Recognition highlights the Startek commitment to building an engaged, motivated and high-performing workforce

Manila, Philippines – August 14, 2025 – Startek®, a digital-first global customer experience (CX) solutions provider, today announced that Startek Philippines has been honored with the Silver Award for Excellence in Employee Engagement at the HR Excellence Awards 2025, presented by Human Resources Online on August 7 in Manila.

The HR Excellence Awards celebrate outstanding achievements in HR strategy and execution, recognizing organizations that set new benchmarks for people practices. Competing against organizations across multiple industry sectors, Startek Philippines was the only BPO to receive recognition in this category.

This award honors the company’s effective strategies to engage and motivate employees, initiatives that prioritize employee voice and recognition, and forward-thinking policies designed to deliver long-term impact. From creating inclusive feedback channels to implementing innovative recognition programs, Startek Philippines continues to embed engagement into its culture—driving organizational success and business growth.

“At Startek, employee engagement is a strategic driver of business performance,” said SM Gupta, Global Chief People Officer, Startek. “By creating a culture where every voice is heard, contributions are valued, and growth is nurtured, we empower our teams to deliver exceptional outcomes for clients. This recognition reflects how our people-first approach directly translates into higher productivity, stronger client partnerships, and sustainable growth.”

The rigorous two-step evaluation process included an in-depth submission of Startek people practices, followed by assessment from a distinguished panel of judges. The Silver Award reflects the company’s ongoing commitment to creating a workplace where associates feel empowered, supported and motivated to perform at their best.

About Startek^®

For over 35 years, Startek has been at the forefront of customer experience management, serving the world’s leading brands. Operating in 13 countries with more than 38,000 associates, Startek delivers personalized experiences across voice and digital channels. Clients span diverse industries, including telecommunications, retail, e-commerce, financial services, and travel.

To learn more visit www.startek.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

About The HR Excellence Awards

The awards were established in 2012 to provide an incubator platform for HR teams to showcase their HR strategies and initiatives. Over the years, it has evolved from showcasing great practices, to a benchmarking stalwart across industries. The first edition of HR Excellence Awards Philippines launched in 2022.

Fundamentally, the ideology underpinning the awards remains the same: Honouring best-in-class HR teams and individuals for their spectacular work executed across the entire HR function. It aims to bring together talented HR professionals as one force to champion the way forward.

Media relations

Twinkle Sood
Startek
Media Relations
twinkle.sood@startek.com

Call centers are among the busiest departments in any business, with agents handling a high volume of voice and non-voice inquiries related to various aspects of the company’s operations, such as billing, shipping, and logistics. These agents serve as the face of the brand in every interaction, requiring them to input data, attentively listen to customer needs, provide accurate information, and deliver a consistent positive experience in a rapidly changing environment. To enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of call center operations, businesses should consider implementing call center best practices, such as call center automation. This advanced call center technology can streamline processes, improve response times, and enable agents to handle a higher volume of inquiries, all while maintaining a high level of customer service. By adopting call center best practices, businesses can ensure their call centers are operating at peak efficiency, providing a positive customer experience that reflects well on the brand.

In this blog, we discuss what call center automation is, the types of automation available, key benefits and why automation is a perfect fit for call centers in today’s digital-first world. 

Discover the latest contact center automation trends driving efficiency in customer service.

Call center automation refers to the use of technology to streamline and enhance the efficiency of various tasks and processes within a call center environment. The goal of call center automation is to improve the overall customer experience, increase operational efficiency, and reduce costs. This can be achieved through the implementation of various tools, software, and systems that automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, allowing human agents to focus on more complex and value-added activities. 

Call center automation supports processes within customer service, IT operations, digital marketing and finance. In call centers, automation is primarily used to streamline customer service, deliver customer support and fast-track troubleshooting.  

As customers expect immediate, 24/7 service and more personalized interactions, the task of managing customer contacts has become increasingly complex. Agents can find themselves torn between the need to focus on the customer and their needs, and the requirement to deliver, capture and record information. Call center automation can alleviate some of the burden, enabling agents to deliver a better customer experience (CX).  

Dive deep into effective strategies for call center management here.

Call center automation support agents by streamlining processes, reducing workload and enhancing overall efficiency. Here are five ways call center automation supports agents:  

Routine task automation: Automation handles routine and repetitive tasks, such as data entry, call logging and simple query resolutions. This allows agents to focus on more complex and value-added tasks that require human judgment and empathy.  

Knowledge base integration: Automation integrated with knowledge bases and databases provides agents with instant access to relevant information. This ensures agents have accurate and up-to-date information, enabling them to respond to customer inquiries more effectively.  

Call routing and prioritization: Automated call routing systems analyze incoming calls and routes them to the most suitable agent based on factors such as expertise, language proficiency, or previous interactions. This ensures that each agent is handling the types of calls they are best equipped to handle, improving overall efficiency. Additionally, integrating a real time agent assist feature can further enhance agent performance by providing instant guidance and support during customer interactions.  

Predictive analytics for customer insights: Automation analyzes customer data and provides agents with predictive analytics. This information helps agents anticipate customer needs and preferences, enabling personalized interactions and more tailored and proactive service.  

Workflow and process optimization: Automation tools optimize call center workflows by identifying bottlenecks, inefficiencies and areas for improvement. This allows management to make data-driven decisions to enhance processes, leading to smoother overall operations and reducing stress on agents.

Explore the latest trends and technologies in contact center optimization.  

Integrating automation into your call center can have many benefits, including driving cost efficiency and increasing agent productivity. But what type of automation is right for your call center? Here are some of the most popular types of automation used in call centers today:

Stay ahead of the curve by exploring the latest digital customer experience trends.

1. Interactive voice response (IVR): IVR systems interact with callers through pre-recorded voice menus. Callers select from several options using their keypad or voice commands. IVR systems handle multiple calls simultaneously and route calls to the appropriate department or agent, provide information about products or services and even take payments.

2. Predictive dialing: Predictive dialing systems make outbound calls and connect callers to an agent when there is an available agent to speak with. This helps improve agent productivity by eliminating wait times between calls. Predictive dialing can also make outbound sales calls and perform market research surveys.  

3. Workforce management: Workforce management systems help call centers to schedule agents’ shifts, track performance and optimize staffing levels. This type of automation can ensure contacts are answered on time and wait times are minimized.

4. Chatbots: Chatbots handle simple tasks, such as answering FAQs or providing basic customer support. They supplement or replace human agents, depending on your needs. 

Dive into the future of customer engagement with Conversational AI in banking.

5. Data entry and processing: Data entry enables call centers to achieve high levels of data accuracy by eliminating the need for agents to re-key information and automate the extraction of data for reporting. 

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can be used in a number of ways in call centers. One way is to use RPA to automate repetitive tasks such as placing phone calls or sending emails. This can free up agents to handle other tasks. RPA can also be used to handle customer queries.

For example, an RPA bot can be used to provide information about product features or pricing. Additionally, RPA can be used to monitor call center performance and identify areas for improvement.

RPA can also be used to route calls more efficiently, by taking into account the caller’s location and the availability of agents. Additionally, RPA can be used to generate reports or analytics based on call center data. By automating these tasks, call centers can improve efficiency and free up agents to handle more complex tasks.

For example, an RPA bot can be used to ensure that customer information is entered correctly into the system. The bot can also be used to generate reports or follow up with customers after a call.

If you manage a call center, you know that automation can help improve efficiency and effectiveness. Here are five benefits of integrate automation into your call center operations.

1. Better accuracy and consistency – With automation, your agents won’t have to worry about entering data incorrectly, which means fewer mistakes and more accurate data overall.

2. Reduced human error – with automated solutions, you can rest easy knowing that your agents won’t make mistakes when entering data during calls.

3. Enhanced customer experience – A streamlined, error-free experience for your customers will help you keep your brand reputation intact.

“Discover practical tips and best practices for enhancing call center performance by visiting how to improve call center customer service.“

4. Better use of talent – Automation can free agents up so that they can do their jobs more effectively. This means you can use your talent more effectively and deploy your team in the areas where they’re needed most.

5. Better operational visibility – Automation can help you see what’s going on in your business by giving you real-time operational visibility across multiple channels.

With COVID-19 restrictions lifted, the travel and hospitality industry is experiencing a significant rebound in 2023. The Mastercard Economics Institute reveals global leisure travel is up by 31% in March 2023 vs 2019. Travel and hospitality brands competing to attract and retain customers know that customer experience (CX) is a crucial factor in this highly competitive space. 

According to PR Newswire, 56% of customers stated that they would be ready to pay a premium price for a product or service if the brand provides outstanding customer support. Clearly, customers want to explore new destinations across the world but give precedence to convenience and seamless experiences. To cater to this demand, travel and hospitality companies are revamping their CX strategies to attract new customers and retain existing ones. As a result, leading brands are turning to digital solutions to deliver experiences that set them apart. 

The travel and hospitality industry has always been built on exceptional CX as a key differentiator. However, the COVID-19 pandemic put unprecedented pressure on the travel and hospitality sector creating new challenges and exacerbating old ones: 

Shifting customer loyalty: According to a McKinsey consumer survey, the COVID-19 pandemic made customers more willing to experiment with new brands and experiences, with twice the likelihood of trying them compared to before the pandemic. The survey found that 75% of U.S. customers tried a different store, website or brand during the pandemic. This trend is significant for the travel sector, which relies heavily on customer loyalty programs. 

The pandemic – The decrease in travel resulted in a decline in revenue. It also led to a change in consumer behavior, with many guests now prioritizing safety and hygiene when making decisions. 

Personalization expectations: The core offering of the travel and hospitality industry is experience. Consumers highly value personalization in this space and the ability to create personalized experiences plays a vital role in customer loyalty, lifetime value, brand reputation and repeat business. Seventy-nine percent of customers feel that personalized service from a brand is more important than personalized marketing. However, a combination of a lack of data, siloed data, privacy concerns, strict data policies and complex customer journeys can make it challenging to effectively create personalized experiences.  

Siloed teams: With so many stakeholders involved in hospitality, including airlines, hotels and destinations, it can be difficult to ensure consistent communication across all the touchpoints of the customer journey. Customers expect clear and concise communication, especially when it comes to disruptions and changes. 

Managing online reviews: In today’s digital age, online reviews play a critical role in shaping a guest’s decision-making process. Most guests are mobile phone users, meaning the opinions of fellow travelers and diners are at their fingertips and many place more trust in user reviews than official business communication. Therefore, travel and hospitality providers must actively monitor and manage their online reputation, promptly responding to customer feedback and addressing any issues that arise. Failure to do so can result in negative reviews, which can deter potential customers and harm a business’s bottom line. 

Keeping pace with the technology landscape: The travel industry has a lot to gain by employing modern digital systems to deliver excellent customer experience. With changing consumer preferences after COVID-19, it’s more important than ever to provide seamless and personalized experiences to stay competitive. Many travel companies have started using artificial intelligence to offer personalized recommendations and provide customer support 24/7. Those who fail to take advantage of new technology risk falling behind their competitors.

Contactless experiences

Contactless solutions meet two important guest needs in a single step.  

COVID-19 fast-tracked contactless experiences from paperless menus to keyless room entry. Post-pandemic, guests continue to be health conscious. As a result, contactless experiences continue to be a top trend in the travel and hospitality industry.  

Besides health concerns, contactless experiences meet a growing consumer expectation that good experiences are fast, hassle-free experiences. PWC reveals nearly 80% of U.S.-based consumers cite speed and convenience as essential elements in a positive customer experience.  

While contactless technology is fast becoming a must in the travel and hospitality sector, brands must also consider how to find ways to deliver contactless experiences that maintain a personal touch. 

Automation and AI

From answering common queries, booking and canceling flights, and providing travel-related information, travel and hospitality customers are familiar with AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants providing instant support. This enables brands to deliver faster and more efficient service, increasing customer satisfaction and driving cost efficiencies. 

As AI technology advances, the travel and hospitality sector has the opportunity to meet guests’ expectations by taking personalization to the next level. To achieve this, connecting chatbots and other self-service solutions to customer and business data is essential. In the future, personalization won’t be limited to the experience of booking a hotel room or dinner table, it will continue on through the holiday or meal creating a personalized end-to-end experience. 

In addition to personalization, Automation and AI eliminate human errors in the booking and scheduling process, which can reduce customer frustration and dissatisfaction. Automated systems ensure customer details are accurate and that bookings are made according to the customer’s specifications, reducing the risk of errors or misunderstandings.  

Continuous innovation and authenticity

In an increasingly complicated landscape, businesses in the travel and hospitality sector must innovate continuously to stay ahead of the curve. Many brands are experimenting with extended reality technologies, such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to provide their customers with more distinctive and meaningful experiences. In a world of contactless transactions, extended reality creates an opportunity to connect on a more human level. Customers are also looking for authentic experiences, from local cuisine to unique cultural experiences. Travel and hospitality businesses must find ways to promote local experiences and provide customers with a true sense of the destination they are visiting. Combining intelligent routing and the rise of remote working in the contact center, high-value interactions can be routed to local agents who can describe a hotel’s local environment or a venue’s attractions more authentically, Alternatively, virtual reality can immerse agents in a resort almost as if they had been there, enabling them to share its facilities more authentically to potential guests.  

CX is a powerful differentiator in the travel and hospitality industry. Companies that prioritize and invest in CX will have a competitive advantage in the market as a result of shifting consumer preferences and increased market competition. Travel and hospitality brands can increase customer satisfaction and encourage brand loyalty by utilizing technology to support agents and provide unique, tailored experiences. 

To discuss how you can enhance your brand’s CX strategy, contact us.   

Conversational AI is a rapidly growing field that has revolutionized the way businesses interact with customers. From chatbots to virtual assistants, conversational AI technology allows for seamless communication between humans and machines.67% of U.S. millennial internet users would purchase a product or service from brands using a chatbot as they transform your customer’s way of purchasing. 

Learn about the evolution of the virtual contact center in customer service strategies.

Conversational AI has transformed the way we engage with technology. It enables machines to understand and respond to human language and enter into meaningful conversations with people. Conversational AI can change how businesses interact with their customers, streamline communication and automate tasks, resulting in cost savings and increased efficiency, as AI can deliver a better experience for the customer and for the agent. Conversational AI, also known as chatbots or virtual assistants, is a type of artificial intelligence that enables machines to conduct human-like conversations with users. It uses natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms to understand and respond to user input in real-time.

Must Read before implementing: Key insights on chatbot vs conversational AI to streamline your customer support strategy.

The primary goal of conversational AI is to mimic human conversation as closely as possible so users can interact with it as they would with another human being. These systems can be used for a wide variety of purposes, from customer service to personal assistants to retail cx/e-commerce, travel/hospitality /cable/media/telecom

Conversational AI is an umbrella term for a variety of technologies that allow machines to simulate human-like conversations. This includes natural language processing (NLP), machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) algorithms, which enable machines to interpret, analyze and respond to human language. Conversational AI systems can be implemented through voice assistants, chatbots or virtual agents.

Discover the transformative impact of Conversational AI in banking on customer service and efficiency.

A conversational AI system is built on a dataset that the system learns from. This dataset includes a wide range of human language inputs, such as text messages, emails and voice recordings. This data is then used to train the system’s NLP and ML models, which enable it to understand and interpret human language. Once the system is trained, it can begin to interact with users. 

When a user interacts with a conversational AI system, their input is processed by the NLP model. This model analyzes the user’s input, breaking it down into individual components such as keywords and phrases. This analysis enables the system to understand the user’s intent and respond accordingly. The ML model is then used to generate a response based on the user’s input and the system’s training data, using a set of rules that the system has learned over time, which enable it to generate contextually appropriate responses.

Conversational AI works by using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms to understand and generate human-like responses to text or speech input.

Explore how conversational AI in healthcare is transforming patient interactions on Startek’s blog.

Conversational AI is a complex system that requires a deep understanding of NLP and ML techniques. They are used in a variety of applications, including customer service, chatbots, virtual assistants and more.

Chatbots: Chatbots are one of the most common and well-known uses of conversational AI. Chatbots are computer programs designed to simulate human conversation and provide automated responses to user input. They are often used for customer service, virtual assistants and other applications where users need assistance with tasks or information. These computer programs are designed to simulate conversation with human users through text or messaging interfaces and create the ability for brands to deliver seamless, scalable 24/7 support.

Voice and mobile assistants: These are conversational AI applications that respond to voice commands and can perform a range of tasks, such as setting reminders, making phone calls and sending messages. Voice assistants are AI-powered digital assistants that use natural language processing to understand and respond to spoken commands. Examples include Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri and Google Assistant.

Interactive voice assistants (IVA): These are voice-based conversational AI systems that understand and respond to natural language commands, often used in call centers and customer service environments. These are chatbots designed to assist users through messaging apps or social media platforms. They can be used for customer service, shopping assistance and other applications.

Virtual assistants: These are advanced conversational AI systems that can perform a wide range of tasks, such as scheduling appointments, managing emails and making reservations. They are typically powered by machine learning and NLP technologies, accessed through a variety of interfaces including voice, messaging and chatbots. These AI-powered digital agents can engage in more complex conversations with users, using machine learning algorithms to understand the context and provide personalized responses. They are often deployed for customer service and support.

In today’s digital world, customers expect a seamless brand experience and conversational AI offers brands significant opportunities for brands to enhance their customer experience (CX). Conversational AI allows businesses to automate customer interactions and provide quick, personalized responses to their queries, which increases customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.

Personalized conversations: By analyzing customer data and behavior, brands can provide tailored recommendations and solutions to their customers. Personalization leads to a better customer experience, driving customer loyalty and retention.

24/7 availability: Customers can get their queries resolved at any time of the day or night. This leads to improved customer satisfaction as issues are resolved quickly without waiting for customer support during business hours.

Efficient and cost-effective: Conversational AI helps businesses save time and money. By automating customer interactions, brands reduce customer support teams’ workloads, allowing them to focus on more complex queries. This creates efficiency savings.

Omnichannel support: Customers can interact with brands through multiple channels, such as social media, email or messaging apps. Conversational AI can also integrate with customer relationship management (CRM) systems, making it easier for brands to track customer interactions across all channels.

Improved customer insights: Companies can gather valuable customer insights by analyzing customer interactions. This data can be used to identify customer pain points, preferences and behavior patterns. Brands can use this information to improve products and services, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

“Enhance your brand’s reputation by providing a multilingual customer experience that exceeds customer expectations.“

Conversational AI is a rapidly growing field that is transforming the way we interact with technology. By leveraging natural language processing and machine learning, conversational AI systems can understand and interpret human language and generate contextually appropriate responses. As these systems continue to learn and adapt, they have the potential to become increasingly personalized and intuitive, enabling seamless communication between humans and machines. Conversational AI is transforming the way brands interact with their customers. By providing personalized, 24/7 support, improving efficiency, reducing costs and providing valuable customer insights, conversational AI is enhancing the customer experience and driving customer loyalty. Brands that adopt conversational AI will have a competitive advantage over those that do not, as they will be able to provide a superior customer experience in a digital-first world.

Contact us today to learn how conversational AI can deliver positive outcomes for your brand.