Outsourcing your customer support operations to the ideal BPO company in India can be very advantageous to your business. But, at the same time, hiring the wrong BPO company for call center outsourcing services may cause more damage than you can handle. Outsourcing your customer support operations is the best way for you to reduce your operating expenses and workload.
At the same time, it also helps you to improve the quality and outcomes of your customer engagements. Moreover, the professional services of the contact center company will add great value to your business, ensuring maximum customer retention. This will, in turn, create more happy customers, increase sales and boost revenue, improve sustainability, and strengthen your brand identity and value in the marketplace.
As a business owner, you must already be aware of the many benefits of inbound call center outsourcing in India. Or you might have a decent idea of these benefits and desire to know more before engaging a BPO company. Either way, customer support outsourcing has grown to become way too important for businesses and their customer engagement. The area where most businesses falter is determining the challenges of contact center outsourcing and identifying appropriate solutions for them.
Sometimes, businesses aren’t aware of the potential challenges and obstacles they are likely to face when looking for the ideal contact center company or when they have already handed over operations to their chosen BPO companies. Here, we will discuss some of the most prevalent challenges that every business might face with call center outsourcing services. At the same time, we will also discuss potential solutions and how these obstacles can be overcome to ensure maximum outcomes.
Key problems that enterprises must overcome when engaging in call center outsourcing services
Organizational & operational differences
Being a part of the customer support industry, a contact center company is likely to have a different operational model, strategies, and functionality than your business (which hails from a completely different industry). Moreover, if you opt for an offshore BPO company, there are likely to be differences in the culture and mannerisms. The representatives in the contact centers are not naturally accustomed to the cultural patterns of your customers back in the United States. This can create massive language barriers and cultural obstacles in your customer support operations. In addition, these organizational, operational, and cultural differences can also impact the understanding between your internal teams and the inbound call center outsourcing in India, disrupting operational productivity in a massive way.
The ideal way to resolve this would be to educate both internal and outsourcing teams on the differences and incorporate them within your operational competencies. This awareness can be raised through workshops and providing training to the customer support representatives on organizational commitments and cultures.
Lack of adequate industry knowledge
While customer support has its own set of challenges, representatives are also severely limited in their service deliveries due to a lack of adequate knowledge about the industry. Even in the same industry, different companies interact with their customers using different methods and communication tools. Now, it is unreasonable to expect customer support representatives to be aware of the methods and functioning of your operations and the little nuances of your company. They may have some idea about the industry, but they still need to get some learning about the intrinsic details that will help them deliver satisfactory customer support. Hence, it is absolutely critical for call center outsourcing services to bridge the gap through adequate knowledge transfer from their clients/companies to their agents.
In order to overcome the challenge of limited knowledge or data access, customer support representatives need to be given all the information that they might need to deliver satisfactory services to your customers. Simultaneously, they must also get training in the methods of the industry and have a fair idea of how businesses operate within the industry.
Data security & ownership
Most BPO companies utilize their own technology and contact center systems to ensure sophisticated customer service deliveries. While acquiring a new client, they incorporate the infrastructure of their clients with their internal systems to ensure smooth and seamless functioning. However, this means that clients have to hand over customer details and other valuable data to the inbound call center outsourcing in India that they engage with. This kind of data sharing accompanies its own set of challenges and potential security risks, with the BPO company now having complete access to sensitive and business-critical information. In case there are any data lapses or sensitive customer information from unauthorized parties, it can have serious repercussions for businesses. It could even lead to massive financial sanctions and other penalties from authorities and governing agencies.
As a result, it is absolutely necessary for you to be very careful about the contact center company they engage in for your customer support outsourcing. Before you sign the dotted line, you must ensure that they have secure data management systems that guarantee highly-secured collection, processing, and sharing of data.
Hidden costs & expenses
One of the most important reasons that businesses opt for call center outsourcing services is to reduce their operating expenses. BPO companies in India can help companies deliver top-quality customer services without making a dent in their annual operating budgets. However, if a BPO company offers you a deal that is too good to be true, it probably is. Sure, outsourcing your customer support operations is cheaper than setting up in-house operations, but it still costs good money. The BPO company will charge you valuable money if they have to maintain certain industry standards and deliver superior quality services to customers. Some BPO companies lower their costs substantially in an effort to attract more customers. However, this also impacts their quality of services as to cut corners and save on internal operating expenses.
Hence, you should look to engage a BPO company that offers value for your money. Make adequate inquiries about the call center outsourcing services and get a good reading about the quality of the services on offer. Once you do that, calculate the costs against the quality of services and get a fair understanding of the value of the services. This will help you engage the ideal contact center company while also saving big on your customer support operations.
Is inbound call center outsourcing in India worth it?
That is the ultimate question, isn’t it? In a constantly-changing industry, it can often become quite challenging to understand the true value of customer support outsourcing to your business. After all, BPO companies have evolved massively over the past two decades. Starting off as an easy and convenient solution for delivering quality customer communication and reducing operational costs, they have transformed into customer engagement partners. Today, a BPO company is responsible for much more than answering phones and providing adequate solutions to customer grievances. In the current business landscape, the contact center company you engage in will actively serve as a brand representative for your customers.
Engage the right call center outsourcing services for your company, and you will be able to bolster your brand value in the marketplace. The reverse is also true, as hiring the wrong BPO company can completely ruin your brand identity and cost you heavy losses. Therefore, it is absolutely critical to ensure that you research well before choosing a BPO company in India and signing the dotted line. Engaging a BPO company for customer support outsourcing can add incredible value to your business. However, you also need to choose the right company, get customized solutions, and maximize them for your business.
