Did you know that 80% of companies use customer service as a way to differentiate themselves from their competition. Almost 70% of all customer interactions are handled by contact center executives. Speaking to a customer service rep on the phone remains the preferred channel for most customers. When you decide to outsource, how do you choose a customer service call center? Partnering with the right service provider is a critical step in delivering a world class and unified customer experience.
Business Process Outsourcing Statistics
- The global business process outsourcing market is expected to grow by USD 76.90 billion during 2020-2024
- One third of small businesses are outsourcing some of their business processes to focus on core competencies
- The pandemic has changed consumers’ preference for communicating with businesses: 51% still preferred to use voice call to contact companies for customer service, 18% through email, and 11% via other means such as letters, social media posts, and push notifications. (Source: Vonage)
Consider the following to choose a call center
Evaluate prospective business process outsourcing service providers for the following parameters while selecting the right call center partner for your business:
Organization Culture
You want to partner with a company that treats employees well. A call center service provider that does not focus on employee wellbeing, skill development and providing a happy workplace is not to be trusted to treat your customers well. Hence even before you get into details of their project history, client references and technology, evaluate the organization culture.
Talk to employees working in different functions and seniority levels. Check the company’s social media pages and employee reviews on online forums. It is a good idea to ask prospective call center service providers to submit a copy of their HR policies at the introduction stage.
While evaluating organization culture, check their problem solving and process improvement approach. How do they identify, analyse and handle challenges and obstacles. Problem solving needs to be in the DNA of every organization.
Check their commitment to following industry best practices, quality standards and compliance while you choose a call center company. It is important that you ask difficult questions to check their work ethics, commitment to quality and service excellence.
Business Operations
Once you are satisfied with the organization culture, the next is to check for business stability. Ask details about their journey in the past few years – growth in number of clients they serve, growth in employee headcount, revenue trend. Have they added new service offerings as they grow? Have they adopted new technology to serve their clients and improve efficiency of their call center operations?
Ask for financial reports. Ask for MIS for similar clients or business processes. Check the trend of KPIs. How do they manage the key business metrics? Who is involved in performance monitoring?
Get the details of their hiring, training, transition and call center service delivery processes. How do they ensure timelines are adhered to? What is the communication strategy they follow?
It is important to check the average employee tenure and attrition reports. You would need a stable team to ensure quality of customer service for your business.
Industry Knowledge
The soft skill and behavioural skill requirements as well as customer service delivery processes do not change much irrespective of the industry segment. However, every industry has some unique skill and compliance requirements. For instance, Airlines may need customer service reps who are IATA certified to ensure accurate and quality of customer service. Similarly Banking and Insurance companies have their unique set of requirements.
As the call center industry has reached a level of maturity over the last couple of decades, there are several business process outsourcing companies who cater to clients from specific industries. There are call centers who excel in providing solutions to the healthcare sector. Similarly some call centers may have the best business process outsourcing solutions for the ecommerce industry.
While there are many who cater to several or all industries, it is essential you check for relevant industry expertise while you choose a call center for your outsourcing requirements.
You should check for the number of clients and call center projects the vendor manages for your specific industry segment. Previous experience in similar line of business will cut down on the learning curve and guarantee better results. Ask for customer references and check for relevant certifications.
Customer service outsourcing when implemented correctly, yields both tangible and intangible business gains.
If you are looking to outsource your customer services operations, we can help you create a call center selection process and checklist. Drop us a message.
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