HFS Top 10 Front Office Customer Engagement Operations Services 2019Excerpt for SYKES

HFS Research authors:Melissa O’Brien, Research Vice PresidentMadhuparna Banerjee, Knowledge Analyst

February 2019

© 2019, HFS Research Ltd Excerpt for SYKES

“The promise of digital customer engagement and the vast amount of data in contact centers have brought a resurgence of excitement for services that

have evolved out of the legacy call center. Traditional labor-focused services are slowly but surely shifting to embrace automation, analytics, and digital interactions to provide a balanced, more intelligent customer experience.”

—Melissa O’Brien, Research Vice President

© 2019, HFS Research Ltd Excerpt for SYKES

Topic Page

What you’ll read

Introduction

Executive summary

Service provider profile

HFS Research authors

HFS Top 10 customer engagement operations services providers

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Introduction

• The HFS Top 10 Front Office Customer Engagement Operations Services Report 2019 is a refreshed and expanded analysis of contact center services reports conducted in 2016. This report builds on previous years’ reports, which can be found on www.hfsresearch.com.• We analyzed the capabilities of 23 service providers across the customer engagement services value chain to develop a

comprehensive analysis of industry-specific services and solutions for firms operating within these sectors. The value chain (depicted in the next slide) for customer engagement services is a combination of interaction management and other operations services to support the customer experience. This includes interaction management on traditional channels such as phone and email and emerging digital channels including social media and video kiosks. These interactions are varied across the customer experience life cycle and use cases, including technical support, customer care, and fraud prevention. • This Top 10 research is based on interviews with 300 enterprise services clients from the Global 2000 in which we asked

specific questions pertaining to innovation and execution performance of service providers assessed. The research is augmented with information collected in Q3 and Q4 2018 through provider RFIs, structured briefings, client reference interviews, buyer networking events, and publicly available information sources.

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The digital front office—three pillars of customer engagementThis Top 10 report focuses on customer engagement interaction management and operations

Digital marketing and sales services

• Content creation and development—original ad and follow-on collateral creation and management

• Content classification• Ad moderation• Web development, e-commerce support• Marketing consulting—campaign design and management, and product

development, etc. • Campaign execution, loyalty program management, and coupon and gift card

management • Search engine and social media marketing• Localization• Data security

Interaction management and operations

• Technical support• Customer care• Sales • Loyalty and attrition campaigns• Marketing• Collections• Fraud prevention• Case management• Billing

Contact center: agent assisted, self-service, and automated

Traditional and digitally enabled channels:• Voice• Chat• SMS• Email• Retail and face-to-face• Social media• Web and mobile app• Video kiosk

HFS value chain definition: Value chain refers to the business units that carry out value-creating activities to design, produce, market, deliver, and support a company’s product or service. In this usage, we refer to the range of primary processes and support services that providers offer to their clients.

Enabling technologies

Digitization and robotic automation—Analytics—Mobility—Social media—Cognitive computing—Artificial intelligence

Operating models, methodologies, and platforms

Outsourcing—Shared services—GBS—COEs—BPaaS, SaaS, and IaaS—Design thinking

Consulting and CX design

• Customer experience design and consulting

• Customer journey mapping

Executive summary• The promise of digital customer engagement and the vast amount of data in contact centers has brought back a resurgence of

excitement for services that have evolved out of the legacy call center. Traditional labor focused legacy services are slowly but surely shifting to embrace automation, analytics, and digital interactions to provide a balanced, more intelligent customer experience.

• The three pillars of the value chain are intrinsically linked, with front office convergence creating demand for operations to leverage strategy, and vice versa. The recent investments we’ve seen from service providers for digital and design assets are complementary or integrated services to customer engagement operations.

• While the traditional contact center players tended to score well in the execution categories, there was a striking difference in the scoring for the innovation categories, which is now leading with the IT services providers and consultancies. Thus, while now we still see the traditional service providers winning overall and in the voice of the customer in this market, in the future it may not be the “usual suspects,” but the providers that leverage niche capabilities, digital marketing, and CX design assets for their operations to be winning in the future.

• The demand from customers has fundamentally changed to shift away from low-cost, low-value services to seeking a partner that can help to deliver on a holistic digital customer engagement strategy, and many service providers are stepping up to the challenge.

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Customer engagement services trends 2018 (1 of 2)• Bots: The “bots-brains” approach, leaning on intelligent automation to create optimized CX and integrating people into the experience. With the help of

front-end bot or bot-assisted agent, the service providers will be able to reduce customer efforts (improving CSAT), control cost and generate better revenue. Bot deployment reduces human labour to solve complex decision making. HFS predicts automation is making way for strong growth of high- and medium-skilled personnel—with highly skilled positions in the service provider industry increasing by 56%, and medium-skilled by 8%. However, low-skilled, routine jobs drop 30% as many of these roles get phased out over the next five years.

• Digital channel prevalence: Customers will experience the tipping point where digital channels—email, chat, social, text, messaging—overtake voice in the contact center. Mobile driven interaction management —in-app messaging, chat, SMS, and social—are the basic components of the digital omni channel platforms. An integrated web portal, with multiple digital channels, supports the digitization process and without disrupting the underlying applications.

• Digital Self-Service: Enabling of omni-channel self-service and a consistent, personalized experience across all customer touch points. Customised and easy self-service that focuses on customer need and preferences via segmentation of data. Provides an opportunity to the customers to manage them online for themselves.

• Artificial Intelligence: Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing industries across the globe, including customer service. The rise of digital channels and the advancement of AI and machine learning technology, have the ability to predict (with a high level of confidence) the right answer to a customer’s inquiry in any digital channel — email, SMS, chat, or social. This advancement in technology will make the agents much more efficient. The new customer care solutions will bring together the empathy of agents with the efficiency of bots, for AI-assisted conversations that present the facts of a product or brand while adding the personalization of a human touch. AI technology will even be able to automatically tag and categorize posts, saving agents more time. AI is a major part of services delivered using cognitive assistants for customer service (see Top Ten Cognitive Assistants Services Providers).

• Internet of Things: IoT has a big role to play in customer experience by enhancing communication, reducing wait times and gaining greater insights. With IoT, customers are expected to wait less to solves issues without logging incidents. Although, these systems fail to address complex issues and fail to improve customer experience (CX). Therefore, service providers are increasing shifting their focus from preventative maintenance and investing in predictive maintenance models that use IoT sensors to detect malfunctions.

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Customer engagement services trends 2018 (2 of 2)• RPA: RPA is a potential tool in the customer engagement value chain. With RPA, client data can be protected, controlled and organised with

automated onboarding and offboarding processes. Automation will provide agents assistance to enhance productivity, by focusing on helpingcustomers and less time on navigating systems or post-contact errands. RPA platform ensures the security, that the data is up to date on alldevices. Additionally, automation improve human error by decreasing manual data entry, handles complaints with automated responses,reducing rework and decreasing complaints. A better collaboration between the front- and back office, for ROI that covers the advantages ofboth RPA types.

• Social Media: Social media platforms are able to help with customer satisfaction levels and engagement in a number of ways. Most business understand that they are competing on customer experience. In addition to effective engagement and communication, social media also makes it far easier to market your brand.

• Customer Experience Cloud: Cloud hosting both creates significant improvement in keeping the site available for visitors and reduces the time it takes to load pages. Cloud-based contact centres offer a more cost-effective business model. Providing a fast and responsive experience is critical ensuring customer loyalty.

• Predictive Analytics: As customer experience analytics matures, it is becoming increasingly predictive and focused on customisation based on customer needs. A sophisticated data analytics tool can streamline internal and external sources of customer information to make predictions, or generate recommendations based on information gathered, thus giving contact center agents and bots background information of the customer.

• Sensors in Products and Operations: With smart sensors, it is possible to provide accurate data about products and operations to generate a holistic view of the operating system. Smart sensors creates visibility of an inter connected supply chain—a digital supply network—that brings the company end-to-end visibility into its suppliers, distributors and suppliers.

8 © 2019, HFS Research Ltd Excerpt for SYKES

HFS Top 10 customer engagement operations services providers

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Research methodologyWe assessed service providers providing customer engagement operations services across three primary dimensions.

Assessment dimensions Subdimensions Weighting

Ability to execute • Depth and breadth of offerings and expertise: includes capabilities across the HFS customer engagement services value chain

• Service delivery excellence: the ability to attract and retain qualified talent with relevant industry, process, and technical expertise; service delivery capabilities including best practices, focus on continuous improvement, and delivery footprint

33.3%

Innovation capability • Vision and refinement of go to market strategy: includes vision and credibility of strategy, strong understanding of industry trends, and refinement of capabilities to address client challenges

• Digital investment and capability: capabilities across traditional and digital channels, deployment of intelligent automation, development of internal IP, and strong partnership ecosystem for innovation capabilities

33.3%

Voice of the customer • Direct feedback from service provider clients: from reference checks, surveys, and case studies critiquing provider performance and capabilities

33.3%

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HFS customer engagement operations services Top 10

#1. Teleperformance

© 2019, HFS Research Ltd Excerpt for SYKES11

A global stalwart leading with talent focus and business process expertise

#2. Concentrix#3. SYKES

#4. Sitel#5. Sutherland

#6. TTEC#7. WNS

#8. Alorica#9. HGS

#10. Infosys#11. Arvato CRM

#12. Webhelp#13. Aegis-Startek

#14. Tech Mahindra#15. Conduent#16. CSS Corp

#17. Wipro#18. EXL

#19.itelbpo#20. HCL

#21. Genpact#22. VXI

#23. Cybage

Blending business process expertise and design for intelligent engagement

Business process expertise and significant digital capability investment

A diverse global customer experience leaderHuman-centric design thinking for customer outcomes Customer experience expert with a robust portfolio of capabilities

A collaborative partner with deep industry expertise A North American leader with a unique approach to culture and talentA digital customer experience thought leader

Comprehensive services supported by intelligent customer engagement

Europe focused and analytics enabledAcquisition-led growth and diverse portfolioCombining design and efficiency for customer interactionsDriving a digitally enabled strategy with consulting and designDeveloping next generation customer careA tech support leader developing broader capabilities

Technology-enabled customer engagement

Domain led, analytics enabledA nimble nearshore and work-at-home partnerTechnology-led delivery and operational excellenceAnalytics driven with a developing CX design capabilityA global provider with a breadth of delivery locationsA tech support up and comer

Execution success Innovation capability Voice of the Customer

HFS Ranking

Ability to execute Innovation capability

Voice of the customerBreadth and depth of

servicesServices delivery Vision and GTM strategy Digital investment and

capability

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

HFS top five customer engagement operations services providers by individual assessment dimensions

Source: HFS Research 2019

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Service provider profile

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SYKES: business process expertise and significant digital capability investment

© 2019HFS ResearchLtd.

Proprietary │Page 14

Key acquisitions and partnerships

Key clients Case study highlights Recent developments

Acquisitions:• Symphony Ventures (2018)

• Clearlink (2016)

• Qelp (2015)• Alpine Access (2015)

Partnership:• XSELL Technologies

• AT&T • Implemented the use of OneSYKES across the partner’s existing brick-and-mortar service centers. Added a work-at-home (WAH) component usingSYKESHome, allowing for around-the-clock availability. LeveragedOneSYKES for all WAH agents as well, ensuring all agents had the sameknowledge and access to resources regardless of location.

• Streamlined the ticket assignment and workflow process to maintainperformance standards with reduced staff. Quality assurance teamsreengineered processes to continue to meet quality levels with less staff.Reallocated and cross-trained resources into functional groups includingticket intake management, notifying customers (CFN), troubleshooting, andcircuit engagement.

• Presented a blueprint of services for a comprehensive digital strategy. Builta command center for social media analytics and response, followed bychat and e-commerce support. Support over 200 customers a week onsocial media in over 20 languages.

• Acquisition of Symphony Ventures, 2018

Strengths Development opportunities

• SYKES has made some serious investments in digital capability, particularly compared to its contact center pure play peers. Most recently, the acquisition of Symphony Ventures made SYKES the first contact center provider to have a significant RPA capability. The Clearlink acquisition gave SYKES capabilities in the digital marketing space, which is complementary to its core business and also a differentiator from its peers in the contact center world. Qelp is another acquisition that expanded SYKES’ value proposition outside of core contact center services—a call center software firm specializing in self service on mobile phones, a real boon for its telecom clients.

• SYKES has a sizeable work-at-home delivery workforce (acquired through Alpine Access in 2012) which is a strength, in particular for its retail clients that require more flexibility and seasonality. The scalability and virtual training of this program are particularly effective. OneSYKES, its cloud delivery and WFM platform, enable this capability. The platform also enables customer interaction analytics.

• Continuing to integrate acquisitions. One of the most important developments we will be watching within SYKES is the way it handles completing the integration of its 2016 acquisitions and, even more interesting, the recent Symphony acquisition. SYKES will need to move quickly and aggressively to prove it can deliver on the idea that Symphony’s implementation and consulting prowess combined with SYKES’ global scale can help fix clients’ automation woes.

Dimension Rank

HFS Top 10 position #3

Execution success

Breadth and depth of services

#6

Services delivery #8

Innovation capability

Vision and GTM #1

Digital investment and capability

#3

Voice of the customer #10

HFS Research authors

15 © 2019, HFS Research Ltd Excerpt for SYKES

HFS Research authors

Melissa O’Brien | Research Vice President

Melissa O'Brien is Research Vice President, Customer Engagement, Retail and Travel Strategies at HFS Research. Melissa leads HFS’ research initiatives for digital front office services, including customer engagement operations, digital marketing, cognitive agents and CX design and consulting, digging into the trends and change agents that are driving customer experience across the enterprise.

In addition, her industry research focuses on key dynamics within retail, CPG, travel and hospitality with regards to customer-centric strategies, intelligent operations and service delivery. (View bio and contact details).

Madhuparna Banerjee| Knowledge Analyst

Madhuparna Banerjee is a Knowledge Analyst at HFS Research, supporting the Business Process Services (BPS). Her responsibilities include collecting and analyzing data and information found in databases and/or other primary and secondary research tools, to create blueprints, POV’s and custom reports for clients on the scope of the business and economic trends in Finance & Accounting, Procurement and Customer Engagement.

Madhuparna has over 3+ years of research, consulting and business development experience. Madhuparna holds a MA in International Studies and Diplomacy from School of Oriental African Studies, University of London. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Presidency College, Kolkata. (View bio and contact details).

16 © 2019, HFS Research Ltd Excerpt for SYKES

Defining future business operations

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