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Call Center Outsourcing: Definition, Benefits, and Essential Tips

A woman talking on a headset in a call center, representing call center outsourcing.

What is Call Center Outsourcing?

Call center outsourcing refers to the practice of shifting your customer care to an external contact or call center that will handle customer phone interactions on behalf of your business.  

 

Call center outsourcing is a dynamic customer communication solution that allows you to provide remarkable customer support without incurring a whole lot of extra expense. This approach also helps you make the most of your financial resources and allows you to focus on the scalable parts of your business, such as sales and digital marketing strategies.

 

This article will cover the various aspects of call center outsourcing, including the services offered, the benefits, and how Signpost can help you increase customer satisfaction.

 

Service businesses of all sizes use Signpost to win more business, communicate with customers, and drive loyalty. Start your demo today.

 

Common Call Center Services

You may have heard about offshore call centers that provide inbound and outbound services. Or, you might be a little more familiar with domestic call centers that provide these services. Either way, what exactly are these inbound and outbound call center tasks and what do they mean for your business? 

 

Keep reading to discover the differences and how you can choose the right call center partner!

 

Outbound call center services

An outbound call center service focuses more on sales and telemarketing. As part of your multi-channel sales strategy, you can employ outbound call center services to grow your leads and attract a bigger customer base. 

 

Outbound call center services often provide services related to:

 

  • Cold calling
  • Appointment setting
  • Conducting market research
  • Follow-ups
  • Surveys and reviews
  • Contact list updating
  • Fundraising calls 
 

Inbound call center services

An inbound call center typically focuses on customer service and addresses all queries from prospects and customers. Inbound call centers are focused on providing high-quality tech support, customer support, and quality assurance services. 

 

Inbound call center services often cover the following service areas: 

 

  • Answering customer queries
  • Resolving customer disputes
  • Appointment scheduling/setting
  • Upgrades and renewals
  • Payments and order processing 

 

Benefits of Outsourcing Your Business’s Call Center Services

There are several benefits your local or small business can gain from contact center outsourcing. These range from lead generation, enhanced customer experience, more efficient workflows, and improved customer retention rates. Here are some more of the top ways your business can benefit from choosing call center solutions

 

Improved customer service & call handling times

As a result of living in a digital age and virtual assistance, 59% of customers now have higher expectations for customer support than they did before. Luckily, call centers allows companies to dedicate more time and resources to their core business while maintaining close control over their customer service operations. 

 

This is a major win for local businesses who might not have the hands or resources on deck to handle all phone communications. Since most local businesses operate with a smaller team, call handling times and a large call volume in general can negatively impact customer satisfaction if not handled properly.

 

Improved customer acquisition & conversion rates

It’s simple: When your business reaches and communicates with more prospects, your business is poised to gain more qualified leads and boost its profitability. To be specific, here’s how much exactly inbound and outbound call center services can help your business:

 

  • Average conversion rate for outbound telemarketing: 3% 
  • Average lead generation for outbound telemarketing: 15 – 25% 
  • Average conversion rate from inbound telemarketing: 10%
  • Average lead generation for inbound telemarketing: 50 – 60%
 

When your business utilizes a call center outsourcing service, you’re bound to expand your clientele and your sales reach. Call centers enable a company to extend its customer support to a broader group of people, thereby generating more leads and converting them into paying customers!

 

Weekend and evening coverage

Call center service providers often provide weekend and evening coverage, which allows them to handle customer service calls at off-peak times. This is crucial for small or local businesses who can’t afford to miss out on business opportunities due to the lack of phone coverage or closed business hours.

 

An outsourced call center offers fast, real-time communication since call center agents work around the clock. Whether it’s a weekend or a late night customer, your business can manage all of its customer support operations even if your business is technically closed for the day.

 

Affordable price = reduced operating costs 

Lower costs is one of the significant benefits of working with call center outsourcing companies. You’ll reduce a significant portion of your existing costs, ranging from payroll costs associated with hiring designated CRM staffing to operations costs involved with running your own in-house call center. Greatly reducing your overheads will allow for better resource allocation to your business’s core competencies and better profits.

 

Access to customer support experts & trained staff

Did you know that 60% of your customers would leave your business if they encountered unfriendly support? 46% would do the same if the support agent didn’t have enough expertise.

 

Through outsourcing solutions, small, medium-sized, and even local businesses can tap into a wide network of highly experienced and well-trained support representatives who can handle your customers’ needs in real-time. A call center is one of the most cost-efficient ways to provide customer support if you have the right agents on board. You can reduce the expenditure on in-house teams and prevent losing customers by offloading this task to expert professionals who provide a premium service level. Call center staff often have years of experience and are trained to provide technical support and enhance customer relationships. 

 

Provides the opportunity to scale your business

If you own a company and business is growing, you’ll need to find a way to scale your operation to handle the increasing amount of customers and their dynamic needs. Scaling can be accomplished by either hiring more staff or partnering with a service provider, the latter of which is more cost-effective and gives you the freedom to focus on other areas of your business.

 

 

5 Essential Tips for Managing Outsourced Call & Contact Centers 

Now that you’ve decided to partner with call center service provider, here are five tips to keep in mind:

 

  • Provide resources & in-depth training for all your agents: Outsourcing is a great way to get back your critical time and resources, but it doesn’t mean you can go without training your support agents. Ensure all customer support personnel undergo sufficient training and provide them the materials needed to do so. Provide scripts, customer personas, product descriptions, and more to keep all agents fully knowledgeable and prepared to represent your business.
 
  • Leverage existing communication tools & technology: Use all of the communications tools at your disposal. Because you’re partnering with a service provider and compromising some level of control, you want to ensure all communications, plans, and instructions are clear and effective. You can do this by leveraging the different platforms out there. Be it on web chat, project management platforms, video conferencing software, or other technologies, make sure your entire team is on the same page!
 
  • Create a script or save responses to the most common questions: For the customer interactions that are frequent or common, a ready script or saved responses will enable your agents to provide faster support. Have readily available answers for your most common customer queries such as: 
    • What are your business hours?
    • Do you offer any special discounts?
    • How do I pay this invoice?
    • I’m unsatisfied with my service. What should I do?
 
  • Monitor and track your phone call data: Keeping customer insights handy can help grow your business in the long run. Ensure your agents take note of any crucial insights or metrics that can help your business grow. Some of the call center KPIs your business should track are: 
    • Average handle time
    • First response time
    • Average time in queue 
    • Cost per call
    • Net promoter score
    • Average time to answer
 
  • Ensure your agents understand and adopt your brand voice: Partnering with a great call center operation requires your agents to be well-versed with your business and its products, so they represent your brand accurately to customers. Familiarize them with your brand values, company goals, and its mission before they are in a customer-facing role. 

Signpost is Just One Call Away

Outsourcing your CRM can be the best decision your business makes today. Whether you want to focus on scaling your business, save money on staffing costs, or simply ensure you are delivering a superior customer experience, outsourcing your call center is a great way to meet your diverse business needs.

 

So what are you waiting for? It’s time to get started with a demo

 

Signpost can help your business answer all inbound calls and customer inquiries through our new live receptionist answering service. Never miss a call again with Signpost.

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