Companies going international is no longer a rarity saved for tech and e-commerce giants. Today, it’s almost a business norm, which applies to both large organizations and SMEs in various fields.
“With online businesses today, you can see companies that are less than one year old and are already present in 20 different markets,” notes Thomas Laboulle, Toku CEO.
International business presence also means going global with contact center operations.
“The ability to provide the same level of service to customers, regardless of where they are in the world, is more critical than ever with customer experience becoming a strategic differentiator for businesses,” Laboulle notes. However, this can be quite a challenge if a company’s contact center solution can’t cater to its growing needs.
What are the key trends to look out to when it comes to scaling contact center operations in a multinational environment?
The Multinational Contact Center: Consolidated, Integrated, Omni-Channel
According to the CCaaS Gartner Magic Quadrant report for 2021, a growing number of customer service organizations want to consolidate disparate business tools and move forward with a single supplier.
This is closely related to the first trend Laboulle mentions: centralization.
“Any business today that has a multinational presence is looking to have a contact center that is covering its entire geographical range,” Laboulle says. “To avoid an inconsistent costumer experience between regions, companies need a single, centralized solution that covers their entire landscape.”
The second significant trend Laboulle mentions is integration with third party customer data management tools.
“Companies used to be okay with ‘copy paste’ and the use of Excel sheets, but that’s no longer the case,” Laboulle notes. “Today, companies look for deep integrations with their CRM and ticketing systems.”
The third trend is, naturally, omni-channel capabilities.
“We see more and more scenarios where, for one single use case, multiple channels will be used in a mix, with voice as the main backbone. A customer interaction can start with a chatbot, go to a human agent and then end with an SMS or an email,” Laboulle explains.
“That’s the experience that today’s customers demand, and that’s what brands are looking for in contact center tools”
And What About Customization?
Another trend that is becoming more prevalent specifically among larger organizations is the transition from pure off-the-shelf tools to more customized solutions.
“When companies start scaling their operations in different markets, customization becomes important, because the way they operate changes. Off-the-shelf solutions no longer serve their needs, since their customer service has to be country- or region-specific,” Laboulle explains.
In those cases, when a company is scaling, they need to look for a provider that can assist with that complexity.
“The key thing is working with a provider that can help you adapt your processes to the tool. Ultimately, the time of adapting to a tool is money. The faster a company adapts to a new tool, the faster they can go to market in new countries and the more they can afford to invest in additional developments.”
How is APAC Unique?
Unlike the challenges mentioned above, which are mutual to organizations regardless of location, some challenges are specific to organizations operating in APAC. That’s Toku’s area of specialization.
“We need to remember that APAC is a fragmented market with incredibly specific regulatory requirements,” Laboulle says. “Therefore, when companies start operating in APAC, carrier-grade voice connectivity becomes critical, and it’s important to have a cloud provider with deep regional ties to help navigate that.”
Another major benefit of working with a local cloud provider has to do with call quality, which is critical when it comes to customer interactions.
“Working with a local provider gives you the ability to keep your customer communication in the region, rather than having your calls circulating the globe. Being one hop closer to the source means getting better call quality and avoiding latency.”
For more information on scaling contact center operations in APAC, visit Toku’s website.
