5 Advantages Offered by Specialized Contact Center Service Providers
There are many tasks that are critical for the existence of a new business. However, they are not aligned with their core businesses. For instance, a company into manufacturing soft toys might not quite relate its core business function with the activity of answering customer queries. However, it is an important activity that the company has to perform on a regular basis.
Another example could be a niche IT hardware enterprise that has set up its unit to manufacture innovative devices. While its efficiency in the core business process is commendable, it presumably does not have the resources needed to answer consumer queries on the products it produces.
These are some of the relevant examples of a new business that needs the services of a professional contact center, which include multiple channels for customer communication. These channels usually include communication through calls, web chats emails, text messages, etc. Some of the advanced contact centers also provide video-based interactions such as video conferencing and Live chats to support the customers in a better way.
Predictably, these new firms can focus on their core competencies by delegating their customer-related communication activities to these specialized contact centers. In addition, there are many other advantages that they can gain, which are elaborated below.
1. Technology
Customers today have turned savvy and can use various types of channels to reach out to the company and get their job done. Hence, any compromise on technology that enables seamless communications with the customers can even hurt the very image of the brand.
Most established contact centers have the sophisticated technology such as VoIP, cloud-based platforms, and social media monitoring tools to connect with the customers on the channel of their choice. This allows them to deliver a seamless experience to their client’s customer base.
2. Expertise
A new company looking to establish itself in the market will always want to deliver the best to their customers. However, most cannot afford the expertise required perform at the highest level. Even if a company manages to rope in a highly efficient staff for critical roles, the average caliber of the rest can subdue their efforts.
On the other hand, both the meticulously trained frontline staff and the experienced top-level management at established contact centers are well versed in handling their roles.
The customer service personnel are adept at handling etiquettes as well as the innovative tools to support the customers, while the top-level management is proficient at structuring, quality monitoring and initiating performance improvement plans that make the entire setup highly efficient.
3. Quality Control
Even if a new company goes about making a bold investment in setting up a contact center with reasonably advanced tools and a professional team to manage it, delivering a quality service regularly can always be a huge challenge.
Continues assessment of the performances and evaluating them against the growing industry standards is mandatory to keep the setup efficient. This level of quality control is duly available with most established contact centers but is usually not possible for indigenous call centers running on small budgets.
Moreover, the stringent quality control initiatives and conformance to all industry standards of specialized contact center service is an added advantage.
4. Scalability
Every company seeks the flexibility of scaling up its resources when new projects come in and scaling down when there is none. This is especially true with most of the new companies, which usually run on a meager capital. However, the process of quick ramp up and ramp down is not easy at it seems.
While most companies end up hiring new employees when they start a new venture, the process of layoffs can usually end up as an emotionally draining one for all the parties involved.
A huge enterprise may be able to manage the hassle by diverting their extra resources for some unproductive activities, new companies, with reasonably smaller size may not be able to afford the same.
Delegating the specialized service providers offers a huge bonus to new companies which are looking to grow big but have a conservative approach on budget overflows.
5. Cost
The expense of a managing a professional contact has to be first on the list. The humongous price of infrastructure to set up a sophisticated contact center is, of course, a factor that any new company would be skeptical about, even if it’s a one-time cost. In addition, the skilled resources needed to man this set up would be a huge recurring cost.
While the upfront investment on infrastructure could seize a huge chunk of the capital funds, the monthly wages and other incentives for the customer service personnel could chew away the hard-earned profits.
By delegating their customer-handling activity to a specialized contact center service provider, a new company can save itself from the upfront investment. Moreover, even if there is a fee to be paid to obtain the service, the vendor charges are specific to the work being outsourced. This is usually quantified as the number of personnel required to do the job or the number of man-hours that have to be put in. Hence, it makes a huge financial sense for a new business to opt for an outsourcing partner.
Key Takeaways
- A sophisticated contact center is the need of every new company, and outsourcing it to an established player can offer many benefits.
- Flexibility, cost reduction, advanced technology, and expert knowledge are some of the biggest advantages of this strategic decision, which also allows new companies to focus specifically on their core business processes.