AI & the Art of CX: Teleperformance’s Guide to Winning in India

India’s internet user base is exploding like a supernova, creating a gravitational pull for exceptional customer service. Teleperformance, a global leader in outsourced digital business services, is strategically navigating this new force. Imagine a symphony orchestra where each instrument – AI, cloud technology, data analytics, and a geographically dispersed workforce – plays in perfect harmony. Vispi Palsetia, CIO of Teleperformance India in a tete-a-tete with Minu Sirsalewala, Executive Editor, Dataquest, unveils how Teleperformance is orchestrating a winning customer experience strategy in India’s hyper-connected market.

India’s internet users are exploding. How is Teleperformance adapting its operations and strategies to cater to this hyper-connected customer base?

Teleperformance, a leading global outsourced digital business services provider, is actively adapting its operations for India’s rapidly growing internet user base. The company has heavily invested in digital technologies like cloud solutions, RPA (Robotic Process Automation), and AI tools to enhance service delivery and offer personalized experiences. Recognizing evolving preferences, Teleperformance adopted an omnichannel approach, integrating communication channels for consistent experiences across touchpoints. It has focused on talent acquisition, and training a digitally adept workforce for exceptional digital customer service. Leveraging data analytics, the company gained insights into Indian internet users’ preferences, behaviors, and pain points to personalize services, optimize operations, and make data-driven decisions. Teleperformance is also forging strategic partnerships with technology providers and digital service companies in India to stay ahead in catering to the hyper-connected customer base.

Recognizing evolving preferences, Teleperformance adopted an omnichannel approach, integrating communication channels for consistent experiences across touchpoints.

Omnichannel experiences are the new CX battleground. What specific measures is Teleperformance taking to ensure a smooth, unified journey across all touchpoints?

Teleperformance and other organizations in the customer experience (CX) sector are leveraging AI, automation, and omnichannel systems to enhance customer experience in the rapidly growing Indian market. Digital solution providers are implementing omnichannel platforms that integrate multiple communication channels, allowing seamless switching between touchpoints and consistent, personalized experiences. These platforms often incorporate AI-powered routing algorithms to optimize resource utilization, reduce response times, and ensure seamless experiences and customer delight.

The seamless transition across channels creates a more convenient and efficient experience, increasing customer loyalty. By leveraging comprehensive customer data, companies can deliver personalized, proactive support, anticipate needs, and address issues before they arise. The data-driven approach enables continuous refinement of service delivery to align with evolving customer expectations.

Your $185 million Azure cloud commitment is a big move. How will this partnership with Microsoft, particularly leveraging AI like TP GenAI, empower Teleperformance to elevate customer service?

The $185 million Azure cloud commitment between Teleperformance and Microsoft aims to elevate customer service through AI. Leveraging Azure Cloud and TP GenAI’s advanced AI capabilities powered by Azure OpenAI, Teleperformance will transform service delivery and provide enhanced experiences. TP GenAI helps identify customer needs and pain points across touchpoints, reducing call handling times, improving email responses, customer satisfaction, and sales conversions. The partnership will fuel enhancements to Teleperformance’s AI-powered services like TP Interact, TP Digital Floorwalker, and StoryfAI, strengthening its ability to deliver superior customer service. By combining Microsoft’s Azure Cloud, AI capabilities, and Teleperformance’s expertise, this collaboration has the potential to revolutionize how organizations interact with customers, increasing satisfaction and loyalty.

This cloud-powered remote model offers immense agility - we can rapidly scale operations up or down across locations based on fluctuating demand.

Teleperformance is a champion of remote workforces. How has your cloud infrastructure facilitated geographically dispersed teams, and what advantages does this offer in terms of agility and scalability?

Teleperformance Cloud Campus is an award-winning global virtual workforce platform enabling remote teams to deliver seamless and consistent customer services. Our cloud infrastructure has been instrumental in facilitating our geographically dispersed workforce across the globe. Our cloud-based contact center solutions empower agents to securely work remotely, seamlessly servicing customers from anywhere. This cloud-powered remote model offers immense agility - we can rapidly scale operations up or down across locations based on fluctuating demand. It allows us to optimize resource utilization and align costs with business needs effectively. Moreover, our cloud ecosystem provides access to a vast talent pool, enhancing our operational capabilities. We can onboard, virtually train and engage the best professionals regardless of their location, delivering superior customer experience. Crucially, this remote working model backed by a robust cloud infrastructure ensures business continuity even during disruptions. Our agents can productively work from secure locations, providing consistent service to clients. Overall, our cloud-first strategy centered around enabling a remote workforce to drive agility, scalability, access to talent, and operational resilience - underpinning our commitment to delivering excellence and information security.

Data security and privacy are paramount. Can you elaborate on Teleperformance’s strategies to ensure client data remains secure while fostering innovation in data privacy practices?

At TP, ensuring the security of client data while fostering innovation in data security practices is paramount. We adhere to industry-leading standards and regulatory compliances such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, SOC1, SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, DPDPA etc. to establish robust security and privacy practices. Our strategy includes defense in depth, multi-layered security approach to ensure heightened security for our IT environment and data. We prioritize ongoing employee training to promote awareness of cybersecurity best practices, ensuring a culture of security throughout the organization.

Innovation in data privacy practices is fostered through continuous development of the security program, staying abreast of emerging technologies and evolving threat landscape. Compliance with relevant regulations such as GDPR and CCPA is rigorously maintained to uphold privacy regulatory requirements and build trust with our clients. By integrating these strategies, we not only ensure the security of client data but also drive innovation in data security and privacy practices, positioning our company as a trusted leader in the market.

With the evolution of customer expectations and technology, how is Teleperformance nurturing its workforce to adapt to changing roles and skill requirements?

Aware of evolving customer expectations and technological shifts, Teleperformance is deeply committed to upskilling and reskilling initiatives. Comprehensive training programs span analytics, automation, AI, cloud technologies, and soft skills. Online learning platforms, mentorships, and bootcamps empower employees to enhance expertise continuously. A culture of learning and innovation is promoted, with R&D teams exploring disruptive concepts and redefining customer experience. Strategic talent acquisition focuses on professionals with future-ready skills across emerging technologies, providing growth opportunities. Through continuous upskilling, cultivating a learning mindset, bringing in new-age talent, and fostering innovation, Teleperformance nurtures a workforce adept at navigating change and delivering exceptional service in a dynamic business environment.

How is Teleperformance leveraging data insights and AI technologies to deliver personalized customer experiences at scale, and what are the key challenges in achieving this?

Teleperformance is using data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning to gain insights from customer interactions across various channels like voice, chat, email, and social media. These insights help us understand customer preferences, sentiments, and behavior patterns. This data is then used to personalize customer experiences at scale through features like intelligent routing, real-time analytics-driven recommendations for agents, and predictive models for proactive customer service.

Teleperformance is using data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning to gain insights from customer interactions across various channels like voice, chat, email, and social media.

However, achieving this level of personalization at scale comes with challenges. One major challenge is integrating and analyzing massive amounts of structured and unstructured data from multiple sources in real-time. Another is maintaining data privacy and security while leveraging customer data. There are also challenges in developing and deploying AI/ML models that can accurately understand complex customer contexts and provide relevant recommendations. However, integrating massive data, ensuring data privacy, developing accurate AI/ML models, and blending human-AI capabilities pose key challenges which Teleperformance addresses through continuous investment in advanced technologies and workforce training.

Vispi Palsetia

CIO. Teleperformance India

minus@cybermedia.co.in