Motherwell-based customer service specialist Ascensos is to open its first contact centre in Turkey.
Chief executive John Devlin says the multilingual workforce in Istanbul will help the firm to pick up business in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and other parts of Asia.
Ascensos already has contact centres in Motherwell, Clydebank, the Isle of Wight, the Netherlands and Romania. The new centre will be in Istanbul's cosmopolitan business district.
Devlin said: “Turkey is the perfect cosmopolitan hub from which to seize growth in a profoundly changing retail trading landscape. It opens up opportunities for Ascensos to compete in new markets, such as Germany and the Middle East, helping brands reach into the UK and EU as well as to better serve their domestic and regional customers."
Devlin was part of the management team that sold Airdrie-based call centre firm BeCogent to French group Teleperformance in 2010. He co-founded Ascensos in 2013 with former BeCogent colleagues Dermot Jenkinson and Katrine Young. Ascensos' clients include KFC, Game, Aldi, Travis Perkins, Axa and DFS.
He says the move will enable UK clients to win business across Europe but also also brands expand in the opposite direction.
Devlin said: “We see the same global growth opportunities that our clients do coming out of the Covid-19 lockdown, particularly looking deeper into Europe and Asia, although this is a move we began planning before the coronavirus pandemic. We will help them develop those opportunities, using our strong regional connections and innovative, agile customer support culture.
“Our expertise in managing omnichannel customer engagement in the UK, one of the most competitive and demanding markets in the world, is invaluable to retailers based in other parts of the globe."
Istanbul attracts workers from across Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and much of its workforce is fluent in languages such as English, German, Russian, Greek, Spanish and Arabic.
Ascensos executive chairman Dermot Jenkinson added: “The launch of Ascensos Turkey is a key strategic move for us, and Istanbul is the appropriate place to be geographically because of its long history as the bridge between trading worlds.”
