Around the globe, technology companies are looking for more ways to implement AI technologies, outsourcing solutions and other strategies to optimize their operations and deliver a seamless customer experience while also growing their business. In the final installment of this three-part series, Antonio Masis, Vice President of Global Customer Management Services and the General Manager of the Costa Rica location for Shyft Global Services, talks with Charlie Mitchell, Senior Editor at CX Today, about growth opportunities for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and what the future of the customer experience (CX) industry looks like.
For additional reading, be sure to check out the first and second parts of this three-part series.
The following interview was originally published on CX Today on May 24, 2024 in video format.
Masis: The cool thing about Shyft’s “wheel” and our set of services is you get to start anywhere you want. If you choose customer management, we're going to stand up a team that's an extension of your organization and is going to act on your behalf and basically engage with your resellers or end users — depending on how you want us to go and do that — to help develop new revenue for you.
But there might be an opportunity as we're doing that. You might [discover that you] need help from a technical perspective or from a field engineer perspective. We have programs where we're the customer management inside function talking to the resellers and customers, but then we have a global field services business that can be the feet on the street that you need for all the service calls, troubleshooting, servers, etc. — [we can be] that white-label service provider for all of your customers and resellers. We can customize that program and join any points of the wheel as we see fit and as the OEM wants us to scale.
If you think about it, that's where our repair business comes into fruition as well. As we're learning more about the needs of resellers and the needs of the customers of an OEM, there might be an opportunity where they don't have the scale to do all the repair services that they need for all the products that they're putting out in the marketplace. We have a unique part of our portfolio that does this with multiple centers spread around the world that can support OEMs globally. The same can be said for our global supply chain organization and our integration services as well.
We have stories where we've taken OEMs from millions to billions in revenue. We’re always taking into consideration cost optimization, the culture and value and the execution of the services portfolio. It's seamless to the OEM and to their customer base, so the customer base never knows that it's anyone else other than the OEM providing these services — that’s what’s really exciting about it.
Masis: We've actually been talking to a lot of customers about this. The future of our services is going to be based on how our OEMs want us to evolve. And AI is definitely at the forefront of that. Whether it's customer management, repair, supply chain, etc., analytics and AI are definitely a huge part of our future, but that doesn't mean that the white-label, people-led service goes away. We talk to customers all the time — they love talking to human beings; they love that white-glove service; they love knowing that our [service specialists and industry experts] know everything about them and can adapt really well to the needs that the customer has.
But — when we look at ways of being more efficient and optimizing our services — yes, there are ways we can be less manual and we can be much more digitally transformed. So right now, everything that we're implementing in our business model and in our investments is around AI and business analytics because we want to be able to provide insights into the programs we do, which we're already doing today.
With artificial intelligence, there are lots of case studies that we're working actively as of today with OEMs to bring this to market, where maybe it's not AI in the face of the customer, but it’s everything that's going on behind the scenes to make the experience more seamless, especially on the customer management front.
That's what we're really honing in on: how can we be more efficient? Quicker to produce revenue? Smarter with our insights? That's where AI and digital transformation really come in. We've made key investments here and we're going to continue to do that. That's how we continue to scale in the customer management business and we continue to get smarter and add more value for our customers.
Mitchell: Yeah, I really love how you're taking such a customer-orientated approach. I guess it served you so well to this point, it's great to carry that on and continue into the future. I think that's a great place to end today's chat. It's been really great to speak to you today, Tony, so thanks very much for joining me.
With the advancement of technology and the continued desire for human connection, balancing the opportunities of AI with the needs of your business can be challenging. Outsourcing customer management and product lifecycle services to a trusted partner can help you prioritize the core needs of your business while optimizing every step of the way to ensure your customers’ needs are met in the quickest, most-effective way possible.
About the Author