When it comes to call centers, the opinions of the masses are divided. While some appreciate the quality of service more than anything, others want native speakers answering their phone calls. This makes the decision of a business owner extremely difficult, especially in this age of competition where every penny spent counts. As outsourcing provides a great way to cut cost, it will be illogical to expect every business owner to start an expensive in-house call center. More so, when such an endeavor adds to the burden of a call center owner and inadvertently impacts the growth of the core process. Therefore, it is better to outsource call center to a vendor that offers you the best of both worlds in terms of talent and cost.
Essential Traits of a Balanced Customer Service Outsourcing Company
Finding a customer service outsourcing company that helps you balance customer expectations with financial rewards can be a tricky proposition. It is a decision that needs to be taken with great care to ensure maximum reward in the end. To ensure that you end up with the right vendor in your outsourcing endeavor, it is best to analyze them on the basis of the following traits:
Customer-Specific Traits
- Neutral Accent: Customers want native speakers. The key word in the previous sentence is ‘speakers’ and not ‘native’. The biggest gripe that customers have with non-native agents is that they are not able to understand the words coming out of their mouth. This problem can be easily fixed by training non-native agents in neutral accent. Neutral accent is devised in such a way that it is understood by people living across the globe. Companies that are located in the US but have their call centers operational in India understand the need for neutral accent. Such companies have well-trained agents with good grasp of neutral accent and are more than suitable to respond to the queries of native English speakers.
- Politeness: Customers want polite agents to respond to their queries. Politeness is an inherent quality, which is not found in everyone. However, when you partner with a customer service outsourcing company like Vcare, you get direct access to polite Indian agents who are genuinely liked by the customers. These agents are well-trained on empathy and rapport building, which makes them perfect candidates for the call center business.
Business-Specific Traits
- Cost-Benefits: A call center outsourcing venture lowers the cost of operation in two different ways. Firstly, you benefit due to a currency exchange rate when you outsource call center to a company located in a country like India. Secondly, you are not required to invest in real-estate or call center infrastructure. This eliminates major investments that you would have otherwise made for running your very own in-house call center.
- Scalability: One of the biggest reasons why most in-house call center fails is because they are not able to increase or decrease the number of agents as per requirements. However, when you outsource call center to a competent vendor, you get the option to increase or decrease the number of employees whenever you want. So, when the call volume gets high, you have the right number of agents to ensure all calls are answered within the stipulated time. And, when the call volume decreases, you are able to reduce the number of employees accordingly. This eliminates the need to pay idle employees, which otherwise would have been required in an in-house call center operation.