Choosing an outsourcing call center for solving business tasksю
The question “how to choose the right call center” is quite common in business circles. The possibilities of the modern outsourcing call center are diverse. Some of them allow solving dozens of business tasks of clients, others help to optimize the costs and operation of current solutions related to various business processes. At the same time, the choice of call center operation scheme remains open to this day. There are several ways to run a business. The purpose of this article is to show the possible options and to determine excellence (expert) and cost-effective.
First of all, you need to understand which key factors you need to pay attention to when choosing a call center.
Often the strategy for starting a project itself is not fully developed or due to lack of experience, skills or expertise there is no well-organized project plan. That is why it is so important, even at the stage of choosing a supplier, to understand what level of service it can provide you, what technologies it uses, but to pay attention not only to the technical aspect, but also to the social one. cultural one. Project managers must be able to match the content, costs, schedule and expectations of the client. your expectations! In an in-house internal call center (within the company) or as a service provider, and in case of large volumes of work both at the same time; in itself becomes a separate management skill. At the same time, the customer of the call center services often does not have such competencies (this is especially true for medium-sized businesses).
It should be noted that the call centers themselves are also interested in the criteria for choosing an outsourced call center. As the commercial success of the realized project and the quality of the service itself depend on the understanding of the processes of its work, the correct setting of the tasks, the general vision of these tasks by the client and the assignor. If the rules of the game are clearly defined, it will become clear how to choose a call center for yourself, whether it will be incoming customers, surveys, hotlines or telemarketing, it should be clear what is the procedure and criteria for choosing it. Everyone understands that it is impossible to put an end to this issue, but the criteria exist and we will describe them in this article.
The search and selection of a call center as a service provider fits into the following scheme:
- – setting a task to find a supplier within the company. Often the person looking for and choosing a call center later becomes the curator of the project;
- – creating a list of potential service providers (usually using search engine results, researching sites, reviews and recommendations);
- – collection of commercial offers according to the selected list (often guided by the price offer);
The call center selection process is no different than choosing suppliers in other areas, but “the devil is always in the details.” There are a number of characteristics and criteria on which the success of choosing a service provider depends. Let’s try to analyze all the features of choosing a call center as a service provider. When choosing an employee who will choose a call center, it is necessary:
– understands well how to solve what tasks the contractor chooses, how difficult the task is in the client’s mind, how ambitious it is. This will determine the choice of a call center by specialization (of course, most call centers are positioned as universal), but there are already companies on the market that specialize in telemarketing services or are leaders in the hotline segment;
– The scale of the project is also important. Obviously, if you need to implement a hotline with thousands of processed minutes, then one of the most important criteria that will guide you in your choice is the total number of operators working in the call center, you should definitely pay attention to completed projects. On the other hand, if you have a small project, then you will probably choose a less prominent contractor, while at the same time realizing that in a small call center your project will be treated more carefully.
– understands how the call center works. Understanding the structure of the call center, at least in general terms, will help to more accurately set the tasks, to adequately determine the criteria by which the work of the call center will be evaluated.
It is better to decide from the beginning whether this employee will be able to coordinate the project in the future. In general, in the process of project implementation with the help of a call center, the interaction system consists of three key persons: a manager, a group leader, a curator on behalf of the client. Establishing contact at the “zero” point of cooperation will facilitate future work. By what (at least approximately) criteria does the client plan to control the implementation of the project from the call center. Of course, the call center will adjust these parameters, but its own understanding of the control system
l will allow both the client and the contractor to understand each other better. As practice shows, about 70% -78% of all unsuccessful attempts to implement a project with the help of a call center are related to a lack of understanding between the client and the manager of the client at the stage of discussing cooperation and agreement. In other words, the “failure” of the project is related to a communication problem. Understanding the client’s expectations is half the success of the project.
When collecting information on contractors, the client must:
- – Be sure to talk to the potential performer “live”. Don’t just send requests to the call center. On the one hand, this will show the seriousness of the client’s intentions, on the other hand, to understand the level of service of a potential contractor at the first call;
- – pay attention to the number of operators (operator positions) in the call center. As mentioned above, the size of the call center (as well as its portfolio and current customers) may vary if you need a small hotline or information survey for several hundred contacts, then contact a small or specialized call center. center. Conversely, a hotline with a large volume of minutes is only possible for large call centers.
When receiving a commercial offer, the client must pay attention to whether the call center manager has collected preliminary information, whether he has asked clarifying questions. The extent to which the commercial proposal has been adapted or the potential contractor has approached the issue in a standard way and sent a standard offer. How much time the future project manager will spend on you and what promises and answers he gives in general.
Most often, when choosing trade offers, the client first of all pays attention to the price of services. For call center services, the total cost of the project usually consists of two parts:
- – permanent (one-time payment for project preparation);
- – a variable equal to the cost of one minute of telephone call processing for the total number of minutes processed.
Also, the client should ask if the client is ready to provide:
- – full detailed reporting;
- – records of processed telephone conversations;
- – comparison of the duration of the audio files with the main report;
- – the possibility to audit the work of the service provider in the call center platform (at the same time the client should be aware that he has no right and should not interfere in the internal processes of the contracting authority);
- Be sure to check the speed of reaction to possible events.
Following these recommendations will help you choose the call center, in whose work you will not be disappointed, to fully implement the project, optimizing the cost of its implementation.
Today, outsourcing planning is becoming more difficult than ever: the use of digital channels to interact with customers is actively expanding, making technologies designed to be unique more sophisticated and operators need to master skills. to work in new channels for communication with customers.
At the same time, it is important to mention the growing requests for level of service, because it is not enough just to provide an opportunity to process requests through different channels and train employees to work in them – it is important to do so as possible the fastest and most efficient, not forgetting the need to optimize maintenance costs. Managing a call center in such an environment is not an easy task and can hardly be done without automated tools and at the same time to achieve high customer satisfaction and unique customer experience.
Our offer is also aimed at satisfying all these needs in today’s market of outsourcing services. At Callboxs, we always strive to stay ahead of events and circumstances, which makes our customers market leaders.
