How customer relationship managers can boost business performance

Business process outsourcing is driving new efficiencies in several industries. By working with customer relationship management firms, companies can focus on their core processes and deliver higher standards of service

 
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Cosmote e-Value's office in Athens, Greece

A member of the OTE Group – the largest telecommunications provider in Greece – Cosmote e-Value is an integrated contact centre that offers innovative customer relationship management (CRM) and business process outsourcing (BPO) services. The company fully undertakes the design-to-implementation process for its customers’ strategies and operations.

We have been providing solutions via our facilities in Greece and Romania for more than 20 years. With 7,000 qualified members of staff and an advanced technological infrastructure, Cosmote e-Value provides a broad range of customer services that are available on a 24-hour basis, 365 days a year. The company is one of the biggest contact centres in Greece and has undertaken important projects for local and international customers.

By outsourcing their customer services, firms can boost consumer satisfaction and efficiency

However, in an era of technological and digital revolution, the world is changing fast and customers have come to expect better service. At Cosmote e-Value, we place the customer at the centre of every decision, continuously optimising their experience. Our goal is to make their journey a pleasant and seamless one. At the same time, we are strengthening our solutions portfolio and broadening the services we offer. We use big data intelligence and innovative technology to anticipate the needs of our clients and suggest solutions that best suit their business needs. We follow international trends and are changing with the world around us to ensure we always offer the most modern solutions.

Cosmote e-Value’s dynamic performance has only been possible because of its team of dedicated professionals – we invest in our employees so they can offer excellent services to every customer, at every point of contact. By providing training in new technologies, we are able to support our employees as they build knowledge, confidence and skills. We know that the performance of our workforce determines the performance of our customers.

Covering every base
The advancement of digital technology means consumers are better informed and have greater demands than ever. Before making a purchase, they often undertake market research. With customers changing their behaviour, companies need to react quickly. It is important for the customer to enjoy the service they receive at all touchpoints with a brand. They require instant gratification and demand quick and reliable guidance.

This means any channel the customer uses to contact an organisation – whether it’s a shop, call centre, online or social media – should have an overall understanding of their history and needs. Our aim at Cosmote e-Value is to support the most famous brands, teaching them to communicate with their customers, build trust-based relationships in every interaction and use an omnichannel approach to communication.

Our contact centre offers services in 16 languages to 19 countries in South-East Europe. This means our employees come from a range of countries and cultural backgrounds, forming a multinational work environment in which all voices are encouraged, inspired and supported. These diverse contributors are critical to business growth, creativity and innovation.

Our recruitment strategy starts with hiring the right people, regardless of race, religion, culture or any other factor, while also creating a positive work environment that means we can retain our best employees. The benefits of such a policy are many; we enjoy excellent employee engagement, a strong reputation and healthy staff turnover.

We have signed Greece’s diversity charter and we strongly support equal opportunities for our staff. For example, women occupy a large proportion of managerial positions at the company and represent 67 percent of the total workforce.

Leave it to the experts
By outsourcing their customer services, companies can avoid paying for expensive contact centre facilities and reduce their training and personnel costs, resulting in lower operational expenses. Companies can benefit from partnering with a specialised firm like Cosmote e-Value, which provides cutting-edge technological infrastructure, omnichannel customer processes and expertise in digital services.

Customer experience is a critical way for companies to differentiate themselves from the competition. By outsourcing their customer services, firms can boost consumer satisfaction and efficiency. A trained BPO partner will use knowledgeable, talented and specialised agents to help companies exceed their customers’ expectations. Ultimately, they allow firms to focus on their core business processes without treating the customer as an afterthought.

As a trusted provider of customer experience and BPO solutions, Cosmote e-Value handles every aspect of CRM for major players across a wide spectrum of industries and locations. We manage the contact centres of companies based in multiple sectors, such as financial services, fast-moving consumer goods, utilities, the public sector and telecommunications. Our services yield outstanding rates of customer satisfaction, millions of euros in annual savings and incremental revenues for some of the most successful brands we work with.

The digital era has changed the way we do things in our everyday lives, but it is also transforming businesses, with those that don’t react fast enough becoming obsolete. Businesses must recognise the growing demand for digital communications at every consumer touchpoint.

A digital-first future
A key factor in Cosmote e-Value’s success is our commitment to a digital-first philosophy that prioritises investment in advanced technological systems. We have digitalised most of our processes and our robotics solutions are improving the speed of customer support. We use state-of-the-art routing systems, artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics and innovative CRM tools to create tailor-made solutions for our customers.

We are currently investing heavily in the development and training of our workforce, especially in terms of digital skills. Our call centre professionals frequently take part in integrated training programmes relating to information systems, digital applications, communication skills, products and services. Our commitment to technology and innovation saw us named the European Public Winner at the European Business Awards in 2019. We were chosen from a field of thousands of other European companies.

Technology and society are undergoing enormous change and now a global pandemic has turned everything on its head. Undoubtedly, we’ll have to take a new approach in all areas of management – it will take time to become familiar with this new way of operating and be ready to change structures, systems, processes and cultures to move forward.

When quarantine measures were applied in Greece in March, Cosmote e-Value adapted quickly and, within a week, more than 80 percent of our workforce was working from home. The safety of our employees is our priority, but this decision also ensured the continuity of our business and the services offered to our clients.

Technology helps us improve daily life for our clients, but people make all the difference in customer service. In the fast-changing digital age, we have become used to smart devices, AI and robotics, but this makes human contact more valuable than ever. Creativity, emotional intelligence, perception and the ability to solve complex problems are qualities that technology cannot replace and so we must continue investing in people. Our staff will always be an integral part of our corporate DNA.