From the rapid adoption of call center automation and self-service tools to the proliferation of non-voice channels and the soaring demand for personalized experiences, the dynamics of customer care operations are undergoing a significant shift. Yet, amidst these transformations, legacy customer experience (CX) programs often find themselves struggling to keep pace with the evolving expectations of today’s consumers.
What is Transformational Outsourcing:
Introduced more than 20 years ago, the concept of transformational outsourcing is the strategic approach that goes beyond tactical cost-saving measures to drive substantial and sustainable improvements in enterprise-level performance. Unlike traditional outsourcing models focused solely on offloading noncore activities, transformational outsourcing is about redefining business processes and driving innovation in collaboration with a trusted partner to launch new strategies, reshape company boundaries, and drive transformative growth – foundational to adapting to today’s Modern Customer Experience.
However, amidst the buzz surrounding transformational outsourcing, misconceptions abound. As pointed out by MITSloan Management Review, media hype often confused executives about the true essence of transformational outsourcing and its potential impact. While technology such as Artificial Intelligence undoubtedly plays a crucial role in facilitating customer experience transformation, true transformational outsourcing hinges on executives’ commitment to leveraging the approach to enact meaningful organizational change.
In essence, transformational outsourcing represents a strategic partnership between companies and an outsourcing vendor to achieve rapid, substantial, and sustainable improvements in performance using design, technology, and approach. It’s about more than just cutting costs; it’s about redefining business processes, launching new strategies, and driving innovation to meet the demands of the Modern Customer Experience.
Navigating the Imperative for Change:
Many CX programs have reached the point of diminishing returns. Each year, call center executives invest over $11.5 billion on CX management and call center automation in the hopes of achieving the increased revenues and profitability associated with superior customer experiences. Yet for all that, Forrester’s Customer Experience Index reports that CX quality has dipped in recent years, the biggest drop since the survey’s inception, and 57% of customers feel that their experiences with brands have worsened.
The evolving nature of customer interactions together with the complexity of modern call centers, increased blind spots and increased CX friction necessitate a strategic overhaul of CX strategies. Legacy CX programs are no longer sufficient to meet the demands of Modern Customer Experience.
The Role of Transformational Outsourcing in Driving CX Excellence:
Embracing transformational outsourcing isn’t just about overcoming the limitations of legacy CX programs—it’s about positioning your company for unparalleled success in today’s competitive marketplace. This is accomplished in six ways:
- Start With the Big Picture in Mind: This goes beyond merely mapping the Customer Journey. There are several elements that constantly influence your customers’ experience, including the interplay between communication channels, cross data silo visibility, employee processes, when and how information/tools are made available to phone agents, and more. At ACT, we’ve mapped over 240 employee touchpoints that affect the customers’ experience. The Total Experience Formula™ provides the only true 360-degree view of your customer experience program.
- Orchestrate the Elements that Touche Your Customers’ Journey: Now that you know what’s helping and hindering your customers’ experience, the next step is to strategically orchestrate those elements to meet your organization’s goals. Examples include removing friction from both customers and employees, changing the way information is made available to your agents, providing AI-powered Agent Assist to recommend next best steps, and more.
- Adopt an Agile Posture: Transformational Outsourcing is not a ‘one and done’ approach. It requires constant adjustments to evolving customer demands, changing market opportunities and circumstances. Select a partner like ACT that offers both a flat organizational structure with no P/L responsibilities on Operations. This allows BPO partner to concentrate on delivering the best possible client outcomes with very fast turnaround times. And with fewer ‘moving parts’ to distract or slow things down, this enables ACT to deliver flawless execution.
- Facilitate Innovation: Innovation is needed to adapt to the challenges of the Modern Customer Experience, everything from innovation in solutions to flawless execution. Research from MIT shows that organizations offering the best Employee Experience (EX) better innovate and generate 2x the revenues compared to organizations in the bottom quartile of EX. Being obsessed with our EX, ACT has reduced customer churn by 31% by removing friction from the employees’ experience and by making them employee-owners through an ESOP program. This carries with it the unique advantage of aligning employee motivations to client’s success.
- Select an Outsourcing Partner with a Data-Rich Foundation: A state-of-the-art portfolio of AI-enabled technologies like those offered by ACT enable the building of customized solutions in days, not weeks, which exactly meet clients’ needs without extensive time, cost, or complexity.
- Become Scorecard Driven: To ensure alignment of performance to client goals, select an outsourcing partner who is scorecard driven. This affords strategically aligned performance monitoring, qualitative objective evaluation, continuous improvement, clear communication and risk mitigation. Unique to ACT, we enjoy a 98% green scorecard ranking across our entire client portfolio.
By partnering with ACT, companies can unlock a myriad of benefits and outcomes that drive CX excellence and business growth.
Unlocking Strategic Innovation: Transformational outsourcing empowers companies to break free from the constraints of traditional CX approaches and embrace strategic innovation. Businesses can leverage fresh perspectives, industry best practices, and cutting-edge technologies to revolutionize their CX strategies. From launching new programs to removing friction from customer experiences, transformational outsourcing paves the way for innovative solutions that drive tangible results.
Achieving Transformative Growth: The transformative power of outsourcing extends far beyond cost reduction—it’s about driving transformative growth that propels your business to new heights. Companies have witnessed exponential revenue growth, increased customer satisfaction scores, enhanced brand loyalty and can tap into new markets, expand their customer base, and solidify their position as industry leaders.
Driving Sustainable Success: Transformational outsourcing isn’t just a short-term fix—it’s a strategic investment in long-term success. With ACT as your outsourcing partner, you gain access to a wealth of operational expertise, cutting-edge technologies, and best practices that drive sustainable success. With a 98% green scorecard across its entire client portfolio and an average client tenure of 10+ years, ACT has a proven track record of delivering results that stand the test of time.
ABOUT ACT: ACT was founded 27 years ago on a winning formula – that the best solutions integrate Employee Experience (EX) + Customer Experience (CX) + User Experience (UX) + Digital Experience (DX) + Multi-experience (MX) for an outstanding Total Experience (TX) overall. We call it the Total Experience Formula™. Today, many of the world’s leading brands and Fortune 50 trust ACT to be an extension of their business to unlock their ability to respond quickly to rapidly changing competitive, business and compliance environments, to anticipate and scale for future needs, to outmaneuver their competition, to lower operating costs, to improve efficiencies, to drive revenue and increase customer engagement.
As a 100% employee-owned company, we have placed Employee Experience at the center of our business strategy because we know that engaged employees ensure the best customer outcomes. As shareholders in the business, our Employee Owners have a personal interest in delivering value to our clients, and their motivations are uniquely aligned to our clients’ success. When clients first come to us, we consistently find it to be an opportunity to transform their CX design and outcomes with a Total Experience approach, starting at the Employee Experience level.
ACT offers the operational expertise, technologies and best practices that you expect from a world-class BPO, combined with the innovative solutions, flexibility and individual
