Your expertise makes you a strong competitor in your industry. But could you benefit from using specialists to handle your call centre? Perhaps we’ve already given away the top reason for outsourcing call centre work with that question. So, let’s start there before we move on to additional reasons why call centre outsourcing may benefit you. You might find that some of the less-obvious benefits of call centre outsourcing address some of your customer service pain points.
1. Is Your Call Centre Your Core Business? You Care, But…
For most businesses, a call centre is a support function. That places it outside the primary area of focus and expertise. This fact might lead you to see your call centre, and its customer service function, as being a necessary drain on your resources rather than a primary area for your attention.
But every business needs its customers. After all, without them, your business wouldn’t exist at all. Even if you try hard to prioritise your customer service, you have other things to attend to: your products, production processes, and innovations that keep you ahead of your competitors are all competing for your attention.
The smart thing to do? Focus on what you do best! Just about everything you’ll read about being a successful business leader agrees on that score. With support functions making it possible to do business, without being the reason why your business exists, you outsource. You probably do so already. Perhaps you use an accounting firm or have outsourced marketing to an agency. So, why not outsource your call centre?
There are advantages to choosing a provider that sees customer service as its core business – if you choose a high-quality option.
2. Scalability: A Knotty Problem Unless You Outsource
One of the top issues you’ll encounter when you run your own, in-house call centre, is the question of scalability. Having people doing nothing much other than waiting for the phone to ring is a waste of your resources. But there are times when the phone is ringing itself off the hook. Do you cater for average call volumes? Should you cater for potential maximum call volumes?
Try the former, and you may leave customers feeling under-valued during times when call volumes peak. Attempt the latter, and you end up with idle staff or staff who are co-opted into the call centre as needed and resent the intrusion into the duties they ordinarily fulfil. Great customer service? You’re either not delivering, or delivering while putting other tasks on the backburner.
Either way, your customer service – or your other business functions – suffer. Could an outsourced call centre be a better alternative? It depends on who you choose!
3. Time is Limited: How Can You Manage Your Call Centre?
As a business leader, you have a lot on your plate. Do you have a call centre that’s staffed with top-notch customer service personnel? Does it reflect your brand? Does it help you to analyse and enhance customer opinions and experiences? Of course, you’d like to offer customer journeys you can be proud of, but with so much else to do, do you really have to manage a call centre too?
An outsourced call centre that’s worth its salt will have everything in place: professional call centre agents trained to represent your brand and deliver great service, and a dashboard that helps you to track what’s going on at a glance. You save time, stay in charge, enhance your business’s image, and your customers are happy.
Intervene when the bigger picture shows you need to ring the changes. And, since you can safely place some distance between yourself and what’s happening in your outsourced call centre, getting an overview of how customers experience your brand becomes easier. Discovering the benefits of call centre outsourcing? This one is a biggie!
4. Get Tips to Guide Your Business Strategy
What do your customers really want? The answers may not be what you expected. Your employees may not want to tell you – especially if they know that customer needs aren’t quite what you think they are. After all, you’re the boss, and what you say, goes.
An outsourced call centre can give you evidence-based cues that you can use to shape your business strategy based on the opinions that represent your source of revenue: your customers. And since you’re the customer in this instance, you’ll get the facts, because you need facts more than you need affirmation of your opinions.
Does this apply to all outsourced call centres? It depends on who you choose, but as an ethical call centre, we offer unbiased data that could influence your business strategy.
5. Call Centre Agents Are Skilled Workers
For many businesses, call centres are a necessity but not a priority. Even when they are seen as important, finding the right people to operate them can be a tough call. There are no qualifications that assure “people skills,” and for many businesses, call centre work is an entry-level position. If this is you, you may be deploying unskilled workers to deal with what keeps your business alive: your customers.
Just finding the right people to communicate with your customers can be a tough call. The applicant who is all attention during an interview may be less-than-attentive when faced with customer needs. They’re putting in the hours. They’re getting the pay – which is usually not on the high end of your wage scale. Why should they care beyond the paycheck?
A top-notch professional call centre hires people based on their interpersonal skills. And it must offer value to its customers because that’s why the business exists. Management is focussed on the client company’s wellbeing, because that’s the gauge of an outsourced call centre’s success.
Top Industries Making Use of Call Centre Outsourcing
So, who is outsourcing customer care? It turns out, there may be more businesses doing this than you would have believed. A really good call centre represents its clients as if they were insiders. Callers shouldn’t be able to notice that they’re talking to X company’s outsourced representative vs X company’s in-house employee. The experience should be seamless – and with the right outsourced call centre, it is.
Financial services businesses and software providers are among the many that outsource call centre services and customer care. Could that be why customer service levels in these industries are generally regarded as being good? And could this be the reason why auto-makers, top retailers, and even municipalities are following suit? Perhaps your business will be next!
Call Centre Outsourcing: Some Options Are Better Than Others
When you choose a call centre to represent your company, you should be very particular about quality. There are cheap call centres that just have “people to pick up the phone.” And there are call centres who focus on providing excellence.
If you’re looking for an outsourced call centre that seeks to employ expressive communicators, great listeners, and provide brand-appropriate representation, plus strategically important information, begin with RSVP. With an existing customer base you’re sure to recognise, RSVP has earned its claim to excellence in communication – and that includes the way it communicates with you. Gain a better understanding of your customers. Offer them superb service. Gain new insights. It all happens right here at RSVP. Contact us and let’s join forces today.