As a frontrunner in digital customer experience (CX) solutions for technology and blue-chip companies, we speak with the Group Chief Operating Officer of TDCX, Angie Tay, as she spearheads a new Digital CX Center of Excellence in Singapore.
Q&A WITH ANGIE TAY, GROUP COO, TDCX
Firstly, what drew you to your current position at TDCX?
Angie Tay, Group Chief Operating Officer (AT): After graduating with a degree in Business majoring in Banking, I worked at Singapore’s first digital network operator for a couple of years before deciding to join the Customer Experience (CX) sector. A communicator at heart, I love learning more about people and wanted to be active in problem-solving. I started as a customer service representative and was given opportunities to rotate across multiple departments ranging from Human Resource Planning, Operations Excellence, Sales Enablement Training to Strategic Management.
At that point, I was looking to challenge myself even further and when a role with TDCX became available, I jumped at the opportunity that would become a launchpad for my incredible track within the company. I also took the chance and was encouraged to pursue my Business Administration and Management Executive MBA from the National Technology University of Singapore on top of my day job.
Within APAC, I was empowered to kickstart projects and had the opportunity to head up business management in Singapore, Thailand, China, and Korea. Wearing multiple hats was challenging, but it also brought a lot of networking opportunities with people of diverse backgrounds. Over the years, TDCX grew by leaps and bounds – it built a unique multicultural management model that quickly understood that diversity was a real strength. I was fortunate to be part of the Initial Public Offering (IPO) team, which has led me to be able to work on strategic projects with an international footprint.
What makes TDCX an industry leader in CX?
AT: We have always prided ourselves on our high service standards and our agile operating model. Through our ability to help clients set up CX teams throughout Asia quickly and seamlessly and consistently achieving results for our clients, we have been able to establish ourselves as a market leader for outsourced CX services. We are also humbled to have our strengths recognised through industry accolades. One example is from a leading global technology research and advisory firm which identified TDCX as a leader in all Singapore and Malaysia for our digital operations, work from home and social media CX services.
Our capabilities have been most sought-after by new economy companies that are adopting a digital-first, omnichannel approach toward serving their customers as TDCX has the ability to provide them with tailored and innovative customer experience solutions. One of the key factors that places us at a distinct advantage to help many international companies grow their business beyond Asia is our expertise in managing talents across the globe.
More than ever, great CX depends on the human factor and our highly skilled CX talent, supported by our tech capabilities allows us to present a great deal of opportunity for our clients to achieve positive outcomes such as improved customer satisfaction, sales volume, and reduced costs. We see ourselves as a strategic partner that enables our clients to do more with less and helps them tap into our established service offerings and networks.
In Asia specifically, many Western companies find it challenging to navigate the cultural nuances, language, and regulatory differences. It requires in-market expertise and complex workarounds to overcome barriers such as licensing requirements and talent sourcing, to name just a few – for instance an American gaming company looking to scale quickly in Korea’s burgeoning gaming market. We are able to plug the gap by being their business partner, offering them strategic consult, highly trained talents and technology to set up and scale quickly across the region.
“Our capabilities have been most sought-after by new economy companies that are adopting a digital-first, omnichannel approach toward serving their customers as TDCX has the ability to provide them with tailored and innovative customer experience solutions”
Angie Tay, Group Chief Operating Officer, TDCXWhat led to the launch of your Digital Customer Experience Center of Excellence in Singapore?
AT: The COVID-19 pandemic has changed consumer behaviours, some permanently – and we recognise customer centricity is more crucial than ever. Given customer expectations for faster response times, consistency and human touch, more companies are looking to redesign their end-to-end customer journeys. We want to bring and to create that added value to our relationship and the recent launch of our Digital CX Center of Excellence is a fitting testament to our commitment to our clients. Over the years, we’ve had several clients come to us to advise them on how to enhance their CX strategy and standardise their operations globally. We had been doing this on a request basis but since then, our business has grown considerably, and we are also seeing more of such needs. As such, we made the decision to launch a Digital CX Center of Excellence.
The result so far has been great. We are in discussions with several clients on developing use cases for their needs and through the process, our teams also develop various best practices to increase efficiencies. This has the added benefit of improving our core competencies.
What are your hopes for the Center in the years ahead?
AT: We hope that the Center becomes a clear differentiator for TDCX. In addition to our capabilities as an outsourcer, clients know of us for our consulting capabilities and come to us to solve their most challenging CX issues.
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