If you are unfamiliar with what call center outsourcing is, then fret no more. This term is commonly used when businesses are looking to strategically get the help of a third-party organization in order to manage call center and customer service operations. Outsourcing has gained a lot of attention in recent years, as larger companies have been reaching out for outside help in order to improve their businesses. Large and very successful businesses have claimed to outsource some parts of their call center workforces in hopes of cutting costs and increasing sales.
Call Center Offshoring Benefits
This type of outsourcing is the strategy of obtaining an outside service provider located outside of your home country, in order to manage and operate your call center. These types of external service providers can take care of hiring and training all call center agents, maintaining the best type of communication software, and operating the day to day operations. Some companies can pick and choose exactly what they want to be outsourced, such as customer support, sales, marketing, or research. After a decision has been made regarding what parts need to be outsourced, contracts are signed and businesses can begin to stand down with the process of overseeing operations, ultimately trusting the third-party provider. There are many benefits for businesses that come along with taking this approach, and the most common ones are listed below.
- Lower Costs: Previous businesses that have outsourced parts of their call centers in the past have claimed that doing so significantly reduces, and sometimes even eliminates, the costs associated with running a large call center. By reducing overhead, operational, and labor costs, yearly savings can be significant.
- Eliminating Staffing Issues: By employing an external service provider, the hiring, training, scheduling, and managing of staff is done directly through them. In leaving the work to this service provider, your company can save time, money, and the headache of employing a whole new team for any needed services.
- 24/7 Customer Service: This is one of the most important benefits that companies can receive when outsourcing work for their call center. By having a new team of staff that works around the clock, your customers will get all questions answered whenever they need, and receive the support they are looking for.
- Easily handling overflow call volume: All call centers have periods during the day of high call volume, and outsourcing customer services to third party providers will offer your business a solution for this. With more skilled agents there for your customers at all times of the day and night, overflow calls will decrease, leaving your customers satisfied and happy.
- Increasing Business Continuity: All in all, with happy and satisfied customers, your business will meet your client’s needs at all times. Your call center can guarantee 100% uptime, because of servers located in all different areas and working around the clock. Due to this, customers will come back time and time again.
Call Center Offshore Disadvantages
- Linguistic and cultural barriers: By reaching out for help from third-party services that are stationed around the world, some agents that are located overseas may lack the fluency and communication that some customers look for. Because of this, communication skills between both parties might be lacking.
- Decreased control over business functions: When outsourcing your call center operations, you’re ultimately putting all your vital business functions into the hands of strangers. Even though they are professionals, it will be difficult to get across what your business is wanting to go and the direction you are looking to head. Businesses find it a bit more difficult to ensure quality assurance or put policies in place that can increase sales, help the business, and benefit customers.
- Lack of company knowledge: Outsourced agents will be entirely unfamiliar with your company’s culture, practices, policies, and even the values that your employees follow, which might be detrimental in the long run. They also might not be as dedicated to your company as other employees are, which means that their devotion to your clients isn’t as strong. This may reflect on your company’s culture and standards if there is a lack of communication and knowledge.
- Lack of communication and collaboration between agents and employees: In a typical business and office setting, all employees and managers work in the same building. Even if employees work remotely, there is still a chance for them to come in for meetings and speak with other co-workers if needed. Because of this, the flow of ideas and opinions is always flowing and helpful in a work setting. Of course, if employees are hired from overseas there will be none of this happening, which means that collaboration is very limited and could cause issues in the workplace.
- Security and Privacy Concerns: If you have employees that are working in a different country, they might not be subject to the same laws, background checks, and hiring processes that those in your home country are subject to. With that being said, sometimes confidential and sensitive information might be less secure.
Outsourcing Will Give Your Business the Best of Both Worlds
If you liked all the positives of outsourcing some functions of your company, but not all the risk factors involved, then meeting in the middle is key. Instead of diving right into offshore outsourcing, consider hiring a smaller team of global call center agents who work from various different locations. This will offer a solution in the middle, allowing you some of the advantages that make outsourcing so attractive to businesses.
With a smaller team of global professionals, you can easily maintain an extended workforce for a much lower cost and fewer risks. These agents can make and receive calls with a simple internet connection, allowing them to work from home, undergo online training, and be included in business meetings with local employees. A large bonus of hiring a smaller, yet global team, is that your business can handpick the best applicants by using the qualities that you deem most important. After your business has implemented this solution or even chosen offshore areas of your call center entirely, the quality of your company will increase immensely.