Nearshore Americas

Strong Company Culture Makes All the Difference in the CX Space

Some Nearshore providers speak of the importance of culture but lack the ability to fully comprehend how it can improve outcomes for their clients. The key is to commit to full engagement with each employee, always with an eye on improved customer service.

“When you’ve really connected with an employee, you can see it in their eyes, you can see it in their body language,” says John Maczynski, Chief Revenue Officer at CXperts, which has five contact centers in Guatemala and Colombia, in addition to solutions in the Philippines and the U.S. “They’ve gone from just trying to hit a KPI to really caring and trying to make things better for the customer, for the client, for the company and for everyone around them.”

CXperts, a Nearsol company, launched with a focus on delivering exceptional customer experience (CX) for brands of all sizes. The company’s contact center solutions cover a wide range of CX and BPO solutions, from customer care, white-glove services and technical support, to sales, collections and back office. Central to the offering is close attention to the importance of culture.

“These days, companies largely have access to the same technologies,” says Maczynsk. “The true differentiator is what it’s always been – how well you’re able to encourage motivation and engagement from your team.”

Research tells us that between 50% and 60% of the workforce in the United States is not engaged

Many studies have indicated that there is a direct correlation between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction, yet research tells us that between 50% and 60% of the workforce in the United States is not engaged. Even small investments in employee satisfaction can result in a significant return on investment.

This is even more true for companies that make CX their business. In fact, for those companies that truly value the importance of culture, health and well-being, the level of engagement of its workforce becomes the chief internal metric.

“As an agent, when you truly care about what you do, a customer can tell it in your voice, or in your attitude with the language you use – even if via text or email,” says Maczynski from CXperts. “The Golden Rule applies in customer care just as much as it does in everyday life, and when your culture reinforces that behavior, good things happen.”

Employee Engagement Leads to Customer Satisfaction

Research at the University of Chicago has identified four employee motivators that help to reinforce a strong culture: fair remuneration; personal satisfaction; meaningful work that “makes a difference”; and the need for work to be fun. Ideally, these factors combine, with a successful Nearshore provider paying a decent wage while also supporting its employees so that the delivery of optimal CX is a fun and meaningful experience.

The result is a satisfied workforce with lower turnover and, critically, satisfied customers.

“If you do things right, people will trust you and pretty soon you have a whole team of people who are going to bat for you and for each other,” says Maczynski. “And that’s when you know you have something special going on.”

One concern is that many providers set the bar too low, thinking that adherence to compliance requirements, and passable behavior on a call, is sufficient. In fact, a strong internal culture should result in agents wanting to finish a call by leaving their customer in a better place than where they started.

That means not only efficiently solving a customer’s problem but also creating a brand advocate in the process. The best way to make that happen is to have agents that are invested in the team’s success and the outcome of every call. These true believers make all the difference.

A strong internal culture should result in agents wanting to finish a call by leaving their customer in a better place than where they started

“We’ve all seen this when we’ve gone to a retailer, or a fast-food restaurant,” says Maczynski. “It’s very easy to spot the difference between someone who really wants you to have a good experience and someone who’s checked out. Why would it be any different in customer care or technical support? Engaged employees make all the difference in the world.”

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Building a strong culture is not something that can be faked – a provider’s clients can tell right away if their customers are receiving the best possible experience. At times it can be hard to see through hype, given that most BPO providers refer to the importance of culture, and how it can act as a differentiator. However, at the end of the day it becomes clear who is serious about culture, and who isn’t.

“There are plenty of third-party resources – Glassdoor, Jobstreet, Great Place To Work, and so on – that make it easy to separate those who are doing a good job versus those that aren’t,” says Maczynski. “For CXperts, driving an engaging culture is at the center of everything we do. You either have it – and truly live and breathe it – or you don’t.”

A positive emphasis on employee engagement can result in productive discussions with those companies that really care about how culture can figure into their buying strategy. This way, providers like CXperts differentiate themselves in the market – and take their client partners to another level.

Tim Wilson

Tim has been a contributing analyst to Nearshore Americas since 2012. He is a former Research Analyst with IDC in Toronto and has over 20 years’ experience as a technology and business journalist, including extensive reporting from Latin America. A graduate of McGill University in Montreal, he has received numerous accolades for his writing, including a CBC Literary and a National Magazine award. He divides his time between Canada and Mexico. When not chasing down stories, he is busy writing the Detective Sánchez series of crime novels.

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