2013 North American Contact Center Outsourcing New Product Innovation Award

Transcription

1 North American Contact Center Outsourcing New Product Innovation Award 2013 Frost & Sullivan 1 We Accelerate Growth

2 New Product Innovation Award Contact Center Outsourcing North America 2013 Frost & Sullivan s Global Research Platform Frost & Sullivan is in its 50th year in business with a global research organization of 1,800 analysts and consultants who monitor more than 300 industries and 250,000 companies. The company s research philosophy originates with the CEO s 360-Degree Perspective, which serves as the foundation of its TEAM Research methodology. This unique approach enables Frost & Sullivan to determine how best-in-class companies worldwide manage growth, innovation and leadership. Based on the findings of this Best Practices research, Frost & Sullivan is proud to present the 2013 North American New Product Innovation Award in Contact Center Outsourcing to Firstsource Solutions Limited (Firstsource). Significance of the New Product Innovation Award Key Industry Challenges Addresse d by Superior Product Innovations The North American contact center outsourcing market - which is quite mature and fragmented - is being driven by inbound customer care, acquisitions, sales, and technical support. In 2013, customer care outsourcing firms report to Frost & Sullivan that they face a set of key challenges, including the need to contain cost, drive out agent inefficiencies, deliver high quality interactions for clients, and grow top-line revenues, while still achieving the highest levels of customer satisfaction for clients. Whether it s a B-to-B or a B-to-C model, the consistent delivery of high-quality customer care is a difficult goal to achieve. This is especially relevant in our device-driven world; an always on hyper-connected environment laced with multiple customer touch points. A superior customer experience enabled by actionable insights is often the holy grail of business for the modern day enterprise. For contact center outsourcing, Frost & Sullivan notes that this poses four distinct challenges when it comes to new product innovation: What s new and innovative in the realm of customer intelligence? In what meaningful ways can Voice of the Customer (VOC) be used in the enterprise to impact service delivery? What can customer intelligence and BPO analytics solutions really do to impact revenues and customer satisfaction? How can customer intelligence reduce a client s cost-to-serve and customer effort? Sales and support agents in contact centers today are utilizing a wider arsenal of communication tools - voice, video, , IVR, Web chat, file sharing, and social media Frost & Sullivan 2 We Accelerate Growth

3 Frost & Sullivan believes that traditional voice-centric call centers are morphing into omnichannel contact centers. The omni-channel consumer wants to be able use all available channels simultaneously, including the in-store experience. As a result, BPO providers are challenged to deploy a complex blend of communications and collaboration technologies in order to stay relevant, competitive and profitable. The goal is to connect and communicate with the customer at the touch point of their choice. The proliferation of channels and devices that consumers now have at their fingertips is creating an operational challenge for all contact centers. Increasingly, customers will expect very personalized interactions and engagement on the channel of their own choice. Exhibit 1.0 shows the breadth of customer communication mediums and popular social media channels. Exhibit 1.0 Frost & Sullivan analysis Key Benchmarking Criteria for New Product Innovation Award For the New Product Innovation Award, the following criteria were used to benchmark Firstsource s performance against key competitors: Innovative Element of the Product Leverage of Leading-Edge Technologies in Product Value Added Features/Benefits Increased Customer ROI Customer Acquisition/Penetration Potential 2013 Frost & Sullivan 3 We Accelerate Growth

4 Decision Support Matrix and Measurement Criteria To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Matrix (DSM). The DSM is an analytical tool that compares companies performance relative to each other with an integration of quantitative and qualitative metrics. The DSM features criteria unique to each Award category and ranks importance by assigning weights to each criterion. The relative weighting reflects current market conditions and illustrates the associated importance of each criterion according to Frost & Sullivan. Fundamentally, each DSM is distinct for each market and Award category. The DSM allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze each company's performance on each criterion relative to its top competitors and assign performance ratings on that basis. The DSM follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation. Performance-Based Ratings for Decision Support Matrix This exercise encompasses all criteria, leading to a weighted average ranking of each company. Researchers can then easily identify the company with the highest ranking. As a final step, the research team confirms the veracity of the model by ensuring that small changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a significant change in the overall relative rankings of the companies. Best Practice Award Analysis for Firstsource Solutions Limited The Decision Support Matrix illustrates the relative importance of each criterion for the New Product Innovation Award and the ratings for each company under evaluation. To remain unbiased while also protecting the interests of the other organizations reviewed, we have chosen to refer to the other key players as Competitor 1 and Competitor Frost & Sullivan 4 We Accelerate Growth

5 Innovative Element of the Product Leverage of Leading-Edge Technologies in Product Value Added Features/Benefits Increased Customer ROI Customer Acquisition/Penetration Potential Weighted Rating BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH Decision Support Matrix for New Product Innovation Award Measurement of 1 10 (1 = lowest; 10 = highest) Award Criteria Relative Weight (%) 20% 20% 20% 20% 20% 100% Firstsource Solutions Limited Competitor Competitor Criterion 1: Innovative Element of the Product Firstsource is being recognized for this Award based on the development and deployment of First Customer Intelligence (FCI). Unlike competitive offerings, FCI specifically measures customer sentiment, emotions and behavior across an omni-channel environment at an early stage in any given customer interaction. Company Background Founded in 2001, Firstsource is a leading global provider of business process outsourcing (BPO) services. Firstsource offers a wide range of customized services across banking and financial services, telecommunications and media, and the healthcare industry. Firstsource services its clients through a Rightshoring model that blends onshore and offshore delivery capabilities with 47 delivery centers across 4 continents - in India, U.S., U.K., Sri Lanka, Ireland and the Philippines. Firstsource provides BPO services throughout the entire customer lifecycle, which includes: Customer acquisition Customer service Customer care billing and collections Customer retention 2013 Frost & Sullivan 5 We Accelerate Growth

6 Transaction processing Transformational services including BPO consulting Analytics FCI s Innovative Element: Customer Intelligence FCI s analytics capabilities drive customer intelligence data for Firstsource s client base. The purpose of customer intelligence is to derive insight into patterns of customer behavior, and provide a roadmap for specific company responses in the market. This includes not only the contact center, but expands further in the enterprise to incorporate other departments (such as marketing, sales, and corporate communications). Criterion 2: Leverage of Leading-Edge Technologies in the Product Frost & Sullivan feels that FCI truly is a unique BPO offering. FCI is powered by Firstsource s Customer Insight Framework. It is important to note that FCI measures customer sentiment, emotions and behavior across multiple communications channels. Additionally, for context recognition, FCI uses a Natural Language Processing Engine to understand the context of all elements of the text and transcripts uploaded on the tool. Using emotion detection analysis, FCI has ability to filter agent and customer verbatims in two ways: 1. FCI sets context to the text extracts and transcripts. The solution also builds linguistic connections. 2. FCI places the focus squarely on agent performance and customer issues Frost & Sullivan 6 We Accelerate Growth

7 Exhibit 1.1 displays the FCI logic and workflow that provides intelligent, actionable insights: Exhibit 1.1 FIRST CUSTOMER INTELLIGENCE WORKFLOW Frost & Sullivan analysis Criterion 3: Value-Added Features and Benefits Customer care outsourcers offer a multitude of benefits to their client base. This includes eliminating capital expenses, the flexibility to address new markets, access to qualified call center agents, reduced costs, and advanced management techniques. In the case of Firstsource s FCI offering, it also means gaining access to state of the art technology including customer intelligence, without massive financial outlays. The actionable insights that organizations can expect to gain when implementing First Customer Intelligence include: Improving channel connectivity. Improving the efficiencies of each customer communication channel (voice, , text, social media) Producing product insights. Correlating customer experience with products parameters (pricing, features, and process). Competitive analysis. Expanding web strategies. Formulating more effective web strategies and 2013 Frost & Sullivan 7 We Accelerate Growth

8 implementation. Unveiling process insights. Measuring customer effort across processes (billing, order placement, customer service, tech support and help desk). Revealing process inefficiencies. Determining the root cause of customer dissatisfaction. These insights can be used by contact centers and departments across the enterprise to improve customer satisfaction, reduce cost to serve and trim customer effort while increasing revenues. Criterion 4: Increased Customer ROI With FCi, Firstsource provides immediate customer return-on-investment (ROI) in the form of: Setting up an Early Warning System. FCI spots opportunities and threats to a client s business based on changes in customer behavior across channels. Understanding the Voice of the Customer. FCI analysis and reporting provides the data to fully understand customer sentiment, emotions and behavior drivers. Linking Interactions Across Channels. FCI gives the client an aggregated, unified perspective across all the channels through which customers interact with their business. Criterion 5: Customer Acquisition/Penetration Potential Consider this. Traditional client engagement approaches to reduce cost-to-serve and customer effort have just not been proven out in the business process outsourcing market. In contrast, FCI s real-world success with early deployments includes two case studies: 1. A major telecom provider. Firstsource deployed FCI with this client and analyzed customer effort in reaching the self help menu. First Customer Intelligence insights reduced the customer effort for resolving technical problems by 40%. 2. A market-leading Pay TV company. Using First Customer Intelligence, Firstsource recommended a change in the website strategy to substantially improve the customer experience. FCI insights and recommendations helped the Client enhance the customer experience for its users, while increasing web sales of smart phones. FCI is a BPO solution that represents the outgrowth of Firstsource s strong internal research and development (R&D) history and culture; one that is built around optimizing and continuously improving business operations for clients Frost & Sullivan 8 We Accelerate Growth

9 Conclusion Frost & Sullivan points out that the principal competitive challenge in the contact center outsourcing market revolves around the need for flexibility and speed in implementing customized client solutions. Market dynamics and recent technical innovations bring new advances, functionality, complexity and challenges to daily contact center operations. This places customer intelligence in the spotlight for today s contemporary contact center. Firstsource has added another new dimension of innovation, quality and customer value enhancement to its hefty portfolio of services. Frost and Sullivan firmly believes that Firstsource has woven a culture of continuous innovation throughout the entire fabric of its global organization. Based on these considerations, Frost & Sullivan is proud to present the 2013 New Product Innovation Award to Firstsource for its new First Customer Intelligence solution. Critical Importance of TEAM Research Frost & Sullivan s TEAM Research methodology represents the analytical rigor of our research process. It offers a 360-degree view of industry challenges, trends, and issues by integrating all seven of Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies. Our experience has shown over the years that companies too often make important growth decisions based on a narrow understanding of their environment, leading to errors of both omission and commission. Frost & Sullivan contends that successful growth strategies are founded on a thorough understanding of market, technical, economic, financial, customer, best practices, and demographic analyses. In that vein, the letters T, E, A and M reflect our core technical, economic, applied (financial and best practices) and market analyses. The integration of these research disciplines into the TEAM Research methodology provides an evaluation platform for benchmarking industry players and for creating high-potential growth strategies for our clients. Benchmarking Performance with TEAM Research 2013 Frost & Sullivan 9 We Accelerate Growth

10 About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 40 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit Frost & Sullivan 10 We Accelerate Growth