Jamaica is creating waves being credited with superior customer experience (CX) in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector.

The positive CX experience is such that the island is being sought after by international BPO companies to set up operations locally. Jamaica has steadily grown as a CX destination over the past two decades. In fact Ryan Strategic Advisory, which provides consultancy services in the BPO, is trumpeting the island for its admirable record in the area of CX, noting “Jamaica’s positioning is highly favourable, not only from a nearshore perspective but also for demand markets further afield.”

The island is credited with also being in a favourable position, as it regards both third party companies and their clients actively looking to rebalance their delivery footprint in favour of value-driven destinations like Jamaica. Ryan Strategic Advisory has assessed that, “for English-language requirements, it is ever more apparent that Jamaica offers notable advantages for BPOs. Several recent outsourced customer management investments on the island nation are the most recent validation of Jamaica’s promise”.

Rapid expansion of BPO providers in Jamaica

Jamaica has long been a hub for servicing North American consumers from Montego Bay and Kingston, both of which rapidly expanded their stock of local and global providers. In fact Jamaica’s native English and strong familiarity with enterprise buyers proved key in its BPO development, resulting from the ongoing investments in infrastructure made by successive governments.

Today, the Jamaican CX landscape counts local success stories led by itel, the Caribbean’s largest home-grown outsourcing firm, which operates alongside the largest providers in the world including Teleperformance, ibex, Concentrix, HGS and Alorica, among others. Ryan Strategic Advisory has commented on the rapid BPO growth in Jamaica citing, “more remarkably, Jamaica’s inward outsourcing momentum shows no sign of slowing”.

Recent industry press releases give a sense of how Jamaica is at the forefront of BPO CX discussions with local BPO operators announcing expansions with other new players announcing their entry into Jamaica. Ibex announced earlier this year the opening of a new campus in Portmore, St Catherine, adding to its already significant presence in Jamaica.

In addition, the rapidly expanding outsourcing player, Iterum Connections, which recently opened a new site near Kingston that houses nearly 1,000 workstations. Transparent BPO plans to expand its geographic footprint into Jamaica in the coming months with a new site in Spanish Town, St Catherine.

Also, with its announcement in September, Ventrica became the first UK-based outsourcer to open a standalone facility in Jamaica. Ryan Strategic Advisory argues that such growth does not come by chance whilst questioning what is driving this interest in outsourced CX delivery from Jamaica.

The consultancy company posited that a big reason for this trend relates to client favourability. In the most recent Front Office Omnibus Survey of over 600 enterprise CX decision-makers conducted by Ryan Strategic Advisory, Jamaica was one of the top five most favoured delivery points among North American respondents.

Jamaica most favoured in The Americas

In addition, Jamaica was also the most favoured destination in the Americas, which is a fact not lost on outsourcers tasked with servicing the end-users of Canadian and US clients. There is also the quality factor.

Jamaica is seen as one of the leading destinations for providing sophisticated support in native English, offering one of the best quality/cost rapports anywhere in the world. This is done in an environment that is stable in terms of politics, the economy and public security.

Given upheaval in other parts of the CX offshore world of late, Jamaica is in a very strong comparative position. It has also been observed that the extent to which all stakeholders in the Jamaican CX ecosystem, including BPO players, industry associations and public bodies, work in tandem to ensure the best investment climate should not be underestimated.

Finally, Jamaica has a budding overseas opportunity in servicing consumers in different parts of the Anglosphere, as Iterum Connections and Ventrica have both made it clear that supporting British end-users is part of their strategic plans for their respective Jamaican deployments.

Others Jamaican BPO operators are certain to follow suit, effectively making Jamaica no longer just a nearshore hub but a global offshore destination of choice. Global outsourcers are pressured by clients in English-speaking demand markets to find quality, stable delivery points, which is where Jamaica stands out.