Choosing the Right Outsourced Call Centre for Your Startup

Call Centre

Muskaan Kapoor

May 19, 2023 — 5 min read

Choosing the Right Outsourced Call Centre for Your Startup

Does your business need help to offer cost-effective customer support? If yes, working with an outsourced call center is an ideal solution. Call centers offer a wide range of services that help optimize your company’s operations. Some of these services include technical support, help desk support, telemarketing, and human resources, to name a few.

But to enjoy the perks of outsourcing customer support, you need to choose the right call center. Remember, customer support is a delicate matter best handled by a professional. Look no further if you need help figuring out where to start in your hunt for the right call center provider. Below is a look at the tips to consider when looking for the right call center provider.

1. Specific Needs

You need to first know your needs before hiring a call center provider, such as Oracle Customer Management Solutions. Remember, no two companies are the same, so the reasons for hiring an outsourced call center differ. For example, smaller businesses have different needs than bigger companies.

So knowing your needs is crucial. Below are some of the common reasons businesses outsource their customer support:

Having online chat representatives
Providing 24-hour service
Answering emails
Scheduling appointments
Offering outbound or inbound services

Once you narrow down your needs, choosing the outsourced call center to hire will be easier. And while call centers seem the same, you must remember that they provide different services. A good example is that some call centers only handle incoming calls from your clients. In contrast, others only operate via phone, online chat live, or email, while others provide outbound services such as cold calling.

The outsourced call center you choose also needs to satisfy the needs of your business. For example, a call center with 500 employees is a great fit if you run a mid-size to big company. In contrast, an outsourced call center that’s only hired 50 agents is more than enough if you operate a startup. A call center with a workforce that matches the size of your company can help ensure smooth operations and effective customer service delivery. By outsourcing to a specialized call center team that can handle a high volume of calls and inquiries more efficiently, your business can reduce expenses on customer support while ensuring your customers receive personalized attention.

2. Experience

Excellent customer service is vital for your brand’s continued success. For this reason, the call center service provider you choose needs to have personable and qualified agents. There are several ways you can gauge the expertise and experience of a call center, including the following:

Examine the call center’s training, hiring, and attrition processes.
Check whether the call center runs trials to see how well the agents can deal with different situations.

A call center that observes such practices will land the industry’s best agents. These qualified customer service agents know how to handle your customers' needs best. Doing so helps enhance the customer experience, further enhancing your brand’s image. It then translates to greater revenue for your company.

3. Security Provisions

Cybercrimes are ever more rampant today. So when searching for a call center, choose one with appropriate measures to secure their networks and computer systems. By doing this, you can be sure that your startup and customer data remain safe. A few things to check out to gauge the call center’s data security preparedness include the following:

Check if they have a system redundancy and disaster recovery plan.
Find out if the call center has any certifications showing proof of compliance with the regulatory security standards.
Examine the call center systems to see that they’re maintained and updated.
See if the outsourced call center offers redundant computing and network communication services. Check this out for both the exterior and interior resources.
Find out whether the call center provider tests the internal network against penetration tests.
Ask if the company has experienced a security data breach before and how they handled it.
Find out where the client data gets stored.

Understanding these security measures will help you with the success of your business, depending on whether your customers are happy. You can best guarantee this with the right call center provider that addresses your clients' issues in real time.

4. Cost

Generating profit is one of the core goals of any business. Therefore, you need to consider cost when looking for a call center. You can start by taking the time to contact different call centers and get quotations on how much they charge for their services. Because you want to get the most out of your money, there are a few questions you need to ask to land the ideal call center, including the following:

What’s the call volume they can handle?
How do they select customer service providers?
Do they provide their services 24 hours a day or during specific periods during the day?
Do they charge an additional fee for CRM integration?
Are they available 365 days a year?
What are the average hold and waiting times for customers?
Which languages do customer service agents speak?

The answer to these questions will guide you in choosing the ideal call center. Doing so gives you a better chance of getting a call center that offers outstanding services for a reasonable price. That said, it’s good not to go for the cheapest call center you find. Otherwise, you might lose customers, causing greater harm to your business.

5. Scalability

You want to partner with an outsourced call center that offers continued support even while you’re expanding. Thus, the call center you choose should be able to offer this to you. A few things to find out from the call center when it comes to scalability are the following:

Can they scale up and down with you when necessary?
How fast can they affect staffing plans and procedural updates to meet your growing business needs?
Can they handle calls from other countries?

Answering such questions will help you determine if a particular call center is the right pick.

Conclusion

The success of your business depends on whether your customers are happy. You can best guarantee this with the right call center provider that addresses your clients' issues in real time.

But deciding on the most suitable call center provider can be a hard decision to make. This guide outlines useful tips to help you in the decision-making process. After that, you can offer improved customer service, which clients expect to win their loyalty.