Multi-channeled customer service is what most clients expect a call center in the Philippines to have before they could finalize their decision to outsource their business processes there. Given how almost every business transaction and consumer engagement now takes place in the digital realm, it s only natural for companies to seek this capability in firms that will handle their customers.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) providers define multi-channeling as having more than one communication channel to receive feedback and deliver solutions. While this is how it is essentially done, BPO firms should first understand and fully embrace the concept driving the multi-channeling trend.

What is SMAC?

Not an entirely new concept, SMAC is short for social, mobile analytics, and cloud—the four technologies that make up not just the acronym but the whole concept itself. Using SMAC in its operations, a business can maximize its customer reach with minimal costs involved.
With massive structured and unstructured data generated by the public through the proliferated use of mobile devices and social media, companies integrate SMAC in their strategies to fully harness the user-generated information while extracting actionable plans out of it. If adapted right, SMAC gives a competitive advantage to any organization using it.

SMAC and BPO

The BPO sector is one of the many industries being reshaped through SMAC technologies. Some BPO firms, however, don t fully embrace SMAC and miss out on its benefits. They fail to recognize how it can impact their future and customers because of some hunches such as the following:

• Our target audience don t use social media

Who doesn t use social media nowadays? Older generations may be the first to come to mind since they prefer traditional means of getting assistance and making purchases.

But recent statistics and reports state that the fastest growing demographic on microblogging site Twitter is composed of people aged 54 to 66. A Fast Company blog post also points out that more and more users in the 45-54 age bracket are joining Facebook and Google+. So it s no longer acceptable to say that you don t want to deliver customer service via social media because your customers are composed largely of seniors.

• Our market has a low mobile penetration rate

Mobile has been dominating the digital marketing and e-commerce world, as evidenced by the how tablets and smartphones trumped all other channels in annual shopping events like Black Friday. Mobile-friendliness is also one of the main things that people want in a website, so if you re not giving this to your customers, you re missing out on a lot.

A Cisco research also said that the number of mobile devices will surpass the world s human population by the end of 2014. So even if your market has a low mobile penetration rate, it s only a matter of time before they start demanding your company accessibility via mobile devices.

• We can manage data without analytics

Managing massive amounts of consumer information without the help of analytics technology is not only daunting but also prone to inaccuracies. Analytics saves your call center from information overload while providing you precise trend predictions and interpretation of customer feedback.

• We don t trust the cloud

The immense benefits of cloud technology can outweigh the vulnerabilities and flaws it is tagged with. Using the cloud to unify your databases not only smoothen your operations but also aids in protecting your data from physical and digital threats.

Seeing how much SMAC influences customer service delivery, it makes sense for BPO providers to position themselves at the forefront SMAC adaption. They need to start thinking about how they can use all four technologies in transforming their business and securing its future.