Ten Reasons You Should Outsource Your Call Center

On the flip! We are going to be talking about 10 reasons as to why you should outsource your call center. In the last article/podcast we talked about reasons why you should not outsource. Do not take it as a finite list and that you should never ever outsource your customer service. My intention is to tell you if you fall into any of those categories or you do not have the knowledge and resources to outsource, maybe you should not now. This week, we will be a little more optimistic. Let’s get to it!

1. Lacking in Infrastructure

Many of our clients ran into this problem before outsourcing. They simply did not have the infrastructure to hold up their own internal customer service department. The issues you could run into from a lack in infrastructure can extend from integration issues, WTF, analytics, and reporting. The technology you have internally just will not be as advanced as any system an outsourcer might have.

2. No Scaling

You cannot scale an internal customer service operation. Scaling is not as easy as people think. Though it is great when a business grows, there are a lot of growing pains that pair with it. Where are you going to find more associates? How are you going to train them? Do you need more licenses for your telephony platform or your CRM? If you are scaling quickly and going from a 10-seat center to forty or fifty, it makes sense to talk to an outsourcer who can handle your scaling pains for you. The outsourcer can handle finding associates, training, attrition, turnover, and most importantly: quality.

3. Narrowing Down the Customer Experience

If you are unsure of your quality aspects and your customer journey, consider outsourcing. Even if you have the ability to blind monitor calls, you might be winging it. The customer experience is important, and the standard at which you are guiding that experience should be excellent.

4. Customer Service is not Your Core Skillset

A lot of companies tolerate a call center. They do not use it as a tool or a weapon. No matter the type of business that you are running, whether you are retail or manufacturing or software, you are good at what you do. Customer service is not your core skillset, so hand it off to an outsourcer whose core skillset is. This is our priority.

5. Price

In the last blog we talked about how if your only reason to outsource is to keep costs down, you probably should not do it. You will not be able to find quality service for an extremely low price, and in the end, that will hurt you. However, we see many clients who are based in large cities like New York or Chicago, where the cost of outsourcing within the city can be extremely expensive. Considering outsourcing in small to midsized cities like Erie, Pennsylvania can help to cut costs without sacrificing the quality of the services you receive.

6. Turnover and Training

An internal operation where customer service is not a core skill set will struggle with turnover and training. They will not be as focused on the motivations being given to their customer support agents, turnover will be high, and you will have constant HR, hiring, and training expenses. A lot of large organizations will have 4-8 weeks of training, leading them to believe they cannot outsource. This is not true; outsourcers will still usually train their agents for 4-6 weeks. Do not let training be a deterrent for you. If anything, a dedicated trainer for your program will do a better job because they live, eat, and breathe that program every single day. It takes the slack off you!

7. Seasonality

Seasonality is especially important for retail. Certain times of the year call for more or less customer service that is needed. Having to ramp up from 20 agents to 50 or 100 around Christmas time can be exceedingly difficult, and place a lot of burden on your infrastructure, training, and hiring of the entire organization. Seasonality is something that outsourcing centers handle very well… because it is their job to! If you are dead set on keeping some reps internally, you can still do that, and send overflow to your outsourcing partner. This also places far less strain on your internal agents.

8. Data Collection & Analysis

A huge reason now to start outsourcing your customer service is being able to access data collection and analysis tools such as speech analytics and sentiment reporting. If you are a data-driven organization and you do not want to put the money into expanding your infrastructure or buying your own tools, outsourcing can be a cost-effective way to expand your customer service technology.

9. Easy Upgrading

The call center industry is constantly innovating. We are going from using phones and headsets to using skills-based routing, omnichannel connections, speech analytics, AI, self-service, and so much more. If you are keeping your customer service operation internal, you are responsible for implementing those upgrades and keeping up with your competitors. If you outsource with a good partner, those upgrades will already be considered, and likely you will not even have to pay for them. It will be part of the call center’s process of accessing new technology for themselves to furthermore serve you better.

10. 24/7 Support

Many clients want 24/7, or at least extended hour support, but they do not want to hire for it or their infrastructure does not allow them to. Most contact centers offer some type of 24/7 or extended hour capabilities. Here at Expivia, we have circulating full-boar crews here until midnight every day, and a smaller crew from midnight to 7am. Having 24/7 access for your customers is a great reason to outsource and makes your business far more accessible to the consumer.

If you are considering outsourcing, take these items into account. Whether you are deciding to buy a new platform or upgrade your telephony platform to get all the bells and whistles, outsourcing might be a good call. We have a small team here that monitors those types of functions and always keep a finger on the pulse of what is going on, so your program is never out of control. Having that trusted partner also means not having to worry about hiring or attrition or constant training, and you can get back to focusing on extending your brand in other ways.