Call Center Management Featured Article
What Call Center Management Should Consider Before Outsourcing
Is outsourcing a bad word in your company? For those in call center management, it often meant the potential for job loss if better options were found offshore. Not all outsourcing means the onshore environment will go away. At times, it simply means that decision makers see the potential in leveraging partnerships outside of the corporate environment to achieve specific goals.
In doing so, it’s important for call center management to vet the opportunities so the right partnerships are formed. In a recent Near Shore Americas post, Duncan Tucker explores two of the biggest concerns for nearshore buyers: a low-risk environment and a sizeable talent pool. For the Latin America market, there is significant capacity available, yet companies looking for nearshore opportunities tend to shy away if the potential partner doesn’t exhibit an understanding of the process or offer seamless integration.
Available capacity, regardless of the location, is not enough to attract companies considering outsourcing. Call center management is looking for expertise, secure environments, complex skill-sets and more. A warm body in place to take live calls may be appealing for some, but high-value customers expect so much more in terms of live interactions with their clients. Therefore, companies have to put together required profiles before examining options in the call center space. The same is true for security expectations as simply demanding a secure environment is not enough to ensure high levels are in place or enforced.
At the same time, companies are searching for options where personal safety is also assured. Media coverage for Latin America tends to focus on violent crime, which can create unease when considering the region as a possible outsourcing location. No company wants to bring employees on board who are subject to less than secure environments. With press focus on the environments companies create for their employees, a failure to consider personal safety could soon enough bad PR to put a company out of business.
The sizeable talent pool is another key consideration for any company seeking to form a partnership with an outsourcing provider, regardless of their location. While Latin America may be perfectly positioned to help provide a steady stream of options for U.S.-based firms, a lack of the right skillset in the workforce could easily take a provider out of the running. If call center management needs a wide range of technology expertise in the agent base, for instance, they may look to a region further away if it means a steady stream of individuals available who can meet the criteria.
Understanding the needs of the organization and how potential partners can meet those needs is critical for outsourcing success. Call center management able to take that approach to the initiative is much more likely to produce the desired results.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi