what you are doing.
00:38:22
Speaker
I love that. Stay curious, be curious. I love that. And I think that should be ah everyone's motto to just continue learning. I think it's perfect. ah We will have links to 5CA's website so you can check them out. They're always hiring, I'm sure. ah We'll have information about Wukash available on the Player Driven website. Thank you so much again for coming out today, Wukash. I hope you have a great rest of your day. Thank you so much, Greg.