Teleperformance awarded Company of the Year in Contact Centre Outsourcing

Based on its recent analysis of the contact centre outsourcing market, Frost & Sullivan recognises Teleperformance with the 2011 EMEA Frost & Sullivan Award for Company of the Year for its strong organic growth in a commoditised market that saw a general reduction in inbound call volumes from key clients in 2010. The company has more than 34,400 contact centre agents across EMEA which gives its clients a range of choices in sourcing, pricing and language capabilities.

"Teleperformance has been able to reverse the commoditisation trend prevalent in Western Europe and establish itself as a value-add provider through its 'Platinum' offering - a premium level service aimed at optimising key performance indicators and enhancing business understandings," says Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Suvradeep Bhattacharjee.

Teleperformance positions the customer service agent in a consultative role, offering a solution to the end-user rather than simply selling a service. In this sense, Frost & Sullivan believes that the introduction of this service raises the bar on customer service delivery through use of better resources and tools.

Alistair Niederer, CEO for Teleperformance UK and South Africa comments: "This award is terrific recognition for a lot of hard work by a lot of people.  As a contact centre provider, our role in our clients' lives is to give a solution to a customer seeking help, advice or a business transaction. If our agents feel that they're managing the call and not just reading a script like a robot, they'll feel happier and they'll make the customer happier.  If customers are able to look back and say "wow - that was great - I got more than I expected" then we have done our job."

Teleperformance is also different from its competitors in its underlying financial strength for its investors, existing clients and new prospects. Teleperformance's network is made up of 263 contact centers, which operate almost 83,000 workstations. The company has grown to over 120,000 employees in 50 countries, handling more than 1.4 billion contacts annually. It conducts programs in over 66 different languages and dialects on behalf of a diversified client base of major international companies.

"Teleperformance has been able to outperform its closest competitor by close to 30 percent through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions despite significantly decreasing volumes in the telecoms and IT sectors and increasing pressure on domestic prices," elaborates Bhattacharjee. "It acquired beCogent in UK and Metis in Turkey, which has helped to grow its top line."

The revenue forecast for beCogent in 2010 was approximately GBP 50 million with a strong focus on the retail, financial services and telco/ISP verticals. Similarly, the Metis Group in Turkey earned approximately 12 million Euros in 2010. The Turkish market is considered a strategic market for Teleperformance since it is one of the largest and fastest growing economies in the region and opens good opportunities to propose near-shore solutions from Turkey towards the EMEA market. This enables Teleperformance to offer to its clients a long-term cost effective solution.

Teleperformance has also identified social media as the channel for future growth, though only a few of its competitors have developed strong offerings to drive growth in this channel. The company's innovation in its security practices is another clear differentiator. It has attained Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance and Data Storage Entities (DSE) certification and assigns Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP)-certified security analysts to client accounts. 

"While maintaining high service levels in the face of high agent attrition has been a key challenge for most companies, Teleperformance has been able to renew multi-year contracts with its key clients in EMEA," observes Bhattacharjee. "This has been primarily achieved through meeting and exceeding Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Quality of Service (QOS) measures."

In recognition of these achievements, Frost & Sullivan is proud to present Teleperformance with the 2011 Frost & Sullivan EMEA Award for Company of the Year in the contact centre outsourcing market. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in terms of growth strategy and implementation. The award recognises a high degree of innovation with products and technologies and the resulting leadership in terms of customer value and market penetration.

Frost & Sullivan's Best Practices Awards recognise companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.