Call center is one of those segments that became the basis for mushroom growth of business process outsourcing (BPO) business. Since the time when only non-core segments used to be outsourced, call center activities – despite their immense significance for sales and marketing – were still considered to be better served through outsourcing. With the passage of time, this usefulness of outsourcing has only increased in its benefits for the call center segment. Let’s talk about the top seven of these benefits for today’s article.
1. No limitation of service hours
When you have an in-house call center, you need to have a work day and therefore any customer calls or complaints after hours are gone unaddressed, at least until the next working day begins. While for businesses like banks or hospitals have always needed to have 24×7 services, with the constant pressures of attracting and retaining customers, now almost all B2C businesses need such customer support on the table. With an outsourced call center you can stop worrying about making your customers feel ignored. With more and more BPO companies operating around the globe for companies in all the different time zones, there is round the clock availability of call centers. The best part is that outsourced call centers do not cost an arm and a leg either, so it is a win-win for any business.
2. Less prone to disasters and therefore slow services
Outsourcing companies treat their services portfolio as their core business operations and therefore invest much more heavily in a call center technology and skill set as compared to any other regular business. This means that they have better capacity at handling unexpected power outages, equipment failures, employee absence, and so on. Since customer service is something that cannot be limited to dates and times, and cannot be left to the chance of the capacity of a business, having a partner with the ability to provide call center services non-stop is a great advantage for surviving market competition.
3. More information and useful data
Good call center BPOs handling all calls with care and dedication, but great outsourcing companies collect data in the form of customer feedback. Think about this from the perspective of customers for a second. When you call at a helpline and they bring out your past call data and registered information, doesn’t that feel more trustworthy? This exact same thing happens when you have external employees handling your customers instead of your in-house workforce already frustrated with customers denying all their hard work. Having a call center collect feedback and keep record of complaints also provide you with an outsider eye, unfamiliar with the orders of your company, and therefore in a better position to see the areas that need improvement and the segments with most potential for growth.
4. Improved efficiency and productivity
Taking forward from the previous point in the list, when you have this much relevant feedback from your customers, you can make better strategies for expansion and investments. Along with this, now that you are saving lots of resources in the form of money, time and attention, from not having to maintain an in-house call center, you get to have higher ability to succeed in those better strategies. When your workforce is not burdened with dealing with customers and having to tailor their operational strategies on a day to day basis, their motivation is better, workflow is smoother, and eventually the productivity levels improve overall.
5. Scalability and adaptability
Even with the evergreen business, there can be times of troughs and slower economic periods. If you have an in-house call center, you will need to maintain all your employees irrespective of the workload. There will also be constant and persistent additional expenses and overhead costs. However, with an outsourcing partner on board, you get to reduce or increase the workforce required as per the work requirements. You completely get rid of overhead costs like electricity bills and tea costs, and at the same time you don’t need to worry about hiring or firing employees when your business expands or contracts.
6. Specialized knowledge
Call center outsourcing companies operate with a range of industries operating all over the globe. This puts them in a unique position where they are familiar with different demographics, tastes, trends, complaints, and therefore different factors that work for marketing and improving sales. With such a partner on board, you get access to valuable knowledge to improve your business, while at the same time such expert BPO company is keeping your customers happy irrespective of how different their demands and complaints might be.
7. Lower costs and higher profits
While this factor has been mentioned as part of other benefits before, it is perhaps one of the most important reasons for outsourcing models as a whole. There are two sides to this benefit. On one side you reduce direct costs on the other you invest more resources to departments that directly contribute to your revenues and therefore profits. The world of business is moving towards outsourcing and there are plenty of good reasons for that. This list of seven factors is by no means exhaustive and there is so much more to gain from this model of outsourcing.