Addressing the need for adaptive CX

Cus­tomers no longer base their loy­al­ty on price or prod­uct. What real­ly builds cus­tomer loy­al­ty is the qual­i­ty and con­sis­ten­cy of the cus­tomer expe­ri­ence (CX). Many lead­ing brands have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to improve their cus­tomer ser­vice strat­e­gy by part­ner­ing with a busi­ness process out­sourc­ing (BPO) provider and tak­ing advan­tage of their wealth of expe­ri­ence and exper­tise in deliv­er­ing excep­tion­al CX.

BPO offers busi­ness­es sig­nif­i­cant ben­e­fits, enabling them to reduce oper­a­tional over­head, mit­i­gate risk, cre­ate cost sav­ings by assess­ing and address­ing inter­nal oper­a­tional inef­fi­cien­cies and auto­mate low-val­ue capa­bil­i­ties that free up tal­ent to focus on more com­plex, high-val­ue tasks. How­ev­er, this oper­a­tional flex­i­bil­i­ty isn’t about cost avoid­ance, it’s about empow­er­ing the cus­tomer, as Matthew Sims, EMEA pres­i­dent at Alor­i­ca, a glob­al provider of out­sourced CX, explains.

He says: “CX is a strat­e­gy, not a tac­tic. The expe­ri­ence cus­tomers have when they inter­act with a company’s con­tact cen­tre can make or break their cus­tomer loy­al­ty, so much so that the focus on con­tact cen­tres and cus­tomer ser­vice has shift­ed from being an expense to a busi­ness invest­ment. But the key to a suc­cess­ful out­sourced CX approach is the busi­ness part­ner­ship. It is a crit­i­cal ele­ment of CX and the cus­tomer jour­ney, which we under­stand bet­ter than most organ­i­sa­tions. It’s why our aver­age client tenure is more than 10 years.”

But cus­tomer behav­iours are con­stant­ly chang­ing. Organ­i­sa­tions like Alor­i­ca are data empow­ered and data rich, in terms of under­stand­ing cus­tomer jour­neys, and are able to ser­vice unique inter­ac­tions at dif­fer­ent parts of the cus­tomer jour­ney, ensur­ing that cus­tomers are catered for as indi­vid­u­als rather than a gener­ic group of peo­ple.

Anoth­er top pri­or­i­ty for busi­ness­es is glob­al­i­sa­tion, a move rife with com­plex­i­ties and poten­tial lan­guage and cul­tur­al bar­ri­ers. Brands are increas­ing­ly turn­ing to BPO com­pa­nies as strate­gic part­ners, using their con­tact cen­tres for omnichan­nel sup­port across inter­na­tion­al mar­kets, and Alorica’s recent expan­sion into the EMEA region gives it a strate­gic advan­tage. “Glob­al­i­sa­tion as a tar­get-oper­at­ing mod­el has become more impor­tant than ever,” says Sims. “Work­ing with an out­sourc­ing part­ner that pro­vides mul­ti­lin­gual ser­vices is crit­i­cal, but under­stand­ing cul­ture and con­text is even more impor­tant to a brand’s con­nec­tions with its cus­tomers and to its rep­u­ta­tion with
its cus­tomers.”

The war for talent

Excep­tion­al CX relies on a tal­ent­ed, engaged work­force. The ratio­nale is clear: hap­py employ­ees lead to hap­py cus­tomers. In the cur­rent cli­mate of acute tal­ent short­ages, organ­i­sa­tions are explor­ing more diverse tal­ent pools and mar­kets. With an eye on increas­ing flex­i­bil­i­ty and scal­a­bil­i­ty, they are also eval­u­at­ing mul­ti-shore, hybrid and work-at-home deliv­ery mod­els to avoid expo­sure to tal­ent short­ages and dis­rup­tions. Rather than try­ing to do it on their own, it’s more effec­tive to out­source to a BPO part­ner that offers it as an embed­ded ser­vice.

Sims says: “First and fore­most, Alor­i­ca is a peo­ple busi­ness and a very cul­tur­al­ly aware and cul­tur­al­ly diverse organ­i­sa­tion that takes into con­sid­er­a­tion the dif­fer­ent cul­tures of our staff in the same way that we would with the dif­fer­ent cul­tures of our cus­tomers. Our focus is on hir­ing peo­ple who under­stand the indus­try and are ambas­sadors of our cus­tomers’ brands; pro­vid­ing that rel­e­vance is very impor­tant. This ensures our cus­tomers will always get the sup­port they need from peo­ple who under­stand the brand they’re inter­act­ing with.”

Alorica’s teams are equipped with the train­ing and tools to build con­fi­dence and max­imise per­for­mance, while its Hyper­care plat­form – enabling a 360-degree process based on employ­ee feed­back, data and insights to improve per­for­mance and reten­tion – facil­i­tates a rich, two-way com­mu­ni­ca­tion and engage­ment expe­ri­ence between man­age­ment and staff. The com­pa­ny, offi­cial­ly des­ig­nat­ed a ‘great place to work’, is heav­i­ly com­mit­ted to career devel­op­ment includ­ing future lead­er­ship. Last year it pro­mot­ed 5,000 employ­ees, more than half of them women.

“The more suc­cess­ful we are at attract­ing and retain­ing tal­ent, the bet­ter we are at sup­port­ing and part­ner­ing with our cus­tomers for the long term,” says Sims. “And we are doing some­thing right: in our Sofia busi­ness our aver­age attri­tion rate was just 2.2% attri­tion per month across the entire organ­i­sa­tion.”

Automating CX BPO

It’s a com­mon mis­take for com­pa­nies to fast track the imple­men­ta­tion of new tech­nol­o­gy based on a promise of effi­cien­cy gains and dig­i­tal-first res­o­lu­tion. But it has to be about empow­er­ing the con­sumer, and tech is the cat­a­lyst for enhanc­ing CX. It has to make a pos­i­tive impact on the con­sumer and the busi­ness, all while inter­act­ing through cus­tomers’ pre­ferred chan­nels.

“Dif­fer­ent con­sumers will inter­act with dif­fer­ent con­tact chan­nels in dif­fer­ent ways at dif­fer­ent times dur­ing their cus­tomer life cycle,” says Sims. “If you want to make a com­plaint because you’ve had a bad expe­ri­ence on an air­line, you’ll prob­a­bly go to Twit­ter. But if you want to make a change to an upcom­ing flight, you’re almost cer­tain­ly going to use the tele­phone. Don’t push peo­ple to use chat just because it’s avail­able. Give peo­ple the choice and recog­nise the impor­tance of that.”

By lever­ag­ing ana­lyt­ics from every cus­tomer inter­ac­tion, con­tact cen­tres can eval­u­ate how to best resolve cus­tomer inquiries and auto­mate only when con­fi­dent the expe­ri­ence can effec­tive­ly be han­dled with­out live sup­port. Here, BPO com­pa­nies can offer their expe­ri­ence and exper­tise in deploy­ing the right tech­nolo­gies in the right ways at the right stage of the cus­tomer jour­ney.

“Cus­tomer behav­iours change on an ongo­ing basis, while tech­nol­o­gy con­tin­ues to evolve rapid­ly,” says Sims. “Recog­nise the changes, and recog­nise the fact that you need part­ner-ori­ent­ed peo­ple in your organ­i­sa­tion with the knowl­edge, capa­bil­i­ty and sophis­ti­ca­tion to help cus­tomers under­stand how the tech­nol­o­gy is capa­ble of improv­ing and impact­ing the future, not just today.”

Oth­er CX-relat­ed chal­lenges fac­ing con­tact cen­tres include eco­nom­ic insta­bil­i­ty, accel­er­at­ed prod­uct life cycles and ramps. Lega­cy infra­struc­tures and rapid tech­nol­o­gy changes also cre­ate dif­fi­cul­ties for brands to mas­ter and man­age on their own. BPO com­pa­nies deliv­er sus­tain­able CX to make busi­ness­es across indus­tries reces­sion-proof and serve as expert tech inte­gra­tors.

“CX is an invest­ment, not a cost,” says Sims. “CX is also a prac­tice, not an adjunct to a busi­ness that pro­vides a ser­vice or a prod­uct. Organ­i­sa­tions like Alor­i­ca have that breadth and depth of expe­ri­ence that comes from work­ing with a mul­ti­tude of dif­fer­ent ver­ti­cals in many dif­fer­ent guis­es for some of the world’s largest brands.”

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Customers no longer base their loyalty on price or product. What really builds customer loyalty is the quality and consistency of the customer experience (CX). Many leading brands have the opportunity to improve their customer service strategy by partnering with a business process outsourcing (BPO) provider and taking advantage of their wealth of experience and expertise in delivering exceptional CX.

BPO offers businesses significant benefits, enabling them to reduce operational overhead, mitigate risk, create cost savings by assessing and addressing internal operational inefficiencies and automate low-value capabilities that free up talent to focus on more complex, high-value tasks. However, this operational flexibility isn’t about cost avoidance, it’s about empowering the customer, as Matthew Sims, EMEA president at Alorica, a global provider of outsourced CX, explains.

He says: “CX is a strategy, not a tactic. The experience customers have when they interact with a company’s contact centre can make or break their customer loyalty, so much so that the focus on contact centres and customer service has shifted from being an expense to a business investment. But the key to a successful outsourced CX approach is the business partnership. It is a critical element of CX and the customer journey, which we understand better than most organisations. It’s why our average client tenure is more than 10 years.”