Outsourcing call centers are getting more and more popular nowadays. Many enterprises cooperate with outsourcing companies in order to provide communication with customers in appropriate way. Such way of optimization of business processes of a company has many positive results; however, it is important to choose a really good outsourcing company for call center service.
Outsourcing call centers are aimed at processing of incoming calls for certain period (for example, for the period of advertising campaigns or surveys, or for database updating), as well as on regular basis – for a complex support of customer attendance. Regular using of such type of business process optimization is profitable, as you don’t spend manager resources and get a service which is built according to standard schemes, which gives you an opportunity to monitor and optimize business processes of your company according to standards specified in advance. It is also very important that changing of an outsourcing company (if needed) won’t be difficult for you.
Questions stated below will help you to make a correct request and to prepare requirements specifications for outsourcing call centers. This will help you to choose an appropriate outsourcing company according to value for money factor and to optimize business processes in the sphere of customer service.
Outsourcing call center: questions to discuss before concluding of a contract
What objectives are stated to a call center? What is better: service supposing minimal financial expenses on taking of one phone call (general specialists work in this case) or professional consultations (specialists give professional consultations only for customers of a company), which will be more expensive?
It is better to use separate call center operators in cases when professional knowledge is needed for a response. If the purpose of a phone call is selling of products and services, then you should arrange a combined type of payment for labor for call center operators: a salary plus percents.
What is the optimal algorithm of phone calls processing? Before discussing of conditions of cooperation with an outsourcing call center, you should decide, whether:
- Operators will need any help of other specialists;
- You need any extra routing for phone calls;
- A customer database will be available for operators.
There are actually some more details concerning phone calls. And improvement of the procedure of phone calls processing is a significant part of optimization of business processes in the sphere of customer service.
What telephone number will be used? Your existing phone number can be used, but there are some restrictions on call forwarding for numbers not belonging to leading communications providers. In case, you buy a new telephone number, you should be ready to spend a significant sum of money on it.
What schedule do you need and how many calls are expected? Financial department is able to calculate whether expenses on 24-hour work of a call center will be paid off. It is not always possible to predict a number of phone calls. However, an expected number of calls should help you to choose an outsourcing company with offers profitable for you.