Closer Than You Think: Why We’re Building CX Teams in Bali That Feel Australian

Few international destinations are as familiar to Australians and New Zealanders as Bali. For decades, the balmy Indonesian island has been more than a holiday spot. It’s where young travellers make new memories, where families return year after year, and where cultural familiarity has quietly taken root.

So when we looked at where to build customer experience (CX) teams that could truly serve Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) brands, Bali was the natural choice. Effective CX isn’t only about scale and cost; it’s about cultural resonance. Bali delivers both, supported by enterprise -grade solutions. That’s why it’s emerging as the ideal hub for Australia nearshore CX.

The Gap: Why Bali, Why Now

Across Australia and New Zealand, CX leaders are grappling with stubborn labour challenges. Attrition in Australian contact centres averages almost 29% annually, and in larger centres it climbs above 40%. Furthermore, most agents are leaving the industry altogether. Layer on wage inflation, high absenteeism seasonality challenges and the rising cost of recruitment and training, and the result is constant operational churn.

At the same time, customer expectations are evolving rapidly. TP’s Global Insights Survey found that 37% of customers now use more than one channel when engaging with brands, and multichannel customers report significantly higher satisfaction and loyalty. Even as technology transforms service, 62% of customers still prefer human interaction, particularly for complex or sensitive issues. This suggests that empathy remains central to great service, even in an AI-enabled world.

For ANZ brands, the challenge is how to meet these expectations while managing rising costs and talent churn. Traditional offshore hubs like India and the Philippines help with scale, but distance and cultural gaps often blunt their effectiveness. That’s the gap we’re addressing with Bali: a near-home, culturally aligned solution designed for ANZ customers.

The Bali-ANZ Cultural Sync: From Tourist Destination to Business Hub 

Indonesia, particularly Bali, has long been Australians’ most popular travel destination, accounting for 14% of Australian trips from 2024 to 2025. In August 2025 alone, Australians made up 21% of all foreign arrivals to Bali, and the island is forecasted to see 1.7 million Australian visitors this year. For New Zealanders too, Bali is gaining popularity, with bookings up 32% year-on-year. 

These aren’t just travel figures. They reflect a lasting relationship that has made Bali part of the ANZ psyche, and equally, made Australians and Kiwis part of everyday life in Bali. For decades, Balinese communities have interacted daily with ANZ visitors in hotels, restaurants, tour services, and retail. This long-standing familiarity means many Balinese already understand ANZ speech patterns, humour, and customer expectations.  

So when we build CX teams in Bali, we’re not starting from zero. The cultural soil is already rich — an advantage that traditional offshore hubs simply can’t replicate. 

Where Customer Centricity Meets Cultural Centricity 

It’s relatively easy to teach product knowledge, policies, or systems. The harder work is replicating empathy, tone, and emotional intelligence (EI) — the intangible human qualities that define whether a customer feels heard and valued. 

For us, customer centricity is inseparable from cultural centricity. Australians and New Zealanders expect CX that is fast, warm, and personal. Bali’s familiarity with ANZ ways of speaking and interacting means TP experts can deliver empathy naturally, not artificially. We also further reinforce this advantage by harnessing the power of EI through empathy coaching, accent training, and cultural fluency programs tailored for ANZ brands.  

And when these EI capabilities are paired with our AI capabilities — faster call resolution, predictive analytics, and workflow automation — the result is service that is both smarter and warmer. With TP Bali’s experts and AI + EI in customer service model, ANZ brands can provide customer care that feels local, at a near-home scale. 

Bali as Australia’s Nearshore Customer Experience Hub 

Bali is uniquely positioned as ANZ’s culturally aligned hub for enterprise-grade CX solutions. Not only is it familiar in culture, it’s also close in time zones and easy to visit, making governance and collaboration smoother. And critically, it’s backed by enterprise-scale infrastructure and talent. 

TP’s new Bali site hosts around 500 customer experts, serving Australian, New Zealand, and global clients across 15+ languages. The facility is designed as a multilingual hub, combining AI-powered solutions with culturally fluent talent to support a wide range of industries. Whether you’re an ANZ brand exploring sales or insurance outsourcing, building a stronger healthcare CX hub, or expanding retail customer service teams, TP Bali provides enterprise-grade solutions tailored to your needs. 

Supporting this is Bali’s growing digital backbone. The island is home to multiple Tier-3 data centres, including Biznet’s facility in Jimbaran, which provides N+1 redundancy and high-speed fiber connectivity. This ensures secure, reliable operations for enterprise clients, in line with Australian compliance offshore requirements. 

In other words, Bali is a quality centre, built to deliver the empathy and efficiency ANZ brands need to thrive, with the infrastructure to back it. Above all, it’s where we calibrate teams that don’t just speak English — they feel authentically Australian and Kiwi. 

Discover how TP Bali helps ANZ brands build culturally aligned, enterprise-grade CX teams.

Contact us today.