Contact Centre
Posted in Tech & Innovation
Organisations that consider cost reduction to be the sole reason for outsourcing contact centre operations are overlooking several other substantial benefits. In this article, I’ll review the most compelling reasons to employ a third-party provider to manage your customer care operations.
1) Lower Costs
Cutting costs may be the most often cited reason for outsourcing, yet reducing costs alone, when it affects customer interaction quality and the customer experience, can damage customer relationships and hence loyalty and sales. Leading service providers have the expertise to maximise customer relationships whilst minimising costs by creating a strategic global sourcing plan, emphasising process improvements and scaling up and down quickly in response to your organisation’s exact needs.
2) Increase Revenue per Customer
Customer care was once considered a cost centre but today many organisations realise that investment in customer segments opens up new possibilities of revenue and return and that the people who deliver and directly support the customer interaction are ultimately most able to maximise the customer value. A good service provider can work with you to generate revenue through your customer care operations by improving metrics such as first-call resolution, average handle time, customer satisfaction (e.g. Net Promoter Score) and upsell and cross-sell results.
3) Flexibility and Scalability
Top service providers have the capacity to absorb dramatic demand shifts through their existing technology and human resources, enabling quicker ramp-ups and ramp-downs than in-house centres. The ability to scale quickly can be particularly valuable for short-term programmes. During the Christmas shopping season, for example, some consumer products require a significant number of additional personnel to meet volume demands. In that case, top service providers can offer options for handling the increase, such as distributing the load among multiple contact centres.
4) Improve Compliance and Security
Outsourcing your operations means trusting your customers’ private data to a third party organisation, however, a good service provider will have strong precautions in place to prevent fraud and assure compliance with regulations such as PCI DSS. From thorough background checks during the hiring process to restricted internet access and prohibited mobile phone use on the contact centre floor to paperless work stations, most service providers are far more diligent when it comes to security and compliance than the average organisation.
5) Reduce Customer Churn
Every customer interaction is an opportunity to build your brand and strengthen customer relationships. A contact centre provider’s core competency is customer care services. Some providers have been serving customers for decades and have learned how to maximise customer relationships using creative programmes, highly trained agents and cutting edge CRM techniques and technologies. By providing consistent and accurate handling of customer contacts and incorporating strong tracking and reporting capabilities, contact centres can help you retain improve your brand loyalty and retain your most profitable customers.