Customers First Global insights on strategy & innovation

Year 1 | Issue 1

The Culture Value Chain

A proven equation: How employee engagement

drives top-line growth P.11

A Six Sigma primer Is it possible to have 99.99966% good

customer service? P.4

Four disruptive trends that will reshape customer service

In the coming years, how will contact

centers be put to the test? P.8

Discussing “mega-trends” with Microsoft

Florin Grama - Director, Microsoft

Customer Support, Europe P.13

Engaged outsourcing relationships do not just happen – they are envisioned, intentionally nurtured, and diligently built. This study shows that while significant effort and planning goes into building such a relationship, the result is a more effective and value-driven service model.

Download the entire “Engaged BPO Relationships” study

New study:

How smart buyers structure contact center relationshipsDid you know that 50-60% of end-of-term contact center outsourcing (CCO) contracts were not renewed in 2013-2014? The question is why? What’s driving buyers to have fewer vendor relationships?

Download this new research study from Everest Group, with support from TELUS International, to learn:

• Reasons behind the evolution of buyer-service provider relationships

• Six key factors impacting CCO relationship value

• Benefits achieved through a more engaged model

• Steps buyers and their service providers can take to foster an engaged relationship

• The metrics of an engaged partnership; moving from operational to business outcomes

From the study:

TELUS International

3

Welcome message –

What’s your “word”

for 2016?As President of a fast-growing global

company, it feels like I’m always travel-

ing. For me, face time is critical to stay-

ing connected to my team members

around the world. I often joke that my

office is located at Seat 3C, traveling

at 30,000 feet in the air, between our

operations in Canada, the U.S., Europe,

Central America, and Asia. During these

travels, I encounter a lot of interesting

people with interesting questions. But

it was during one particular business

dinner that I was puzzled by a simple

question: “what’s my ‘word’ for 2016?”

What kind of question is that? I soon

learned that choosing a defining word

for the year is now a thing. That single

word is meant to replace New Year’s

resolutions that are often made and

then soon forgotten. Instead, choos-

ing and committing to a single word is

meant to simplify and bring more clarity

to everything you do during the year;

and you’re less likely to forget or aban-

don the commitment. I like this idea.

As we launch the premier issue of

our Customers First magazine, I’d like

to share my word, which has come to

represent my promise to our customers

and team members in 2016: Focus.

Why “focus,” you might ask? The

BPO industry is extremely competitive.

At TELUS International, our differenti-

ator has always come from having a

culture that promotes the highest team

member engagement (80%, according

to Aon Hewitt) and the lowest industry

attrition (up to 50% below the indus-

try average), all in pursuit of delivering

client experience excellence.

To achieve this, it requires that we fo-

cus on all the elements of what makes

a truly great customer experience

program. From developing recruitment

profiles that identify both hard and soft

skills, to quality coaching for better first

call resolution, to leveraging leading

edge tools and technology, to providing

inspiring workspaces and supporting

social responsibility programs that

empower our team members. We’re

focused on both the big picture of

running world-class client operations,

as well as on the tiny details that make

memorable service experiences happen

again and again.

This magazine is devoted to show-

casing a few of the ways in which focus

– on strategy and innovation – can

benefit the customer. That’s why it’s

called “Customers First” – because in

our business, putting customers first

drives everything we do.

Enjoy the read and please be in

touch.

Jeffrey Puritt

President, TELUS International

jeffrey.puritt@telusinternational.com

@TELUSInt

ContentsCenter for excellence

Is it possible to have 99.99966% good customer service? P.4

On the road

A new shining star on the outsourcing landscape in 2016 P.6

Industry focus

Four disruptive trends that will reshape customer service P.8

Success stories

Culture Value Chain measures top-line impacts of an engaged frontline P.11

Keynote

Staying ahead of today’s customer “mega-trends” P.13

Noteworthy

What’s RPA got to do with outsourcing? P.16

Fraud management in 2016 P.17

Grégoire Vigroux – Publisher and ContributorSarah Sikorski – Editor-in-ChiefJennifer Bach – Executive EditorJeffrey Gangemi – Managing EditorBoriana Dimitrova – European EditorKatya Hernández – Creative Director

For editorial opportunities, please contact sarah.sikorski@telusinternational.comboriana.dimitrova@telusinternational.com

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Customers First - Center for excellence

Is it possible to have 99.99966% good customer service?

A Six Sigma primer –

What if someone said it’s possible

to have only 3.4 bad customer care

interactions out of every million? You’d

probably laugh them out of the room.

Although you may never achieve that

near-perfect state, implementing Lean

Six Sigma (LSS) methodology and other

Business Process Improvement (BPI)

practices in your contact center opera-

tion will at least bring your KPIs closer

to customer service utopia.

TELUS International’s Global Director

of Business Process Excellence, Anna

Kozlova, shares some of her first-hand

experience implementing LSS and other

BPI practices.

Customers First (CF): What’s your

role at TELUS International?

Anna Kozlova (AK): As the leader of

our Business Process Excellence team,

I break down complex business prob-

lems by cutting out waste and reducing

rework, one process step at a time.

At TELUS International, we believe in

empowering our people to utilize the

right tools to solve the right problem. It’s

my job to enable that across our oper-

ations, using LSS and other techniques

like process mapping, data gathering

and analysis, knowledge management,

training and best practice sharing. All

of these help us drive process improve-

ments and cost savings for our clients.

CF: What types of customer care op-

erational challenges are suitable for

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) projects?

AK: Anything that has a process!

Ten years ago, bad service may have

impacted 20 people, but with today’s

technology, it can impact 20 million.

We think of LSS as a tool to reduce

customer challenges, so we start

with understanding customer needs

and work backwards from there. This

means focusing on projects that will

reduce wait times, transfers, callbacks

and other inefficiencies that adversely

affect the customer experience.

Anna Kozlova – Six Sigma Black Belt and Global Director of Business Process Excellence

TELUS International

5

CF: Which customer service KPIs

can be improved through LSS meth-

odology?

AK: Although almost any metric can

be improved through LSS, at TELUS

International, we are enhancing our

approach to traditional metrics like cus-

tomer satisfaction. We understand that

customers are looking for an effortless

experience. By focusing on the cus-

tomer, we’re able to improve on some

unique KPIs that are emerging, such as

contacts per customer, first call resolu-

tion, turnaround time and call transfers.

CF: Are there limitations to LSS

methodology in the contact center

environment?

AK: Most process improvement tools

can be applied in a contact center en-

vironment, but it’s crucial to remember

the human factor at play. Six Sigma is

based on data-driven decision-mak-

ing to eliminate defects and reduce

variation. But customers are rarely

that predictable! Still, we can quantify

“proxy” metrics. For example, customer

effort can have a simple scale of 1 to

5. As long as we remember that we’re

dealing with people, and that 3.4 in 1

million defects is probably impossible

to achieve, we’re headed in the right

direction.

CF: As a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt,

can you share an example of a suc-

cessful project?

AK: For one project, the objective was

to reduce repeat service calls to a

customer’s house. Through data mining, we selected 10 different inputs to test for

statistical significance. We found that sending the same technician to the house

for the second visit increased the chances of fixing the issue by 25%. I devised a

coding method to auto-data scrape the troubles from the past month and connect

them with troubles for the following day. If there was a match, the dispatcher would

schedule the same technician for the job. This worked about 50% of the time, but

the benefits added up to $59K/month. A great example of BPI in action!

LeanOriginating within the Toyota Production System,

Lean is a customer-centric methodology for maxi-

mizing customer value while minimizing waste in a

process. Lean analyzes the full process from begin-

ning to end by classifying each step from the cus-

tomer’s perspective. Any non-value adding activity

in the process is considered waste. When waste is

identified, the Lean approach plans continuous in-

cremental improvements and quick fixes rather than

major and sudden changes in a process.

Six SigmaInvented by Motorola, Inc. in the 1980’s and popular-

ized by General Electric, Six Sigma refers to a statis-

tical term that measures how far a given process de-

viates from perfection. Initially, Six Sigma represented

a process for identifying and reducing manufacturing

defects to a level of no more than 3.4 per million.

Lean Six SigmaLean is about improving speed, and Six Sigma is

about improving quality. While Lean considers the

entire process, Six Sigma focuses on identifying the

root causes of defects and eliminating the sources.

Combined, Lean and Six Sigma empower business

process improvements in terms of speed, flow and

quality of processes, improved efficiency, effective-

ness and cost.

Customers First - Section name!

6

Floreasca City Center is known for shopping, entertainment and business. Its SkyTower is the highest building in Bucharest

Herastrau Area is a residential zone located around Lake Herastrau

The Palace of the Parliament is the second largest administrative building in the world

The Triumphal Arch celebrates Romania’s 1878 independence

Victory Avenue in Bucharest is often com-pared with the Champs-Élysées in Paris

TELUS International

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Romania’s reputation as an attractive outsourcing destination is on the rise. The

country has been climbing in various rankings as a top outsourcing location not

only in Europe, but also globally. For example, Romania ranked 4th among the

world’s preferred outsourcing locations in the latest BPO and Shared Service Loca-

tion Index by Cushman & Wakefield.

Here are four big reasons why Romania is an excellent outsourcing destination:

1. Extensive language capabilities

– A recent study conducted by the

Association of Business Service

Leaders in Romania (ABSL) reports

that 90% of students speak En-

glish, 26% French, 17% Spanish,

8% German and 5% Italian. With

40 languages spoken in delivery

centers, Romania is a dream come

has a steady influx of educated

candidates, with 300,000 post-sec-

ondary graduates per year, 4,000

of whom have an education in

computer science.

3. EU member state – As a Euro-

pean Union member, Romania is

favorably positioned as a safe and

sustainable country for outsourcing.

Any legal or financial issues are

simplified under European Union

law.

4. Competitive labor costs – The

average cost of living in Romania is

one of the lowest in the European

Union, resulting in significant sav-

ings for outsourcers.

Romania — A new shining star on the outsourcing landscape in 2016

true for international companies

looking to outsource multilingual

customer care to one partner.

2. Large pool of IT profession-

als – The Romanian Employers’

Association of the Software and

Services Industry estimates that

Romania has more than 100,000

IT professionals. The labor force

Victory Square is a major intersection in central Bucharest, Romania’s thriving capital, near office towers and government buildings

8

Customers First - Industry focus

Internet of Things (IoT)

It’s been said that IoT will give us the

most disruption and opportunity over

the next five years, but what exactly is

it? IoT revolves around machine-to-ma-

chine communications using cloud

computing and data gathering sensors

(or in layman terms, it means embed-

ding technology into products to make

them “smart”). Common applications of

IoT include smartwatches, fitness track-

ers, smart cars and smart appliances.

Four disruptive trends that will reshape customer service

So why pay attention? According to

Gartner, IoT devices will encompass

over 6.4 billion connected objects in

2016, a 30% rise over 2015. Likewise,

Intel states there will be roughly 26

smart objects per human by 2020.

IoT will have huge implications

for the contact center operationally,

technically and even culturally in the

years to come. Centers will manage

more real-time customer data, enabling

proactive support and better insight into

consumer preferences. With more data

comes greater scrutiny around privacy

and security, and IoT may also increase

the need for omnichannel service, tiered

support levels, and so on.

Whether consumers have heard of

“IoT” or not, they will experience it more

Once viewed as a last resort for frustrated custom-

ers, the contact center is now a central hub for sus-

taining a company’s brand experience. For that to re-

main true, contact centers must stay relevant, and able

to respond to changing customer needs. In the coming

years, contact centers will be put to the test facing

several, potentially disruptive, trends that will impact

customer support in a big way.

TELUS International

9

and more in their daily lives. For the

contact center, it will be about manag-

ing all of this new connectivity without

adding customer service complexity.

Wearables

Yes, wearables technically falls under

IoT, but we think it deserves a special

shout out. Often defined as technology

devices worn by consumers to track

biometric activity (Fitbit anyone?), it’s

quickly broadening into additional cate-

gories. Wearables will connect numer-

ous verticals and their products from

high-tech gadgets and virtual reality

devices, to luxury fashion and health-

care companies.

For example, imagine devices like

Ralph Lauren’s PoloTech Shirt, Nike+

and Fitbit – all working together and

sharing data to provide the wearer with

a complete view of their athletic perfor-

mance. This data could then be shared

further with health care providers and/or

insurance companies.

For the call center, this means having

agents that no longer serve just one

product but rather, the entire prod-

uct ecosystem including, potentially,

competitor products. Some contact

centers will view this as an operational

headache, while others will see it as an

opportunity for differentiation.

Financial Technology (aka Fintech)

Fintech is a term often used to describe

financial technology startups (although

some have grown past the experimental

phase and into the mainstream).

While some label fintech companies

as disruptive (even revolutionary) as

they threaten traditional banking, many

Internet of Things

Consumers will

experience IoT more

and more in their daily

lives. For the contact

center, it will be about

managing this new

connectivity without

adding customer ser-

vice complexity.

Wearables

Wearables will connect

numerous verticals

and their products -

from high-tech gad-

gets and virtual reality

devices, to luxury fash-

ion and healthcare

companies.

Financial Technology

When it comes to

banking and finance,

the fintech market will

offer entirely new ways

of doing business,

with new products and

new customer service

expectations.

Sharing Economy

The sharing econ-

omy requires close

cooperation between

people on both sides

of the transaction, as

it changes the way

people consume and

deliver services.

10

Customers First - Industry focus

see them as filling a gap for the ser-

vices that big banks simply don’t offer.

Others see them as changing finance

for the better, putting more focus on the

customer, helping address previously

underserved consumers (including

Millennials), and forcing incumbents to

examine their own costs and quality of

service.

So what’s the impact on call cen-

ters? When it comes to banking and

finance, there are going to be entirely

new ways of doing business with new

players, new customer groups, and

new expectations. Both incumbents

and upstarts are going to have to en-

sure robust customer support practices

are in place as consumers start to gain

more power and control when it comes

to their financial services options.

Sharing Economy

Airbnb is less than eight years old, yet it

has already drastically changed the way

people travel. Likewise, Lyft and Uber

have forced taxi companies to offer

their own mobile apps. While traditional

business models change in response to

new sharing economy entrants, cus-

tomer service expectations will change

as well.

Why? The sharing economy requires

close cooperation and authentic experi-

ences between people on each side of

the transaction. While it’s not clear how

“disruptive” the sharing economy will

be for contact centers, it is clear that it

will change the way people consume

and deliver services. In the end, good

customer service will be a shared

responsibility based on more emotional,

personal connections. Figuring out how

to adopt sharing economy principles in

the contact center could be a differenti-

ator in the years ahead.

Both incumbents and upstarts are going to

have to ensure robust customer support

practices are in place as consumers start to

gain more power and control when it comes

to their financial services options.

TELUS International

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It’s a proven fact that highly engaged

frontline team members create supe-

rior experiences for their customers

over non-engaged employees. For

two examples, think Apple or Zap-

pos. Anyone who has taken a tour of

Zappos – or who has visited an Apple

store – immediately recognizes a strong

company culture. Apple “Geniuses” live

and breathe the technology. Zappos

employees mix fun and positivity with

a little weirdness. Both cultures are

impossible to miss.

Zappos reports annual agent attrition

of 20%, which means only one in five of

their contact center agents underper-

forms to the point of being dismissed,

or leaves for another job, in a given

year. The rest stick around to build their

skills and their careers. Likewise, Ap-

ple’s retail workers earn above average

pay, have good benefits, a company

stock purchase plan, and perhaps most

desirable – receive discounts on Apple

products. Apple surrounds its people

with the benefits that matter to them

as a part of their culture and employee

ecosystem.

For Zappos specifically, strong links

between employee engagement, the

customer experience and top-line

growth are the foundational elements

for its internal operations. “Our Net

Promoter Score hovers around 92%,

which is incredibly important because

we don’t have a big marketing budget,”

Culture Value Chain measures top-line impacts of an engaged frontline

By Kevin Bottoms

Global VP, Business Development

TELUS International

kevin.bottoms@telusinternational.com

Continued on page 12

Corporateculture

Agentengagement

Lowerattrition

HigherNPS/CSAT

Top-linegrowth

Engaged team members are more empowered to provide great service that delights customers and improves KPIs.

Retaining delighted customers contributes to long-term growth by increasing lifetime value of a customer, and share of wallet.

When team members feel connected to their work and their team, they stick around to build their careers.

The set of beliefs and behaviors that defines how team members interact with each other, and with customers.

A great company culture surrounds team members with the things that matter, engaging them both personally and professionally.

Culture ValueChain

12

Customers First - Success stories

says Kelly Wolske, a Trainer at Zappos.

“The customer experience is really a

form of marketing.”

Think about that for a second. “The

customer experience is really a form of

marketing.” I couldn’t have said it better

myself. At TELUS International, a BPO

with a measured engagement level of

80%, we’ve found that statement to be

especially true in highly competitive in-

In a one-year span, our client in the wireless space increased team member engagement by 12%. The following impacts were measured:

Between 2014 and 2015, our client in the personal fitness technology space increased team member engagement from 66% to 75%. The following impacts were measured:

Client impact 1

Client impact 2

Company revenue more than doubled year to year,

with increased profitability

Frontline attrition

decreased by 3%

CSAT improved,

from the high 70’s to

sustained level of 91%

Frontline attrition decreased

by 7%

CSAT increased by 14%, while DSAT

decreased by 9%Company

wireless revenue increased by 7%

dustries such as financial services, high

tech, and consumer goods.

We’ve proven that frontline team

member engagement has a direct

impact on our clients’ top-line growth.

The more a company’s stated values

align with its real culture on the ground,

the higher it drives measured team

member engagement and the lower it

pushes attrition. When this equation ex-

ists, sustained top-line growth follows.

That’s what we call the “Culture Value

Chain,” and we’ve seen it proven again

and again.

A few examples: With a wireless

client, fierce competition demanded

lower costs while increasing Likelihood

to Recommend (L2R). We implement-

ed mechanisms for agents to provide

direct customer experience feedback to

the client’s retail store operations. Then,

we eliminated the handle time metric so

agents felt empowered to do whatever

it took to meet customer needs and di-

rectly contribute to the L2R score. Their

engagement level increased by 12%,

and lower attrition drove down costs

while increasing customer retention (see

client impact 1).

For one of our top clients in the

personal fitness technology space,

sustained growth over several years

required us to create new strategies

to raise our engagement level. So we

asked team members for their input.

The result? We deployed our Coaching

for Excellence program, where team

leaders mentor their team members

one-on-one to drive sustained per-

formance improvement over time.

That, along with team-building events

designed to help team members use

the client’s product to build a healthier

lifestyle, drove measured engagement

from 66% to 75% in 2015 (see client

impact 2).

The Culture Value Chain proves that

team member engagement drives top-

line growth for companies like Apple

and Zappos. TELUS International has

proven the same focus can be applied

in an outsourced environment too.

Download the complete Culture Value Chain study, with Frost & Sullivan.

TELUS International

13

Staying ahead of today’s customer “mega-trends”

Florin Grama is the Director of Support and En-

gineering Management for Microsoft in Bucharest,

Romania. He is also president of The Association

of Business Service Leaders (ABSL) in Romania,

an organization working to bring together high pro-

file companies across the Shared Services Center

(SSC), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Infor-

mation Technology Outsourcing (ITO) and Research

and Development (R&D) sectors.

We recently spoke with Florin to get his perspective on how big global me-

ga-trends like Big Data and Cloud Computing are impacting customer expecta-

tions and customer experience delivery in Europe and beyond.

Customers First (CF): What is your

role at Microsoft?

Florin Grama (FG): I lead Microsoft’s

largest Customer Service & Support

(CSS) team in Europe, the Middle East

and Africa, which consists of over 600

IT software and service support pro-

fessionals and consultants based in

Romania. The team is responsible for

assisting partners and customers in

the enterprise, mid-market and small/

medium business segments. We deliver

services and technical support related

to all Microsoft services and products,

ranging from Cloud platforms and

services – Office 365, Azure, CRM,

Continued on page 14

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Customers First - Keynote

InTune to Windows, Office, Sharepoint,

Exchange, Skype, Active Directory,

System Center, SQL, Developer Tools,

and others.

CF: Romania is often described

as the new “outsourcing valley of

Europe.” What do you think are the

top strengths of Romania from the

outsourcing standpoint?

FG: Romania has one of the most de-

veloped IT infrastructures in the world,

but our most precious resource by far is

our people. We have a well-developed

education system which graduates tens

of thousands of university students a

year, most of whom speak English and

are multilingual. Like other attractive

outsourcing destinations, the cost level

is reasonable for the value provided.

And our people continue to improve

every year!

CF: How have Microsoft’s customers

changed over the years, and how

have those changes affected the

company’s approach to customer

service?

FG: In a mobile-first, cloud-first world,

customers want services to run on

any device. They want self-service

and automation. They expect real-time

interaction and to have their services up

and running at all times, with fast reso-

lution of their issues. We like to say that

“customer obsession” is now deeply

embedded into the company culture.

Especially with the advancement of the

Cloud, this trend will only grow as we

are now firmly into the “service based

model” and moving farther away from

hardware all the time.

CF: What are the keys to offering

effective multilingual customer sup-

port?

FG: Microsoft is present in nearly 200

countries across the globe and delivers

services in many different languages.

We deliver services from many coun-

tries, because we believe services tai-

lored to different cultures make a huge

difference to our customers. Customer

service must be globally standardized,

consistent, but also localized at the

same time, so that customers know

what to expect and that they will receive

similar quality levels regardless of geog-

raphy.

Ensuring “follow the sun” delivery

models and approaches, integrated

technology platforms and automation

are key ingredients to success. There

are also lots of new technologies that

can help improve global service stan-

dards. For example, one technology

that could become standard in custom-

er service organizations is Skype Trans-

lator, which allows agents to interact

with customers with real-time text or

voice translation from one language to

another.

CF: What does “putting customers

first” mean to you?

FG: Putting customers first means

Florin Grama – Helping Microsoft serve customers across 200 countries, and even more languages, he says the key is motivating and engaging frontline team members

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TELUS International

15

making sure we understand the needs

of customers and that we are deliver-

ing services and solutions that are up

to their expectations. I have a strong

belief that in a services business, highly

motivated and engaged employees do

make the difference in providing those

services that customers want. They are

the key to both understanding the cus-

tomer and delivering the highest-quality

experience possible.

CF: What’s the best customer ser-

vice you’ve ever received? Any good

stories to share?

FG: Recently, my bank called and

emailed me, proactively mentioning that

I might have a potential issue with my

credit card. Namely, they asked me to

renew my credit card in order to avoid

improper use or identity theft, which

they believed could eventually occur.

They provided me with a very simple

and easy way to fix the problem, which

took me no more than 10 minutes to

complete. That solution was quick and

exceeded my expectations of how long

such a solution would take.

CF: What’s your “word” to describe

the outsourcing industry in 2016, and

why did you select that word?

FG: “Transformation.” The four me-

ga-trends of Mobile, Cloud, Big Data,

and Social significantly influence the

world and the IT/outsourcing industry,

and the speed of change is massive.

Innovation and creativity are more

important than ever. Speed to adapt to

the new realities is key.

CF: You mentioned four mega-trends

– Big Data, Social, Mobile, and

Cloud. Can you share some of the

ways Microsoft’s operations are

at the forefront of several of those

trends?

FG: Microsoft has developed and

brought to market platforms and

services in the Cloud such as Office

365, Azure and CRM online. Apart from

our own hardware business, we have

developed products and services like

Office, Office 365, Outlook, Skype, SQL

on non-Windows operating systems

(Linux, Android, MAC, iOS) in order to

provide customers with seamless expe-

riences on any mobile device.

Yammer is a leading enterprise

social network for businesses to get

work done smarter and faster, used for

private communications within organi-

zations.

With Power BI, you leverage your

data and create dashboards that keep

you informed about what’s most im-

portant about your business. Just like a

dashboard in your car displays im-

portant information about your vehicle,

such as its speed, its fuel level, or how

healthy the engine is, the dashboard in

Power BI interprets Big Data and dis-

plays important information about your

business.

CF: As you noted, creativity and

innovation are more important than

ever. Do you have any specific exam-

ples of why that’s true, particularly in

your industry?

FG: The speed and ability to bring in

new innovative products and services,

and develop the existing ones to ad-

dress and anticipate customer needs

are of huge importance. You have to

understand where customers’ busi-

nesses are going and what they need in

order to achieve more. Recent exam-

ples at Microsoft include the launches

of Office or Skype for non-Windows

operating systems, or SQL Server for

Linux. I truly believe that anticipating

and serving rapidly changing customer

needs will be the key to success for

companies of all sizes, now and in the

future.

Social Mobile Analytics Cloud

For social networks, the

cream has risen to the top.

Facebook has well over a

billion users, and Twitter and

LinkedIn are rapidly monetiz-

ing their reams of data.

With massive smartphone

adoption, millions of people

are walking around with

supercomputers in their

pockets, with access to

services like never before.

Machine learning continues

to converge with processing

power, allowing computers

to increasingly sift through

both structured and un-

structured data.

As cloud capacity increases,

computing efficiency comes

at pennies on the dollar. Flex-

ible arrangements allow users

to adapt capacity as their

demands change.

16

Customers First - Noteworthy

What’s RPA got to do with outsourcing?Robotic Process Automation

(RPA) has been making headlines in

research publications lately with titles

such as “The Robots are Coming”

and “Greetings from Robotistan.”

However, RPA is not quite as exotic

as the titles suggest. These are not

physical robots like you would see in

manufacturing, but rather software

that gets the work done.

RPA is a highly innovative tech-

nology best suited for process

driven areas of business such as

finance, administration, logistics,

order processing, fraud and IT. It has

the ability to increase efficiency and

speed for repetitive, high volume and

rule-based tasks requiring no human

judgment.

The question is how will RPA

affect the outsourcing sector? No,

robots like C-3PO will not be physi-

cally deployed in contact centers. But a

piece of software could automate repet-

itive tasks performed by agents, thus

saving time and optimizing processes

to function more efficiently.

The technology possesses the

capability to improve quality, decrease

transaction turnaround time, and

improve service levels and productivity.

For instance, RPA technology could

manipulate application software instead

of agents during customer interactions.

This would allow agents to focus on

high-value, complex customer inter-

actions, resulting in optimal customer

satisfaction and improved operational

profitability.

Will RPA upset traditional models of

outsourcing? The answer lies in how

BPOs will leverage RPA capabilities

in their processes and harness the

advantages of software robotics. Still,

the concept of RPA is either unknown

or misunderstood by many buyers and

outsourcers alike - likely due to the

connotation associated with the term

“robotic.” Looking positively to the

future, RPA actually gives outsourcers

a new way to innovate and could even

help the industry grow.

No, robots like C-3PO will

not be physically deployed in

contact centers. But a piece

of software could automate

repetitive tasks performed by

agents...

TELUS International

17

What key challenges and trends will

transform fraud management in 2016?

We tried to answer this question at

our Executive Breakfast event held in

February in Paris, France. Over 75 of

the country’s top fraud management

experts met with decision makers from

various industries to discuss the latest

trends and breakthroughs affecting the

fight against fraud.

Key challenges that will transform fraud management in 2016

Challenge 1: Cybercrime is attracting more and more fraudsters. The French

Bank Card Association found that internet fraud doubled over the five-year period

between 2010 and 2014. One of the reasons is that it’s easier and less risky - why

risk robbing a bank when you can commit fraud at home? Second, cyber fraud is

scalable and has a quick ROI. Technology advancements enable the deployment

of fraud schemes on a large scale and in a cost-effective manner.

Challenge 2: New communication channels create new loopholes, often not an-

ticipated by companies. The popularity of mobile devices has reached astronom-

ical levels, and mobile fraud is following suit. The growing adoption of the Internet

of Things also presents new fraud opportunities, leading the FBI to issue a warning

statement regarding the piracy risks associated with connected objects.

Challenge 3: Customers expect instant action. In his book, “The Dictatorship

of Urgency,” Gilles Finchelstein claims that we are now governed by our own

impatience. This appetite for “everything now” has caused product offerings and

services to adapt. While this on-demand attitude is already present in the service

sector with instant delivery options and payment by installments, it’s gradually

becoming a reality in other segments too. “As soon as possible” is becoming the

new norm.

Recognizing these challenges and devising ways to take action will generate

much more discussion in the years ahead.

Among the key learnings from the

event was that understanding the con-

text of a transaction is a crucial element

in fraud management. However, the

current digital environment makes that

context more complex and therefore

more difficult to comprehend. The

experts at the event identified three key

challenges making fraud management

more complicated in today’s digital age.

The French Bank Card Association found that internet fraud doubled over the five-year period between 2010 and 2014.

Executive Breakfast – Industry experts meet to discuss fraud management trends in Paris

18

In my view, it’s about a few key things: 1) aligning our business culture to the ever-evolving needs of our customers; 2) making sure that our key busi-ness accomplishments showcase what we have achieved for our customers; and 3) that we – as leaders – remove the road blocks that affect our customers’ needs and/or strategies for success.

José Calderón, VP, Operations

TELUS International Central America, El Salvador

UnscriptedWhat does putting customers first mean to you?

It permeates everything we do. Customers expe-rience it in our transparent sales process, in how we onboard and support them, and in the expert engineers we’ve hired. We call it ‘DizzionCare,’ and it means listening first and doing the right thing by our customers. It’s not just solving problems but using technology to help grow and improve our customers’ business.

Chris Horning, Sr. Client Relations Manager

Dizzion (virtual desktop and cloud solutions)

Our Customers 4Life program leads our culture to develop long-term relationships with custom-ers. We focus on three main areas – Operational Improvements to make interactions easy, conve-nient and accurate; Communications that inform, engage and invest our customers and employees; and Education that articulates the “Customers 4Life” behaviors expected in each organizational role. By partnering with our customers for their long term success, we earn the right to do busi-ness with them!

Nancy Porte, VP, Global Customer Experience

Verint (speech and text analytics)

I think of customers not just as people calling us to buy a product, but as men and women with real problems, seeking solutions. That’s why I do my best to put myself in their shoes. Usually it’s not dif-ficult, because we’ve all been in similar situations, hoping to receive not only the service that we pay for, but also understanding and sympathy. Nothing beats real human interaction.

Danail Pavlov, Customer Support Agent

TELUS International Europe, Bulgaria

For me, it means striving to build healthy relation-ships with customers by identifying their needs and providing the best possible experience. Another thing is passion. If you love what you’re doing and if you always put the customer first, the customer will feel that – and you will have a successful rela-tionship.

Annica Ronquist, Head of Global Customer Operations and

Services –Teleopti (workforce management solution)

It means bringing added value to our partners’ business, by acting as their advocates and being constantly proactive in providing feedback and suggestions on how to drive excellence in custom-er service.

Adriana Alecu, Operations Manager

TELUS International Europe, Romania

TELUS International

19

TELUS Days of Giving drew more

than 7,250 volunteers to 11 events

outside of Canada in 2015. In this

picture, a local woman proudly cuts the

ribbon on her new home in the Santa

Gertrudis community of Santa Tecla in

San Salvador, El Salvador. Volunteers

from TELUS International partnered

with local non-profit TECHO to build 20

houses for local families over two days

last November.

The Big PictureTELUS Days of Giving 2015

Customer service and contact center solutions

– see the difference today.

When it comes to finding the right customer service partner, it’s all about cultural alignment. Will your

outsourcing partner truly uphold your brand promise? And will they take care of the agents serving

your customers? At TELUS International, we aspire to be your brand ambassador and to redefine

the outsourcing industry through our spirited teamwork and caring culture.

See for yourself! Click here to take a quick virtual site tour of our operations in the United States,

Central America, Asia or Europe.

It’s different here at TELUS International.

telusinternational.comtelusinternational-europe.com

North America, Central America, Asia, Europe

Site tours starting now...