Background And Scope Of The Research
Over a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in Customer Experience Management (CXM) outsourcing as enterprises looking to cut costs, balance risks, and maintain CX levels have turned to service providers to digitize their operations, shift to non-voice channels, and migrate to cloud services, all the while complying with regulatory and security norms and ensuring well-being while agents work from home. First-time outsourcers are foraying into the CXM market as customer expectations increase, behaviors evolve, and buyers lacking requisite experience and technological capabilities to manage post-COVID-19 CX demands look for more third-party outsourcing support. Service providers not only showed resiliency by setting up their own Work-At-Home-Agent (WAHA) models, designing hybrid offices and operating frameworks, and establishing instant scaling and flexing options, but also invested in digital offerings such as Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVAs), intelligent automation, cloud-based contact centers, and omnichannel delivery to ensure business continuity for clients. They are also nurturing more strategic partnerships through consultative engagements, risk-sharing through outcome-based pricing models, and agent engagement through advanced learning and collaboration platforms. To effectively cater to these requirements, providers are developing capabilities through internal investments, their partnership ecosystem, and acquisitions.
In this research, we present detailed assessments of 39 Customer Experience Management (CXM) service providers featured on the CXM Services PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2021. Each assessment provides a comprehensive picture of the service provider’s market success, vision and strategy, service focus and capabilities, digital and technological solutions, domain investments, and buyer feedback. The assessment is based on Everest Group’s annual RFI process for the calendar year 2020, interactions with leading CXM service providers, client reference checks, and an ongoing analysis of the CXM market.