

The 2022 ISG Provider Lens™ Contact Center — Customer Experience Services report for the U.S. evaluated 26 providers across four quadrants: Digital Operations, AI & Analytics, Work From Home Services, and Social Media CX Services. In late 2022, HGS was ranked as one of the top 5 Leaders in all four categories.
As per the report, more and more businesses have begun outsourcing contact centers as the market is becoming more demanding and competitive. Customer experience has become a major metric of business performance.
The research report observed that new technologies play a significant role in contact center operations, especially in the U.S. with the acceleration of digital transformation. The pandemic saw the rise of newer and robust forms of customer engagement and advanced tools to deliver those experiences. Businesses have started shifting their contact centers to external service providers to access the latest technology and meet their more challenging business objectives.
A customer’s interaction with the contact center representatives is a direct reflection of the quality of CX delivered. Therefore, several CX trends are redefining the contact center industry in the U.S. and changing the way companies operate.
In the past year, the industry has been largely impacted by unprecedented attrition. Despite the worst being over now, attrition still remains one of the top challenges for the contact center industry. A flexible working environment has become the key driver for attracting and retaining talent, and the industry is actively promoting remote or hybrid working. They have also started relying more on AI and cloud platforms for enhanced recruitment, training, sentiment analysis, employee engagement, and collaborative conditions.
The pandemic accelerated digital transformation into reality, driving many technological changes, such as automation and modernization of the CX space, AI, cloud-first approach, advanced security measures, implementation of the metaverse, analytics, and social media.
The U.S. is at the forefront of introducing modern, highly automated, and cloud-based CX solutions to address the growing industry needs and demands.
The ISG research study defines “Leaders” as those having a comprehensive product and service offering, a powerful market presence, and an established competitive position with product portfolios and competitive strategies that can win business in the markets covered by the study.
The eligibility criteria ranged within each category, but broadly, finalists had to offer an in-depth expertise in each respective domain, the ability to bring in digital capabilities such as automation, AI, cloud solutions and omnichannel support, demonstrate domain and vertical expertise, demonstrate referenceable case studies and ability to offer technology advisory services, with a focus on CX consulting and benchmarking.
The Digital Operations quadrant considers the contact center service providers who offer CX outsourcing with a focus on end-to-end engagement, managed services, and enhanced CX achieved with the help of the latest technologies and domain expertise.
HGS serves a wide range of industry verticals in the U.S., growing organically through investments in industry-specific solutions, as well as its Customer Advisory board, Work Cloud + Hybrid hubs, Sophie™ (a recruitment bot), and Virtual Selling, securing a position as the next-generation contact center.
The AI & Analytics quadrant evaluates service providers on their AI and analytics capabilities and their innovative solutions, including that from within their partner ecosystem, in terms of delivering referenceable business outcomes.
HGS serves clients across seven countries, with the majority of its customer base served by 12 delivery centers in the U.S. in 17 different languages. It has invested heavily in Agent X™, HGS PULSE™, Sophie™ (a recruitment bot), and analytics.
The WFH Services quadrant assesses those delivering work-from-home services in terms of infrastructure and solution, leveraging the latest and highly secure technologies and operations effectively.
53 percent of its overall global revenue generated by HGS is from the 12 delivery centers in the U.S. that provide contact center services. Their established WFH model serves several industry verticals, including healthcare, pharma, travel, transportation and leisure, retail, and financial services.
The Social Media CX Services quadrant focuses on the providers that offer social media services leveraging the latest technologies, integrated seamlessly in secure environments. It evaluates those that provide advanced CX services across a wide range of social media channels effectively.
HGS implements a wide selection of automation techniques in its social media engagements, including its HGS EPIC® solution. Its social media monitoring services effectively track online brand mentions, and the services they provide include response management, social campaign management, automation of customer queries, and scheduling of posts.
Want to learn more about how HGS can help your contact center? Contact us today!
The ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant research series is the only service provider evaluation of its kind to combine data-driven research, empirical research, and market analysis with real-world observations. Their report focuses on contact center outsourcing services and the relevant aspects of enhancing CX.
As business requirements have changed significantly in the past few years, providers are assessed and evaluated based on their service offerings, delivery centers and models, language capabilities, WFH capabilities, global and regional footprint, FTEs, people management and development programs, and digital transformation elements such as AI, cloud contact center, consulting, and analytics capabilities.
This research study focuses on these new requirements, the industry challenges, and the measures taken on both the demand and supply end.
View the full report: Contact Center: Customer Experience Services (PDF)
Prakash Hariharasubramanian, Director & Practice Lead, Intelligent Process Automation (IPA), HGS
Prakash has led various IPA implementations across multiple industry verticals in his tenure of 7 years with HGS. In his role, Prakash develops IPA practice frameworks, creates IPA solutions, and serves as a key automation evangelist for HGS.
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