Your customers and users are growing fast, your products and services are expanding, and naturally, your customer-facing team (or rather, the very busy few people managing this process) are fielding a lot more questions.
Even with customer support channels and automated workflows, you can’t seem to resolve all these queries fast enough to provide the level of service your customer expect. Your best best is to grow your customer support function, but you don’t have the luxury to hire, onboard, and train a team of capable call center agents.
Regardless of industry, size, or product offering, organizations can take advantage of the benefits of outsourcing their call center function to keep customers happy, without investing in new support resources or growing your customer service team. But managing an external, outsourced team of call center agents requires careful consideration, as they come with risks that can hurt your brand’s reputation and damage customer relationships.
In this article, we explore the concept of a BPO call center, the advantages and challenges of outsourcing your call center, and how to identify and partner with the right type of BPO call center.
For many businesses, especially small and midsize companies, handling all customer service in-house can be challenging. Between managing inbound support tickets, phone calls, live chats, and social media messages, it’s tough to deliver prompt, high-quality service without sufficient staffing and the right tools
This is where outsourcing customer service to a business process outsourcing (BPO) call center can help. But what exactly is a BPO call center, and how does outsourcing work? This comprehensive guide will demystify BPO call centers, their benefits, and how to choose the right partner for your business.
What is a BPO Call Center?
A BPO (business process outsourcing) call center is a company that handles inbound and/or outbound calls for other businesses. BPO call centers provide outsourced contact center services and agents to manage customer interactions over the phone.
When you partner with a BPO call center, they essentially act as an extension of your business. Their agents are trained on your products, services systems and processes so they can deliver support sales, and other services seamlessly to your customers.
Some key facts about BPO call centers
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They are third-party companies that manage calls for multiple client businesses.
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Services may include inbound support, outbound sales and telemarketing, surveys, bookings and reservations, etc.
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BPO call centers provide the technology, tools, workforce and expertise to handle calls.
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They follow their clients’ documented processes, scripts, resources and brand voice.
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Communication and alignment between the client and BPO is key for good service.
So in a nutshell, BPO call centers allow you to outsource customer calls while still maintaining control over the experience through your established workflows and guidelines.
Why Businesses Use BPO Call Centers
There are many reasons a business may choose to use a BPO call center partner:
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Cost savings – Outsourcing calls reduces labor costs since you only pay for contract agents rather than hiring full-time employees. It also eliminates overhead like office space, equipment, and management.
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Scalability – BPO centers can quickly scale up or down to accommodate call volumes as needed. No need to hire and train new staff.
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Extended hours – BPO call centers provide 24/7/365 coverage so customers get assistance any time.
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Specialized skills – BPO agents are highly trained in call handling best practices. This expertise delivers better customer satisfaction.
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Technology – BPO call centers provide robust technology for routing, tracking, reporting and more.
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Allow focus on core business – With calls outsourced, companies can better focus internal resources on critical functions.
For most businesses, the combination of these benefits adds up to a compelling case for partnering with a BPO call center. The versatility, expertise and economies of scale make outsourcing calls a smart move.
Key Types of BPO Call Center Services
BPO call centers today provide much more than just basic inbound customer service. Many offer specialized services to meet specific business needs:
Inbound Support Services
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Customer service – Agents handle product support calls, account inquiries, order issues, how-to questions, technical troubleshooting, etc.
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Bookings and reservations – Agents book appointments, travel reservations, event registrations, etc.
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Dispatch – Agents dispatch field resources like taxis, delivery vehicles, repair technicians based on inbound requests.
Outbound Services
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Telemarketing – Agents call prospects to generate new leads and pipeline opportunities.
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Lead qualification – Agents call and qualify inbound leads to surface hot prospects for sales teams.
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Surveys – Agents conduct customer satisfaction, market research and other surveys.
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Renewals/Upsell – Agents call customers to renew contracts or upsell additional products and services.
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Payment collection – Agents call to collect on overdue invoices and past-due accounts.
So whether you need inbound support, outbound sales, or a blend of both, today’s BPO call centers offer full-service contact center capabilities.
Key Steps for Choosing a Call Center Partner
Selecting the right BPO call center to meet your needs is key. Here is a step-by-step process:
1. Define Requirements
Determine what types of services you need (support, telemarketing, etc), expected call volumes, hours of coverage, service levels, workforce requirements, and tools/technologies needed.
2. Research Options
Search for BPO call centers that offer the services you need and meet your requirements. Check reviews, credentials, case studies, and certifications.
3. Evaluate Short List
Short list 3-5 call centers and evaluate based on services, experience, online reputation, pricing models, and capability to scale.
4. Request Proposals
Ask shortlisted call centers to provide a custom proposal detailing services, pricing, SLAs, account management, onboarding plan, and transition support.
5. Conduct Interviews
Interview shortlisted vendors to assess capabilities, cultural fit, key differentiators, and ability to deliver on your goals. Ask about their agents, training, retention, quality assurance, and tools.
6. Check References
Ask for 2-3 client references and contact them to learn about their experience partnering with the call center.
7. Select Your Provider
Compare proposals and interviews to select the call center best aligned to your needs, budget, and goals for customer experience.
8. Onboard and Refine
Develop processes, resources, scripts, integrations, and reporting dashboards. Once live, continuously monitor performance and refine over time.
Following this process will help you identify and select a trusted BPO call center partner positioned for long-term success.
Key Benefits of BPO Call Centers
Partnering with a BPO call center offers many benefits that enable businesses to elevate the customer experience:
1. Reduced Costs
Outsourcing calls to specialized agents reduces labor costs significantly compared to hiring in-house staff. Overhead, training, management and facilities costs are lower as well. Businesses only pay for the services used.
2. Improved Customer Satisfaction
With BPO call center technology and skilled agents trained in best practices, customers enjoy faster response times, more knowledgeable assistance, and an overall smoother experience.
3. Increased Flexibility
BPO call centers make it easy to scale up during seasonal peaks or scale back during slower periods. You can adjust capacities swiftly without hiring or downsizing.
4. Extended Service Hours
BPO call centers provide 24/7/365 call coverage so customers can get assistance any time of day or night.
5. Quicker Issue Resolution
Specialized BPO agents resolve issues faster and more accurately thanks to their expertise, technology, and process efficiency. This drives higher first-call resolution.
6. Valuable Insights
With call reporting and analytics, businesses gain insights into trends, customer needs, agent performance, and opportunities for improvement.
7. Focus on Core Business
With calls outsourced, companies can direct more focus, resources and staff toward critical business functions rather than service and support.
For most organizations, outsourcing calls to an expert BPO call center delivers higher customer satisfaction at a lower cost, enabling resources to be channeled more strategically.
Best Practices for Working with a Call Center
To maximize the benefits of working with a BPO call center, be sure to:
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Provide thorough training on products, services, systems, and brand voice so agents can support customers knowledgeably.
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Define service level agreements (SLAs) for call volumes, handle times, first-call resolution, and customer satisfaction.
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Implement processes, call flows, knowledge bases, and scripts to streamline call handling.
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Set up real-time call monitoring and dashboards to track key performance metrics.
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Schedule regular check-ins to review reports, trends, and opportunities to optimize the partnership.
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Solicit customer satisfaction feedback and agent input for continuous improvement.
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Treat agents as an extension of your team through open communication, transparency, and appreciation.
By instilling best practices upfront and continuing to refine the relationship, you can create a seamless customer experience delivered by your BPO call center partners.
Are BPO Call Centers Right for You?
Now that you understand what BPO call centers are and how they work, reflect on your own business needs. If any of these apply, a call center partnership could be beneficial:
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Increasing call volumes straining support staff
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Long hold times and abandoned calls due to understaffing
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Need to provide 24/7 call coverage outside business hours
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Lack of specialized expertise for complex support issues
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Desire to scale up/down seasonally without staffing churn
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Need greater insights from call data and analytics
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Revenue growth limited by sales call capacity
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Challenges managing labor costs and call center overhead
For many organizations,
Disadvantages of BPO Call Centers
Although many companies have seen great success with both BPO call centers, some may not reap the benefits of managing a robust external team.
Customer-facing communication is a huge responsibility that leaders can get anxious about putting into the hands of their employees without multiple rounds of interviews and hours of training. Understandably, these worries are heightened when placing that trust in the hands of a team that you may not have worked with before.
Here are a few disadvantages of BPO call centers that companies should be aware of:
When you outsource any service, there’s the risk of not being able to own or control output fully. In the case of a BPO call center, this output refers to the quality and efficiency of communication with customers.
Unlike employees who are more involved in day-to-day operations around the company, BPO agents are not hired and onboarded by your organization. This gap in brand alignment can result in inconsistent messaging and a poor customer experience from BPO agents.
Investing in a robust training program for BPO agents will help you avoid this issue. You should treat your BPO agents as a part of your organization and eliminate siloes by making company resources and knowledge accessible during a time of need. When applicable, you can even involve select BPO agents in strategic discussions about customer communication so both parties have full transparency on expectations and service level requirements.
In strictly regulated industries like healthcare, financial services, government, and legal services, customer data is extremely sensitive. Information such as health data, financial records, and confidential government documents can be extremely dangerous if handled by a third-party vendor with an unprotected technology stack. Without the correct security protocol, this data can be lost, compromised, or stolen through data breaches and cyberattacks.
If you work with a BPO call center, you must ensure that your vendor has undergone a strict vetting process that evaluates their data infrastructure, processes, and data handling for the right compliance standards.
Many organizations have seen great success calling their customer service operations with offshore BPO call centers. But this only happens if you set the right expectations and deliver high-quality training to ensure agents are comfortable and confident communicating with customers who speak different languages or have different cultural norms.
You’ll want to select a BPO call center that is transparent about its capabilities in managing a global customer base. There is no shortage of call center vendors that are upfront about their strengths in providing multilingual support across different time zones. These vendors typically have more robust workflows, tools, and resources to support communication in other languages and regions.
Inbound call centers
Inbound call centers prioritize incoming calls and queries from customers. These call centers rely on capabilities like multi-channel communication, call routing, ticket queue management, and interactive voice response to prevent longer response times or limited agent availability. BPO agents are trained to provide high-quality customer assistance that maintain customer satisfaction and retention.
BPO, Call Center, Contact Center: What’s the Difference?
What services does a BPO call center provide?
A BPO call center is a team of outsourced agents who handle incoming and outgoing customer calls for other businesses. BPO call centers handle more than simply calls. Watch the video below where center professional Rea Ninja explains how the BPO call center industry works.
What are the advantages of outsourcing customer service to a BPO call center?
With the help of a BPO call center, you can both reach and follow up with all the leads in your pipeline in less time, which can help your company generate more sales quickly. Small companies also will outsource telesales because BPO call centers have greater access to sales technology.
What advantages does an Arise BPO call center bring?
Arise’s cloud-based customer management platform provides highly flexible call center outsourcing solutions enabling a superior customer service interaction. Traditional BPO call centers operate with customer support associates staffed on-site.
