Call center outsourcing

Reasons to outsource

The main reason companies outsource telemarketing operations are that setting up a large-scale telemarketing call center is expensive and complicated. First you need to make a large capital investment in phone lines, furniture, floor space, computers, and software. In addition, you will need to hire and train TSRs and management staff.

Other factors can contribute to the decision to outsource:

Significant growth –

Rapid growth can quickly overwhelm in-house telemarketing staff, but providers can quickly add reps if you need to increase volume. Seasonal businesses benefit by adding reps only during busy times of the year.

New sales channels

- Companies just getting into telemarketing can tap the expertise dedicated telemarketing firms can provide in creating lists, designing scripts, running tests, and managing campaigns.
Testing –

Today's technology makes it easy to measure the success of new telemarketing programs. When testing new sales programs or products, large companies may find it easier and cheaper to use a call center than to retrain in-house employees. Small companies may also find it easier to do so than to build a call center and hire staff.

Specialty services - Companies that do business around the globe may want to switch to a two- or three-shift operation or operate in multiple languages. Using a telemarketing provider can smooth both of those transitions.

In addition, telemarketing service providers can provide cost savings to many companies. They already have the hardware, manpower, and expertise -- as well as the economies of scale-- that allow them to operate at a much lower cost than companies that set up their own in-house operations.

Call center software

Software buying tips

Most call center software purchases are for call centers that already have a system in place - even if it's a basic business phone system that simply hunts for open lines. Gather some information about your current message flow and call center procedures:

• How many requests do you handle per month?
• Where do your requests originate from? (Phone, fax, email, web, online chat?) How many to
• What are your primary calls? (Inbound or outbound? sales or service? internal or external?)
• How many agents handle these calls? In how many locations?
• What metrics do you currently use to measure performance?
• What phone system are you currently using?
• What systems will the call center need to connect with? (Existing phones, databases, CRM, etc.)
• What's your budget for this purchase?
• What IT resources are available to help integrate and maintain the system?
• How will you measure the success of the new system?

Plan for the future

Answer these questions for your current operations while also considering the future. Think about your needs three to five years from now - if you're planning significant growth, you should purchase extra capacity now. A small extra investment now will save you considerable expense later.

Need experts in technology

Specifying and deciding on call center software requires input from both IT and call center management. One of the surest paths to disaster is to give either one complete control over the decision, minimizing the involvement of the other. Make sure that both are deeply involved in the process from the start and you'll avoid problems down the road.

Call center software has such a dramatic impact on your agents' day-to-day operations that you should try to include them in your decision making, as well. They don't have to be at every meeting, but having actual agents who try different solutions can give you some unique insight into the pros and cons of the system.

Call Center - Definition

What is call center?

A call centre or call center (see spelling differences) is a centralized office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone.

A call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. Outgoing calls for telemarketing, clientele, and debt collection are also made. In addition to a call centre, collective handling of letters, faxes, and e-mails at one location is known as a contact centre.

A call centre is often operated through an extensive open workspace, with work stations that include a computer, a telephone set/headset connected to a telecom switch, and one or more supervisor stations. It can be independently operated or networked with additional centres, often linked to a corporate computer network, including mainframes, microcomputers and LANs. Increasingly, the voice and data pathways into the centre are linked through a set of new technologies called computer telephony integration (CTI).