featured posts:

• Seizing the Automation Opportunity: Alorica’s Automated Discovery Process

  May 28, 2019, by Ivan Kotzev

  One of the first stumbling blocks of business process transformation is identifying meaningful automation opportunities. A typical process will have a management consultant, system expert, or Lean Six Sigma specialist to monitor manual processes for a set time, collect performance data, and make recommendations. Companies supplement this assessment with executive ideation sessions, operational[...]

  read post

• Concentrix VOC: Measuring CX Transformation

  May 03, 2019, by Ivan Kotzev

  Despite the evolution of contact center technology (think conversational AI), the spread of digital channels (think smart speakers), and the dramatic change in the ways companies interact with customers (think mobile-first), the industry KPIs for measuring the impact of these transformations remain limited. CSAT, NPS, and more recently, Customer Effort Scores (CES) measure different elements o[...]

  read post

• Proactive Social Media Engagement: Best Practices from Startek & Aegis

  Apr 17, 2019, by Ivan Kotzev

  Consumers are evolving their preferred ways of interacting on social media: ‘spontaneous’ stories are replacing produced content, transparency and privacy are driving the spread of private groups and influencing regulatory push, and machine learning is personalizing conversational commerce. The impact on brands is greater need for new types of content, investments in automation and[...]

  read post

• Chat Services: Teleperformance’s Playbook & Targets

  Mar 27, 2019, by Ivan Kotzev

    In NelsonHall’s 2017 report, ‘Multi-Channel CMS – Delivering Digital Customer Experience’, I forecast that the chat channel, in all its forms, would become 18% of the global CX services outsourcing market by 2020, growing by 30% CAGR. What fuels this sizable growth are the many benefits to brands offering sales and support over text channels, the advancement o[...]

  read post

• Enabling CX Digitalization: A Look at CSS Corp's Yodaa

  Dec 20, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev

    In this vlog Ivan Kotzev looks at CSS Corp’s digital experience suite Yodaa and how it unifies the company’s analytics, automation, and multichannel tools and models for digitalizing support.[...]

  read post

• The CX Consulting Race: New Players, New Models, and Tech Mahindra’s Example

  Nov 06, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev

    NelsonHall has recently published a report on Digital Customer Experience Services, and one of the trends explored is the evolving competition in customer experience (CX) consulting. The traditional ecosystem includes distinct players with clear-cut roles: Big five management consulting firms such as Deloitte or PwC, providing strategy-level advisory which covers CX Niche UX [...]

  read post

• Arvato CRM’s JV with Saham Group Consolidates EMEA Position

  Sep 21, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev

  Bertelsmann, the parent company of Arvato CRM Solutions, has announced plans to combine Arvato CRM with the CX services business of the Pan-African Saham Group. The joint venture will have 50/50 ownership, with ~ €1.2bn combined annual revenues and ~48k employees in 25 countries. The deal is expected to close in January 2019. Saham Group & partnership history Founded in 1995 in [...]

  read post

• The CX Workforce Challenge & How Vendors Are Responding

  Aug 31, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev

    In February, industry veteran and CEO of SYKES, Chuck Sykes, commented during the earnings call on CX services market trends: ‘… in the U.S., at least in my time, there is no time in the company's history that I can recall seeing this level of labor challenge. And it actually is something that you're going to see in a lot of developed countries around the world.&[...]

  read post

• Tech Mahindra BPS’ Approach to CX Process Automation

  Jul 23, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev

    Currently, the level of automation in the front-office is lower than it is for middle and back-office processes, with reasons including the lower cost of handling customer-facing processes, established offshore models for labor arbitrage, and lack of client interest. However, the upside of this relatively slow uptake is that automation can now be applied to multiple areas of CX, incl[...]

  read post

• 9 Key Stages of Adoption for Next Generation Customer Service

  Feb 16, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev

  In our latest CX services research in collaboration with NASSCOM, we identified the 9 key stages of adoption for next generation customer service, as shown in the following infographic.  Insights into the differences across client industries and the best practices applied by vendors are available in NelsonHall’s Customer Experience Services program. For more information, contact [...]

  read post

• Arvato UK&I: Bringing Digital & Automation to CX

  Dec 04, 2017, by Ivan Kotzev

    Recently, I had a chance to visit Arvato’s U.K. and Ireland HQ in Slough, ~20 miles (30km) west of London, to witness its customer experience operations and how the company is applying digital channels and automation. A mix of public and private sector clients Arvato U.K. & Ireland provides customer experience services, finance and accounting (record to report, order [...]

  read post

• Omnichannel, Bots & the Future of CX: Q&A with Head of Prosodie-Capgemini, Erwan Le Duff

  Nov 07, 2017, by Ivan Kotzev

  This month, Capgemini is launching a new version of its omnichannel cloud platform, Odigo™. I interviewed Erwan Le Duff, Head of Prosodie-Capgemini, about the new platform features, the evolution of self-service, and the future of customer experience. Below is a video of highlights from the interview, followed by a brief introduction to Odigo and a full transcript of the interview.  [...]

  read post

• Transforming a Contact Center to a Profit Center: CSS Corp Client Study

  Oct 30, 2017, by Ivan Kotzev

    Post-sales support functions are typically cost centers: large, labor-intensive operations with significant overheads and no financially attributable benefit to the bottom line. This environment is changing, with  organizations gradually understanding the revenue generation opportunities in support services such as technical support and afterlife maintenance. I recently had a co[...]

  read post

• Omnichannel Entropy from a Customer Experience Perspective: Macy’s Journey

  Oct 18, 2017, by Ivan Kotzev

  The traditional (and now universally accepted as outdated) model for multi-channel support looked something like this, with differences primarily between the types or number of channels: However, as customers became digital and mobile, the model has shifted to something like this: This model originated with marketers and retailers, where omnichannel means the ability to purchase in t[...]

  read post

• HGS Turns to Sheila & Veronica to Help Enhance the Digital Customer Experience

  May 30, 2017, by Ivan Kotzev

  NelsonHall recently attended the HGS Analyst and Advisory Summit in NYC. The event combined client perspectives with an update on the company’s healthcare business, a review of the latest offerings within its DigiCX suite of digital services, and discussion of the changing nature of customer experience (CX). Optimizing the healthcare payer member experience In 2015, HGS acquired a [...]

  read post

• Augmented Humans Will Expand the Digital CX Frontier: Lessons from Sitel Summit

  May 23, 2017, by Ivan Kotzev

    Last week, NelsonHall attended the Sitel Summit in Miami. Titled ‘Expanding the Digital CX Frontier’, the event was an opportunity for Sitel to update the analyst community on their new structure, introduce new senior executives, show its new global HQ, and share first-hand experiences of successful CX digital journeys. From contact center company to a group of global[...]

  read post

• WNS Brandttitude: Serving Marketers with Advanced Brand Analytics

  Apr 26, 2017, by Ivan Kotzev

    While Facebook banks on the smartphone camera to digitalize offline relationships, and sales people use Snapchat to sell real estate, the main challenges for marketers to reach this level of interaction are structural – how to visualize huge amounts of disparate data to get actionable insights fast at a granular level. Here I take a look at how one CMS vendor, WNS, is tackling [...]

  read post

• CMS in 2017: Delivery & Transformation and Industry-Specific Predictions for the Year Ahead

  Jan 13, 2017, by Ivan Kotzev

  by Vicki Jenkins & Ivan Kotzev NelsonHall’s principal Customer Management Services analysts take a look at how the CMS market will shape up in 2017, with predictions for CMS delivery & transformation from Ivan Kotzev, and industry-specific predictions from Vicki Jenkins.   1. CMS Delivery & Transformation Predictions For CMS, 2016 marked a substantial shift i[...]

  read post

• Sykes’ Clearlink: Selling in the New Digital World

  Dec 08, 2016, by Ivan Kotzev

    Three watershed moments in online sales and support happened in November and went somewhat under the radar. At the beginning of the month, StatCounter reported that mobile surpassed desktop browsing for the first time at a global level. Then for the Singles Day in China, e-commerce retailers JD and Alibaba not only announced record sales, but the latter opened up the event internatio[...]

  read post

• CMS Takes Center Stage for Conduent, the New Face of Xerox Services

  Oct 05, 2016, by Ivan Kotzev

    From January 1st 2017, Xerox will separate its business process services (BPS) business into a public company called Conduent (trading under the ticker CNDT on NYSE). Conduent will have approximately ~$7bn revenue and over 96k employees. I recently spoke with Chuck Koskovich, Executive Vice President Customer Care Services at Xerox Services, about the implications of the split o[...]

  read post 1 comments

• CSS Corp’s Enterprise Product Lifecycle Support: Integrating CX with Product Development

  Sep 15, 2016, by Ivan Kotzev

  The explosion of connected devices and IoT products promises a greater volume of technical support interactions and increased customer demand for proactive and always-on assistance through the lifecycle of a product. In turn, these requirements force customer experience (CX) providers to be involved with the product manufacturers at new levels, participating in development and testing, sales g[...]

  read post

• Analytics are the Key to Disruptive Customer Experience

  Sep 08, 2016, by Ivan Kotzev

  Over the last few months, I have held discussions with a number of leading customer management services (CMS) vendors and their clients regarding the increasing need for advanced analytics to drive step changes in customer experience (CX). Here, I reflect on the changing role of analytics as they take centre stage as the key to disruptive CX. How times have changed When I first participa[...]

  read post