TDCX rides the digitalisation wave

THE global Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the push towards digitalisation, which was right up TDCX (Holdings) Pte Ltd's alley as the Singapore-headquartered company is a digital enabler, providing outsourced digital customer care.

Founded in 1995, TDCX is a global leader in business process services, with operations in Spain, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore.

It employs more than 9,000 staff to support crucial outsourced customer experience (CX) services in the digital economy.

These services are offered in more than 20 languages, enabling TDCX to deliver innovative customer experience solutions across the globe; and its offices in the region look after clients in the Asia-Pacific region.

TDCX is synonymous with Transformative Digital Customer Experience, and was named the top winner at the Enterprise 50 Awards 2019, a huge accolade for a new entrant in the prestigious competition.

Its success is attributed to its innovative and client-centric solutions that power business in the new economy, as well as enable digital transformation for clients in the brick-and-mortar economy.

A digital enabler

TDCX's main business model offers a suite of solutions tailored to each client, comprising the three main lines of business: digital customer care, sales and digital marketing and content moderation. Through these business solutions, TDCX functions as a 24/7 customer engagement hub for its clients.

It helps clients manage relationships with their customers through omni-channel digital customer care solutions that in turn ensure a positive brand experience for their customers.

TDCX deploys specialists who provide market insights and develop growth strategies for clients to achieve optimal results with targeted end users, thereby driving online advertising spend. It also provides content monitoring and moderation services to ensure a safe online environment for users.

The company has been proactive in leveraging technology to improve productivity to deliver complex and value-added services for clients. It uses data-driven analytics to provide clients with insightful solutions and recommendations, growing alongside clients on their digital transformation journey.

Over the past two years, TDCX has achieved a compounded annual growth rate of 69 per cent. The strong growth is driven by the acquisition of new accounts and the growth of existing key accounts. TDCX's performance is due to its ability to stay nimble, agile and adapt.

Explained founder and chief executive officer Laurent Junique: "We could have been a lot larger if we had gone for high volume but low value growth. However, by staying nimble and focusing on only high value growth, we have low staff turnover and we are able to attract better clients. Scale does not always bring you the advantage, agility does."

Besides staying agile, TDCX will continue its growth trajectory through selective entry into new strategic markets, to expand its global footprint and to better serve global clients better.

Leader behind the success

Much of TDCX's success can be attributed to the ability of Mr Junique to foresee changing trends and to take advantage of them, giving it the first mover advantage.

Although TDCX began as a telemarketing company, Mr Junique astutely foresaw a shift towards the digital economy, at a time when telemarketing became saturated. He rode the digital wave and moved into offerings such as Digital Customer Care and Account Management, just as the digital space became the next big thing.

In fact, it was his foresight that saw TDCX promote its Work@Home solution, which helps companies develop their work from home capabilities, even before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

This ability to anticipate new trends is linked Mr Junique's belief to stay close to clients to understand their issues. He explained that being close to them allows him "to always be smelling the opportunities and sense where the opportunities are going and to stay agile".

Recognising his role in leading TDCX, he was conferred the 2018 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Outsourced Solutions category, which honours top entrepreneurs from more than 145 cities in 60 countries who have displayed a spirit of innovative excellence.

His advice to young and aspiring entrepreneurs: "Dream big; commit to them; do not be afraid of failure and choose partnerships wisely."

Employer of choice

As a business outsource service provider, employees are an important element in TDCX's business. It requires high-quality talent to meet clients' demands and provide them with value-added outsourced services.

TDCX has constantly sought to be the employer of choice, leading it to be ranked 58th Best Employer in Singapore by The Straits Times and Statista in 2020. TDCX's successful employer branding can be attributed to its continuous efforts to improve and optimise its employees' experience. It was of course done with digitalisation.

In 2017, TDCX digitalised its HR process, and designed new systems as part of its baseline infrastructure. New tracking systems such as compensation and benefits, and staff attrition that utilise analytics to gain valuable insights into staff retention, were added.

TDCX also invested in its employer branding. It was rebranded in late 2019 from Teledirect to TDCX to more accurately represent its new focus as a digital enabler.

Frequent engagement on social media platforms to increase online presence and establish career development frameworks have boosted TDCX's employer branding profile.

These efforts have helped to portray TDCX as a "career accelerator" that "attracts gems and rough stones to turn them into diamonds" through its career process, pointed out Mr Junique.

The strong employee-employer connection gives TDCX hiring power. Mr Junique noted that the hiring power is how TDCX adds value to clients. "When our clients come to us, they want to see that we have the power to hire, we are able to deliver great resources, whether in Singapore or internationally within a short period of time, with a high level of competence," he explained.

Personally, Mr Junique is most excited about the possibility of taking the company to the next level. TDCX, he said, "has arrived at a certain level in terms of scale, reaching the level of being noticed globally."