24-7 Intouch set to open Athens facility

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This article was published 08/01/2020 (2094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg business process outsourcing company, 24-7 Intouch, is opening its 18th global facility in Athens, Greece.

It’s the company’s first European location to go along with call centres facilities it operates in the U.S., Canada, Guatemala, Colombia, Jamaica and the Philippines.

24-7 Intouch provides customer experience services for large brand name companies including telephone voice contact as well as multi-channel social media services. It also has a growing technology division where it deploys artificial intelligence technologies to automate some of those services.

The company has more than 15,000 employees worldwide, including more than 1,000 in Winnipeg.

One industry expert believes the Athens facility is a sign 24-7 is expanding its market reach to European brands.

“Our global footprint, including expanding into Europe for the first time, is intentional and allows us to move quickly and anticipate future growth of our client partners,” Greg Fettes, co-founder and CEO of 24-7 Intouch said in a prepared statement. “Greece has a thriving BPO (business process outsourcing) industry, and we look forward to bringing over 600 jobs, innovative customer care solutions, and our unique culture to the Athens area.”

The BPO sector typically involves providing customer-related services like tech support, sales and marketing on behalf of global brands.

Chad McDaniel, an industry expert whose Phoenix, Ariz., business Executives in the Know, runs conferences and provides services for a network of about 15,000 customer experience executives, is very familiar with 24-7 Intouch.

“More than ever, companies like 24-7 Intouch are tremendously well-positioned,” he said. “There are a few reasons for that. One is because of the need for the kind of expertise and skills set in technology like using AI for consumer support and enquiry, that 24-7 has. They have the tools, the technology, the people and the capabilities.”

He said the customers of 24-7’s customers — international brand name companies — have greater expectations when it comes to how they deal with those consumer companies and so there is need for greater sophistication in the manner in which the brands interact with their customers. That includes more than just good telephone etiquette. It means lots of social media interactions, for instance, including AI-driven bot interactions.

At 50,000 square feet, the Athens campus will not be one of the company’s largest. Not only are English and French widely spoken in Athens, the company said the expansion will also allow 24-7 Intouch to enhance its language capabilities to include German, Italian, Eastern European and Middle Eastern languages.

McDaniel said over the last 10-to-15 years the industry has been a tough go with an over-capacity of call-centre seats especially in some of the lower value telephone agent work.

He said, “24-7 has been able to really do some successful things for clients like helping them monetize some interactions, upsell and cross sale.”

He said the company has made good investment in technology that allows them to streamline operations, improve efficiencies and reduce costs.

“Finally,” he said, “They have a great employee culture. They really focus on client success.”

The Athens campus is set to open early this year.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca