Should you outsource your call centre?
There are pros and cons to every option in doing business, and that included the question of outsourcing call centre services. Here are some points to consider:
PROS:
Practical Advantages:
- Fluctuating demand: This includes that experienced on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, as well as market-related and promotion or product-launch related fluctuations in calls.
- Extended hours: Through call-centres, businesses can offer extended hours and even 24-hour services.
- Call centres can offer extra services such as sales, and even in different languages.
Costs:
- Set Up and Overhead Costs: For medium sized enterprises, it is undoubtedly cost-effective. Call centres already have the infrastructure and their fees per agent will be less that what you’d pay for a staff member per hour – especially when it comes to the outside of normal business hours.
- Training Costs: Call centre staff are already trained on service protocols and the various tasks they fulfil. The only difference is the business. This reduces training time. The costs of training are therefore reduced on two fronts: cost per hour and hours.
Level of Service & Monitoring:
Call centre agents are trained to handle the calls in a way that could be very difficult to replicate in-house. This ensures a higher quality service and helps to protect a business from negative customer service reviews on social media. Furthermore, performance monitoring in call centres maintains service levels. This would be an impractical extra burden on many small businesses.
Data Insights:
Call Centres have sophisticated IT infrastructure that can provide invaluable data insights on customers and potential customers. This offers numerous opportunities for businesses to get feedback, sell, and create targeted marketing campaigns.
CONS:
- Unless they are dedicated, call Centre agents may not be able to deal with enquiries that require in-depth background knowledge. This may upset or annoy some customers – especially those wanting instant technical support.
- Agents have no brand or company loyalty.
- Data security concerns. Not only will the call centre agents have access to customer data, the call centre itself must be trusted with sensitive business data.
Altogether – the advantages are many, and the cons few. Outsourcing is popular for a reason!
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