Alorica Reflects on 2012, Looks Forward to 2013 in Business Process Outsourcing

With just a few days left before we start fresh in 2013, now is the perfect time to reflect on the past year and what companies are taking from 2012 moving forward. Alorica, a provider of business process outsourcing solutions that span the entire customer lifecycle, certainly had a year for the books.

In 2012 Alorica introduced Alorica Chat Solutions, allowing customers to receive immediate help on websites the moment they need it without having to pick up the phone or wait in a queue. Alorica Chat Customer Care Solutions connect with buyers by offering a solution that fits their lifestyle and purchasing behaviors, builds relationships with increasingly online and on-the-go consumers and are efficient and effective. They lower the total cost of service while providing context specific service and consistent experiences across locations and products.

This year was also a big year for AloriCares, Alorica’s work-at-home program exclusively for veterans and their spouses.

“A real challenge for many of these vets and their spouses is that they can’t leave home. We allow them to have meaningful, gainful employment out of the comfort of their homes,” explained Amit Shankardass, chief marketing officer, Alorica, in a TMCnet interview.

Alorica became a member of the 100,000 Jobs Mission, a group of U.S. companies with a goal of hiring 100,000 transitioning service members and military veterans by 2020. Alorica was also recently officially inducted into the Military Spouses Employment Partnership (MSEP), part of the Department of Defense (DoD)’s broader spouse education and career opportunities initiative.

Alorica’s business process outsourcing solutions are some of the top services in the industry. Don’t believe me? 2012 was a year for awards for Alorica, including a spot on InformationWeek’s InformationWeek 500 List of Top Technology Innovators across America, TMCnet’s Top 50 Teleservices Agencies - Inbound, Outbound, Interactive, and Global Aggregate Categories, the 2012 Best of Chino Award in the Customer Service Management category by the U.S. Local Business Association (USLBA) for the fifth consecutive year and the ContactCenterWorld.com Top Ranking Performers Silver Medal Award for Best Remote/Home Agent Program for its AloriCares program.

Other awards in 2012 include five rankings in the Diversity Business.com 12th Annual National Business Awards: Top 500 Asian Owned Businesses in the U.S – 2012, Top 500 Diversity Owned Businesses in the U.S – 2012, Top 100 Asian Pacific American Owned Businesses in the U.S – 2012, Top 100 Diversity Owned Businesses in California – 2012 and Top 100 Privately-held Businesses in California – 2012. It was also recognized with Customer Interaction Solutions 2011 MVP Quality Award, Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine’s 2011 Product of the Year Award and was included in the Magic Quadrant for Customer Management Contact Center BPO, Worldwide.

In addition to awards and new products, Alorica had an exciting year in company news. It launched a new brand identity in January, launched a new website in June and moved its company headquarters in October. 

“This year has been about delivering superior customer experience and creating service infrastructure that starts with the consumer at the core,” said Shankardass. “Whether it’s a technology-assisted service or agent-assisted service, companies want to provide very personal and personalized service. Using multiple channels of interaction and ensuring a consistent experience across those channels has also been a focus this year.”

Not everyone is on board with business process outsourcing, but year-by-year the industry is seeing additional conversion to it as companies realize the potential of not having to install or manage the software they need. The quality services that a business relies on are increasingly being pushed onto the software service providers who provide business process outsourcing solutions.

“One of the biggest challenges this year has been that our clients have had to react to a tough economic environment for a few years now,” explained Shankardass. “To help them navigate these troubled waters, we have to be more innovative in how we provision service. We have had an acute focus on delivering solutions that increase revenue per transaction and drive efficiency all while improving the overall customer experience.”

According to Shankardass, there are a couple of macro trends to watch in 2013:

·         Consumers today are interacting with companies in different ways. Now, more than ever, consumers are in control of the service equation. Crowdsourcing and social in particular, provide consumers with a platform to help each other and share with each other. A lot of customers like to interact in a self-help type of environment. This shift is going to force service providers to change how they provision service - whether it’s social media, texting, mobile apps or online, these are competencies that we’ve been building to help our clients better serve their customers.

·         Today, there’s a lot more technology used in our day-to-day lives - consumers are embracing technology more and more.  Mobile devices, smart devices, computing technology, on-line applications etc. are becoming more interrelated and complicated. In a way, technology makes customer support more complicated. In such an environment, it becomes a matter of helping customers to best use that technology and provide a better experience for customers.

“2013 is very much the year of the consumer – the year when delighting the consumer and delivering a superior level of service will take precedence,” said Shankardass. “Innovation through the further development and adoption of humanization technologies live video, live chat, Web avatars, etc. will bring together the best of technology and human interaction. This melding of technology and humans is where Alorica plans to focus its efforts in 2013.”

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