Call Center, Customer Service and Telemarketing Outsourcing

There have been so many research studies and anecodotal reports on the growth of call center outsourcing, that it seems a truism to mention the fact: contact center outsourcing will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.

If you are considering outsourcing these call center functions your main concern may be cost containment. Outsourcing of contact center operations has been shown to save money, while also giving gains in productivity and efficiency. But you may have needs that are not clearly articulated yet?

Perhaps you have a specialized campaign or market research task that you want to develop but do not have the in-house skill set? Get clear on your objectives first, and then begin to get some quotes and proposals.

For small and 1-person businesses, foreign call centers may be the only option when local labor costs are too high to hire local call center staff.

Call Center Functions

As call center outsourcing typically falls along clear lines of function and need let's discuss each in turn.

Telemarketing Outsourcing

Telemarketing covers a variety of functions including, lead generation, catalog call center services, telemarketing appointment setting, direct response and television markteting (DRTV).

And let's not forget telemarketing fund raising, political telemarketing, telesales, and database verification and updates.

So what do YOU need? A custom script, an entire campaign or program developed? And what about corporate culture? Do you need a outsourcing company that can teach your company's culture and approach to it's staff so that they can communicate it on each call.

How about foreign accents? Will your customers be comfortable talking to somone with in India accent, or should your consider outsourcing closer to home?

Let's take a few moments and consider telemarketing outsourcing on greater detail.

Tech Support And Customer Service Outsourcing

The outsourcing of tech support is somewhat controversial from the consumer side of the equation. It's not the fact that some companies choose to outource technical support - it's the percieved the quality of that tech support.

Customers have reported that they are seeing a lower level of expertise from "foreign" tech support. So you must be careful in how you select and train your tech support outsource provider.

What happens if your tech support is someone in India, Idaho or the Phillipines who is simply reading through a troubleshooting script? How will your customers react?

The issues can be temporary, as the outsourced staff gets more comfortable with your products and culture and the language of your customers, but you need to plan ahead.

Consider outsourcing tech support step-by-step so that you can adjust and make improvements as necessary.

Call Center Outsourcing Best Practices

Whether you are outsourcing technical support, telemarketing or customer service, (often called "contact center" outsourcing) there are a variety of best practices to consider and implement: Call Center Best Practices