From BPO to CXO (CX Outsourcer): The Rise Of Digital Transformations To Meet Customer Expectations

Looking back three or four years, few could have predicted the lucrative new opportunities that have recently emerged for business process outsourcers (BPOs).

However, with the benefit of hindsight, we can now see how the COVID-19 pandemic laid the groundwork by accelerating the growth of customer experience (CX) and the broad digital transformations that have (and will still) occur to meet the expectations of today’s customers. What exactly are these opportunities, how did we get here, and what is the best way forward?

The Catalyst Of Change

The pandemic created a perfect storm that served to catalyze unprecedented change. As commerce shut down, homebound consumers still needed many of the goods and services they were used to (perhaps even more urgently than ever). However, companies were suddenly faced with the novel challenge of responding with a workforce that was also largely confined to home.

While it was difficult, new consumers, employees, and businesses emerged. But it soon became clear that things would never be the same again. Customers liked the new online conveniences that companies quickly implemented through omnichannel-based communication channels like email, WhatsApp, WebChat, SMS, etc. Employees liked working from home. And companies learned that they could prosper by implementing remote work. This is the new normal.

What Trends Are We Seeing Today?

1) Digitization

Digitization has found expression in two ways. First, is with the move to the cloud (also known as cloud 1.0). Cloud adoption has not only accelerated, but today we are already on the cusp of an emerging cloud 3.0 movement. These specialized clouds make it easy to build and integrate new business solutions.

Second, there’s the huge rise of the digital first consumer. This is a new cohort of users who are fully immersed, fluid, and preferably loyal to all things digital, fully enabled by ubiquitous smart devices. They would rather browse online than visit a store, chat instead of talking on the phone, or self-service instead of waiting for someone to help them.

This new digital first customer is undoubtedly the force behind many of the CX changes that brands are implementing.

2) Transformation

Companies are now putting a new focus on digital transformation: modernizing technologies and work processes. The path to this transformation was paved by Cloud Computing and is driven by the competitive need to increase performance, reduce costs and create clear differentiation with customers.

Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation and analytics are leading many of the transformation initiatives. With vast amounts of data, sophisticated analytics can now pinpoint where improvements need to be made, and automation makes it much easier to improve work processes more effectively. As a result, companies can become more productive and innovate faster, which is required to please the most demanding digital customers.

3) Labour Force Utilization

Employee acquisition and utilization is also undergoing a transformation. As the proportion of customer-brand interactions becomes increasingly digital (asynchronous) and self-service (automated), the demand for and availability of skilled labour is also changing. Additionally, the cloud has blurred many geographic boundaries, making it possible to competitively source talent from almost anywhere in the world.

A New Age

So what does this mean for a BPO? In terms of interaction volume, many customer interactions are: 1) designed as an integral part of a larger, more carefully orchestrated customer journey; 2) provide more self-service options; and 3) out of necessity, requiring much tighter integration with customer data and systems.

The most successful BPOs are discovering new and profitable ways to partner with customers by taking greater end-to-end ownership for all interactions that occur during one phase of the customer journey or even the entire customer journey. In doing so, they are becoming strategic subcontractors of the customer experience.

The Rise Of CX Outsourcing

What defines a strategic customer experience outsourcer? To answer that question, we first need to consider how the business requirements of potential customers have changed. However, this is less a discussion of what or why and more of a how. The larger goal, providing a better customer experience, hasn’t changed. What is variable is how different customer organizations prefer to meet their goals.

1) Outsourced Interactions For “Turnkey Solutions”

Customers want the flexibility to outsource parts or even potentially the entire customer journey. To offer a suitable solution, a CX BPO must satisfy four fundamental requirements:

• Create and support interactions for any part of the customer journey, not just traditional support or service ones.
• Design and manage more than legacy voice interactions. Robust, blended omnichannel interactions of self-help and live support are now required.
• Match outsourced employees with interaction demand and skill requirements.
• Facilitate deeper integration with customer administrative systems (CRM).

2) Advisory CX

Some customers will want to create and manage their own user journeys and interactions. For them, CX outsourcers can help in two important ways: firstly, by functioning as a managed service provider by providing the underlying CX technology; secondly, thanks to its deep operational experience, monetizing that experience through various consulting engagements to help clients design and manage their own customer journeys and maximize operational performance, efficiency and cost savings.