Offshore Call Center Outsourcing Makes Sense
Given how important it is in today’s competitive marketplace for companies to be available to their customers 24 hours a day, one might ask: should a business consider offshore call center outsourcing to take advantage of follow the sun coverage? Some think offshore call center outsourcing may seem like a risky proposition. After all, offshore call center outsourcing means trusting the handling of customers to an outside resource. But in fact, offshore call center outsourcing can and does result in documented improvements in client satisfaction beyond just the ability to answer the phone.
Offshore call center outsourcing can be especially beneficial for companies who have call centers in markets with high real estate and labor costs and are looking to drastically reduce overhead. Choosing an offshore call center outsourcing provider is an excellent way to leverage lower labor costs, many times 30 to 40% less than the cost of domestic call centers. Offshore call center outsourcers also help an enterprise serve customers that speak languages other than English; languages that would difficult to source in the U.S. such as Portuguese, Japanese and Tagalog.
There are applications for offshore call center outsourcing initiatives in many vertical markets that can be served from offshore locations like in the U.S. A financial services company may use an offshore call center outsourcing provider to market credit card acquisition and retention programs. An insurance company may use offshore call center outsourcing to increase lead generation support for its agents.
Even in such specialized markets as energy, offshore call center outsourcing can allow energy marketers to offer natural gas and electricity to commercial and residential customers in different regions of the country.
The most successful offshore call center outsourcing providers locate their call centers in countries that are culturally aligned with the United States, like the Philippines and Panama. These offshore call center outsourcing providers find that training their representatives to speak with U.S. consumers and businesses is far easier than in countries where there is little or no relevant cultural or language connection to the U.S.
Offshore call center outsourcing has many benefits, and forward-thinking companies who utilize offshore call center outsourcing reap the enormous cost, language, access and service benefits that offshore call center outsourcing providers are able to offer.
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Mae Kowalke previously wrote for Cleveland Magazine in Ohio and The Burlington Free Press in Vermont. To see more of her articles, please visit Mae Kowalke’s columnist page.
