Prompt response with a quick resolution over a phone call is one of the most delightful experiences for customers. However, it takes a trained team working with the latest technologies to deliver this service experience. While almost every business needs to offer top-quality call support, it is not easy to set up the complete call center infrastructure in-house. Outsourcing inbound call support has tangible business benefits.
Perks of Outsourcing Your Inbound Call Center
Irrespective of the nature of your business or the industry it operates in, you can benefit from outsourcing as it allows you to focus on your core business without worrying about the quality or nitty-gritty of your after-sales service processes. Of course, you need to support your outsourcing partner initially with the documentation and knowledge base covering the resolutions to issues specific to your business. Beyond that, the call center service provider handles the day-to-day operations with the following advantages,
- Skilled calling agent pool
Since outsourcing providers service several clients across industry verticals, you get access to a large pool of trained talent. Service providers handle background checks and employment history verification for call agents. You also do not have to stress about attrition or workforce planning, as the outsourcing partner is responsible for it. Because of extensive training programs, call agents are well-versed in handling calls, entering data, and providing resolutions promptly. As a result, it leads to maximum efficiency and higher customer satisfaction.
- State-of-the-art technologies
Inbound call center services provide call management automation platforms bundled into their service packages. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems take care of the most frequently asked queries that are simple to resolve without even forwarding the call to the agents. It saves the customer’s as well as the agent’s time and leads to cost savings. Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) ensures that all relevant customer information in your enterprise CRM and ERP systems is readily available on a single screen to the call agent as soon as the call is connected. Besides these, features such as intelligent call-back scheduling and automatic call escalation algorithms enable the calling agents to provide a superior customer experience.
- Quality monitoring
You remain in complete control of your call center performance even if you outsource it. Most service providers share daily performance reports with the number of calls attended, the number of complaints resolved, and the number of pending issues with reasons. Along with these reports, you get monthly and yearly compliance reports as mandated for your industry vertical. Also, you can directly listen in on the recorded conversations to provide instant feedback about the quality of the calls. The call management platform also maintains a complete audit trail of the data entered into your enterprise systems.
- Industry-standard processes
Inbound call center outsourcing ensures that your service processes align with industry best practices. For example, the call agents classify each inbound call in the call management system as per categories specific to your industry vertical. Then, the agents mark each complaint as resolved only after recording the resolution details in the system. After this, customers get instant notifications to record their feedback. If the complaint remains unresolved, there are predefined escalation matrices so senior staff can resolve the complaints within pre-set timelines.
- Cost and Time Savings
Considering that the inbound call center services price is lesser than the cost of setting up an in-house call center and training their employees, businesses can generate ROI on their outsourcing initiative from day one. In addition, outsourcing providers can offer trained resources at a lower cost because of economies of scale and the latest automation technologies. Also, outsourcing can lead to a much faster go-live of call center services. While an in-house call center can take 6-12 months to get operational, an outsourced call center can be up and running in a couple of months.
- Customer loyalty
Of course, the biggest perk of outsourcing your inbound call center is the quality of service you can offer your customers and the consequent customer loyalty. An outstanding service experience ensures that customers renew their services with your business or repurchase your products. It also leads to good word of mouth and more referral revenue.
Final Thoughts – Selecting an Outsourcing Partner
You should select an experienced service provider serving businesses in the same vertical as yours. While pricing is an important parameter, customer testimonials will give you the best idea about the quality of a provider’s outsourcing services. You can also request site visits to examine the training and calling infrastructure. A first-hand demonstration of the technological platform in the live environment also gives a clear idea of the inbound call-handling processes. You should also ensure the vendor complies with local labor law and data privacy regulations. It also helps to check if the provider offers outbound call services from a future perspective.
