Companies must define a budget for the installation and management of the call center. Nowadays, there are two solutions: insourcing and outsourcing.
Insourcing of call centers.
Insourcing a call center is undoubtedly one of the best ways to promote proximity with customers.
All communication is internal, and the company can contact the customers directly.
The sharing of information between internal employees is fast and efficient.
Thanks to insourcing, the call center can quickly transfer calls to its employees and identify the departments concerned and requested by the customer.
However, insourcing the call center requires the company to review its human and material resources. It must study the feasibility of setting up this service internally with its available resources. It may require recruitment.
What outsourcing has more than insourcing?
The required skills are one reason why different companies resort to outsourcing.
They can benefit from the know-how and professionalism of the service provider.
Outsourced call centers have the advantage of being continuously trained in the field.
They have the necessary skills to manage customer relations and deal with their requests effectively.
Similarly, they have the material and human resources necessary to manage the telephone reception of customers.
The company will not have to reduce recruitment and management of new contracts. In addition, the company can concentrate its internal resources on its most essential tasks.
In addition to outsourcing call centers, this allows customers to have a tailor-made service.
The service provider can offer a service perfectly adapted to the customers’ needs.
This outsourcing avoids long waiting times, unanswered calls, and unanswered requests.
Now let’s compare Outsourcing and Insourcing!
Outsourcing or Insourcing?
Does the company want to offer a qualified service to its customers while keeping control of its management? In this case, a complementarity between outsourcing and insourcing is the best solution.
In this way, the company can outsource part of the management of incoming calls and keep the most critical and high-value-added issues in-house.
Employees can focus on essential calls.
Another form of this partial outsourcing is to use a service provider when the volume of calls exceeds the internal management capacity.
There are many possibilities. It is up to the company to choose the best solution that will suit its needs, without forgetting that customer satisfaction and relationship are most important.
Nevertheless, the increase in hourly wages is putting a strain on call centers and BPO contractors.
They can only afford to pay workers a limited salary, as many customers expect competitive costs.
BPOs have had to increase their rates for customers. Increased fees to pay supervisors, program management, attrition training, cost of living adjustments, etc., are the reason.
What does this mean?
Suppose a provider has to pay call center employees more than $15/hour.
In this case, outsourcing hourly rates must be higher than $32/hour to be profitable.
All while maintaining service expectations and meeting contractual requirements.
According to a Harvard Business School study, despite the challenges of working from home.
Most (81%) working adults say they do not want to return to a traditional workplace or prefer a hybrid schedule.
27% of those surveyed want to continue working from home full-time. 61% say they prefer a hybrid mix of home and office time.
To a recent FlexJobs report, the fear of being exposed to COVID-19 (49%) remains employees’ primary concern, with less flexibility (46%) or less work-life balance (43%).
A fear makes employees reluctant to return to their workplace and favors outsourcing!
To remember!
The decision to insource or outsource a project or task depends on its nature and expected outcome; outsourcing is an activity that has become increasingly popular in recent years.
In addition, it can be cost-effective to outsource or contract out, which varies according to each situation.
Outsourcing is, therefore, a choice for each company, depending on its size, needs, organization, budget, and manager.
And for you, are you more Outsourcing or Insourcing?
You can read our previous blog on virtual assistants to learn more about outsourcing!