As featured on Forbes: Top 3 Customer Experience Outsourcing Trends
The only way to stay ahead of the curve is to know which way the wind is blowing.
By understanding the trends that are reshaping the customer experience (CX) outsourcing market, you’ll be able to make better decisions that will help you to transform customer service from a cost center into a value center for your brand.
In his recent Forbes article, Adrian Swinscoe wrote about three CX outsourcing trends that you need to know.
Basing his insights on takeaways from an episode of his podcast in which he hosted Catherine Jooste, CGS’s President of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), and John Samuel, EVP and CTO, Swinscoe describes the pressure that today’s contact centers face and how outsourcing partners “are likely to play a central role in helping brands tackle some of the current contact center challenges.”
Three CX Trends You Need to Know
A recent study by Deloitte found that 58% of contact center leaders outsource at least some of their service capacity, and that number is expected to rise to 64% in the coming years. As outsourcing becomes more prevalent, Swinscoe also expects “to see a significant degree of consolidation in the BPO space in the coming few years.”
This consolidation will be driven by three major trends.
1. Demand for technology
Next-generation technology is a prerequisite, and this also means that it’s harder than ever for smaller players to keep up. Using AI to create a better customer experience, for instance, is becoming increasingly necessary.
Add that to other tech trends like robotic process automation (RPA), process modeling, data science, and cyber security, and it’s not hard to see why leading brands prefer to work with innovative companies who have the resources to invest in upping the tech ante.
2. Geographic and linguistic diversity
Global and fast-moving brands need to serve a more diverse audience than ever. That means they need to be able to provide their customers with on-demand support in their native tongue if they want to stay top-of-mind and build a loyal following.
3. Rising demand for increasingly complex services
FAQs and AI can take care of the easy stuff. Today’s contact centers handle much more difficult problems like technical issues and complex financial questions. This raises the bar for employee education and training. Not to mention, CGS’s innovative development using AI for soft skills training.
The Key to Great CX Is Partnership
“What these trends are doing, however, is leading to a new and emerging commercial model, one that is not just about volumes and seats but about the value that the outsourcer is delivering and creating,” concludes Swinscoe.
“To succeed, outsourcers will need to take more of a partnership approach rather than one that is purely commercial and contractual in nature and one that is aligned around strategic values and common goals rather than one that is governed purely by financial metrics.”