20 Years in the Polish Contact Center industry: A journey towards innovation and Customer Experience

How did the 20-year expansion of a global player in the customer service industry unfold in the Polish market? In an exclusive interview, Grzegorz Baran, Regional Manager and member of the Management Board of Transcom Poland, shares the story on how the pivotal role played by their people-centric approach and cutting-edge technology shaped Transcom's growth trajectory in Poland.

Wiktor Doktór, Pro Progressio: As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of your international company's expansion into Poland, could you share the primary motivation behind Transcom’s decision to enter the Polish market?

Grzegorz Baran, Transcom Poland: Let's start from the beginning of our European story. Transcom was established in 1995, so 28 years ago, by the Swedish investment firm Kinnevik, but quite quickly it ceased to be just a local company and transformed into a business with a European reach. Already in 1997, new branches were created in Sweden, Luxembourg, and Norway.

However, the ambitions were much greater, as evidenced by the expansion to an additional 11 countries in 1999. It was then that we entered such markets as Germany, Italy, or France. Then, from 2000 onwards, we expanded our presence in Northern Europe, opening a branch in Estonia, and two years later in Lithuania. And it is from Lithuania that the history of Transcom Poland begins.

During that period, one of our key clients in the European market was the Swedish telecommunications company, Tele2. The development of this company and the growing demand for customer service centers led to Transcom appearing in our country.

This confirms that both the decision to start operations in Poland at the time and the current development result direct ly from our striving to meet the needs of our clients and support them in the dynamic development of their activities.

Over the span of 20 years, could you provide an overview of your company's growth and expansion? Additionally, what led you to choose Olsztyn as your starting point, rather than a larger city?

Transcom Poland has its officers located in Olsztyn, Gdańsk, Białystok, Elbląg, Poznań, and Grudziądz, and the establishment and registration of the company in Poland took place on July 15, 2003. The choice of Olsztyn as the first headquarters in Poland was the result of several significant factors and favorable conditions of this city for conducting our business.

Firstly, Olsztyn is a city of the right size and fits into our strategy of choosing regional cities or cities of medium size, which we adhere to unchanged to this day. It has the required infrastructure, and at the same time is not as large as the largest Polish agglomerations, which allows doing business in a slightly quieter environment. This city size makes it easier to establish business relationships and gain recognition in the local market.

Another important factor was the proximity of Olsztyn to the branch in Vilnius. The distance between these cities, which is about 5-6 hours by car, enabled efficient management and strengthened the regional coherence of our company.

Finally, it is worth emphasizing the role of the University of Warmia and Mazury, which is one of the key players on the Olsztyn educational scene. The actively operating University is a source of young, ambitious, and well-educated staff, which has an undoubtedly positive impact on business development.

Four years after our debut in the Polish market, in 2007, we opened the second office in Poland, this time in Gdańsk. Our presence in the dynamically developing Tri-City opened new development opportunities, enabling cooperation with clients from various sectors. This city has not only become the official headquarters of our company but also the main service center for multilingual projects, covering languages such as German, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, and French.

Then in 2016, we headed to Białystok, where we decided to open another office. Initially, the smallest branch of Transcom Poland at that time focused its activities on support for customers in the telecommunications industry. Currently, the team in Białystok has over 200 agents, also offering services for a well-known e-commerce brand.

The next step in our expansion took place in 2019 when we opened a branch in Elbląg, which confirmed our development strategy in both large cities and those of medium size.

The breakthrough year 2020 brought a global COVID-19 pandemic, which made the idea of remote work, long promoted by us, gain significance and forever changed the way of work. Currently, about 60% of people in Transcom Poland work remotely or in a hybrid way, often from all over the country. Despite these changes, we continued to look for new locations that offered access to skilled workers, especially those fluent in foreign languages.

For this reason, in 2021, we decided on Poznań, which is characterized by enormous potential in terms of access to foreign-language talents. Today, next to the office in Gdańsk, Poznań serves as a so-called Multilingual Hub, where we mainly concentrate multilingual projects and employ over 130 people.

Maintaining the pace of development, in 2022 we opened our latest branch in Grudziądz. This office, like the one in Elbląg, is dedicated to Polish-language projects.

Traditionally, call center services have been associated with telemarketing. How does Transcom differentiate itself in this regard? Could you outline the range of services provided by your Polish operational centers?

Transcom is a company with a multi-aspect range of activities, and its services go far beyond the traditional concept of telemarketing. Of course, so-called outbound projects and sales constitute one element of our offer, but currently, they account for about 20% of our operational activity.

The scope of our services is much broader, their range is definitely better reflected by the term "Customer Experience Services" (CX), and our operations are diversified and tailored to the individual needs of our clients. At Transcom, we deal with all interactions and experiences that the end-user has in contact with the brand of our Clients, starting from the first contact, through the purchasing process, after-sales service, up to potential technical support, service, and complaint handling.

In summary, we contact our clients' customers using all available forms of communication such as telephone, chat, email, SMS, messaging platforms, or video calls. We offer comprehensive contact center services, including both inbound, outbound, and back-office support, as well as technological and process consulting, and tools and services in the field of digital transformation for a wide spectrum of sectors and in many languages.

Could you elaborate on the markets Transcom serves? In comparison to your international clients, what is the significance of the Polish market for your operations?

Transcom Poland is part of a very large and efficiently operating international organization. Operating globally, we are present in 27 countries, where we conduct activities in 85 different locations. In our daily work, we support over 300 of the world's largest brands and 30 thousand Transcom consultants speak in 33 languages.

In the global structure of our company, Transcom Poland is part of the Central Cluster. This is the largest unit in our organization, which, in addition to Poland, also includes such countries as Germany, Spain, Portugal, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, North Macedonia, Egypt, and recently Greece.

Transcom Poland occupies a solid and established position as one of the most developed, dynamic, and organizationally mature national branches in our company. Although our main activities are concentrated in the Polish market, we also serve most of the key European markets from Poland. Our services reach Germany, France, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Scandinavian countries, as well as the Baltic countries, which confirms our ability to operate effectively on an international scale, and the potential of Poland as a provider of near-shore BPO services.

With the recent surge in discussions surrounding artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies, how have these advancements influenced and transformed your working practices?

Market analysts unanimously emphasize that the CX industry is one of the first areas of activity that can benefit from the developing artificial intelligence (AI). At Transcom, we share this belief and are confident that AI will revolutionize work in our sector. I believe that artificial intelligence has the potential to take the customer experience to a completely new level, combining an unprecedented leap in efficiency, availability, and quality of service with the empathy of people – specialists working directly with customers. AI also has the ability to generate additional revenue for companies.

However, the most advanced technology is worthless without the knowledge of how to implement and use it. This is where our team of advisors, which we have created in our global structures, comes into play. With many successful projects behind us, over 300 digital transformations, and over 3000 implementations of digital solutions, we have practical experience on how to do it. We assist companies in identifying AI solutions that are fast, effective, require minimal integration, and at the same time provide immediate return on investment and scalability.

Examples of these implementations include chatbots, co-pilot solutions that help agents quickly find information and solve problems, translation services enabling customer service in any language, or interaction analytics.

It is worth mentioning that at Transcom we have created Automated Translation – an artificial intelligence-based real-time translation solution that seamlessly integrates with any platform, allowing for quick and precise translation of text or speech. Thanks to this tool, we are able to deliver 99 languages from any place on Earth, and it has enabled us to streamline the operations of many of our clients.

With six branches and a substantial workforce, what are your plans for the future? How do you envision the continued growth and development of Transcom in Poland?

20 years of operation, 6 locations, and over 1100 members of the Transcom Poland team is a significant milestone, but we do not intend to stop there. I am convinced that we still have many challenges and development opportunities ahead of us. I believe that our company will continue to be innovative, flexible, and open to change.

Transcom draws its strength from two pillars. The first of these is our employees, whose talent, commitment, and knowledge are invaluable. The company's success is the result of team work, hence we are constantly striving to create a working environment that stimulates creativity, innovation and allows for effective collaboration. The key goal is continuous improvement and maximum customer satisfaction.

The second pillar is modern technology, supporting people, which combined with our rich experience enables effective digital transformation in the area of CX.

At the heart of our culture are people. It is for them and with them that we work. In a dynamic environment and at a rapid pace of change, the foundation for Transcom's development will continue to be a focus on people and simultaneously on technology, which provides a competitive advantage.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your future successes. Thank you for the conversation.

This article comes from magazine:
FOCUS ON Business #12 September-October (5/2023)