Companies have been outsourcing their call centers for decades to lower costs, increase productivity, and enable scaled-up customer support during peak times. It is so prevalent in the call center space that the term “Business process outsourcing” (BPO) is often used interchangeably with “outsourced call center.” In the last few years, the call center outsourcing industry has seen revenues crossing $140 billion. This growth is expected to continue, with Cushman Wakefield predicting 6% yearly growth up to 2020.
At the same time, major changes are impacting BPOs. Firstly, the impact of artificial intelligence is predicted to be extremely disruptive. For example, the outsourcing industry in the Philippines (the country with the most call centers in the world) is worried that the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) will eat into the 23 billion-dollar sector. Secondly, in recent years there has been a growth in “reshoring”: Call centers are returning to North America, a trend driven by several factors including low wage inflation and an increased focus on customer experience. Finally, BPOs are weighing up the benefits of adopting a multichannel approach as siloing the different customer service channels becomes taboo.
While BPOs are no strangers to challenging times, the next few years promise to be particularly interesting for outsourced call centers.
So: Let’s look ahead and try to predict the future of BPOs.
Join our panel discussion on Thursday, January 31st at 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT as expert panelists from Concentrix, Expivia, and FCR debate the future of BPOs. You’ll also be able to tweet your comments and questions to @fonolo with the hashtag #bpofuture, or comment on our conversation streaming live on YouTube.
Here’s a sneak peak at the slides!
We’ll talk about:
Who should attend:
- VPs & Directors of Contact Centers
- VPs & Directors of Customer Service
- VPs & Directors of Web/Social Media
- VPs & Directors of Customer Experience
The Panelists:
CEO
Thomas is founder and CEO of award-winning Expivia, a USA BPO omni-channel contact center located in Pennsylvania. He has 25 years of experience in all facets of contact center operations
Twitter: @tlaird_expivia
Director of Customer Experience
With more than 15 years of customer service experience, Jeremy is Director of Customer Experience at FCR, a respected and disruptive outsourcer.
Twitter: @jtwatkin
Concentrix Analytics Practice Lead
As a seasoned consumer experience practitioner, Reagan leads the Concentrix Analytics Practice, where insights and predictions become effortless experience.
Twitter: @reaganmiller
CEO
As a thought leader, innovator, and the CEO of Fonolo, Shai Berger is on a clear mission to educate the call center industry on how to improve the customer experience.
Twitter: @shaiberger