How to Overcome the Risks and Challenges of Outsourcing within Call Center Outsourcing
Outsourcing your contact center operations can provide an organization with a number of advantages, including cost savings and scalability. However, there are also many risks and challenges of outsourcing within call center outsourcing. These challenges include maintaining quality standards for customer service, managing multiple locations across different time zones and even dealing with language barriers between the outsourcer and the customers. If not set up carefully and correctly, an outsourced contact center operation may fall apart. But when successful, it can help your brand reach new limits. Here is a guide on when to outsource your contact center and how to overcome the biggest challenges.
When Should You Consider Outsourcing
Generally, if your contact center is struggling with call volume or high costs, outsourcing can be a good option. Outsourcing your customer service is a great way to focus on your core business and reduce the cost of providing excellent customer experience. Outsourced contact centers have different ways of working than in-house contact centers. A big difference between in-house and outsourced models is that the outsourced model allows for much more flexibility. The outsourced partner is able to provide the ideal number of agents working at hours catered to your specific needs. They are also in charge of providing extensive training for new hires on their end so they can operate efficiently from day one.
Additionally, if your brand is looking to expand into global markets, an outsourced contact center can help provide multilingual customer service assistance for other languages such as Spanish, French, or Japanese. Finding multilingual agents for an in-house contact center can be much more difficult and expensive. Thus, depending on your needs and the direction your brand is heading in, choosing to outsource can help you achieve those goals.
Managing Outsourced Contact Centers
The biggest challenge associated with the risks and challenges of outsourcing within call center outsourcing is how to manage them effectively. Typically, the agents for your contact center are located offshore or nearshore. In any case, managing the agents remotely can lead to miscommunications. However, with the right outsourcing partner, managing the contact center can be made much easier. Benefits such as Callnovo’s Client Success Managers takes control of the operation, allowing you to focus on core business operations instead of worrying about managing the outsourced contact center operation.
The following tips may help you choose the right outsourcing partner and realize your vision for the contact center:
- Define clear goals for the outsourced contact center.
- Set up metrics and performance targets.
- Establish processes for managing customers across multiple channels.
- Communicate frequently with agents and the outsource partner.
Maintaining Customer Service Quality Standards
Maintaining customer service quality standards is an important part of the outsourcing process. If you are working with a partner that isn’t committed to providing a high-quality customer experience, it will be difficult for your business to succeed. Part of the process of maintaining quality is ensuring that the agents are trained properly and well-equipped to handle customer service requests. The following steps can help you maintain quality standards:
- Work closely with your outsourcing partner to hire and train qualified agents.
- Invest in CRM technology (such as Callnovo CRM platform) to enable agents to connect with customers in real time and provide immediate responses.
- Invest in new training technology like interactive eLearning modules so agents will get up-to-date training on the latest trends and best practices that apply specifically to your industry or niche market segments.
- Utilize customer feedback, quality assurance agents, and performance metrics such as KPI to ensure your customer service agents are up to standard.
Location and Language Barriers
If your outsourced contact center is located in a different country, chances are there will be some language barriers, cultural differences, differences in education level, differences in work ethic, etc. While having these contact centers in these locations can be cost efficient, it is important to make sure these factors do not impact the customer service quality and the confidence of your customers. Using the above tips for maintaining customer quality will help in this aspect, but other tips include:
- Ensuring that the agents are proficient in the language that they are providing service in.
- Choosing an outsourcing partner that has experience in your field, so that their agents may have the necessary education and knowledge required.
Technology
Technology has made the outsourcing process possible, and new developments in technology has made all aspects of outsourcing easier. In particular, managing outsourced contact centers has been simplified with new CRM software. For example, if your brand needs multilingual customer service assistance, then you will need multiple teams in your customer service operation. Having something like Callnovo’s CRM platform allows all the agents in every language to work on one single platform, making your managing job as efficient as possible. Other technological assets include a work force management (WFM) system to help the customer service operation run smoothly. Utilizing these tools will help the outsourced contact center perform to the best of its ability.
Contact centers are a valuable asset for any business, but they can also be challenging to manage. Outsourcing your contact center comes with even more challenges, but with the right help and outsourcing partner, these challenges can turn into assets. Callnovo is dedicated to helping you overcome these challenges and improve your customer experience at the same time. Contact Callnovo today to learn more about how we can help you with your call center outsourcing needs!
