Offshoring your customer support to a call center is an excellent solution to improve your customer experience at an inexpensive rate. Nonetheless, it’s best to only select an offshore call center after careful consideration.
Your customers could also be unsatisfied and will leave you if the service your offshore call center provides is poor.
But how do you select the right offshore call center?
In this text, we’ll go over what an offshore call center is, and how to choose an offshore call center. We’ll also highlight three platforms that may aid you find your ideal call center partner.
Table of Contents
Let’s dive in.
What’s an offshore call center?
An offshore call center is a service provider from a foreign country that provides your organization 24/7 customer support. Often, they supply customer support services in multiple languages and at a cheap rate.
Some popular offshore call center destinations include developing countries like India, China, the Philippines, and a few countries in Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Take note that an offshore call center is different from an onshore call center — which is situated in the identical country as your organization.
On the same note, nearshore outsourcing involves delegating work to call centers situated in countries near you to reduce time zone differences.
Before exploring how to choose the right offshore call center, let’s understand the important thing differences between offshore and onshore call centers.
Offshore vs. onshore call center outsourcing
Offshore and domestic call centers have different characteristics on account of the difference of their location.
Let’s compare them on 4 key points and see which model will suit your enterprise best:
1. Operating costs
The important attraction of offshore call centers is that you might get call center services at a lower cost in comparison to onshore call centers.
For instance, let’s say your organization is within the US. Now, you may either outsource customer support to an external party within the US (onshoring) or a service provider abroad like India (offshoring).
Once you outsource call centers to India, the labor cost and other expenses related to call center services are much lower than in the event you onshore within the US. That is on account of India’s lower cost of living.
With offshore outsourcing, you’ll be able to make a cheap investment in infrastructure and resources on your company.
So in the event you own an SME (Small and Medium Enterprises), it’s best to consider offshore outsourcing your customer support for cost saving advantages.
2. Language
Offshore call centers can have agents who speak a couple of language. This skill might help your enterprise cater to non-English speaking customers.
How?
In case your offshore call center agents are bilingual, they may communicate in a language suitable to the shopper — especially if you’ve got customers within the offshore country. This might help increase customer satisfaction.
Nonetheless, onshore call centers might need only English-speaking agents who aren’t well versed in other languages. This will prevent you from giving customers the comfort provided by call centers in offshore locations.
3. Range of outsourced services
As a result of the price difference between offshore and onshore call centers, you’ll be able to get more offshore outsourcing services on the same cost.
You’ll be able to utilize the cash you save to extend your service quality or put money into your core competencies and grow your enterprise.
For instance, US corporations could have to pay $100 for five hours of onshore call center service, while they’ll get 24/7 customer care service by offshoring services for a similar price.
Similarly, you’ll be able to hire more agents to work during busy hours. This manner, you’ll be able to improve your phone answer service rate as you’ll be equipped to reply more inbound calls out of your customers.
4. Maintaining technology
When you’ve got an onshore call center, you might have to speculate in its infrastructure and repeatedly update technology.
Moreover, you might have to spend extra money on maintaining it, as you’ve got to rent a team solely to take care of its performance.
For instance, you might have to pay money whilst you subscribe to a software that streamlines customer communication. Similarly, you might have to repair laptops or other devices after they stop working.
By outsourcing customer support to an offshore company, you’ll be able to eliminate the price and energy required for technical maintenance and other related expenditures. Moreover, you too can get a competitive advantage over corporations in case your offshore partner uses modern technology.
6 key things to think about before you offshore customer support
Many aspects can guide you to decide on the very best offshore call center or contact center for your enterprise.
Let’s take a look at a number of the aspects that it’s essential to consider:
1. Language barriers
You need to test the language skills of offshore call center and speak to center agents before you sign an agreement with them.
Your customers who contact the helpline may find it inconvenient to seek advice from a employee who doesn’t understand what they’re saying or can’t convey the answer properly.
By eliminating language barriers, your customers may not experience any difference within the services provided by an onshore and offshore call center.
That’s why it’s essential to be certain that the standard of the service provided by your offshore call center meets your customer expectations before actually outsourcing it.
2. Cultural differences
Any variety of cultural barrier can reduce customer satisfaction by creating misunderstandings in the course of the conversation between agents and customers.
For instance, a customer from the USA may prefer starting the decision with a casual greeting — which is perhaps considered impolite within the Philippines. So in case your customer support representative within the Philippines starts the conversation quite formally, it might not please your American customer.
Similarly, in case your customer is from a spot where casual talk isn’t encouraged, they might find it annoying when an agent is friendly or informal.
Such cultural gaps can create a poor brand impression and reduce customer experience.
You’ll be able to solve such issues by offshoring to a call center whose agents understand your customer’s culture. You can even customize the decision center script and train agents to seek advice from your customers in a way that keeps the purchasers completely satisfied.
3. Resources to make sure business continuity
Your offshore call center or BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) center must have the right equipment, advanced technology, and knowledge about any latest business process.
This can enable them to supply the very best customer support, technical support, and outbound (reaching out to customers) engagement.
For instance, in case your offshore partner has an ACD (Automatic Call Distributor) that matches customer calls with agents best suited to it, they’ll provide a greater customer experience.
Moreover, they need to have the potential to supply business continuity even during times of distress.
Your customers may not understand the explanation for disruption in customer support when all the things is nice of their country. Your overseas service provider must have the facilities to operate even when the situation makes it difficult.
For instance, in the event you outsource call center jobs to India, it’s best to be certain that the corporate can provide services even during power failures, heavy rains, or other issues without interruption.
While outsourcing calls, be sure that your overseas call center has:
- Multiple branches to make sure smooth customer support during unexpected situations.
- A dedicated team that may provide 24/7 customer support.
- Latest call center technology like automation software, cloud storage, etc., to supply higher customer support.
4. Quality of customer experience
Your offshore call center agents needs to be trained such that they’ll represent your brand.
The shopper service you provide will reflect your brand image — which suggests your call center must understand your organization persona and values.
You’ll be able to train your call center agents to:
- Familiarize them together with your product.
- Customize the tone of agents to reflect your brand.
- Educate them about your customer’s persona and culture.
Moreover, your agents should remain calm, polite, and patient throughout the conversation — as any mistake can lead to you losing a customer.
To evaluate the standard of customer support, train the agents in various simulated scenarios of customer calls. The best way the agents react can aid you predict your customer’s experience and satisfaction after the decision.
5. Client portfolio
The offshore call center’s client portfolio can offer you an idea concerning the variety of customer support they supply.
For instance, if a call center has multiple B2B clients, you’ll be able to expect their agents to have experience in coping with B2B businesses. However, if a call center mostly provides service to finish consumers, they’d be higher suited to B2C support.
This manner, you’ll be able to predict the service a call center provides by examining their client list.
6. Offshore call center monitoring requirements
It’s vital that you just closely observe your outsourced agents, even in the event that they are miles away from you.
3 popular offshore call center consultants
As you’re shifting customer support operations to a foreign destination, you may be unfamiliar with the decision center providers available in that country.
Fortunately, there are several platforms that may aid you find an outsourcing partner that suits you best.
Let’s take a look at a few of the very best outsourcing platforms where you’ll find offshore call centers:
1. Triniter
Triniter has been within the inbound call center industry for nearly a decade. They’ve been awarded for having the very best customer satisfaction rate within the industry.
2. Outsource consultants
Outsource Consultants is a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) that might help match your enterprise needs with an appropriate call center.
This BPO has over 25 years of experience within the industry. It helps you discover a call center or contact center that provides telemarketing services, attend inbound calls (incoming calls from the shopper), etc.
Key call center solutions
- Provides agent curriculum training, supervisor curriculum training, etc.
- Performs quality assessment on call centers.
- Recruits call center operation, sales, and marketing executives.
- Offers outsourcing strategy consulting service.
3. Worldwide Call Centers
Worldwide Call Centers is a domestic and international call and speak to center outsourcing company that connects you with call centers in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the USA.
Their call center partners offer a big selection of services like sales, lead generation, telemarketing, inbound and outbound call service, etc., to different industries.
Key call center solutions
- Recommends corporations with a minimum of 25 years of experience in the decision center industry.
- Matches you with call centers in your chosen location.
- Offers free call center consulting and referrals regarding outsourcing.
- Can hire call centers with agents who’ve different skills out of your employees to assist expand your talent base.
4. Call Centers India
Call Centers India is an outsourcer that might help businesses meet the very best call centers in India. Their team of consultants might help your organization migrate their call centers to India and monitor your call center partners.
Key call center solutions
- Provides the most important database of call centers in India.
- Helps confirm the authenticity of call centers via their consultants.
- Performs regular audits for quality, performance, software, and infrastructure.
- Solves any issues between you and the offshore center to make sure a smooth, skilled relationship.
Regularly asked questions
What are the important advantages of offshore call centers?
Offshore call centers offer cost-effective customer support solutions, multilingual support, and advanced technology integration, which may enhance customer satisfaction and reduce operational costs.
How can I ensure the standard of service from an offshore call center?
To make sure quality, test the language skills and cultural understanding of agents, train them in your brand values, and use productivity management tools to observe performance.
What challenges might I face with offshore call centers?
Challenges include language barriers, cultural differences, and potential disruptions on account of infrastructure issues within the offshore country. Proper vetting and continuous monitoring can mitigate these risks.
How do I select the correct offshore call center?
Consider aspects like language proficiency, cultural compatibility, technological resources, business continuity capabilities, client portfolio, and monitoring requirements.
Are there any risks related to offshore call centers?
Risks include data security concerns, communication issues, and potential quality control problems. Selecting a good provider and implementing strong security measures might help mitigate these risks.
How do offshore call centers handle time zone differences?
Offshore call centers often operate 24/7 to accommodate different time zones, ensuring continuous customer support and minimal downtime.
Wrapping up
Offshore call centers are an efficient solution to streamline consumer communication and supply a greater customer experience at a low price. And with the advancement of technology, various US, European, and Australian corporations have begun to offshore customer support.
Undergo the ideas and consulting platforms covered above to zero in on the decision center that meets your needs. Once you discover the correct offshore call center, you’ll have the ability to spice up customer satisfaction with ease.
