25 Questions to Ask Before Investing in Call Center Outsourcing

Call center outsourcing is a hot topic on both ends of the phone – company and customer. And both groups have reasons to celebrate and hesitate. From a company’s perspective, call center outsourcing can be attractive for expanding customer communication, but may be nerve-wracking given that it requires giving up some control over their provision of service. From the customer’s perspective, call center outsourcing can provide longer service hours and more available agents, but it can also lead to frustration and misunderstandings.

Let’s take a closer look at call center outsourcing and explore what it could mean for your business.

What is call center outsourcing?

Call center outsourcing is the process by which companies employ an external service provider to operate and manage their call center. This external service provider can be based out of anywhere, but most often this term is used to refer to offshore outsourcing. Offshore outsourcing is simply moving call centers outside of the United States.

Companies may choose to outsource all or part of their call center operations (e.g. sales, service, market research, etc.) In general, companies hand over most of the control to the external provider, giving them the power to hire and train agents, maintain call center software and manage day-to-day operations.

What are the principal upsides of call center outsourcing?

The biggest benefit of call center outsourcing is that external service providers absorb the cost of operations, including call center software maintenance and hiring. This can represent significant savings. Call center outsourcing can also facilitate around the clock service for customers, since outsourced call centers tend to be in different time zones.

What are the principal downsides of call center outsourcing?

The biggest downside of call center outsourcing is that it can lead to decreased customer satisfaction if service representatives do not speak the same language or come from the same culture as the customers. Additionally, companies may feel that their call center operations are no longer in their control, so they do not have as much power over brand representation, company knowledge or call center decisions.