Transformation to the MAX: Sitel’s Vision of Employees Shaping the Future of Customer Experience

Introduction

I recently had a ‘sit down’ with Olivier Camino, Global Chief Operations Officer (COO) and founding partner, from Sitel Group. We were scheduled to talk about company performance and plans for the future when the conversation turned to “Sitel MAX.”

Sitel MAX

The Associate Experience is the Customer Experience

What the heck is MAX you might ask? While the term is catchy and sounds good, what’s really behind the curtain?

Sitel Group’s MAX is an acronym for My Associate Experience. It’s foundational to the group’s vision that the associate experience is the customer experience. Sitel Group’s company-wide initiative is geared to enhance the “associates’ experience” – making their journey more enjoyable and productive – truly helping to shape the future of the company by being involved in decision-making for the group’s global initiatives.

Finally! A company that’s bringing this concept to life – with clear action – by actively engaging with and listening to its 90,000 frontline associates.

The MAX Culture initiative

What impresses me most about MAX is that it represents a complete, global corporate commitment to improving the employee experience through digital and social collaborations with Sitel Group’s own employees. Olivier Camino said this recently, “Our group’s belief that the associate experience is the customer experience is seeded even more with MAX. The better the employee experience, the more successful our people will be at serving our clients.”

Camino adds, “We are building this around our associate experience and the value we bring to customers, each other and the communities in which we live and work. With this new mission, we will celebrate our people, our culture and our group’s go-forward strategy bringing value for some of the world’s best-known brands.”

Celebrating a Company Culture: Impacting CX Through Transformative Thinking

Through its MAX Culture initiative, Sitel Group is proud to be an organization that is defining and aligning its new group brand message directly with its people.

There is a lot of talk about engaging agents in the moving the industry forward, but as industry analysts/observers, we rarely see this taking place in competing BPOs.

Camino has this opinion: “We have always been committed to empowering our people and, in an industry historically described as a transactional business, we are proud to be a Customer Experience (CX) leader that builds with and for our people – going the extra mile to enhance our culture.”

Read more about the results of MAX Culture and the group’s new brand message.

Case Study

The Collective Genius

Figure 1.0 shows that Sitel Group collected data, feedback and opinions from its employee base; information that will form the basis for the development of new brand prototypes that were submitted to a global vote.

Final Thoughts

MAX Hire

Sitel Group is deliberately disrupting other important aspects of BPO success: attracting talent, smart recruiting, testing & hiring and agent onboarding.

The goal of MAX Hire is to inform and accelerate the human decision-making process. At the same time, it guarantees that each candidate experiences a consistent and excellent recruitment experience – no matter where in the world they are when applying for a position.

Sitel Group has come out of the gate to harness a.) Its employees’ voices and opinions and 2.) Building an authentic employer brand. With MAX Hire, it has devised a very unique end-to-end candidate experience, coupled with the technology to leverage and support both.

Olivier Camino concludes with this, “With digital disruption and innovation as the standard in the business world, we are committed to transforming our organization with MAX. We’re putting our innovation roadmap in the hands and minds of our people.”