After nearly two years in the sector, De Boer still sees plenty of room to strengthen the position of customer contact within organisations. ‘There is a hidden goldmine in customer contact that many organisations are currently failing to tap into. There are huge opportunities there.’ He believes technology is driving change in this area. As simple queries are automated, the importance of the remaining conversations increases. ‘You can deploy your people differently and extract more commercial value from customer contact. A telephone conversation is, in effect, a continuous form of market research: how is the customer actually doing?’ This also changes the perspective on handling calls as quickly as possible. ‘Anyone saving seconds is throwing away valuable information.’

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More complex work

This development requires a new approach to existing work while simultaneously opening doors. The same technology that automates simple contacts makes other tasks accessible for Yource. ‘At banks, we are shifting towards more complex services that require Wft diplomas and AFM licences. Think of consumer credit and mortgages. It involves less volume, but more complexity. That requires investment, but it is a clear trend.’

Pension information is also receiving his attention. He sees room there between providing information and giving advice. ‘Advisers prefer to focus on advice. The information provision has now become so standardised that they consider it relatively simple work. For us, it is actually a step towards more complex services. I am explicitly looking for those kinds of opportunities.’

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Beyond projects

This shift is also changing the nature of employment. Traditionally, BPO organisations hired employees for a single client. With the current tight labour market, retaining talent is becoming more important. ‘It is a shame if an employee thinks they need to find another job when a project changes. That new step could also be within Yource. We have many projects where you can grow.’ De Boer therefore wants to connect employees more firmly to Yource. For example, the management team welcomes new colleagues personally and discusses their development opportunities. ‘You can start with us handling customer queries for a logistics provider. Then you can obtain additional diplomas and go to work for a bank. After that, you can develop further and, for example, conduct mortgage interviews. In this way, you can follow an entire career path within Yource.’

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"We prepare clients for the questions of tomorrow with valuable insights"

Erwin de Boer

CCO Yource

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Spain also plays a role in that continuity. Yource now has nearly 1,200 employees there, mostly Dutch and Flemish people who have consciously chosen a life there. By also offering banking services, the company can better align with their previous work experience.

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From scale to value

For De Boer, the biggest change lies in what Yource has to offer its clients. Scale and locations remain important, but he wants to look further. ‘Our size and our locations are a solid foundation. But the question that drives me is: what extra value can we add for clients?’ His answer lies in the approximately 25 million customer interactions that Yource handles annually for the Dutch market. With Yource Insights, the company turns that experience into concrete opportunities for improvement. Yource Insights analyses call transcripts for factors such as friction, repeat contact, and missed commercial opportunities. ‘Customer queries do not arise by themselves. They are the result of something happening elsewhere in the organisation: an unclear invoice, a faltering delivery, or a bug in the app. If we have access to the call transcripts, naturally within the framework of the GDPR, we can uncover these kinds of issues. The client does not need to work with our tooling themselves to achieve this.’

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This changes the commercial conversation. ‘You start in a completely different way: I believe you can first automate a significant portion of these contacts and adjust a number of processes. After that, we can talk about the work that remains.’ The recommendations can have an impact on websites, communication, and processes. For implementation, Yource draws on its own expertise. ‘Otherwise, it just remains a report. We get to work with those insights together with our partners. Only then do you truly deliver value.’

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From hours to shared value

This approach also requires a different way of working together. ‘If we help clients to organise their services more smartly, a model based purely on hours becomes less and less appropriate. That requires a different conversation with our clients.’ De Boer therefore wants to move towards a joint value proposition with clients: determining together which goals and outcomes you are striving for, so that both parties benefit. ‘The question is no longer: how many hours do you provide? The question is: what do we want to achieve together? Less customer friction, higher customer satisfaction, more commercial value. If we contribute to that, we should profit from it together. Then we are on the same side of the table.’ He sees an opportunity here to lead the way. ‘This is the direction in which the market is moving, and I want Yource to take the lead in that. It is not for nothing that we say we prepare clients for the questions of tomorrow. With Yource Insights, we are doing exactly that.’ BPO remains the main focus, but customer contact optimisation is becoming an increasingly important pillar. ‘Every conversation tells you something about your organisation,’ concludes De Boer. ‘The question is whether you are listening.’