When it comes to considering the different sourcing options for a company and their customer service operations (offshore, onshore, near-shore, multi-country, etc.) key decision-makers face some very difficult choices.  Business practices in the past few decades have led to an overall negative public opinion toward the idea of outsourcing or off-shoring, yet customer continue to demand higher levels of service and greater cost savings that are now available from today’s business process outsourcing.  Even still, other organizations are moving toward the cost-saving avenue of call center outsourcing without fully understanding the customer service consequences.  In an effort to help those searching for answers to the tough decision of whether or not to outsource, we’ve put together a short list of questions that may help provide a clearer answer.

Do you have an international presence?

Companies serving clients or customers all over the globe may require language-specific services, cultural knowledge or around-the-clock customer service.  The decision to insource or outsource customer service functions depends greatly on your presence in the global market and the needs of your customers/clients around the world.

How complex is your product/service?

Evaluate your organization’s products and services in order to better understand if the savings created by outsourcing will affect the quality of service provided to your customers.  As we like to say, a lower cost per minute for contact center services doesn’t necessarily mean lower overall cost per customer.  No matter what type of sourcing you decide upon, you must focus your efforts on connecting with a provider that can offer services at a low cost while also delivering services in a quality, end-to-end manner.

Does your organization see seasons of higher customer interaction?

Many industries face specific seasons of higher customer interaction due to various market-related reasons.  If your organization faces these challenges, is it worth hiring full time staff year-round that can handle the increased interactions or outsource “back-up”.

How up-to-date is your call center technology?

The more up-to-date and flexible your technology foundation, the better chance of success you have when it comes to considering your sourcing options.  Having full-featured IVR, ACD, CTI, web-enabled channels and other agent desktop tools CRM capabilities can ease the processing of transactions and help create consistent, satisfying customer interactions no matter if it is done by your agents or through call center outsourcing.

There are so many options when it comes to creating a cost-effective, contact center.  For some, the option of call center outsourcing may provide the sought after cost benefits while avoiding negative quality concerns while others may require a different sourcing avenue that best fits the organization and customer’s needs.  For more information regarding the various options a company and its customer service operations has in these regards, we suggest reading our free ebook, “Onshore? Offshore? Near-shore? Shoring up the right outsourcing model.”

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