How To Successfully Outsource A Call Center For Customer Service

There are a few steps to take to outsource a customer service call center successfully. Maintaining all the aspects of a company is a very complex task in today’s world of business. Therefore, business process outsourcing has become a popular solution to handle customer service operations. Outsourcing customer service allows the company to stay thriving and competitive, without the quality of customer service falling by the wayside. As a business owner, you should outsource a call center to offer support to your customers. Follow the steps below to start successfully outsourcing a call center for customer service.

Determine Outsourcing Strategy

First, determine your strategy for outsourcing a call center. Before you start, define business outsourcing. Remember that implementing an external call center in your operations will inevitably impact your business. Develop a strategy that is marked with short-term and long-term goals to propel continuous improvement. Next, create an internal strategy manager position. With this position, the individual understands the business. They will also be responsible for communicating business needs to the outsourced customer service call center. Ensure that outsourcing strategies adhere to your business’s corporate requirements. Indeed, utilize internal strategy management to yield long-term success with your outsourcing customer service.

Research And Identify Compatible Call Center Partners

Next, it’s vital to research and identify the most suitable call center partners for customer service. Aim to identify ten potential matches and start eliminating the ones that are a poor fit. From a maximum of ten centers, you can glean a targeted list of about five or six call center companies. Find these call centers by first asking for referrals from colleagues. Ensure that these colleagues come from a similar industry experience. Additionally, conduct online research on websites that have up-to-date information about service companies. From there, you can determine key factors about your list of call center options. These include size, specialization, and location. Finally, use LinkedIn and other professional networking platforms to join relevant groups. Here, you can post questions to gain insight on more options. Narrow down your question to your company’s specific requests and brand needs.

Choose The Right Call Center

After researching, determine if the selected call center is a great fit. There are several factors to consider to make this decision. First, consider the size and if it melds with the your needs and future vision of the company. Ask yourself how many workers you need to fulfill your customer service needs, ranking quality higher than quantity. Second, investigate the track record of the call center’s management. Identify what business types and niches they have serviced in the past to gauge compatibility. Similarly, determine if the client support method and company culture of the external call center. This will affirm that the center represents your company well. Assess if the center operates from an ideal location and with proper technology. Finally, evaluate the external center for scalability, flexibility, and security. All of these are necessary to ensure that the call center can meet the demands of your company. Hire an entirely paperless and cell phone-less call center to secure your customers’ personal data.

Be An Active Part Of Training

Next, always be an active part of your call center’s training and onboarding. Be present for the first training sessions, whether that it on-site or on a video call. Set up the trainers for success by first being hands-on and familiar. Then, develop a quality assurance platform to optimize your calibration sessions. This also builds a trustworthy medium for your call center partner to communicate QA scores. Establish how agents should communicate with customers and measure their success accordingly. Once they start resolving customers’ support tickets, you can better estimate the quality level. By being active during the call center agent training process, you can instill your standard for customer support quality.

Use The Right Tools

Finally, you should invest in the right tools to make your outsourced call center a success. Due to the increased volume of calls, a basic phone system does not have the capabilities to handle the high demand. Invest in a business phone system that will help run customer service operations smoothly. Invest in a private branch exchange, which operates through phone lines and traditional headsets. This is ideal for an on-site, long-term call center. For in-house or remote call centers, consider an internet protocol private branch exchange. This is routed through an internet connection rather than phone lines, lending service agents the flexibility to work off-site. For a virtual call center set-up, utilize a voice over internet protocol to conduct customer service through a desktop app. On top of that, utilize a performance monitoring tool to make your job much easier. This additional tool allows you to track employee activity during work hours and thus measure productivity levels. Surely, using the best modern tools will elevate your outsourcing efforts to long-term success.

To conclude, there are many steps to undertake to outsource a customer service call center. First, determine your outsourcing strategy and assign a strategy manager to oversee your external operations. Next, conduct research to find call center partners that are compatible to your company’s industry and brand needs. Following that, evaluate your top choice by size, location, track record, flexibility, and business security to properly assess if it is the most viable option for business process outsourcing. Then, be an active member in the training process and install the best tools for quality and efficiency. By following this guide, you can bet that outsourcing your customer service will greatly benefit your business operations.