Are you new to outsourcing call centres? Here's How to Make It Work for You

The concept of letting someone else run your front office is one of the most concerning aspects of outsourcing customer service. It is a cost-effective means of transferring specialized work to a different firm or group of individuals. In Spite of increasing awareness and popularity of outsourcing services, It has been an incredible success for enterprises, resulting in process improvements and greater operational efficiencies.

If you want to know how exactly you can utilize call centre outsourcing for the benefit of your business then you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we'll look at how you can work with an external customer care team to increase service quality and deliver the greatest customer experience in your market.

What exactly is a call centre? 

A call centre can be defined as an office which handles a large number of phone calls on a daily basis from customers or makes outbound phone calls to consumers. Call centres are frequently outfitted with [sophisticated computer systems that typically contain a computer, a telephone set (or headset) connected to a huge telecom switch, and one or more supervisor stations.

As technology has progressed in recent years, a call centre now manages more than simply phone conversations, Email, social media, chat messaging, and other methods for customer assistance. Nonetheless, its core function remains the same: to address customers' issues and demands in order to provide a great customer experience.

How does a call centre operate? 

Customer service contact centres are either proactive or reactive, which means that they either initiate interactions with customers or give help and direction to those that call. While reactive contact centres can assist customers, proactive offices concentrate on building connections with clients in order to push products or services. The majority of contact centres are reactive, and they handle client calls by following a few simple steps:

Phone calls: Customer calls or requests a call from a customer support professional.

Connect: The consumer is linked to a representative who can help them with their issue.

Listen: After listening to the customer's demands, the representative proceeds to explore potential solutions.

Follow up: If the agent is unable to remedy the problem during the initial conversation, he or she will respond after additional investigation.

Types of a call centres 

Call centres in the UK provide a variety of services,  and there are different call centres for different tasks. Basically there are six different types of call centres, and it is critical to understand the strengths of each in order to select the best call centre solution for your business:

Inbound call centres

Inbound call centres uk take calls that come into the firm. This is most typically a service supplied to existing customers or potential consumers wanting to make a purchase, but it may also involve giving service to your company's employees. Inbound call centres may provide the following services:

Order processing: A contact centre representative may do numerous responsibilities with a potential customer after receiving a call, including outlining their purchasing choices, recording order information, and collecting payment information.

Dispatch services include: A dispatch centre may take calls, route them as needed, and track the status of shipments and delivery.

Providing assistance at the help desk: When consumers have issues, a support call centre person may give remedies if the customer understands what's wrong, assist in identifying probable origins of the problem if they don't, and place a service request if necessary.

Answering and transferring calls: A call centre can function as an answering service, with staff receiving calls from consumers, inquiring about the purpose for their call, and then transferring the caller.

Outbound call centres

An outbound call centre uk specializes in making phone calls on your behalf and can be a low-cost solution to broaden your business's reach. Common roles for agents at outbound calling centres include:

Selling to potential customers: Telesales specialists frequently work with a list of given leads, which are generally acquired through market research to identify demographics most likely to be interested in a company's products, and contact them directly to pitch the company's goods.

Expanding your sales reach: A telemarketing call centre representative may do customer outreach, conduct consumer surveys, or contact potential customers to see if they are interested in a product or service.

Automated call centres

By allowing computer-based systems to undertake some caller tasks, an automated call centre helps a corporation to cut the cost of call handling. Automated systems frequently demand less personnel than live-operator contact centres since they only require employees to maintain the systems and fulfill certain jobs that automation cannot do. The following are examples of common usage for an automated call centre:

Managing voicemail: One of the most prevalent call centre services is automated voicemail systems. A company's automated voicemail service may eliminate the need for employees to take messages.

Assisting clients in locating locations: Automated call centres may be used by many organizations with various locations to help customers in finding a nearby shop location.

Interactive voice responders: Interactive voice responders allow a caller to speak normally while technology interprets their words and guides them through a menu, occasionally forwarding customers to a contact centre professional.

Multichannel call centres

While phone conversations are still a vital element of modern company, there are many other ways to communicate with consumers. Many contemporary contact centres broaden their services to encompass additional forms of communication, such as sending and receiving faxes and emails, as well as managing order fulfillment.

Virtual call centres

This is a call centre with agents located all over the world who are linked by phone support or virtual contact centre software. Virtual contact centres are useful for businesses that have customers in several time zones or want to save costs.

Call centres, both incoming and outgoing, can be located within or outside of your organization. You also don't have to limit yourself to a single call centre kind. To manage various business duties, you can use a combination of the three.

There's also an in-house vs. outsourced differential when it comes to contact centres:

In-House Support and Sales

You may either leverage existing personnel or hire new ones to establish your in-house support or sales staff. You may opt to position sales representatives in the same area as the rest of your sales team, while setting up a separate office for your support agents. In any case, you want them to be in constant contact with different corporate departments, especially when it comes to exchanging client data.

Omnichannel call centres 

An omnichannel call centre may expand on multichannel services by adding greater coordination and customisation. All departments allocated to a customer are in touch with an omnichannel call centre, allowing staff to learn from information obtained through phone calls and vice versa. This method allows for more personalization of the way call centre staff adopt while dealing with clients, resulting in better outcomes.

Teams and structures in call centres

Agents, team leaders, and IT personnel are among the many positions that make up call centre teams.

Agents at call centres. Because agents speak directly with consumers and manage their calls, they are the primary point of contact between a business and its customers. Agents may handle incoming or outbound calls, depending on the type of call centre. Customer service skills, understanding of the company, and problem-solving creativity are all traits that contact centre agents possess.

Team captains. For better administration, many call centres divide agents into smaller groups. Team leaders assist call centre agents in de-escalating situations, resolving difficulties, and responding to customer and agent concerns. Team leaders should also make sure that call centre agents are satisfied and content in their jobs.

Directors of call centres. While team leaders are in charge of smaller groups, call centre directors are in charge of the overall operation and ensuring that everything goes well. Agent performance metrics and goals are set by directors or managers to ensure that agents satisfy client expectations and the call centre runs efficiently.

Team in charge of quality control. Quality assurance (QA) is a method in which QA teams check that products or services fulfill particular standards. These groups can track and analyze agent phone conversations in call centres to verify that call quality and customer service meet the centre's expectations. In certain circumstances, QA tests are performed by call centre directors.

Personnel in charge of information technology. Call centres, especially those with remote operations, require IT expertise. While IT professionals aren't limited to contact centres, they do guarantee that agents' equipment and tools are up to date in order to keep the call centre working efficiently.

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What is an outsourced call centre?

Let's take a closer look at the history of call centre outsourcing.

In the 1990s, as finances got tighter and more scrutinized, companies began outsourcing contact centres. They discovered that sourcing from a lower-cost-of-living country was more cost-effective, and they wanted to take advantage of the labor savings.

For example, call centre agents in the United States can charge up to $35 per hour, but a representative in the Philippines or India can do the same job for $5 to $8 per hour. Outsourcing is appealing to businesses because it allows them to obtain high-quality agents at a fraction of the expense of doing business locally.

Beyond cost savings, call centre outsourcing now provides a number of advantages, including less staffing concerns, 24/7 assistance, and improved monitoring. While the worldwide call centre industry is expected to increase at a 5.5 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from $339 billion in 2020 to $496 billion in 2027, the outsourced segment is expected to grow at a 5.9 percent CAGR over the following seven years. As a result, contact centres that are outsourced currently account for approximately a quarter of the worldwide call centre business (22.9 percent ).

Pro- Advantages of call centre outsourcing 

For a variety of reasons, businesses prefer to outsource their customer service to contact centres. In many circumstances, it's owing to a company's failure to deliver comprehensive customer service due to a lack of resources and competencies. And, because brands must maintain a high level of customer service, they turn to outsourcing companies to fill in the gaps. So, what are the advantages of outsourcing call centres? Let's take a look at each one individually.

On-demand service

Outsourcing allows you to be more flexible and scalable. This is a critical feature, particularly for organizations that face seasonal demand surges. When your company is growing, call centre outsourcing allows you to quickly scale up or down your support personnel (when the busy season is over).

Lower costs 

It will be less expensive to outsource to call centres than to set up an in-house customer care staff. Because contact centres already have all they need to manage a customer service system, this is the case. You don't have to spend money on hiring agents, training them, equipping them with workplace essentials, offering benefits packages, and so on; you simply pay for the actual service they deliver.

Call centre new trends 

Due to the pandemic problem, nearly every firm has experienced hurdles or had to go through an adaptation process. There is no exception in the call centre sector. The global breakdown brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak exposed certain call centre flaws as well as positives. Call centres must be more adaptable in order to meet the increasing needs of the "new normal." As a result, contact centres began to explore new ways to boost production and fulfill the expectations.

Better service quality 

Because they have a lot of experience and know-how in this field, outsourced call centres deliver excellent customer service. Their whole focus and attention is on designing and delivering the best customer support solutions possible. That is to say, contact centres often design the most efficient customer service strategy using cutting-edge technology and real-world expertise.

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Con- Disadvantages of call centre outsourcing 

Customer Satisfaction Is Declining

The disadvantages of selecting the incorrect outsourcing partner include a drop in service quality since the agents who will be dealing with your clients may be uninspired or lack experience in assuring customer happiness. This behavior is caused by a variety of factors, all of which are listed below.

Barriers to communication

Your outsourcing partner's representatives may lack cultural awareness or fluency in the caller's regional intonation when your consumers from one geography contact them from another. If left unchecked, misunderstanding or worse, a message lost in translation may wreak havoc on client relations.

Measurement of Performance with Limited Control

When you entrust your in-house tasks to a service provider, you're entrusting them with critical business functions. As a result, you won't be able to intercept every call to ensure that your consumers get the same consistent experience. Outsourcing your whole centre to untrustworthy service providers exposes you to a number of hazards, including your inability to enforce policies to ensure customer satisfaction.

There is a lack of understanding of the product or service.

Your company may have a culture that appeals to your consumers, but when you outsource customer service, the agents may not be culturally appropriate to provide the same level of service since they do not understand your culture, beliefs, or ethics. Even if they do, there's no assurance they'll treat your in-house staff with the same level of commitment.