Innovo Network’s award-winning omnichannel contact centre solution is proving to be a disruptor for the BPO industry through its customer-centric, full-stack, single platform and affordable offering.
A voice, data, and cloud solutions provider, Innovo Networks launched South Africa’s first full-stack omnichannel contact centre solution toward the end of last year, earning the company the 2022 Cape Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Technology Innovation award. Cape BPO currently manages and streamlines the 1 900 contact call centres nationwide within South Africa.
“Historically, contact centres have offered fragmented solutions whereby businesses pay for modular services such as emailing, messaging, and predictive dialling. This tends to be pricey and integration with existing software is necessary and not always easy. Omnichannel challenges this traditional methodology with a single piece of software that integrates voice, video, email, chat, and social media on one platform. This enables contact centre agents to speak to their customers using multiple channels from a centralised platform. Without a doubt, omnichannel innovation is not only an enabler for BPO, but can also close the virtual gap between SMEs and larger organisations,” says tech entrepreneur and CEO of Innovo Networks, Damian Michael.
According to Michael, streamlined, cost-cutting IT solutions are vital to keeping momentum, competition, and growth in the BPO sector alive.
BPO is one of the fastest growing and meaningful contributors to the country’s gross domestic product. It is also a significant employment creator, providing more than 50 000 culminative jobs over the last few years, according to Business Process Enabling South Africa(BPESA). Furthermore, with big tech companies such as Amazon already investing in Africa, the prognosis is that this sector is on track to expand formidably in the near future.
Social media integration and BPO
As the BPO sector expands, so have the communication channels available to customers evolved. A recent ICMI survey reveals that almost 50% of customers expect a response from a social media complaint within an hour. The same survey showed that the use of Instagram to message businesses increased by 75% during the COVID-19 pandemic, and likewise, Facebook messenger experienced a 20% increase. “ What often happens is customers will voice concerns or ask questions first on social media, which is often directed to a completely separate or outsourced department. If they don’t get immediate answers, they then send a follow-up email, as well as make a phone call to further log their query. By the time they have gone through this entire process, they have been sent from one department to another and forced to repeat themselves. A centralised solution solves this problem,” says Michael.
“With omnichannel, all touchpoints are in a single pane of glass and allow companies to talk to clients through a number of different mediums including the integration of social media. If a customer speaks to a contact centre agent on the phone, the agent can view in real-time any previous communication, regardless of the platform, from said customer.
This also helps companies harness data from customers, which in turn increases turnover, ensures better customer retention rates, is more efficient, and increases client satisfaction. In addition, it connects offline and online experience and allows for seamless purchasing across all channels,” he adds.
A Frost & Sullivan survey suggests that by investing in a collaboration of platforms, productivity could increase by 400%. Statistics further show that by migrating services to a cloud solution, call answer rates increase by 5% and that 90% of contact centres find increased financial flexibility by engaging with this type of omnichannel hosting.
“This is a critical win for many businesses struggling in South Africa’s current, tough economic climate. Any company invested in efficient customer experience will do well to adopt streamlined, scalable, and affordable technologies in effort to remain competitive ” says Michael.
