The BPO industry has revolutionized the business landscape. Outsourcing is becoming the first choice for many organizations to improve their customer experience and manage their non-core functions. In fact, the Indian BPO industry is predicted to touch $8.8 billion by 2025. Another research predicts that the industry will be driven by AI, digital services, and RPA.
Let us begin by understanding how BPO’s performed and thrived when the world was hit by the pandemic.
How Did BPOs Respond to the Pandemic?
The pandemic caused major disruptions across various industries, and the BPO sector was no exception. However, even in the midst of challenges, many forward-thinking BPO’s showed resilience. They looked at the disruption as an opportunity to future-proof themselves and re-evaluate their business decisions.
They played a vital role in ensuring that businesses around the world could continue interacting and transacting with their customers. Due to this, many organizations were able to function in the middle of a lockdown.
The primary theme in their journey to evolve as an outsourcing provider were customer experience, and technology. Call centers ensured e-commerce businesses ran without a hitch, processed customer claims on time, and provided timely assistance to customers across various industries.
By showing resilience during uncertain times, BPO’s are more prepared to handle unforeseen events, have a better understanding of customer service trends, and have become more technically advanced. So, in 2022, you can expect outsourcing providers to be more capable of handling their client expectations. You will also witness experienced BPO’s investing in innovative technologies and upskilling their workforce to aid in their transformation.
Let us now look at how the world of outsourcing is evolving.
1) More StartUps Will Look for BPO Partners
We have witnessed a tremendous surge in small businesses in the last few years, as every startup aims to be the next big thing.
However, starting small also means having limited resources, cutting corners to save budget, and being under tons of pressure to succeed. Startups require an efficient and cost-effective approach for their business needs.
With a limited budget to invest in resources, startups often rely on outsourcing to help them gain access to skilled agents and technology at affordable costs and gain a competitive edge.
Smaller firms are searching for experienced call centers in India to take care of their day-to-day activities such as back-office support services, accounting services, lead generation services, digital transformation services, and many more. In fact, 33% of small firms and businesses look forward to outsourcing their services and gaining access to flexible resources. This trend will show no signs of slowing down in 2022.
By collaborating with a specialized BPO partner to take care of their in-house operations, startups are able to save on costs, focus on the core functions of their business, and boost revenue.
2) BPO’s are Upskilling Their Workforce
As channels for customer support continue to evolve, the techniques of training agents and methods to boost their skills are advancing. In the bid to scale the business of their clients, and provide the best customer experience, BPO’s are becoming more strategic and deploying effective techniques to develop the skills of their employees. They are also abandoning conventional hiring techniques and focusing on providing their employees with cutting-edge training and development opportunities.
Call centers are upskilling their workforce by instilling effective mentoring programs, undergoing talent gap analysis, tracking the performance of their agents, and conducting job simulations. By doing this, BPO’s can close critical skills gaps, train their agents to handle new support channels, and significantly improve their service quality. By upskilling, BPO’s are also able to understand their client’s goals better, identify the latest support trends, and offer their clients a seamless customer experience.
3) Automation & AI are Here to Stay
In the current post-pandemic scenario, digital integration is the key differentiator for businesses. The new-age BPO’s understand this and are developing their technical expertise at a rapid pace to provide exceptional experiences to their clients.
The digital revolution towards robotic process automation, AI, and machine language (ML) has made it possible for BPO’s to accelerate growth and deliver excellent results to their clients. With the implementation of modern technology, BPO’s are able to help organizations reduce operational costs, improve productivity, save on labor costs and streamline their business processes.
For instance, by providing RPA services to their clients, BPO’s can ensure scalability and free employees from doing repetitive tasks. Automation also ensures error-free operations and processes information efficiently and accurately. BPO’s are also providing AI-enabled chatbot services to improve customer service and provide 24/7 support on various channels.
4) Omnichannel Support is Gaining Traction
The arrival of various social channels and technology has made it convenient for people to reach out to businesses. Today’s customer interacts with brands through live chat, websites, social media platforms like Facebook, chat platforms like WhatsApp, chatbots, and even online comments.
It is extremely important for brands to offer a seamless and consistent experience through all these mediums of communication. To take it up a notch, businesses must also collect relevant data from these channels to identify and recognize the interactions coming from specific individuals. This can help agents offer more personalized support, which can go a long way in creating a positive impression of the brand.
For the modern-age BPO, efficiently managing and offering omnichannel customer support is becoming the priority. This, in turn, helps their clients stay relevant in today’s competitive and dynamic environment.
Final Thoughts
The world is transforming at a rapid pace, and BPO’s are ensuring that they not only keep up but also take charge, evolve, and stay at the forefront of technology. Proficient call centers that stay ahead of the curve will bring immense benefits to their clients in the form of optimized costs, satisfied customers, and enhanced revenue.
Collaborating with the right BPO partner will be the step in the right direction for organizations and help them gain all the expected benefits and more. So if your business is on the lookout for one, you have reached your destination.
Meet KServe! With over 18 years of experience in the BPO industry, we can help take your business to the next level by providing quality outsourcing services. To know how we can serve you better, connect with our experts today!
Sources:
