Having an efficient customer contact center that can provide quality value-added services to clients is imperative to make your business remain competitive and top of mind.

Recent years have witnessed an unprecedented growth of outsourced contact center services. The global outsourcing market has reached US$88.9 billion in 2017 and is projected to reach US$262.2 billion by 2022 according to Statista.

This success is driven by significant cost benefit achieved in outsourcing non-core business processes, sustainable development of new generation technologies, and the enhanced and specialized services from global outsourced providers.

In selecting the right outsourcing solution for your firm, here are some important factors you’ll need to weigh carefully before you decide:

Stable Corporate Financial Health

With changing geopolitics and economics, it is prudent to take time to look into the BPO provider’s financial health, as well as the economic status of the country where it is based. Aside from its geographical advantage, you may want to check if it has a stable financial health and positive growth potential.

Think about how your business would function cost-effectively and afford you bigger savings and profits. Assigning non-core business operations to outsourced providers has the potential to boost your core business exponentially. A reliable outsourcing provider can help you handle any scenario, whether it be ramping up or scaling back.

Excellence in Quality Assurance

Your business has unique value propositions and expectations in place. Your customer service team should be consistent in meeting these expectations and not lose them in the outsourcing process.

Check the provider’s proven track record of delivering outsourcing benefits and business improvements. This is the first step in qualifying a contact center provider. Verify if it has been certified for quality systems by national or international organizations.

The second step is to correlate the contact center’s performance. Ask for client testimonials and find out the industries or domains that they service. If you’re business is in the vertical markets, such as healthcare and finance, you’ll need a specialized set of requirements and premier services compared to retail. Check if the contact center assures a standard of excellence for every aspect of its services.

Robust Capability-driven IT System

In choosing to work with an outsourced contact center, make sure that you’ll gain access to the latest cutting-edge information technology capabilities. A reliable BPO partner will remain up-to-date on best business practices and IT innovations with the aim of significantly improving your operational processes.

To ensure delivery of the highest quality of service, your strategic BPO partner should take measures to invest in a robust technological infrastructure, while your business reaps the rewards of such innovation.

The regular visits of a senior engineer from the BPO provider to your site can help ensure a clear project understanding. Likewise, visiting your outsourced service provider can give you actual perspectives.

Effective Risk Management

Companies can incur huge losses that lead to bankruptcy due to operational failures. To protect your business from this debacle, check if the contact center provider has an effective risk control framework that can ensure absolute operational risk mitigation to maintain client confidence.

Initially, you can agree to undergo a pilot project to see if the vendor can deliver proof-of-concept. Be ready to spot critical issues that may be brought to your attention during this period, such as performance, reporting, and scalability. Analyze whether or not the outsourcing vendor is a cost effective investment. Make sure your business will not be short-changed.

Accurate Reports and Management Tools

It is vital to set up accurate reporting and management tools between your business and your outsourced contact center. Even if you’re not physically present in the site, you will still need to be making the key decisions or calling the big shots.

Having efficient access to all important reports enables you to clearly set up goals and metrics for your outsourced team and gives you insights into the service level at how your BPO partner is performing. Furthermore, to ensure deliverables are fulfilled, the contact service provider should be easy to reach.

A designated point of contact should be assigned to you for efficient communication for the duration of your contract.

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