As a business process outsourcing (BPO) provider specialized in customer experience, our operations in the GCC region, providing solutions to a broad cross section of the economy was well established and recognized at the start of 2020. It was a time of focused growth and expansion for Silah Gulf at all levels; when the Pandemic hit.
After a quick but in-depth assessment of capabilities under the current situation, we began implementing our contingency plans with minimal disruption to our operations. We switched gears to a remote work model and upped the ante on our communications strategies. We were in fact able to seamlessly meet the sudden increase in demand for contact centre management and support services. Flexible staffing and carefully planned work schedules for on-site operations, cost- efficient technologies to handle larger work volumes, including chatbots and advanced interactive voice-response systems were some of the measures implemented. Ensuring business continuity in a crisis situation is key; Silah’s record revenue growth in 2020 told us that we were on track.
Almost every business has had to learn how to adapt, overcome, and be flexible during the pandemic. However, Covid-19 has shown how businesses in every sector must be prepared for the unexpected. The impact on business was unprecedented and has required leaders to make transformative decisions and organizational shifts on a broad scale. When BPO companies are flexible and prepared for anything, they can act fast and make good choices even during a crisis. As private companies and public institutions began migrating to remote models of communication with end users, Silah Gulf was able to raise its profile by leveraging its experience in supporting organizations in a number of sectors – mainly Government, telecommunications, financial services, travel, retail and healthcare.
Silah Gulf’s strategy has been focused on two fronts. On the one hand, we are expanding research and development to scale up digital transformation Innovations in artificial intelligence, big data and robotics can be integrated to serve the customer experience through automated means or with little human input. On the other hand, we know that for customer experience, value addition lies in upskilling our teams, so that even the most complex and technically demanding requests can be successfully handled internally by our teams.
A customer experience industry in which automation and human interaction are seamlessly integrated for better customer experience will not only ease budget pressures, but it will also provide better experiences for agents working on complex problems assisted by augmented technologies. Our goal is to upskill our workforce to be able to address complex requests in the most challenging scenarios which will result in better employee engagement and development leading to greater customer satisfaction for our clients.
by Feras Ahmed- CEO, Silah Gulf