Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
What to Expect From Your Contact Center Outsourcing Partner
At some point, nearly every company with extensive customer care needs will evaluate the prospect of outsourcing customer care to a third-party provider. Often, it’s due to a cost-benefit analysis that shows that in-house management of the contact center function is becoming cost-prohibitively expensive and time-consuming. Third-party customer care specialists have a lot to bring to the table: they already have the people, processes and technologies in place to handle customer inquiries, and they’re often good at it, since it’s their core competency.
On the flip side, there are a number of bad players out there, particularly abroad. Companies looking for huge cost savings are often seduced by the prospect of saving a significant – sometimes almost unbelievable – amount of money, only to find their customer support is being handled out of a garage or an Internet café by non-professionals. For this reason, it’s important to have the skills to evaluate third-party providers and ensure you’re not putting your customers into the hands of a sub-par organization.
For starter, have realistic expectations of how much you will save. According to a recent blog post by Worldwide Call Centers, Inc., if it’s too cheap, be very suspicious. “Cheap service” should never be uttered in the same sentence with “our customers.”
“Call center outsourcing isn’t ‘cheap’; however, cost reduction is often the driving force behind the decision to hire an external agency,” wrote the WCCI blogger, noting a balance between the type of services desired and an agreeable cost should be the goal.
It’s also important to engage a player that will allow you transparency every step of the way. Do wish to be able to view the call center schedule at any moment you wish? How about access reporting, call recording and key performance indicators? A transparent, responsible outsourcer should allow you access to any information that is relevant to your operations and your customers. According wo WCCI, a responsible outsourcer will offer clients access to features such as remote monitoring, remote training, onsite training, digital recording and comprehensive reporting services. The outsourcer should have nothing to hide.
Finally, look for a company that is willing to make changes to accommodate your needs. Launching a new campaign? The teleservices provider should welcome the opportunity to retrain, as needed. Unhappy with something? Make sure the company you choose listens and takes quick action. Continue to quality spot-check on a regular basis, and poll your customers are the quality of support they are receiving. Some agencies located on foreign shores will dangle their best English-language agents to lure you in, only to later staff the phones with people who have accents that may frustrate your customers. Ensure the company has the ability to route around IT outages or power outages, and is willing to expand and contract as your seasonal needs change.
While outsourcing customer care should be a burden off your organization, it’s not a “set it and forget it” operation. Vigilance and monitoring need to be in place to ensure customers aren’t being neglected.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi