Contact centers ready for shift in focus to customer experience

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine contact center industry is seen to retain its position as a leader in the world market amid the shift to a customer experience-centered sector.

In a statement yesterday, the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) said the global contact center industry is at the onset of evolution as its focus is moving from the 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,” CCAP said.

The Philippines remains 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 revenues reached $11-to $13- billion in 2016 and is still poised to keep a steady growth rate of about eight percent in the next few years, CCAP said.

“The Philippines has always been a leader when it comes to customer satisfaction,”CCAP president Jojo Uligan said. “We want to make sure that we keep that leading edge position globally as we transform customer experience using all digital tools.”

Global consulting and research firm Everest Group said 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,” the group said.

Everest also recommends an upgrade of the skill set 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,” the research firm said.

In addition, local firms should also adopt new recruitment and training strategies to ensure 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 schedules must also give way to online and experiential learning sessions,” Everest said.

Moreover, to further address the challenges brought by the shift towards customer experience, the Everest Group will present a white paper titled ‘Philippines at the Helm of Delivering Customer Experience of the Future,’ which will feature more insights about the industry’s future.

The white paper is set to be presented at CCAP’s Contact Islands event, an annual industry conference scheduled on Oct. 11 and 12 at Shangri-La 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,” CCAP said.

It added that the research will also cover the alignment of local talent acquisition strategies and provides recommendations on how contact centers could effectively deliver customer experience required from them.

Source: https://goo.gl/qWZrex