by Rory Stark | November 25, 2020
The times, they are a-most-definitely-changing. As seasoned CX veterans know, plenty of the received wisdoms of third-party contact center management have received something of a battering over the last few years.
It might be the drastic resculpting that COVID-19 is still doing to the global economy, or just the increasing complexities of delivering world-class customer service across an ever-expanding range of traditional, digital and social channels. Whatever the reason, we’re seeing more and more acceptance of the need for more than one front-office service provider.
If this is an issue that’s landed on your desk then maybe we can help. We’ve commissioned industry maven Peter Ryan to give us a critical assessment of multivendor CX strategies – a clear-eyed look at whether they work, and the strategic merits (if one is implemented properly). His whitepaper is available to download now and (as you’d expect from Peter) it’s packed full of insightful analysis.
In the whitepaper, Peter discusses the seductive allure of simplicity for many executives, leading them to put all their eggs in one third-party provider’s basket. He also examines the deeper reasons for this, including the difficulties of managing standards across multiple vendors, as well as getting them to work harmoniously alongside each other, particularly when there are overlapping services.
After all, switching suppliers – or broadening out your mix to bring in another vendor alongside your existing partner – will bring with it upheaval, additional work and onboarding, alongside the obvious risks inherent in trying something new.
But the potential rewards of the multiple-vendor approach are many and varied, according to Peter’s analysis. Done right, the move to multi-vendors can bring with it improved business continuity due to diversified capacity. Far from difficulties being caused by overlapping disciplines, there are huge opportunities in benefitting from the complementary skills they bring (as well as encouraging your suppliers to compete against one another).
And what are clients looking to find in their dream vendor? Peter shares the results of a survey of 540 decision-makers across North America, Australia and Eastern Europe, and it’s a fascinating list of responses. From my point of view, the findings certainly chime with the pain points I hear about in my conversations across the industry. Here are my five primary reasons why I think being faithful to one supplier might be overrated.
How do you make sure you’re getting the best people to represent your business? Is there enough quality to go round and how do you know your single supplier has access to the best of it? How big is the talent pool they’re fishing in?
Many global BPO CX-outsourcing companies have relied heavily on multilingual hub destinations, where there is a significant talent pool available. These hubs provided a hugely successful model of recruiting native speaking talent from in-country, from where they would fly over the winning candidates, then house and support them as they settled in.
Covid has significantly reduced the workability of this model due to the travel bans, limiting the resource to a saturated marketplace within a small radius of travel. Barcelona, Lisbon, Athens, Madrid, Berlin for example, are all now struggling to recruit the right volume of languages in the current climate.
Many multilingual outsourced deals are usually 10+ languages across various live and non-live channels that reduce exposure to the risk of interrupted service, which is common with the traditional bricks-and-mortar solutions. Whereas today the different normal caused by COVID offers more resilient possibilities of a work-from-home setup.
Given the new normal in terms of an increasingly distributed workforce, we’ll likely see more and more empty multilingual hubs across Europe, similar to the retail bricks-and-mortar collapse in traditional retail.
CX outsourcers have talked continually about digital transformation from a channel perspective, but now the BPOs are being forced to fully digitally transform their offering. What will the impact be on some of the global MSA agreements, which were designed around a bricks-and-mortar setup but are now being delivered within a hurriedly-assembled WFH system? Can someone please pass the QBR Nausea Prevention tablets to the CX leaders and vendor managers who are managing these relationships daily?
Think of the agents that signed up for an office job on a gaming player support program, who are now alone, handling the player support from their bedrooms, or shared living space – if they share apartments as many brick & mortar contact center workers do. Part of the appeal of the job was social interaction and peer support. Now, many brick & mortar employees are craving daily face-to-face conversations, team-building activities, conversations by the water cooler, team chats and more. This way of working isn’t what they signed up for.
Although online video has been thrown to the forefront of the communications mix, it will never replace face-to-face for these people – it’s a seismic shift that they will not be able to adapt to. Increasingly, the impact on wellbeing of a workforce ‘thrown’ home is being raised as a key C-Level concern by CX leaders.
On the other hand, those that are intrinsically motivated to work from home continue to fare well. No dips in productivity, engagement, or performance; they are simply carrying on in their chosen work ‘habitat’, confident in their purpose and working in line with their aptitude and preference.
Any of this sounding familiar? Let’s talk.
Download Peter Ryan’s white paper on building a multi-vendor strategy
Gaming is the world’s #1 lifestyle choice, played by more people than any other form of entertainment. We’ve had a ringside seat for its evolution, working hand-in-hand with our clients to support their customers as they enter huge, new immersive worlds.
If you were not able to attend “CX Strategy: What now?”, our panel debate from last week, then here it is. An insightful, thought-provoking hour with industry gurus Mark Hillary, Stephen Loynd, Peter Ryan and our own Robert Van Diem. Here are some of the themes that really stood out for us.
I’m pleased to announce that I will be participating in a debate hosted by 5CA on October 27th. The title is CX Strategy: What Now? It’s going to be particularly topical, as one of the key things we will discuss, in the midst of this pandemic, is working from home (WFH) in the CX arena.
I’m pleased to announce that I will be participating in a debate hosted by 5CA on October 27th. The title is CX Strategy: What Now? I know that there are a lot of webinars and online debates these days, but I really think you should make time for this one:
Following on from National Customer Service Week, our Chief Customer Officer Rob van Herpen reflects on the journey that customer service has undergone in the last decade, and the role it plays within the wider scope of the whole customer experience.
I’m pleased to announce that I will be moderating a webinar hosted by 5CA on October 27th. The title is CX Strategy: What Now? I know you might be thinking “another day, another webinar invitation,” but as I’m chairing the debate I want to try making this one a little different. We can’t meet at conferences right now so the very least anyone planning a new webinar can do is to ensure it’s interesting and this one should hit the ball out of the park.
Gaming has been one of the few beneficiaries of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Global quarantine and stay-at-home orders preventing people from traveling, commuting, and socializing has resulted in a boom for the gaming industry. Maximize the value of your VIP players and discover how work from home (WFH) support helps you add more value to your gaming whales.
Game launched? Check. Player hype? Check. Champagne? Crack that bottle, you deserve it! But while it bubbles on your tongue, let me ask you this: Have you considered how to respond to players who need assistance or want to provide feedback? And when your player base grows (and let's be honest it will - your game is awesome), what will you do when those interactions start exploding in languages you do not speak? How will you manage the volume of requests coming in, but still provide the best possible user experience to your fans?
Yes…. Another thought piece on how COVID-19 is re-shaping life as we know it and what can we learn from it going forward. With people stuck at home and shops closed, several industries, such as e-commerce, streaming entertainment, and gaming, are experiencing hyperactivity. The influx is driving revenues but also customer support needs.
Did anyone see that Assassins’ Creed Valhalla announcement trailer? Of course you did. Chances are you did not discover it on your own, but instead it appeared on your social media channels, most likely shared by a fan of the franchise or an influencer. At least that is how it happened to me. Game marketing truly has changed in the era of digital, community, and influencers.
It’s often said, ‘people are the weakest link in cybersecurity’. I get that and I agree that we must seek to minimize human-related threat vectors. But I believe that if we view our people, our teammates, as our greatest security asset, then we start from a position of strength.
In BPO, we often talk about how we deliver the best possible customer experience. We focus on training knowledgeable and empathetic agents, we run and rerun staffing simulations to ensure minimal wait times. These things are important, but, for the most part, once a customer is reaching out to us, it’s already a ding to the overall customer experience. Customers want an easy experience that works as it should and is intuitive.
Last month, Vice ran an interesting article by Jess Morrissette on how games marketing invented toxic gaming culture by promoting toxicity and harassment as value propositions for gaming. While considered perfectly reasonable at the time, games marketing has luckily taken a turn for the better.
One of the most interesting things about the gaming industry is that gamers don’t behave like customers. Sure, they have no problem spending like customers, but their devotion and passion makes them more like super-fans.
With more and more companies providing work-from-home possibilities, and children spending more time at home during school breaks, many tend to fill the time previously spent commuting or at after-school activities on picking up new or old hobbies. It comes as no surprise that playing video games is one of those favored hobbies.
The World Health Organization and almost every national government has encouraged everyone in non-essential roles to stay at home. With millions of people in self-isolation, there is a real need to ensure these people have something to do.
Companies across the world are facing an unprecedented wave of disruption at present. One of the specific outcomes from this is that many people are suddenly working from home. Many have no experience working away from the office and so the business journals are full of tips on how to make it work.
Companies across the world are finding their business extremely disrupted at present and it looks like things may get worse before they get better. During this time there has been a strong focus on the need for people to work from home...
In this new day and age where no one spends more than 67 seconds away from a screen without at least a hint of anxiety, recruiting and engaging this new wave of job seekers is no less complicated than swiping right, get a match and then not really knowing how to open a conversation anymore (sound familiar?).
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The most common response I get when I tell people I work in Workforce Management (WFM), often coupled with a very confused facial expression, is “Hmmm, is that in HR…?”
We’ve probably all heard of quality assessment (QA) before, where a quality specialist goes over agent interactions and checks to see if there are any possible areas of improvement or development...
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Staff engagement has a variety of factors that employees should give attention to, and one of these factors that I am particularly passionate about is employee development.
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What do you make of this phrase: If we want to improve our CSAT then we need to increase FCR! If you're new to customer service then this is probably complete gibberish to you...
