The Virtual Branch, the Central Axis of the New Normal

Multinational with Global Presence

Revolutionary Performance

Founded in 1984 in New York City by Phil Friedman, to provide IT professional services, Computer Generated Solutions, Inc. (CGS) developed continually and expanded internationally through organic growth and several acquisitions. Today, it has become a multinational company that drives the revolutionary performance of global, regional, and government agency enterprises in 45 countries through business applications, business learning, and business process outsourcing (BPO) services.

Focused on creating comprehensive solutions that meet complex and multidimensional needs and support critical business activities, its customers include industries such as fashion, clothing, health, commerce, financial services, hospitality, technology and telecommunications, among others. It currently has more than 7,500 employees in different offices, located in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Its Outsourcing division offers solutions to many of the world’s leading brands, including global retailers, healthcare service providers, technology and telecommunications providers and international hotel chains. “Our solutions include traditional BPOs, technical support, customer service, telesales outbound, channel enablement and back office support,” points out Pablo Rossel Estay, General Manager of CGS for Chile and Latin America.

Productivity from home

According to the specialist, the most recent technological challenges mainly entail teleworking. “The pandemic represented a radical change for our industry. We needed to expand operational stability through teleworking, which presented tremendous challenges in the help desk area and to maintain executive uptimes, given that we belong to one of the most in-demand service industries by end users,” and of course the challenges in cybersecurity says Pablo Rossel Estay.

“Therefore, in the first stage we had to mobilize thousands of people to their homes while maintaining productivity levels. In the second stage, we resumed operational control. Technology was our faithful companion on this journey. Thus, people required on our side an important technological effort in matters concerning monitoring, connectivity, among other aspects. To do this, CGS’s investments and efforts worldwide have been extremely positive, allowing us to provide great stability and security to our operations.”

Better Customer Service

Virtual technological environment

Through technology, GGS solved the challenges in communicating with its staff, and was able to replace the physical with the virtual. “The relationships between the customer and the company have moved on to a much more technological environment that requires offering solutions to our clients. In this occasion, we worked with Avaya to deploy a virtual branch that allows us to deliver an innovative, high-impact solution to all of our customers for their service and to address different industries,” explains Pablo Rossel Estay.

“The Virtual Branch solution is being implemented in several parts of the world, where people who used to go to a physical branch to carry on any procedure can now do it from their cell phone, computer or tablet. The virtual branch has an identity recognition process that works with the ID card or passport. Once identified, the customer moves to a waiting room, where activities such as market research or level of satisfaction can be developed - until they are helped.”

It follows a virtual care process, where there are a series of instances such as digital document transfers, digital signatures, where the customer can choose his needs.

“This virtual branch, on the one hand, allows us to drastically improve the satisfaction of our customers, allowing them to take care of business in just a couple of minutes,” and also, generating great efficiencies for our clients, assures the General Manager.

Contact Centers: tip of the iceberg

CGS is proud to offer best-in-its-class services throughout Latin America, including customer service, technical support and telesales, for more than three decades, through a network of thousands of dedicated and multilingual call center agents, located in North America, South America, Europe and the Middle East.

“We support many of the world’s leading brands, including global retailers, healthcare providers, technology, telecommunications providers, government, institutions and hotel companies. Our outsourcing solutions stand out for being innovative, scalable and flexible, and include help desk, technical support, customer service, channel and sales management, and finance and accounting solutions,” says Rossel Estay.

According to the interviewee, this industry has had a before and after following the pandemic. “Before, we only had the phone as a gateway to companies; today, we have omnichannel retailing, which includes social networks in general, chat, email and web.

“We have consumers who are much more empowered, both commercially and legally. There is a process of satisfaction and constant struggle for retention, where companies are fighting over who best serves their clients and the contact center business has become the tip of the iceberg”, he states.

When referring to the future of his industry, he points out: “CGS looks at a much more comprehensive customer service process, where technology plays a relevant role, giving a certain degree of intelligence to simpler interactions and leaving the human space for those that generate more value. The future of the industry is a constant revolution for customers,” concludes Pablo Rossel.