A team of young Swedes and Norwegians explore the functioning of small robots placed on desks in a large office. Conversations in multiple languages filter in from other nearby tables. In a markedly international environment, other young people work from computers providing service to clients across Europe. It could be a company anywhere on the continent, but the silhouette of the Vila Olímpica buildings against the Mediterranean sky offers clues through the large windows: it is Barcelona. Born in Singapore in 1995, the multinational Transformative Digital Customer Experience (TDCX) began its business in Europe, taking the city as its epicenter in 2019.
It did so then without offices and with a single employee: Sophie Chelmick. After settling in the Catalan capital from the United Kingdom to promote this project, Chelmick built the company's headquarters in Barcelona "brick by brick." Five years later, the company has 300 employees in the city, who serve European clients from the Vila Olímpica, where TDCX has 2,600 square meters of offices.
From this space, the multinational provides support services to other companies, ranging from pre-sales to customer service, including content moderation and team training. This is the case of the young people who remain grouped around the small robots. They have moved to Barcelona from Sweden and Norway to train in the operation and eventual repair of these machines, designed with a very specific purpose: to automatically dispense medication to dependent people.
The multinational has 94 clients globally, with 11 of them in Europe, and invoiced 494 million dollars in 2022"We offer services all the way through customer assistance. With some companies, we do the whole way; with others, we do part of it," Chelmick explained from the offices, conceived as a dynamic and multifunctional space. The format of the space is a reflection of the company's spirit, which in 2022 it invoiced 494 million dollars, 19% more than in the previous year.
In the first half of 2023, TDCX has seen an 85% increase in its year-on-year revenue recorded in Europe, through the broad customer assistance it offers. "If when talking about customer service one thinks of the typical call center, that is exactly what we are not," claims the now executive vice president of TDCX in Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
In fact, each worker of the multinational specializes in a specific client, given that they perform very specific tasks. "Artificial Intelligence has helped in this regard: AI can do the basics, and we can provide the more complex services." The multinational provides these services mainly to technology companies in various sectors, such as gaming, tourism, digital advertising, and e-commerce, to which the health sector has recently been added, with projects such as these medicine dispensing robots. In Europe, the company has 11 clients, mainly from the digital sphere and the new economy. In fact, 90% of European revenue comes from this sector. Globally, TDCX provides services to 94 clients, including Meta and Airbnb.
The company has 30 offices in 15 cities, all conceived with a spacious, multifunctional design and spaces for employees. "Each of the offices has its personality and its DNA, but all convey the same feeling," highlights Chelmick. She comments on this while walking through the facilities of the Barcelona office, which offers its employees ping-pong tables, a terrace, a kitchen, and even a creativity studio with instruments, streaming equipment for podcasts, and a boxing punching ball.
The staff of 300 employees in Barcelona includes 34 nationalities and 20 languagesThe facilities are part of a Barcelona headquarters that the multinational chose to open in 2019 to continue its expansion and penetrate Europe. He chose the Catalan capital above all for the ease of attracting trained profiles and digital natives, according to Chelmick. Five years later, this gamble translates into a workforce of 300 employees that includes 34 nationalities and 20 languages.
"What made us choose Barcelona were elements such as its communication, technological infrastructures, and being business friendly, but the definitive attraction was that it is a magnet for European profiles trained in the technological field," said the company executive. Chelmick, who also praised the city's "startup culture," announced that TDCX aims to grow in Europe, and will do so by keeping Barcelona as its base.
In fact, since the opening of its headquarters in the Catalan capital, the multinational has opened two other European offices. Located in Romania and Turkey, they add up to a total of 500 workers along with Barcelona, out of the 17,800 employees the multinational has globally. "We want to expand in Europe, and Barcelona will continue to be our headquarter."
So much so, that Chelmick expects the workforce in the Catalan capital to continue increasing next year, reaching between 450 and 500 employees by the end of 2024. And what will be the next steps in this European expansion? "I am always looking at the market to take the next steps, and listening to what customers want," from the vantage point that Barcelona represents for multinationals like the Singaporean one.