Frost & Sullivan Honours Horizon Contact Centers for its Highly Successful Competitive Strategies in the Kenyan Market

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Despite being identified as one of the six pillars of the 'Vision 2030' Plan and gaining the attention of foreign investors, the contact centre industry in Kenya is struggling with several issues including poor infrastructure, limited client pool, and high attrition. Horizon stands apart from the competition, having addressed these challenges and exhibited strong overall performance.

The company has a state-of-the-art facility located in Nairobi, which covers 45,000 sq. ft. and can scale up to house over 1,200 agents. The largest outsourcing contact centre in the region, the firm also functions as a fully on-demand international outsourcing firm. Importantly, Horizon effectively allocates and utilizes resources to deliver on its goals.

"The deployment of sophisticated tools has facilitated the integration of people, process and technology, enabling Horizon to perform efficiently," said Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Deepti Dhinakaran. "The operational strategy that is the key to its success involves assigning a dedicated team to work in collaboration with the client team to understand business requirements. This allows Horizon to deliver the highest quality of services and improve time to delivery."

Horizon's operational model enables it to complete each project in 3-4 weeks as opposed to timeframes of up to 3 months which is subject to client needs and program types. The strategy has driven up operational efficiency by 60% percent. Further, the minimum contact duration with customers is 4-5 years, which is in line with the strategy of focusing on retaining existing customers first and then acquiring new customers.

Importantly, the company creates strong, knowledgeable and dedicated teams, which fosters both client and employee satisfaction. Continuous training and assessment of employees at all levels of the workforce allows the firm to identify high potential candidates for managerial roles. The average tenure of call centre agents in Horizon is 2 years while the attrition rate is 10 percent compared to the 15 percent of the overall Kenyan BPO and contact centre industry. Furthermore, the installation of client relationship management tools has helped the firm to track escalation and respond quickly to first-level complaints.

"Most contact centres train their agents to offer services in multiple industry verticals, but Horizon focuses on a single industry so that agents develop extensive expertise and add value to the firm," noted Deepti Dhinakaran. "In fact, 70 percent of Horizon's growth is attributed to efficient internal operations, and the remaining 30 percent to strategic initiatives to improve back-office functionality."

Another crucial differentiator between Horizon and its competitors is that the former goes far beyond standard contact centre services. In addition to basic services such as inbound/outbound contact centre services for voice, chat and e-mail; finance, accounting and procurement; and HR, payroll and marketing services, Horizon offers learning and training, market research, analytics, recruitment, database warehousing and customized software solutions.

"Horizon's operational strategy that focuses on continuous improvement is coupled with service diversification," noted Deepti Dhinakaran. "Most competitors focus on providing services to a few verticals such as the telecommunications and banking and financial industries. Horizon targets a wider range of industries, including insurance, media, retail, manufacturing, government, energy, pharmaceutical, electronics, and non-profit government organizations (NGOs), among others."

Overall, Horizon's competitive strategies have helped it combat the decline in domestic demand and enabled its clients to see the value in outsourcing their non-core activities. For its strong performance, Horizon earns the 2015 Frost & Sullivan Competitive Strategy Innovation and Leadership Award. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has leveraged competitive intelligence to successfully execute a competitive strategy that results in stronger market share, competitive brand positioning and customer satisfaction.

Frost & Sullivan's Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for outstanding achievement in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research.

About Horizon Contact Centres

Horizon Contact Centers is East and Central Africa's largest outsourcing contact center. As pioneer in the BPO industry in the region, we provide multichannel contact center solutions. Currently, servicing the global market across 13 countries in 3 continents and growing.

Mission
To establish a market leadership position in contact center and BPO services in Kenya and the region. We shall achieve this by utilising the talent pool Kenya has to offer in developing best labour force in the industry, leveraging Kenya's well developed information and Communication Technology infrastructure and providing an innovative and progressive approach to our clients thereby delivering real value.

Vision
Our vision is to be Kenya's premier provider of contact center and BPO services to local, regional and global customers.

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Contact:

Mireya Espinoza
P: 210. 247.3870
F: 210.348.1003
E: [email protected]

Nezaam Solomons
P: +254 20 6987000
E: [email protected] 

Website:  http://www.horizoncontactcenters.com

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan

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