Optimizing B2B Customer Service Center Locations for Top 10 Energy Company

Executive Summary

Everest Group assisted one of the world’s top 10 global energy companies in developing a portfolio of captive customer service centers, supporting 18 European languages and targeting business-to-business (B2B) customer segments in continental Europe. Everest Group helped the client achieve US$80 million in savings by identifying low-cost locations in Europe and Africa for those customer service centers.

The Client’s Challenge

For this company, B2B customer service delivery had been fragmented, with more than 800 FTEs across more than 30 locations on the European continent. As part of its overall customer services transformation, the company was seeking to consolidate activities into two or three centers in lower-cost locations in order to achieve economies of scale and standardize processes and systems. Identifying the appropriate locations was a major challenge because of the high degree of fluency required in so many European languages.

Insight to Action

Everest Group conducted a detailed assessment of 20 cities as possible locations for the company’s new customer service centers. The objective was to evaluate the availability and scalability of the talent pool for each of the 18 in-scope languages. It conducted the assessment on three levels ranging from basic conversational skills to a native level of fluency. Additionally, Everest Group assessed the cost structure, incentives, operating environment, risks, and talent pool in each candidate city to develop a holistic view that spanned all key considerations.

Impact

Based on Everest Group’s comprehensive assessments and full-scale location due diligence, Everest Group and the client jointly developed a strategy in which the company would operate three customer service centers, located in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Africa. The resulting streamlined customer service center initiative helped drive an overall cost reduction of US$80 million for this energy company’s customer service delivery.