We're back with more buy-side insights than you can shake a tail at 🐂
Our guest in BPO Bullhorn this week is Philippe Legal, a world-class outsourcing consultant with decades of experience matching European enterprise buyers with contact center providers.
Philippe is bringing a straight-talking approach to topics like:
🔎 European vs. US expectations
🗺 Reasoning behind preferred locations
🤝 What European buyers prioritize in BPO deals
💡 And more!
If you're a BPO or contact center provider looking to tap into the European market, there is plenty to unpack in this week's interview.
Q: When searching for a new BPO or contact center partnership, what unique operational or service-related expectations do European enterprise buyers have compared to those in North America?
A: European buyers have the same expectations as American ones, namely cost optimization, flexibility, compliance, security, CX excellence, and proactive AI-based solutions. The only difference is that partnerships are on a smaller scale, and there are more languages to consider—7 main languages and 23 official European languages—so interaction volumes are less extensive but with much more diversity.
The concern that buyers in both regions share is the desire to partner with an appropriately sized provider: not too big that they get neglected as a client, but not too small that they can’t cover all the languages or end up depending on them to stay afloat.
Q: What trends are you seeing in the European market around the preferred geographic locations for outsourcing? How are location considerations changing this year?
A: To be frank, two main factors have always driven the evolution of geographic choices: is it cheaper, and therefore further away, and which country has the best incentives?
Plus, outsourcing zones are tied to their historical connections with developed countries, so European buyers need deep knowledge of history and geography before they can successfully identify linguistic resources across the five continents. Germany, for instance, naturally looks towards Central and Eastern Europe, and the United Kingdom towards the large English-speaking regions in Asia and India. In contrast, Southern European countries look towards the Maghreb and increasingly Sub-Saharan Africa, which looks to be the next upcoming preferred destination for buyers.
Q: How have shifting customer expectations or technological innovations, such as AI and automation, influenced European enterprise buyers’ priorities when selecting a BPO partner?
A: Consumer expectations remain constant—they want the fastest possible solution to their problems—but all studies show that their satisfaction is declining, indicating there aren’t enough resources available, both in terms of quality and quantity.
To address this enterprise-level challenge, BPO buyers now expect “augmented” customer service agents who have access to AI tools and for their providers to manage more interactions through chatbots. The buyer filter is simple: what can your AI do for me? Therefore, the BPO's ability to manage the paradox of reducing agent headcount while thinking about new pricing models for technological resolution represents a major shift in the industry.
Q: What are some lesser-known strategic factors (beyond cost or language) that European buyers consider when selecting a contact center provider?
A: Choosing a BPO partner is becoming more and more complicated as the market consolidates. How can a client be sure they’re heard and prioritized when a vast multinational company just gobbled up their chosen BPO partner? How much of their previous influence and access to skills will remain local?
This landscape of mergers increases the dilemma for buyers; choosing a recognized global leader might mean their procurement department won’t be criticized too much if things go wrong, but opting for a new medium-sized company may allow the company to become a strategic and, therefore, “pampered" partner to the BPO. Providers who look for these kinds of strategic partnerships with European buyers will likely fare better, at least until a bigger fish gobbles them up, too.
---
Follow Philippe on LinkedIn here for more insights on buyer preferences in Europe.
Don't miss future Q&As. Join our mailing list ---> here
Comments