By Kathy Sisk
Outsourcing is a buzzword and business trend in which many companies are making huge investments. While call center outsourcing ventures can provide numerous benefits to your organization under the right conditions, they can fail miserably without proper planning, analysis, and management.
If you are planning to outsource any or all aspects of your call center operation to a third-party call center, or if you have outsourced in the past and were severely dissatisfied with the outcome, read on.
All the hype surrounding call center outsourcing entices too many organizations to leap before they look. For instance, some companies enter an outsourcing venture merely to reduce operational costs, ignoring the true impact on the quality of service its customers receive. Such an approach often leads to lost business that offsets any financial savings the company may gain from contracting with a service bureau in the first place.
Other companies make the mistake of outsourcing call center operations to improve performance problems without carefully considering the financial costs. These organizations—anxious to offer world-class service advertised by a particular agency—often find themselves paying exorbitant rates in pursuit of their quality service dream.
The decision to outsource must be based on both solid financial and service objectives. But before you can make such decisions, you must determine what level of outsourcing to evaluate:
- Are you looking to outsource 100 percent of the call center activity?
- Are you seeking a center to handle only a portion of your operation’s call load?
- Do you plan to use an agency merely as a backup in case of a crisis at your existing operation?
Once you know the type of outsourcing venture desired, you can compare the associated costs of keeping things in-house versus outsourcing.
Should you decide that outsourcing is right for you from a financial and strategic standpoint, conduct a careful analysis to select a specific agency that will meet your budget and service requirements.
In the next issue, we will look at the five steps you’ll want to take to select the right outsource call center partner.
For more information about setting up, reengineering, outsourcing, and project managing your call center operations, visit Kathy Sisk Enterprises. They have over forty years’ experience with satisfied clients and centers across the globe.