Joining us today is none other than Chris Crowley, CEO at iQor.*
Hot off our recent meetup in Trinidad & Tobago, Chris is spilling the beans on:
📈 iQor’s reasoning for scaling to 5,000 employees in Trinidad
⚠ Challenges of operating the leading BPO on the island
🏝 The unique traits found in the Trinidadian talent pool
🤖 How AI is influencing iQor's upskilling strategy
Let's get into it!
*Fun Fact: Chris appeared in the first-ever issue of BPO Bullhorn on February 1st, 2024 🤯
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Q: What’s driving the ambition to scale iQor’s Trinidad and Tobago operations to 5,000 employees through 2025?
A: Trinidad and Tobago is an incredibly exciting location for us. It’s an English-first nearshore market with access to a highly educated workforce and untapped pools of talent with lots of opportunities to expand across the island. We also experience very low attrition there due to limited BPO competition in the market, something I’d like to see change for the country.
From a KPI perspective—across sales, retention, support services, and collections—our performance is solid in the country. It’s been excellent for scaling seasonal work, whether in healthcare, retail, or financial services, allowing us to meet client needs with ease.
And frankly, we want to maintain a dominant position in this market. As it becomes more familiar to our prospective clients and more companies enter the country, we want to scale enough to hold a competitive edge.
Q: What’s been the number-one challenge iQor has had in T&T since establishing there in 2016, and how have you been trying to solve it?
A: There are actually a couple we’ve faced. Unlike the Philippines or other Latin American and nearshore markets, the lack of a significant BPO presence in Trinidad means it’s tough to recruit leadership locally—people from other industries often lack BPO experience, so we’ve had to invest more here to develop leaders internally than in other locations.
We have a leadership program called iLead, which is aimed at developing agent-level employees to learn supervisory and support skills, and another one called Level Up, which equips supervisors for senior roles within our support structure.
The second challenge is promoting the industry in Trinidad. For this geography to thrive, we need to elevate Trinidad to the same level of consideration that other established locations enjoy. When bringing prospects to Trinidad, you need to put effort into “selling” it as a location, convincing them to consider Trinidad alongside Colombia, Mexico, and Jamaica, which often go through the selection process more easily.
I firmly believe that for English-speaking work, Trinidad is as good as—or better than—these locations, particularly in terms of scale, cost, and performance. We just need to make sure that our clients and prospects understand that.
Q: What unique traits within the talent pool—or potential drawbacks—could influence how you grow in Trinidad?
A: As I mentioned, the workforce is highly educated, readily available, and has a strong desire to work in BPO. However, due to the country’s dominant industries of manufacturing and oil & gas, travel, hospitality, and service haven’t been as prevalent in Trinidad as they are in other countries.
So, from a soft skills perspective, we’ve invested heavily in training our employees in empathy, listening, resolution, and professional engagement to provide genuine customer service—we can’t assume the next 2,000 candidates we need will naturally come with those skills.
The local leadership team and entry-level employees embrace this approach and recognize that there’s a standard we need to meet to support US or multinational consumers. Everyone is fully open to the training and support we provide to help them adapt and succeed here.
Trinidad and Tobago’s talent pool has all the qualities to compete successfully. If we continue making progress with soft skills—especially in empathy and customer service—the country will be at the top of the heap.
Q: As iQor evolves its AI strategy, what’s the medium-term vision for upskilling and utilizing your growing workforce in Trinidad and beyond?
A: Our approach at iQor is grounded in adaptability rather than fear of change. We’re looking at how we can ensure our workforce stays relevant as AI becomes more integral to the business.
One critical area is the simulated training we provide. Our tool enhances people’s ability to deliver services effectively, shortens the training timeline, and leads to better performance. Some of our clients have confirmed that it’s yielding better sales results, stronger collections, and higher NPS. Plus, our AI Predictor tool allows us to proactively address employee dissatisfaction or potential issues, which is reducing attrition for us in T&T.
It also connects back to our iLead and Level Up programs. As we train our employees for higher-level roles, we’re teaching them how to leverage AI to support and benefit their teams, as well as helping them understand how business transactions will likely evolve.
For now, there’s a tremendous opportunity for outsourcing more complex work that remains cost-effective. While I believe AI will reshape the industry, I don’t see it as a threat to our existence—it’s just the next stage in an industry that’s constantly evolving.
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Connect with Chris on LinkedIn here to continue the discussion or learn more about iQor here. You can also read our field report on Trinidad & Tobago here.