Call Center Outsourcing For Savings
Nobody pretends there’s ‘no recession’ anymore (in the US especially) and everybody admits that Call Center outsourcing makes more sense now than ever. From its humble beginnings back around the year 2000, call center outsourcing has become an accepted tool for services and product companies in the US to keep their costs down and their doors open.
Offshore call center outsourcing got its start in India in the mid to late 90’s but around the year 2000 some US companies began to move a part of their operations to other countries They suspected that several factors would work in their favor.
Among those factors was the fact that some countries have a large English speaking population. Some countries also had a close, historical and cultural relationship to the US.
The bottom line is that call center outsourcing to these countries has worked out very well.
US companies who try call center outsourcing almost universally are satisfied with the results. Outsourcing various elements of business operations t also means that US companies can focus more on sales.
US companies who try call center outsourcing benefit in two ways. First they lower their expenses because labor costs are 30-60% lower than US rates. And second because they’re able to put more money into making sales.
As the business process outsourcing industry gets more and more ‘good press’, more and more companies are trying to get into it. Thus, you have three different tiers of call center outsourcing companies operating in the call center outsourcing market today.
On the top level you have approximately 20 major call center outsourcing companies who employ multiple thousands of agents in multiple locations (These companies do not entertain small contracts but rather prefer to deal with large, name brand US companies who want premium level services and long term contracts.
Your second tier call center outsourcing companies are those that have just as good technology and management but for various reasons have not broken into the top tier in terms of clients and revenue. They sometimes have a few name-brand clients that you would be familiar with but they’ll also have a lot that you wouldn’t know.
They also don’t employ as many agents, in total, and sometimes only have one main location but in every other aspect they are just as capable as the top tier companies.
Then you have a larger number of third tier call center outsourcing companies who got into the call center outsourcing businesses with high hopes of profits but barely manage to struggle along.
The technology in these call center service companies usually isn’t quite as good and often their management and agent quality (in terms of English speaking ability) isn’t either. They don’t have the redundant back-up that the tier one and two level call center service companies do and they’re usually not able to attract the quality of agents that the top level companies can.
If you’re a US company considering employing a call center outsourcing company i the biggest danger you face is not knowing what to look for or the right questions to ask when you actually evaluate a call center service provider. To get around this problem, you’ve just got to do enough homework so that you do know what ‘metrics’ to inquire about.
If you don’t know and don’t have the time to learn what metrics to look at, then your next best move is to find some type of consultant to work with who can help you find the right call center outsourcing company for your needs.
There are lots of good call center outsourcing companies . You’ve just got to find them.