The global contact center industry is at the onset of an evolution. There is an ongoing shift of focus from provision of customer service to delivery of customer experience. The transition is ushering in significant changes in the requirements imposed on local contact centers by their international business partners.
This timely transformation is the focus of a research conducted by global consulting and research firm Everest Group. The white paper entitled ‘Philippines at the Helm of Delivering Customer Experience of the Future’ will be presented and will be the highlight of the upcoming Contact Islands, an annual industry conference organized by the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) scheduled on October 11 and 12 at Shangri-La’s Boracay Resort & Spa in Boracay Island.
The presentation will tackle the factors that are driving the shift in role of contact centers as well as the status of local service providers in responding to clients’ new requirements. The research also covers alignment of local talent acquisition strategies and provides recommendations on how contact centers could effectively deliver customer experience required from them.
PH to retain leadership
“The Philippines has always been a leader when it comes to customer satisfaction,” said CCAP Chairman Benedict Hernandez. “We want to make sure that we keep that leading edge position globally as we transform customer experience using all digital tools.”
Currently, the Philippines remains as among the top nations where contact center services are outsourced. Based on industry data, the country’s contact center industry currently employs more than 800,000 professionals. Its generated revenues even reached US$11 to 13 billion in 2016, and it is still poised to keep a steady growth rate of about 8% in the next few years.
Everest Group has found that Philippine-based contact centers exhibit high level of readiness to shift to customer experience. Thus, the country is expected to further cement its position as a preferred go-to location for non-voice jobs for existing and new contracts.
CCAP Chairman Benedict Hernandez
Customer experience delivery
The research firm recommends an upgrade of the skillset of local contact centers’ workforce to meet requirements of customer-experience focused businesses. Aside from the basic task of resolving customers’ queries, the agents should develop additional important skills like handling chat and social media interactions, using technology solutions like analytics platforms and bots, addressing domain-specific inquiries, and fully understanding customers.
Additionally, local contact should also adopt new recruitment and training strategies to ensure that their agents would be capable of meeting the updated challenges of operations. Target hiring must gradually replace traditional schemes like on-campus recruitments, job fairs, and walk-in interviews. Classroom-based scheduled must also give way to online and experiential learning sessions.
Everest Group will share more insights from its research during the conference with over 300 businesses and thought leaders from the contact center industry. To register for the upcoming Contact Islands, get in touch with the CCAP Secretariat Office at +63 2 843-0603 or send an email to events@ccap.ph.
