Podcast ¦ CX Files: Dave Rizzo – TP – Flashback To The First Week Of The Covid Crisis

Key Take Aways

1. Teleperformance leveraged prior experience with business continuity planning (BCP) in China to rapidly deploy effective health and safety measures globally.
2. The company transitioned to approximately 80,000 work-from-home stations during the crisis, aiming for over 120,000 by April 2020.
3. A culture of agility and a can-do attitude facilitated a significant shift in operations, with staff taking on responsibilities beyond their usual roles.
4. Teleperformance emphasised the importance of close collaboration with clients to identify flexible operational options, such as migrating voice channels to non-voice channels.
5. There is a strategic shift towards adopting more flexible service delivery models, including increased use of chat channels, self-help, automation, and omnichannel approaches.
6. The crisis has accelerated the realisation that a high proportion of work at home can be standard practice, with a future state involving blended models combining remote and traditional operations.
7. Geographical deployment of work at home is now seen as more flexible, with an emphasis on language capabilities and market-specific requirements.
8. Companies are reassessing their operational resilience strategies, focusing on remote workability and market diversification.
9. The real-time experience during the pandemic has catalysed a behavioural shift in client attitudes towards flexible staffing and operational agility.
10. Organisations recognise that future models will be adaptable, with dynamic percentages of work at home versus brick-and-mortar setups based on evolving circumstances.
11. The crisis underscored the importance of a swift, strategic response to change, including contingency planning for various regulatory and geopolitical scenarios.
12. Building resilience through technological investment and agility is crucial for sustaining customer experience in unprecedented circumstances.

Key Statistics

• Approximately 80,000 work-from-home stations deployed during the crisis.
• Aim to increase to over 120,000 by April 2020.
• Currently, around 85% of partners in Asia Pacific are on board with some or full deployment of work at home.

Key Discussion Points

• How prior BCP experience in China enabled rapid global deployment of health and safety measures.
• The importance of a ‘full team effort’ in scaling up remote work capacity.
• Strategic client engagement to explore operational options and mitigate risks.
• The transformation in client attitudes toward work at home and flexible staffing models.
• The impact of COVID-19 on traditional contact centre operations and future state models.
• The role of automation, bot deployment, and omnichannel strategies in enhancing flexibility.
• Market-specific considerations, such as deploying Mandarin-speaking teams outside China.
• The evolving perception of remote work as a standard, rather than exception, practice.
• The significance of geographic and language diversification in service delivery.
• The necessity for agile, adaptive operations that can respond to fluctuating circumstances.
• The potential reversion to traditional models post-crisis and how future models will integrate remote and brick-and-mortar strategies.
• The critical importance of compliance, health and safety standards, and audit processes during rapid transitions.

Podcast Description

This podcast features a retrospective look at how the customer experience (CX) industry responded to the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago. It includes insights from a webinar hosted by Mark Hillary with Teleperformance’s Asia-Pacific president, Dave Rizzo, providing real-time strategies and challenges faced during the early stages of the crisis. The discussion covers rapid deployment of remote working solutions, operational agility, client collaboration, and the evolving landscape of CX delivery amid unprecedented global disruptions. It offers valuable lessons on resilience, innovation, and strategic adaptation for senior managers in financial services and beyond.