Nidal Afid, the decisive Moroccan agent for Intelcia in Egypt?

Can one woman, one man, just one make a difference in competitive businesses such as customer relations and BPO? This is the question that this month's two witnesses attempt to answer: Nidal Afid, Director of Operations, and Didier Rus, Head of Sales at the same company, Intelcia, the smallest of the major BPOs. Another witness helps to answer the question: Saqr Fassi Fehri, SVP Guests and Hotel Services at Accor.

‘When I'm looking for a new service provider in a new area, I don't want call centres with more than 200 workstations. I prefer to open another one. For example, we chose to start working with Intelcia because their regional director, Nidal Afid, is remarkable, as are the teams, and Karim (Bernoussi) has been very involved. This is to serve our growing customer base in the Middle East’ (Saqr Fassi Fehri). 

‘People can make a difference’ Nidal Afid.

Nidal Afid is Director of Operations for the US region at Intelcia, whose Egypt cluster is starting a collaboration with Accor. Nidal started out as a customer advisor. Didier Rus, for his part, started out in the business with a BTS in Tourism.

Nidal, what has shaped you professionally?
I'd say continuous learning, exposure to different business sectors, customers and types of operation, not forgetting the opportunities for career development. It's all these things that have shaped my convictions and made my career possible. I started out in operations as a customer advisor and worked my way up. At each level, in each new position, I had to acquire new skills, new professional qualities, facing new challenges, learning how to ‘read’ a new business.

Do you think that the value of senior management and operational staff can make the difference between two major outsourcers?
Absolutely. With the same size, similar investment capacity and equivalent development strategies, people will make the difference. On the whole, all the major BPO players use the same strategic levers: innovation, artificial intelligence, attractive locations, appropriate tools and technologies. The difference lies in our management approach and our people.

I think that's where Intelcia really stands out, because we're committed to turning our managers into entrepreneurs who take the initiative.

The way Intelcia managed the Covid period is a good illustration of this. In such a difficult and disruptive situation, we chose to preserve salaries and jobs, and to help our customers by being flexible, empathetic and aiming for a long-term partnership. In this way, we were able to help them open in other geographical areas, adapt their working hours and maintain their teams. Customers and employees alike have been grateful for the efforts made. The quality of the management and operational managers has been decisive, as they have been available, responsive, able to listen to employees, explain and lead these operational changes rapidly, and with genuine internal solidarity.

WFM, speech analytics, recruitment tools - what do you see as the game changers in this business?
They are essential, but they don't change the game. They only become effective and efficient if they are used, criticised, seen and implemented by the team using them.

(On this subject, read with interest the article on the Cash Investigation report on the Banque Postale and its alleged inappropriate use of Quality Monitoring. EDITOR'S NOTE)

The game changer is therefore your ability, whatever the sector, to listen to and understand your customers' targets and customers. You can't claim to be a serious outsourcer if you don't have the right tools. But to deliver the extra milestone you're looking for, you need people who know what they're doing.

What markets do you cover from Egypt, and what professions are practised within the Intelcia cluster?
From Egypt, we serve the American and English-speaking markets in general, and the European market in particular for pan-European customers who want a multilingual hub. We also cover the Middle East market, and from next year we plan to work with local Egyptian customers.

‘I've seen shy young women turn out to be incredible performers on a sales stage’. Didier Rus 
In the following interview and podcast, the Moroccan-born Didier Rus talks about his career. With just a BTS in Tourism, the young man began his career on various travel agency platforms, at Look Voyages and elsewhere. He was soon spotted, even though he talks a lot with his hands. ‘Selling in Morocco is in everyone's blood,’ he says. How do you find the right telemarketers, use Linkedin or intentional leads, win the decision in a tender thanks to a goal scored in stoppage time? Didier Rus tells us what he has learnt, and what he has deconstructed in his convictions since he started out in Ivry-sur-Seine. In 1994.

Readers will note that these two executives, with their eloquent careers, started out as simple telephonists or counter salespeople.

Discover the podcast devoted to them in the series: The kings of phoning and telesales, with hipto.

The En-Contact editorial team.