customers first - telus international · a six sigma primer ... our customers first magazine, i’d...
TRANSCRIPT
Customers First Global insights on strategy & innovation
Year 1 | Issue 1
The Culture Value Chain
A proven equation: How employee engagement
drives top-line growth P.11
A Six Sigma primer Is it possible to have 99.99966% good
customer service? P.4
Four disruptive trends that will reshape customer service
In the coming years, how will contact
centers be put to the test? P.8
Discussing “mega-trends” with Microsoft
Florin Grama - Director, Microsoft
Customer Support, Europe P.13
TELUS International
3
Engaged outsourcing relationships do not just happen – they are envisioned, intentionally nurtured, and diligently built. This study shows that while significant effort and planning goes into building such a relationship, the result is a more effective and value-driven service model.
Download the entire “Engaged BPO Relationships” study
Welcome message –
What’s your “word”
for 2016?As President of a fast-growing global
company, it feels like I’m always travel-
ing. For me, face time is critical to stay-
ing connected to my team members
around the world. I often joke that my
office is located at Seat 3C, traveling
at 30,000 feet in the air, between our
operations in Canada, the U.S., Europe,
Central America, and Asia. During these
travels, I encounter a lot of interesting
people with interesting questions. But
it was during one particular business
dinner that I was puzzled by a simple
question: “what’s my ‘word’ for 2016?”
What kind of question is that? I soon
learned that choosing a defining word
for the year is now a thing. That single
word is meant to replace New Year’s
resolutions that are often made and
then soon forgotten. Instead, choos-
ing and committing to a single word is
meant to simplify and bring more clarity
to everything you do during the year;
and you’re less likely to forget or aban-
don the commitment. I like this idea.
As we launch the premier issue of
our Customers First magazine, I’d like
to share my word, which has come to
represent my promise to our customers
and team members in 2016: Focus.
Why “focus,” you might ask? The
BPO industry is extremely competitive.
At TELUS International, our differenti-
ator has always come from having a
culture that promotes the highest team
member engagement (80%, according
to Aon Hewitt) and the lowest industry
attrition (up to 50% below the indus-
try average), all in pursuit of delivering
client experience excellence.
To achieve this, it requires that we fo-
cus on all the elements of what makes
a truly great customer experience
program. From developing recruitment
profiles that identify both hard and soft
skills, to quality coaching for better first
call resolution, to leveraging leading
edge tools and technology, to providing
inspiring workspaces and supporting
social responsibility programs that
empower our team members. We’re
focused on both the big picture of
running world-class client operations,
as well as on the tiny details that make
memorable service experiences happen
again and again.
This magazine is devoted to show-
casing a few of the ways in which focus
– on strategy and innovation – can
benefit the customer. That’s why it’s
called “Customers First” – because in
our business, putting customers first
drives everything we do.
Enjoy the read and please be in
touch.
Jeffrey Puritt
President, TELUS International
@TELUSInt
ContentsCenter for excellence
Is it possible to have 99.99966% good customer service? P.4
On the road
A new shining star on the outsourcing landscape in 2016 P.6
Industry focus
Four disruptive trends that will reshape customer service P.8
Success stories
Culture Value Chain measures top-line impacts of an engaged frontline P.11
Keynote
Staying ahead of today’s customer “mega-trends” P.13
Noteworthy
What’s RPA got to do with outsourcing? P.16
Fraud management in 2016 P.17
Grégoire Vigroux – Publisher and ContributorSarah Sikorski – Editor-in-ChiefJennifer Bach – Executive EditorJeffrey Gangemi – Managing EditorBoriana Dimitrova – European EditorKatya Hernández – Creative Director
For editorial opportunities, please contact [email protected]@telusinternational.com
New study:
How smart buyers structure contact center relationshipsDid you know that 50-60% of end-of-term contact center outsourcing (CCO) contracts were not renewed in 2013-2014? The question is why? What’s driving buyers to have fewer vendor relationships?
Download this new research study from Everest Group, with support from TELUS International, to learn:
• Reasons behind the evolution of buyer-service provider relationships
• Six key factors impacting CCO relationship value
• Benefits achieved through a more engaged model
• Steps buyers and their service providers can take to foster an engaged relationship
• The metrics of an engaged partnership; moving from operational to business outcomes
From the study:
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Customers First - Center for excellence
Is it possible to have 99.99966% good customer service?
A Six Sigma primer –
What if someone said it’s possible
to have only 3.4 bad customer care
interactions out of every million? You’d
probably laugh them out of the room.
Although you may never achieve that
near-perfect state, implementing Lean
Six Sigma (LSS) methodology and other
Business Process Improvement (BPI)
practices in your contact center opera-
tion will at least bring your KPIs closer
to customer service utopia.
TELUS International’s Global Director
of Business Process Excellence, Anna
Kozlova, shares some of her first-hand
experience implementing LSS and other
BPI practices.
Customers First (CF): What’s your
role at TELUS International?
Anna Kozlova (AK): As the leader of
our Business Process Excellence team,
I break down complex business prob-
lems by cutting out waste and reducing
rework, one process step at a time.
At TELUS International, we believe in
empowering our people to utilize the
right tools to solve the right problem. It’s
my job to enable that across our oper-
ations, using LSS and other techniques
like process mapping, data gathering
and analysis, knowledge management,
training and best practice sharing. All
of these help us drive process improve-
ments and cost savings for our clients.
CF: What types of customer care op-
erational challenges are suitable for
Lean Six Sigma (LSS) projects?
AK: Anything that has a process!
Ten years ago, bad service may have
impacted 20 people, but with today’s
technology, it can impact 20 million.
We think of LSS as a tool to reduce
customer challenges, so we start
with understanding customer needs
and work backwards from there. This
means focusing on projects that will
reduce wait times, transfers, callbacks
and other inefficiencies that adversely
affect the customer experience.
CF: Which customer service KPIs
can be improved through LSS meth-
odology?
AK: Although almost any metric can
be improved through LSS, at TELUS
International, we are enhancing our
approach to traditional metrics like cus-
tomer satisfaction. We understand that
customers are looking for an effortless
experience. By focusing on the cus-
tomer, we’re able to improve on some
unique KPIs that are emerging, such as
contacts per customer, first call resolu-
tion, turnaround time and call transfers.
CF: Are there limitations to LSS
methodology in the contact center
environment?
AK: Most process improvement tools
can be applied in a contact center en-
vironment, but it’s crucial to remember
the human factor at play. Six Sigma is
based on data-driven decision-mak-
ing to eliminate defects and reduce
variation. But customers are rarely
that predictable! Still, we can quantify
“proxy” metrics. For example, customer
effort can have a simple scale of 1 to
5. As long as we remember that we’re
dealing with people, and that 3.4 in 1
million defects is probably impossible
to achieve, we’re headed in the right
direction.
CF: As a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt,
can you share an example of a suc-
cessful project?
AK: For one project, the objective was
to reduce repeat service calls to a
customer’s house. Through data mining, we selected 10 different inputs to test for
statistical significance. We found that sending the same technician to the house
for the second visit increased the chances of fixing the issue by 25%. I devised a
coding method to auto-data scrape the troubles from the past month and connect
them with troubles for the following day. If there was a match, the dispatcher would
schedule the same technician for the job. This worked about 50% of the time, but
the benefits added up to $59K/month. A great example of BPI in action!
Anna Kozlova – Six Sigma Black Belt and Global Director of Business Process Excellence
LeanOriginating within the Toyota Production System,
Lean is a customer-centric methodology for maxi-
mizing customer value while minimizing waste in a
process. Lean analyzes the full process from begin-
ning to end by classifying each step from the cus-
tomer’s perspective. Any non-value adding activity
in the process is considered waste. When waste is
identified, the Lean approach plans continuous in-
cremental improvements and quick fixes rather than
major and sudden changes in a process.
Six SigmaInvented by Motorola, Inc. in the 1980’s and popular-
ized by General Electric, Six Sigma refers to a statis-
tical term that measures how far a given process de-
viates from perfection. Initially, Six Sigma represented
a process for identifying and reducing manufacturing
defects to a level of no more than 3.4 per million.
Lean Six SigmaLean is about improving speed, and Six Sigma is
about improving quality. While Lean considers the
entire process, Six Sigma focuses on identifying the
root causes of defects and eliminating the sources.
Combined, Lean and Six Sigma empower business
process improvements in terms of speed, flow and
quality of processes, improved efficiency, effective-
ness and cost.
Customers First - Section name! TELUS International
76
Romania’s reputation as an attractive outsourcing destination is on the rise. The
country has been climbing in various rankings as a top outsourcing location not
only in Europe, but also globally. For example, Romania ranked 4th among the
world’s preferred outsourcing locations in the latest BPO and Shared Service Loca-
tion Index by Cushman & Wakefield.
Here are four big reasons why Romania is an excellent outsourcing destination:
1. Extensive language capabilities
– A recent study conducted by the
Association of Business Service
Leaders in Romania (ABSL) reports
that 90% of students speak En-
glish, 26% French, 17% Spanish,
8% German and 5% Italian. With
40 languages spoken in delivery
centers, Romania is a dream come
has a steady influx of educated
candidates, with 300,000 post-sec-
ondary graduates per year, 4,000
of whom have an education in
computer science.
3. EU member state – As a Euro-
pean Union member, Romania is
favorably positioned as a safe and
sustainable country for outsourcing.
Any legal or financial issues are
simplified under European Union
law.
4. Competitive labor costs – The
average cost of living in Romania is
one of the lowest in the European
Union, resulting in significant sav-
ings for outsourcers.
Romania — A new shining star on the outsourcing landscape in 2016
true for international companies
looking to outsource multilingual
customer care to one partner.
2. Large pool of IT profession-
als – The Romanian Employers’
Association of the Software and
Services Industry estimates that
Romania has more than 100,000
IT professionals. The labor force
Victory Square is a major intersection in central Bucharest, Romania’s thriving capital, near office towers and government buildings
Floreasca City Center is known for shopping, entertainment and business. Its SkyTower is the highest building in Bucharest
Herastrau Area is a residential zone located around Lake Herastrau
The Palace of the Parliament is the second largest administrative building in the world
The Triumphal Arch celebrates Romania’s 1878 independence
Victory Avenue in Bucharest is often com-pared with the Champs-Élysées in Paris
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Customers First - Industry focus
Internet of Things (IoT)
It’s been said that IoT will give us the
most disruption and opportunity over
the next five years, but what exactly is
it? IoT revolves around machine-to-ma-
chine communications using cloud
and more in their daily lives. For the
contact center, it will be about manag-
ing all of this new connectivity without
adding customer service complexity.
Wearables
Yes, wearables technically falls under
IoT, but we think it deserves a special
shout out. Often defined as technology
devices worn by consumers to track
biometric activity (Fitbit anyone?), it’s
quickly broadening into additional cate-
gories. Wearables will connect numer-
ous verticals and their products from
high-tech gadgets and virtual reality
devices, to luxury fashion and health-
care companies.
For example, imagine devices like
Ralph Lauren’s PoloTech Shirt, Nike+
and Fitbit – all working together and
sharing data to provide the wearer with
a complete view of their athletic perfor-
mance. This data could then be shared
further with health care providers and/or
insurance companies.
For the call center, this means having
agents that no longer serve just one
product but rather, the entire prod-
uct ecosystem including, potentially,
competitor products. Some contact
centers will view this as an operational
headache, while others will see it as an
opportunity for differentiation.
Financial Technology (aka Fintech)
Fintech is a term often used to describe
financial technology startups (although
some have grown past the experimental
phase and into the mainstream).
While some label fintech companies
as disruptive (even revolutionary) as
they threaten traditional banking, many
computing and data gathering sensors
(or in layman terms, it means embed-
ding technology into products to make
them “smart”). Common applications of
IoT include smartwatches, fitness track-
ers, smart cars and smart appliances.
Four disruptive trends that will reshape customer service
So why pay attention? According to
Gartner, IoT devices will encompass
over 6.4 billion connected objects in
2016, a 30% rise over 2015. Likewise,
Intel states there will be roughly 26
smart objects per human by 2020.
IoT will have huge implications
for the contact center operationally,
technically and even culturally in the
years to come. Centers will manage
more real-time customer data, enabling
proactive support and better insight into
consumer preferences. With more data
comes greater scrutiny around privacy
and security, and IoT may also increase
the need for omnichannel service, tiered
support levels, and so on.
Whether consumers have heard of
“IoT” or not, they will experience it more
Once viewed as a last resort for frustrated custom-
ers, the contact center is now a central hub for sus-
taining a company’s brand experience. For that to re-
main true, contact centers must stay relevant, and able
to respond to changing customer needs. In the coming
years, contact centers will be put to the test facing
several, potentially disruptive, trends that will impact
customer support in a big way.
Internet of Things
Consumers will
experience IoT more
and more in their daily
lives. For the contact
center, it will be about
managing this new
connectivity without
adding customer ser-
vice complexity.
Wearables
Wearables will connect
numerous verticals
and their products -
from high-tech gad-
gets and virtual reality
devices, to luxury fash-
ion and healthcare
companies.
Financial Technology
When it comes to
banking and finance,
the fintech market will
offer entirely new ways
of doing business,
with new products and
new customer service
expectations.
Sharing Economy
The sharing econ-
omy requires close
cooperation between
people on both sides
of the transaction, as
it changes the way
people consume and
deliver services.
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Customers First - Industry focus
see them as filling a gap for the ser-
vices that big banks simply don’t offer.
Others see them as changing finance
for the better, putting more focus on the
customer, helping address previously
underserved consumers (including
Millennials), and forcing incumbents to
examine their own costs and quality of
service.
So what’s the impact on call cen-
ters? When it comes to banking and
finance, there are going to be entirely
new ways of doing business with new
players, new customer groups, and
new expectations. Both incumbents
and upstarts are going to have to en-
sure robust customer support practices
are in place as consumers start to gain
more power and control when it comes
to their financial services options.
Sharing Economy
Airbnb is less than eight years old, yet it
has already drastically changed the way
people travel. Likewise, Lyft and Uber
have forced taxi companies to offer
It’s a proven fact that highly engaged
frontline team members create supe-
rior experiences for their customers
over non-engaged employees. For
two examples, think Apple or Zap-
pos. Anyone who has taken a tour of
Zappos – or who has visited an Apple
store – immediately recognizes a strong
company culture. Apple “Geniuses” live
and breathe the technology. Zappos
employees mix fun and positivity with
a little weirdness. Both cultures are
impossible to miss.
Zappos reports annual agent attrition
of 20%, which means only one in five of
their contact center agents underper-
forms to the point of being dismissed,
or leaves for another job, in a given
year. The rest stick around to build their
skills and their careers. Likewise, Ap-
ple’s retail workers earn above average
pay, have good benefits, a company
stock purchase plan, and perhaps most
desirable – receive discounts on Apple
products. Apple surrounds its people
with the benefits that matter to them
as a part of their culture and employee
ecosystem.
For Zappos specifically, strong links
between employee engagement, the
customer experience and top-line
growth are the foundational elements
for its internal operations. “Our Net
Promoter Score hovers around 92%,
which is incredibly important because
we don’t have a big marketing budget,”
their own mobile apps. While traditional
business models change in response to
new sharing economy entrants, cus-
tomer service expectations will change
as well.
Why? The sharing economy requires
close cooperation and authentic experi-
ences between people on each side of
the transaction. While it’s not clear how
“disruptive” the sharing economy will
Culture Value Chain measures top-line impacts of an engaged frontline
be for contact centers, it is clear that it
will change the way people consume
and deliver services. In the end, good
customer service will be a shared
responsibility based on more emotional,
personal connections. Figuring out how
to adopt sharing economy principles in
the contact center could be a differenti-
ator in the years ahead.
By Kevin Bottoms
Global VP, Business Development
TELUS International
Both incumbents and upstarts are going to
have to ensure robust customer support
practices are in place as consumers start to
gain more power and control when it comes
to their financial services options.
Continued on page 12
Corporateculture
Agentengagement
Lowerattrition
HigherNPS/CSAT
Top-linegrowth
Engaged team members are more empowered to provide great service that delights customers and improves KPIs.
Retaining delighted customers contributes to long-term growth by increasing lifetime value of a customer, and share of wallet.
When team members feel connected to their work and their team, they stick around to build their careers.
The set of beliefs and behaviors that defines how team members interact with each other, and with customers.
A great company culture surrounds team members with the things that matter, engaging them both personally and professionally.
Culture ValueChain
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Customers First - Success stories
Staying ahead of today’s customer “mega-trends”
Florin Grama is the Director of Support and En-
gineering Management for Microsoft in Bucharest,
Romania. He is also president of The Association
of Business Service Leaders (ABSL) in Romania,
an organization working to bring together high pro-
file companies across the Shared Services Center
(SSC), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Infor-
mation Technology Outsourcing (ITO) and Research
and Development (R&D) sectors.
We recently spoke with Florin to get his perspective on how big global me-
ga-trends like Big Data and Cloud Computing are impacting customer expecta-
tions and customer experience delivery in Europe and beyond.
says Kelly Wolske, a Trainer at Zappos.
“The customer experience is really a
form of marketing.”
Think about that for a second. “The
customer experience is really a form of
marketing.” I couldn’t have said it better
myself. At TELUS International, a BPO
with a measured engagement level of
80%, we’ve found that statement to be
especially true in highly competitive in-
In a one-year span, our client in the wireless space increased team member engagement by 12%. The following impacts were measured:
Between 2014 and 2015, our client in the personal fitness technology space increased team member engagement from 66% to 75%. The following impacts were measured:
Client impact 1
Client impact 2
Company revenue more than doubled year to year,
with increased profitability
Frontline attrition
decreased by 3%
CSAT improved,
from the high 70’s to
sustained level of 91%
Frontline attrition decreased
by 7%
CSAT increased by 14%, while DSAT
decreased by 9%Company
wireless revenue increased by 7%
dustries such as financial services, high
tech, and consumer goods.
We’ve proven that frontline team
member engagement has a direct
impact on our clients’ top-line growth.
The more a company’s stated values
align with its real culture on the ground,
the higher it drives measured team
member engagement and the lower it
pushes attrition. When this equation ex-
ists, sustained top-line growth follows.
That’s what we call the “Culture Value
Chain,” and we’ve seen it proven again
and again.
A few examples: With a wireless
client, fierce competition demanded
lower costs while increasing Likelihood
to Recommend (L2R). We implement-
ed mechanisms for agents to provide
direct customer experience feedback to
the client’s retail store operations. Then,
we eliminated the handle time metric so
agents felt empowered to do whatever
it took to meet customer needs and di-
rectly contribute to the L2R score. Their
engagement level increased by 12%,
and lower attrition drove down costs
while increasing customer retention (see
client impact 1).
For one of our top clients in the
personal fitness technology space,
sustained growth over several years
required us to create new strategies
to raise our engagement level. So we
asked team members for their input.
The result? We deployed our Coaching
for Excellence program, where team
leaders mentor their team members
one-on-one to drive sustained per-
formance improvement over time.
That, along with team-building events
designed to help team members use
the client’s product to build a healthier
lifestyle, drove measured engagement
from 66% to 75% in 2015 (see client
impact 2).
The Culture Value Chain proves that
team member engagement drives top-
line growth for companies like Apple
and Zappos. TELUS International has
proven the same focus can be applied
in an outsourced environment too.
Customers First (CF): What is your
role at Microsoft?
Florin Grama (FG): I lead Microsoft’s
largest Customer Service & Support
(CSS) team in Europe, the Middle East
and Africa, which consists of over 600
IT software and service support pro-
fessionals and consultants based in
Romania. The team is responsible for
assisting partners and customers in
the enterprise, mid-market and small/
medium business segments. We deliver
services and technical support related
to all Microsoft services and products,
ranging from Cloud platforms and
services – Office 365, Azure, CRM,
Continued on page 14
Download the complete Culture Value Chain study, with Frost & Sullivan.
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Customers First - Keynote
InTune to Windows, Office, Sharepoint,
Exchange, Skype, Active Directory,
System Center, SQL, Developer Tools,
and others.
CF: Romania is often described
as the new “outsourcing valley of
Europe.” What do you think are the
top strengths of Romania from the
outsourcing standpoint?
FG: Romania has one of the most de-
veloped IT infrastructures in the world,
but our most precious resource by far is
our people. We have a well-developed
education system which graduates tens
of thousands of university students a
year, most of whom speak English and
are multilingual. Like other attractive
outsourcing destinations, the cost level
is reasonable for the value provided.
And our people continue to improve
every year!
CF: How have Microsoft’s customers
changed over the years, and how
have those changes affected the
company’s approach to customer
service?
FG: In a mobile-first, cloud-first world,
customers want services to run on
any device. They want self-service
and automation. They expect real-time
interaction and to have their services up
and running at all times, with fast reso-
lution of their issues. We like to say that
“customer obsession” is now deeply
embedded into the company culture.
Especially with the advancement of the
Cloud, this trend will only grow as we
are now firmly into the “service based
model” and moving farther away from
hardware all the time.
CF: What are the keys to offering
effective multilingual customer sup-
port?
FG: Microsoft is present in nearly 200
countries across the globe and delivers
services in many different languages.
We deliver services from many coun-
tries, because we believe services tai-
lored to different cultures make a huge
difference to our customers. Customer
service must be globally standardized,
consistent, but also localized at the
same time, so that customers know
what to expect and that they will receive
similar quality levels regardless of geog-
raphy.
Ensuring “follow the sun” delivery
models and approaches, integrated
technology platforms and automation
are key ingredients to success. There
are also lots of new technologies that
can help improve global service stan-
dards. For example, one technology
that could become standard in custom-
er service organizations is Skype Trans-
lator, which allows agents to interact
with customers with real-time text or
voice translation from one language to
another.
CF: What does “putting customers
first” mean to you?
FG: Putting customers first means
making sure we understand the needs
of customers and that we are deliver-
ing services and solutions that are up
to their expectations. I have a strong
belief that in a services business, highly
motivated and engaged employees do
make the difference in providing those
services that customers want. They are
the key to both understanding the cus-
tomer and delivering the highest-quality
experience possible.
CF: What’s the best customer ser-
vice you’ve ever received? Any good
stories to share?
FG: Recently, my bank called and
emailed me, proactively mentioning that
I might have a potential issue with my
credit card. Namely, they asked me to
renew my credit card in order to avoid
improper use or identity theft, which
they believed could eventually occur.
They provided me with a very simple
and easy way to fix the problem, which
took me no more than 10 minutes to
complete. That solution was quick and
exceeded my expectations of how long
such a solution would take.
CF: What’s your “word” to describe
the outsourcing industry in 2016, and
why did you select that word?
FG: “Transformation.” The four me-
ga-trends of Mobile, Cloud, Big Data,
and Social significantly influence the
world and the IT/outsourcing industry,
and the speed of change is massive.
Innovation and creativity are more
important than ever. Speed to adapt to
the new realities is key.
CF: You mentioned four mega-trends
– Big Data, Social, Mobile, and
Cloud. Can you share some of the
ways Microsoft’s operations are
at the forefront of several of those
trends?
FG: Microsoft has developed and
brought to market platforms and
services in the Cloud such as Office
365, Azure and CRM online. Apart from
our own hardware business, we have
developed products and services like
Office, Office 365, Outlook, Skype, SQL
on non-Windows operating systems
(Linux, Android, MAC, iOS) in order to
provide customers with seamless expe-
riences on any mobile device.
Yammer is a leading enterprise
social network for businesses to get
work done smarter and faster, used for
private communications within organi-
zations.
With Power BI, you leverage your
data and create dashboards that keep
you informed about what’s most im-
portant about your business. Just like a
dashboard in your car displays im-
portant information about your vehicle,
such as its speed, its fuel level, or how
healthy the engine is, the dashboard in
Power BI interprets Big Data and dis-
plays important information about your
business.
CF: As you noted, creativity and
innovation are more important than
ever. Do you have any specific exam-
ples of why that’s true, particularly in
your industry?
FG: The speed and ability to bring in
new innovative products and services,
and develop the existing ones to ad-
dress and anticipate customer needs
are of huge importance. You have to
understand where customers’ busi-
nesses are going and what they need in
order to achieve more. Recent exam-
ples at Microsoft include the launches
of Office or Skype for non-Windows
operating systems, or SQL Server for
Linux. I truly believe that anticipating
and serving rapidly changing customer
needs will be the key to success for
companies of all sizes, now and in the
future.
Florin Grama – Helping Microsoft serve customers across 200 countries, and even more languages, he says the key is motivating and engaging frontline team members
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Social Mobile Analytics Cloud
For social networks, the
cream has risen to the top.
Facebook has well over a
billion users, and Twitter and
LinkedIn are rapidly monetiz-
ing their reams of data.
With massive smartphone
adoption, millions of people
are walking around with
supercomputers in their
pockets, with access to
services like never before.
Machine learning continues
to converge with processing
power, allowing computers
to increasingly sift through
both structured and un-
structured data.
As cloud capacity increases,
computing efficiency comes
at pennies on the dollar. Flex-
ible arrangements allow users
to adapt capacity as their
demands change.
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Customers First - Noteworthy
What key challenges and trends will
transform fraud management in 2016?
We tried to answer this question at
our Executive Breakfast event held in
February in Paris, France. Over 75 of
the country’s top fraud management
experts met with decision makers from
various industries to discuss the latest
trends and breakthroughs affecting the
fight against fraud.
Key challenges that will transform fraud management in 2016
Challenge 1: Cybercrime is attracting more and more fraudsters. The French
Bank Card Association found that internet fraud doubled over the five-year period
between 2010 and 2014. One of the reasons is that it’s easier and less risky - why
risk robbing a bank when you can commit fraud at home? Second, cyber fraud is
scalable and has a quick ROI. Technology advancements enable the deployment
of fraud schemes on a large scale and in a cost-effective manner.
Challenge 2: New communication channels create new loopholes, often not an-
ticipated by companies. The popularity of mobile devices has reached astronom-
ical levels, and mobile fraud is following suit. The growing adoption of the Internet
of Things also presents new fraud opportunities, leading the FBI to issue a warning
statement regarding the piracy risks associated with connected objects.
Challenge 3: Customers expect instant action. In his book, “The Dictatorship
of Urgency,” Gilles Finchelstein claims that we are now governed by our own
impatience. This appetite for “everything now” has caused product offerings and
services to adapt. While this on-demand attitude is already present in the service
sector with instant delivery options and payment by installments, it’s gradually
becoming a reality in other segments too. “As soon as possible” is becoming the
new norm.
Recognizing these challenges and devising ways to take action will generate
much more discussion in the years ahead.
Among the key learnings from the
event was that understanding the con-
text of a transaction is a crucial element
in fraud management. However, the
current digital environment makes that
context more complex and therefore
more difficult to comprehend. The
experts at the event identified three key
challenges making fraud management
more complicated in today’s digital age.
What’s RPA got to do with outsourcing?Robotic Process Automation
(RPA) has been making headlines in
research publications lately with titles
such as “The Robots are Coming”
and “Greetings from Robotistan.”
However, RPA is not quite as exotic
as the titles suggest. These are not
physical robots like you would see in
manufacturing, but rather software
that gets the work done.
RPA is a highly innovative tech-
nology best suited for process
driven areas of business such as
finance, administration, logistics,
order processing, fraud and IT. It has
the ability to increase efficiency and
speed for repetitive, high volume and
rule-based tasks requiring no human
judgment.
The question is how will RPA
affect the outsourcing sector? No,
robots like C-3PO will not be physi-
cally deployed in contact centers. But a
piece of software could automate repet-
itive tasks performed by agents, thus
saving time and optimizing processes
to function more efficiently.
The technology possesses the
capability to improve quality, decrease
transaction turnaround time, and
improve service levels and productivity.
For instance, RPA technology could
manipulate application software instead
of agents during customer interactions.
This would allow agents to focus on
high-value, complex customer inter-
actions, resulting in optimal customer
satisfaction and improved operational
profitability.
Will RPA upset traditional models of
outsourcing? The answer lies in how
BPOs will leverage RPA capabilities
in their processes and harness the
advantages of software robotics. Still,
the concept of RPA is either unknown
or misunderstood by many buyers and
outsourcers alike - likely due to the
connotation associated with the term
“robotic.” Looking positively to the
future, RPA actually gives outsourcers
a new way to innovate and could even
help the industry grow.
The French Bank Card Association found that internet fraud doubled over the five-year period between 2010 and 2014.
Executive Breakfast – Industry experts meet to discuss fraud management trends in Paris
No, robots like C-3PO will
not be physically deployed in
contact centers. But a piece
of software could automate
repetitive tasks performed by
agents...
TELUS International
1918
In my view, it’s about a few key things: 1) aligning our business culture to the ever-evolving needs of our customers; 2) making sure that our key busi-ness accomplishments showcase what we have achieved for our customers; and 3) that we – as leaders – remove the road blocks that affect our customers’ needs and/or strategies for success.
José Calderón, VP, Operations
TELUS International Central America, El Salvador
TELUS Days of Giving drew more
than 7,250 volunteers to 11 events
outside of Canada in 2015. In this
picture, a local woman proudly cuts the
ribbon on her new home in the Santa
Gertrudis community of Santa Tecla in
San Salvador, El Salvador. Volunteers
from TELUS International partnered
with local non-profit TECHO to build 20
houses for local families over two days
last November.
The Big PictureUnscriptedWhat does putting customers first mean to you? TELUS Days of Giving 2015
It permeates everything we do. Customers expe-rience it in our transparent sales process, in how we onboard and support them, and in the expert engineers we’ve hired. We call it ‘DizzionCare,’ and it means listening first and doing the right thing by our customers. It’s not just solving problems but using technology to help grow and improve our customers’ business.
Chris Horning, Sr. Client Relations Manager
Dizzion (virtual desktop and cloud solutions)
Our Customers 4Life program leads our culture to develop long-term relationships with custom-ers. We focus on three main areas – Operational Improvements to make interactions easy, conve-nient and accurate; Communications that inform, engage and invest our customers and employees; and Education that articulates the “Customers 4Life” behaviors expected in each organizational role. By partnering with our customers for their long term success, we earn the right to do busi-ness with them!
Nancy Porte, VP, Global Customer Experience
Verint (speech and text analytics)
I think of customers not just as people calling us to buy a product, but as men and women with real problems, seeking solutions. That’s why I do my best to put myself in their shoes. Usually it’s not dif-ficult, because we’ve all been in similar situations, hoping to receive not only the service that we pay for, but also understanding and sympathy. Nothing beats real human interaction.
Danail Pavlov, Customer Support Agent
TELUS International Europe, Bulgaria
For me, it means striving to build healthy relation-ships with customers by identifying their needs and providing the best possible experience. Another thing is passion. If you love what you’re doing and if you always put the customer first, the customer will feel that – and you will have a successful rela-tionship.
Annica Ronquist, Head of Global Customer Operations and
Services –Teleopti (workforce management solution)
It means bringing added value to our partners’ business, by acting as their advocates and being constantly proactive in providing feedback and suggestions on how to drive excellence in custom-er service.
Adriana Alecu, Operations Manager
TELUS International Europe, Romania
Customer service and contact center solutions
– see the difference today.
When it comes to finding the right customer service partner, it’s all about cultural alignment. Will your
outsourcing partner truly uphold your brand promise? And will they take care of the agents serving
your customers? At TELUS International, we aspire to be your brand ambassador and to redefine
the outsourcing industry through our spirited teamwork and caring culture.
See for yourself! Click here to take a quick virtual site tour of our operations in the United States,
Central America, Asia or Europe.
It’s different here at TELUS International.
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