PH Contact Centers Remain at the Helm of Customer Experience Delivery of the Future

CCAP WhenInManila June

The local contact center sector is rapidly evolving to match changing requirements from customers.

 

Enabled with digital capabilities in automation, analytics, artificial intelligence, the country’s contact center sector thrust has pivoted to transforming and evolving the customer experience.  “Personalized and elevated customer experience, powered by digital, is the new competitive battleground in our sector,” says Jojo Uligan, President of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP). “This is a new service opportunity for contact centers in the digital world and provides exciting opportunities for our people to upskill, and do more complex and challenging tasks,” he added.

Currently, the Philippines continues to be the biggest source of contact center services, expected to take16% to 18% of the total outsourced services globally in 2018, based on data from The Everest Group, a Texas-based global consulting and research firm. The country remains ahead of its nearest competitor in this market—India.  The data also indicates that the Philippine contact center sector generated US$13 billion in 2017, which will continue to grow by 7% to 9% by the end of 2018.  “We are forecasting to add another $1 billion in revenues this 2018. That translates to an additional 70,000 more jobs,” according to Uligan.

In its 2017 assessment of the industry, The Everest Group cited language skills and high empathy of the local agents coupled with competitive costs for the country’s maintained strength in its contact center value proposition. The research company added that cultural affinity to Western countries and government incentives like tax discounts and talent development programs also contribute to the local industry’s continuous growth.

The same study also emphasized that while contact center jobs are still supporting voice-related services, a rising number of tasks involve non-voice channels as well. This shift to non-voice is playing a significant role in the evolution of jobs within the industry.

 

 

New skills evolution

A recent survey conducted by CCAP gives a quick glimpse of the ongoing shift in contact centers’ business models and evolution of agents’ jobs, as reflected in the nature of current job tasks. Of those agents who are doing voice jobs, only 14% are engaged in low-skill tasks. Such traditional voice-job responsibilities include telemarketing, order taking, and provision of simple customer service assistance.

Those engaged in jobs requiring middle-level skills comprises 51% of the respondents. Their job tasks range from providing solutions to more complex customer problems, processing health claims, providing technical support, and business-to-business high value cross-selling/upselling.

High-level skill jobs are being done by 35% of the respondents. Some of the tasks they do are decision making for troubled projects and accounts, providing level 2 and 3 technical support, complex and high-value claims processing requiring clinical certification, and financial analysis, among others.

These and more insights will be put on further focus in the upcoming Contact Islands 2018, with the theme ‘Leading with CX in a Digital World.’ The two-day annual conference is set on July 25 and 26, 2018 at Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa in Cebu. To register, visit www.ccap.ph.