What is an outsource call center?

Defining Outsource call center

What is an outsource call center

Call Center Outsourcing: Pros, Cons & Best Practices

When your client base increases as they grow, the calls for questions and assistance rise. You’ll need ways to meet the needs of your customers without affecting the other operations of your business. This can be accomplished by outsourcing your call center. This article will explain what call center outsourcing is , and how it operates with its benefits and drawbacks, as well as how it can improve customer satisfaction as well as promote your company’s image.

Table of Contents

What is an outsource call center?

What is an outsource call center? Call center outsourcing is the process of outsourcing your customer support tasks to an outside contact center or call center that handles calls or surveys as well as other customer service functions for you. The team from a third party could be located in your area or even offshore.

Outsourcing to call centers allows companies to concentrate their resources on the products and services the reasons for. It allows you to have additional time to develop products marketing, sales, and other vital business processes.

How does outsourcing work?

Contact center outsourcing solutions work to reduce your company’s expenses while maximizing profits while ensuring and generally increasing customer satisfaction. (Sounds like an ideal win-win.)

The outsourcing option you select will be based on your personal goals, expectations and objectives. Before choosing a provider take a look at your needs and ensure you select an outsourcing provider that will be able to cater to the specific needs of your business.

You’re considering delegating the entire customer engagement departments. It is important to delegate customers’ calls in a way that is flexible to meet your individual workflow and SLA needs.

Outsourcing is most effective when it is tailored to your specific needs, while also following trends in the call center that customers have come to expect from call centers.

Benefits of outsourced call centers

There are many benefits of outsourcing your contact centers and other support functions. If you decide to outsource contact centers, here are just a few improvements you’ll observe:

There are many benefits of outsourcing your contact centers and other support functions. If you decide to outsource contact centers, here are just a few improvements you’ll observe:

1. It costs less.

One of the major advantages of outsourcing customer service is that it significantly reduces the cost of a call center. Cost of living for some countries — for instance, India which is the most popular choice to outsource — is significantly lower than those of U.S. Businesses. These countries pay employees lower salaries, which saves your business money.

2. Your company can save time.

Interviewing the hiring and training of employees at call centers can take longer than anticipated. It is important to ensure that your employees are able to communicate with others as well as gain an understanding of the products and company and resolve customer issues. An outsourced call center could relieve some of this burden off the shoulders of your business by managing the staffing. So, you’ll be able to focus your attention on other internal tasks that need your focus.

3. It's helpful for international expansion.

If your company is internationally based or is contemplating expanding internationally, it’s beneficial to outsource call centers. Particularly, it’s advantageous to have call centers located outside the countries that you’d like eventually to begin doing business. In this way, there’ll already be a local call center operating with workers who are fluent in similar languages and who are an integral part of the culture.

4. There's an increase in flexibility.

The call center workers who are outsourced are employed by your company as they are needed, instead of being full-time employees. If a business has changing requirements, they are able to quickly and easily assign call centers to meet these demands, knowing they will not be charged for shift changes or pay overtime. Instead, the employees will be compensated for the time they work on the phone.

5. You can provide 24/7 customer service.

24 hour customer support is a requirement demanded by customers. It’s expensive for local workers to work night shifts.

If you have an outsourced phone center, you will be able to provide 24/7 coverage day simply through having employees from other countries work during the time of the day. Time Zone differences will make the coverage available 24/7 without having to schedule additional shifts.

6. You can easily transfer overflow calls.

There are specific times of the year that have a greater number of calls than normal such as during the holiday season. At these times, it might be challenging to handle an unexpected increase in calls from customers. With an outsourced call center, whose task is to handle calls that are excess calls, you are able to move calls over to them with no hassle.

Best Practices for Outsourcing Your Call Center

Keep Mission-Critical Concerns In-House

The processes that are crucial to the well-being of your company must be in-house, and managed with utmost diligence by a staff. Outsourcing can lead to issues related to regulatory compliance, operational security and a host of other issues in the case of top-secret design plans, the core product or service designs, etc.

Define Procedures in Detail

Businesses operating in industries that have strict compliance requirements must pay attention to the clarity with how they communicate their instructions to potential outsourcing companies. Instructions should be presented with specific details for each task you want to outsource, so that the task is handled efficiently.

Best Practices for Outsourcing Your Call Center

Call center outsourcing is a complicated subject with a myriad of factors to consider before diving into. But, the advancements in the breadth of services and uptime, cost, and efficiency have made it an excellent choice for various business models.

Disadvantages of Call Center Outsourcing

The outsourcing of your call center will aid in saving money and increase customer satisfaction however, it also has a few disadvantages. These are the most important negatives.

  • Loss of Collaboration and Control: Because call center employees are not part of your business Call center outsourcing can be a source of difficulty for collaboration between the support team as well as other teams, like marketing and sales teams. Additionally, you have no control over the individuals who are in charge of your customer service as the agency employs anyone they feel is suitable. They could be people that you have not chosen for your company.

 

  • Lack of Industry Knowledge: Outsourced call centers usually provide support to many companies, meaning they may not have a specialization in the field you work in. In addition, as they are not part of your business, they typically lack knowledge of the company’s values and objectives. While they’re trained to deal with customer concerns, they may not have the knowledge of the product, which typically can affect how they handle complicated calls.


  • Lack of Feedback: Businesses often discover ways to improve their products and services when customers provide comments or feedback about particular aspects of their offerings. While outsourcing to call centers gives you statistics on processed inquiries and issues resolved but you’ll likely not get details about the clients’ actual needs and miss out on their unique issues, which can hinder your business’s growth.

Top Call Center Outsourcing Companies

Nextiva Logo

Nextiva

Nextiva the software for call centers enables agents to manage a call center completely in the cloud. This means that your independent agents will be able to attend to your customers from any location. Additionally, you can manage all of your customer service functions using NextivaONE. NextivaONE platform, which means there’s no requirement to buy or purchase new hardware.

The basic plan offered by Nextiva includes the auto attendant feature, as well as toll free number as well as unlimited video and voice calling, and the ability to use it on mobile devices as well as desktop applications. The plan also offers higher levels that include more features and allow you to pay less for your team to expand.

Five Star Call Centers Logo

Five Star Call Centers

The call center offers both outbound and inbound calls as well as consultations. It is particularly praised for its outbound services which include cross-selling and upselling cold calling, recruitment as well as market research, fundraising surveys, reminders for payments and direct mail follow-ups. You can also request that the call center create custom campaigns.

Five Star Call Centers is built specifically to meet your specific requirements, which means you can select only the features you require. There is no requirement to pay for unneeded services.

Global Response

Apart from providing call center solutions, Global Response helps businesses by providing interactive voice response (IVR) along with chat and email support, monitoring of social media as well as order fulfillment. Selecting this company for outsourcing your call center means you’ll benefit from technological advancements that offer real-time information reports, and let you integrate your business operations, allowing you to complete your work efficiently.

TeleDirect Logo

TeleDirect

Ideal for companies of any size, TeleDirect provides call center services all year round. Inbound services are offered like lead qualification, order processing and technical support and calls outbound. TeleDirect’s outbound call service includes conducting surveys and market research, making appointments and generating leads, as well as registering events, and ensuring customer retention.

Frequently Asked Questions

Outsourcing and insourcing call centers can be described as two distinct methods of managing customer service.

Insourcing refers to the fact that a business employs and trains the company’s own call center employees to answer customer queries. This provides the business with more control over its customer experience, however it could also be more expensive. 

Outsourcing is when a company hires a third-party firm to manage its customer service. It is usually more affordable than outsourcing, however it is harder to manage the quality of service provided to customers.

Here are some helpful tips to manage an outsourced call center:

  • Set clear expectations: Make sure that the company providing your call center knows your expectations regarding call volume, quality and customer service.
  • Communicate regularly: Keep in contact with the call center service provider to discuss the performance of the call center as well as any issues and any changes that are coming up.
  • Monitor performance: Track the performance of your call center provider to ensure they’re in line with your expectations.
  • Provide feedback: Give the call center service provider regular feedback regarding their performance. This will allow them to improve their services.

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