Not all companies have the staff, tools, and skills to meet their customers' expectations for call center service. For example, 51% of consumers expect a response in less than five minutes when calling a business, according to the 2020 All Star BPO Experience Trends Report. But for a small ecommerce team, this is not always possible. meet this expectation.
That's where a business process outsourcing (BPO) call center comes in.
Business process outsourcing is the act of outsourcing some aspect of your business operations to an external vendor or service provider. A BPO call center is a team of outsourced agents who handle incoming and outgoing calls from clients of other companies.
If your business doesn't have the bandwidth to properly handle all of your incoming and outgoing calls, you may want to consider outsourcing. Read on to learn how a BPO call center can step in and provide excellent support.
BPO inbound call center services
For some, the idea of outsourcing inbound calling services may seem like a risky move. After all, outside agents simply aren't as knowledgeable as salaried employees when it comes to your company and its products.
But getting up to speed quickly is what BPO call center agents are trained for. They are adept at adapting to other companies' help desk processes and tools to quickly consult the resources needed to help customers with support questions. Additionally, most BPOs use their own advanced call center technology, allowing their agents to run a company's existing processes with greater efficiency and ROI.
Let's take a look at some specific types of incoming calls and how BPO call centers are equipped to handle them.
Support questions
Businesses that sell complex plans or products tend to receive a higher than average number of customer service inquiries. Health care companies, for example, can receive hundreds of calls a day from customers who have questions about their benefits.
Large corporations serving large volumes of clients often rely on entire teams of agents dedicated solely to handling these types of inbound support calls. This work is often outsourced to BPO call centers because the cost of labor is lower.
Additionally, larger companies with regulated plans and services almost always have clearly documented knowledge base resources that they can easily share with BPO call center agents. These resources make it easy for BPO agents to get up and running in no time.
Processing order
Some customers still prefer to order by phone. But processing these purchases can be time consuming: entering customer information into your CRM, taking payment information, submitting orders for fulfillment, etc.
Hire a BPO call center to handle this entire process, from order placement to delivery, so your team has more time for high-level business processes like marketing and product development. These hubs are especially useful for processing international orders during time zones outside of your company's normal business hours and for managing overflow during high-volume days, hours, or holidays.
By outsourcing your orders over the phone, you can keep money flowing 24/7 without having to pay employees overtime or take resources away from other basic business functions.
Shipment
Dispatch agents handle incoming calls from clients requesting service from a company. A taxi company, for example, will receive dispatch calls from customers requesting to reserve a car. The agent who receives the dispatch call will notify the driver to comply with the service.
Instead of hiring full-time salaried employees, some companies will outsource their inbound dispatch call services so they can pay agents as needed. A courier company that delivers only between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. On weekdays, for example, it might be more profitable to outsource dispatch services rather than hiring salaried employees.
With this system, you also don't have to worry about paying an employee on a slow day when there are few dispatch calls. And as a bonus, BPO call centers can help cover odd hours to ensure no service request is missed.
Outbound BPO call center services
While an inbound call center agent's job is to answer the phone, outbound call center agents are the ones who make the calls. Outbound call center services are often outsourced due to how tedious and time-consuming they can be. For example, a business may call thousands of people before they get enough responses to complete a market research survey.
When you partner with a BPO call center, you can dedicate your agents to managing these tedious tasks so your team can focus on building customer relationships and improving your products and services.
Telemarketing
While telemarketing has historically had a bad reputation, many companies consider it a very effective and profitable strategy for generating new leads. Unfortunately, telemarketing can generate a low ROI if your agents are inexperienced in the art of cold calling.
That's where BPO call center expertise, tools, and expertise come into play. Their agents are hired for their ability to captivate and persuade cold callers. They are trained to think quickly, enchant consumers, and present your company's mission statement in a way that resonates with the person on the other side. The right BPO agents can help you increase the ROI of your telemarketing efforts.
Telesales
Telesales are primarily focused on closing deals over the phone. Telesales differ from telemarketing in that cold calls are generally made to leads who have already been identified as promising leads.
These calls are an important aspect of generating revenue, but businesses may not have the ability to quickly connect with potential customers. Let's say you have 2,000 leads in your client portfolio, but only 12 reps on your team. You could spend weeks cold calling and still not connect with the right opportunities. With the help of a BPO call center, you can reach all potential clients in your project portfolio and follow up in less time, which can help your business generate more sales quickly.
Small businesses will also outsource telesales because BPO call centers have greater access to sales technology. By hiring a BPO team that already has a CRM, companies can take advantage of the benefits of the tool without adding more technology to their existing technology stack. This saves overhead costs and eliminates the need to spend time and resources incorporating a new tool.
Market research
Companies often conduct telephone surveys to find out more about their customer base. The data obtained from market research can reveal a number of valuable information: what resonates with buyers, their main weaknesses, etc.
Market research calls tend to follow an established script, so you can easily outsource them to a BPO center. Just instruct the BPO agents on how to greet customers and close the call, and provide them with a list of questions to ask. By outsourcing these calls, your team can profitably gain insights for upcoming campaigns and product launches.
Use a BPO call center to provide excellent customer service
Your ability to deliver a positive customer service experience can make or break your business. The fact is, not every business has the resources or bandwidth to reduce wait times, resolve tickets quickly, or deliver the IT experience customers have come to expect.
In those cases, the most reliable way to provide that type of service is to outsource it to the experts. With a BPO call center, you can ensure that your customers receive high-quality support without taking time and resources away from other core functions, such as product development and marketing.
Call Center jobs
Call centers have become a craze among young people. One can find anything from a teenager to a mid-level professional working in call centers, but since they say all glitter isn't gold, call center jobs in Rawalpindi can be lucrative and cumbersome at the same time.
The good news is that call centers hire new and inexperienced people who are fluent in English. Starting salaries can vary, but agents increase very quickly based on their performance. The compensation per project is also very considerable. So with a job as an agent, one could be assured of financial security.