BPO Call Center | Everything You Need to Know

This article tells you everything about BPO Call Center, what it is? How does it work?, How it can help, and How to Outsource it?

Growing companies or any company for that matter, be it big or small, have tremendous workloads to start with, which may not have the sufficient and efficient staff, tools, or skills that are required to fulfill a customer’s expectation of a service call within a given time.

Most customers expect their service calls to be answered within a very short period, let’s say under 5 minutes. But this might not be possible for a company with a small staff.

This is where a BPO call center comes into play.

A Business Process Outsourcing call center is a very efficient and cheap method of meeting with the customer expectations and fulfilling their basic requirements or services which they may require in a very short period.

A BPO call center is a team of working agents who are delegated with work which is related to making or receiving calls.

These kinds of services are often outsourced to third-party vendors where the team of agents works for several companies, to which the customers are usually oblivious to.

For example, one may think that a call that is being made to an agent for a particular service which is required works for just one company which is not the case.

A company that might not be able to handle the call center services due to various problems may want to consider outsourcing the services to a third-party vendor.

Now, let’s take a look as to what all services are provided by a BPO call center.

What Does It Do?

There are two types of call center services broadly, that are provided to customers.

Inbound BPO Call Center Services

These refer to the service calls that are made by customers who may need a particular service which the concerned company might offer.

These kinds of services mainly include customer support, helpdesk, order-taking, etc.

Outbound BPO Call Center Services

These are the kind of services where the calls are made to customers instead of selling a service or for doing a survey.

These kinds of services include cold-calling customers.

Inbound BPO Call Center Services

Some might think of outsourcing the inbound call center services as precarious due to a simple reason that the third-party agents would not be as knowledgeable and equipped as a salaried employee can be.

Which really, is not the case.

The agents in these kinds of services are well trained to quickly and readily master the policies and working process of companies that make them efficient while handling a customer and to respond to him/her almost immediately.

Let’s learn more about the kind of services included in Inbound BPP call center services.

Customer Service

This is the kind of service where a customer calls with a problem or issue which needs to be resolved.

The call agent here, asks for the identity of the customer and tries to solve the problem by either doing over a conversation or by redirecting the customer to the concerned department.

This is mostly used by a business that sells complex products or by the big businesses whose call center services are entirely run by a team of agents.

The customers here, maybe due to the complexity of the product, call more than averagely and hence the requirement for the call center services.

Technical Support

In this type of service, the customer calls for technical assistance which is generally related to the replacement of broken or defective products that were purchased.

The technical support agent tries to solve the problem and even needs to maintain his/her calm if the customer is angry.

Technical support remains engaged with the customer, sending the automated text messages with details of the replacement order until the replacement or return of the order is complete and refund is initiated (if any).

Order-Taking

For clients who still prefer giving orders by phone, order-taking can be a very long and time-consuming process.

The third-party agents here can ease the work by completing this time-consuming task for the business and satisfy the customers with the service to make them repeated customers.

Clients placing orders outside the working hours of the company which might be due to the difference in time zones can also be facilitated by making them place orders with the call center agents which would also lead to keeping the money flowing 24×7.

Outbound BPO Call Center Services

While the Inbound BPO call center services involve the customer making the calls to the call centers, the Outbound BPO call center includes the calls being made to the customers.

This is also known as cold-calling and is a very time-consuming process due to the very fact that it involves calling a very large number of customers, many of which would be unresponsive before a sufficient amount of coherent responses are reached.

You can delegate this section of the service to third-party vendors who are also skilled to improve the relationship with customers and satisfying their needs where the services were required.

Telemarketing

Telemarketing, though not new in the market, is a newly emerging way of increasing sales, which is considered to be a highly cost-effective strategy for generating new leads over a telephone call.

This might not work for the company where employees do not specialize in cold-calling and hence is the need for third-party vendors who offer these kinds of services.

The agents would have specialized tools, working ways, skills, and experience that would have the ability to persuade customers and influence them to buy the products which they were not so convinced about buying in the first place.

The BPO call center agents are trained to charm the customers into buying their products which will also increase the sales of the product in the market.

Lead Generation

Lead generation is the new way of luring the customers into buying the products.

It involves gathering customers’ information and then approaching them through different sources of communication such as text messages, emails, telemarketing, etc. and generating interest in the business products services.

Even though lead generation can be used by any type of business but is mostly used by companies providing insurances, credit/debit card services, dish-top boxes, and many more.

These are the services where the sales are generated depending upon the need in the market as the consumer data is collected and analyzed.

Market Research/Survey

In this, the surveys are conducted over phone calls which can prove to be very favorable for the company.

This information mainly consists of the customers’ feedback on the products as well as provides the information of the most trending product in the market.

This service can be easily outsourced as this contains nothing but a scripted questionnaire wherein the operator has to just follow the line of questions that has to be asked and take in the customer responses.

This service is also used to advertise or market the products.

Debt Collection

The service that is sometimes outsourced to third-party vendors/BPO call centers ensures the payments on debts that are owed to individuals or businesses.

This collection of debts service outsourced to third-party vendors saves time and is commonly found in the areas relating to the mortgage, insurance, and financial markets.

But this process of debt recollection should not include any malpractices and should be done fairly.

Benefits of BPO Call Service

Below are some benefits of outsourcing BPO call services.

#1. Lower Costs

Outsourcing a BPO Call service will handle everything, i.e No Setup costs, staff cost, training cost, and international overhead costs which reduces the cost.

#2. Flexibility and Adaptability

People working in Call Centers are highly experienced in talking to different clients, whether it is increasing or decreasing volume, changing the tone, etc. They specialize in almost everything.

This allows the call center to rapidly change with changing customers. This also depends on what company you are outsourcing in, so spend some time looking at the company’s reviews and services before outsourcing.

#3. Expand Your Business Internationally

The problem with running in house call centers is that you will be geographically-limited, you can’t contact international clients.

If you’re a global business, you have to outsource a BPO call center service as then you will be able to handle national as well as international calls as well.

#4. Improved Customer Satisfaction

Outsourcing a BPO call center service will allow you to get many mediums to contact your clients, such as calls, email, live chat, chatbot, voice, etc.

This will give a large variety to the Customer which will improve customer satisfaction.

Also, BPO call center services are very experienced in managing calls which will help the customer get answers to all his queries easily in a well-mannered way.

How to Outsource a BPO Call Center Service?

Outsourcing the BPO call center services is a very efficient and time-saving method to achieve cost-effective results.

Outsourcing the services to the right company can prove to be less costly and a methodically sound. A company can choose the right BPO agency and still not profit from it if it does not know the factors that are very crucial for outsourcing.

Choosing the type of functions a company wants to outsource is a very significant factor but, there’s more to it. Let’s discover more on ‘How to Outsource’?

#1. Identifying Outsourcing Needs

The very first and foremost step is, as mentioned above is identifying the outsourcing needs. There can be a variety of functions that a company might want to outsource.

For example, a multinational corporation might just want to focus on core business activities and outsource the rest.

Choosing the right BPO agency that specializes in a particular service that is required will visibly increase the sales and will prove to profitable for the company.

#2. Finding the Right Service Provider

The next step is to find the right service provider, which depends upon two factors.

Where Will The BPO Service Provided From?

A company can be very critical to the needs of its customers.

The BPO provider’s location can affect its accent, skills, and labor costs. Depending upon the budget of the company, and considering other factors, a company has to choose if the BPO service providing company should be local or foreign.

Local may be expensive but it would efficiently and successfully be able to charm the customers using known tactics while choosing a foreign company would be cheap but can pose more challenges than choosing the local which includes, what if the customer is not able to understand the accent or the language in which he/she is being spoken to.

Moreover, managing and explaining the BPO service provider from a large distance can be a little tough.

Every Call Center Provides Different Service

All the call centers do not provide the same kind of service, which for a fact, is hugely mistaken.

Choosing the right BPO service provider which fits the needs of the required services is very important to ensure good sales and customer satisfaction.

Now, choose a BPO service provider according to your needs and requirements depending upon the above factors.

#3. Monitor the BPO Service Provider

Third and lastly, keep monitoring the BPO service provider’s results to ensure that the quality is maintained.

Always keep an eye on what kinds of tasks they perform, how long do they work for and how productive are the results proving to be for the company.

Some various software and applications can help you achieve this if you’re at a great distance from your BPO service provider.

Additionally, the company should be able to treat their BPO service provider as business partners. If the right partner is found with the required needs, then this would lead to a long-term relationship.

Also, keep an open mind for suggestions that might be kept on the table by your seemingly business partner because that’s what partners do.

A long partner will always have the client’s best interest in mind.

These were some of the points to be kept in mind while selecting a BPO service provider for your company.

Managing a business can be a tough and hefty job but the right business tools, skills, and a perfect BPO service provider is all you require to get your business up and running in no time at all.

Once you choose the right agency to delegate some part of your business to, you’ll notice your business is growing and you are being able to meet your customers’ needs like never before!