Call Center Services

Deciding whether or not to contract out acquiring, qualifying, selling, surveying, serving, supporting and/or collecting from your customers and if so to which firm(s), is one of the most critical decisions you can make. That is because the contractor(s), which is becoming popularly known as a business process outsourcer or BPO, will be representing you, on your behalf.

The BPO’s team: agents, supervisors, IT (including business continuity/disaster recovery), HR and training personnel—as well as their account managers that relay concerns and issues--can together make or break your customer relationships. Therefore, you need to be sure on your choice to outsource and to whom and to be ready to work with the BPO firm to make it a success.

Convergys is one of the world’s largest and most diversified BPO companies with onshore, nearshore, offshore and home-based staff. TMCnet recently interviewed Christine Timmins Barry, senior vice president for customer management to get her insights on outsourcing, including on locations and working with firms like hers.

TMCnet: What contact center functions and programs are best suited for outsourcing? Which ones should remain in-house?

CTB: When it comes to considering what functions and programs a company could outsource, a good way to think about outsourcing is 1 + 1 = 3. The sum of two partners, the company and outsourcer, far outweighs the parts. Companies who partner with top BPOs not only gain access to the functions and programs, but also these three key areas, often looked at in reverse order during the decision-making process:

1. Intellectual property: Many companies overlook this asset, but it’s important to tap into the knowledge of the executives and management of the outsourcing partner who have deep industry and operational knowledge. These resources are available and can be utilized at any stage of the process.   

2. Market entry: A partner who has already navigated a new market and established the right labor and technology can quickly accommodate a company’s request to enter new markets.

3. Human capital: This is the place most companies start, but should be the logical conclusion to any outsourcing consideration. Access to a solid labor market with a balance of onshore, offshore and home agents provides quick and ready access to the right labor force now and in the future. 

When looking specifically at functions that are candidates to remain in-house or partially outsourced, a few include:

• Functions that must be physically located within an internal site and an onsite outsourced solution is not feasible for security or other reasons
• Segments of work where contractual obligations preclude outsourcing to a third party
• Blended solutions where the outsourcer has a portion of the work while retaining a portion in-house, giving a company the ability to gain expertise, technology, benchmarking and cost savings from the outsource partner, while staying engaged in the operation and close to key customers
• Leveraging the expertise of a strong BPO from concept to deployment is the best approach for any business. It puts the company in a position to focus on its core strengths while leveraging the outsourcers’ best practices, experience, technology and manpower to help build customer satisfaction and loyalty, drive sales, and ultimately build brand and market share for the company.

TMCnet: What BPO programs are best handled onshore, by (a) formal contact centers or (b) home-based agents, and which ones are ideally suited for offshore?

CTB: There is no pat answer to this question. More times than not, however, companies find that a customized balanced approach is what they need to determine where to put work, incorporating onshore, offshore and home agent sites as part of a comprehensive BPO solution with a built in business continuity and disaster preparedness plan.

The best place to start is to analyze and understand the current customer base/customer profile and determine if the call types require regional knowledge to be effective and look at sourcing to the appropriate skill set. Next, specific program requirements must be evaluated to determine if an offshore solution is viable.

• Does the program require certification/licensing that can only be obtained onshore?
• Is there an extreme political sensitivity to migrate the work offshore? An example here may be a regulated utility with close ties to the local community.
• Does the operation have a government component that precludes work from being performed outside of the country? For example, a healthcare payer supporting Medicare programs.

While most contact center functions can be handled in any setting, certain geographies and agent populations may be better suited for specific types of customer interactions. For example:

• India has a large labor force of engineering and technical graduates making it a prime spot for technical support programs.
• Philippines has a strong Western culture and can easily relate to U.S. customers, making it a good location for most customer service programs and companies looking to boost satisfaction and build loyalty and brand.
• Latin America has a strong affinity for U.S.-based customers, similar to the Philippines, with the added component of providing bilingual (Spanish/English) support to customer service operations.
• Home agent-based programs are a flexible option for most blended solutions allowing quicker access to agents for very specific skills requirements (e.g. medical, technical), faster ramp time to accommodate seasonal call volumes, and increased schedule flexibility for programs with fluctuating call volumes.

Some of the more general areas that drive offshore versus onshore decisions are based on decisions made around operations with extensive seasonal components where large increases in agent support and incoming call volume are required for short periods of time. This type of work is best suited in a geography that has ample labor supply to accommodate rapid hiring and skills required to handle a higher level of customer service. 

Certainly, the focus is a balanced footprint, but size of operation is also a consideration in making an offshore decision. A company must determine if potential cost savings generated by placing work offshore are large enough to outweigh the travel expense and support required to establish an offshore operation.  

TMCnet: If an organization is considering sharing the same functions that it handles in-house with a BPO firm e.g. spreading the load, after-hours, or seasonal what are the best means of ensuring that the BPO performs at least as well as the in-house center(s)?

CTB: Developing a strong partnership and plan with the selected BPO with frequent communication, knowledge-sharing and best practices that feed process improvements back into the operation is important to the success of any outsourcing arrangement. 

Key components of any shared operation include:

• Establishment of clear and reasonable expectations by first benchmarking current in-house levels of performance, then combining the view of the two operations and setting new vendor levels accordingly. If a benchmark cannot be established, set levels after the first 90 days of operation.
• Well-documented training, methods and procedures that incorporate the in-house center’s key learnings and tribal knowledge of tenured employees and the BPO’s best operational procedures and practices ensures consistency between the two groups.
• Development of a robust knowledgebase tool that is used by internal and outsourced operations to ensure currency, consistency and accuracy of information.
• Strong knowledge transfer process that fosters easy on boarding of managers, supervisors, trainers, and quality evaluators, who will be supporting the ongoing program operation.
• Development of a clear volume allocation strategy and corresponding operational plan.
• Include channel integration in both operations to ensure customers receive the same information regardless of whether they are served by a live agent, IVR, Web, e-mail or any other such contact method.
• Continued and frequent communication and calibration between the two teams is critical to the success of any BPO partnership.  

TMCnet: What are your recommended best practices in assessing, selecting, setting up and managing outsourced programs?

CTB: The most important thing a company should do is take advantage of 1 + 1 = 3! Once the decision has been made to look for a BPO, allow the outsource provider to bring some innovation and input to the RFP process. One of the primary reasons to outsource is to gain access to expertise from a provider whose sole focus is taking care of customers. An RFP that is too prescriptive will limit the ability of the BPO to offer a big picture look at the pain points of the business and bring innovative approaches, new technology and solutions to the process. 

When looking for a BPO, does the outsourcer have a reliable and redundant network with a consistent operating model from site-to-site and geography-to-geography? This is important in ensuring a consistent level of service and the ability to shift work in the event of an unforeseen operational/business issue or natural disaster.

Once a decision has been made and a partnership has been established, build agreements that naturally drive both parties toward the same goals and objectives. Set forth strategic objectives and target goals, allowing the outsourcer the flexibility to build innovative thoughts and creative solution alternatives into the day-to-day operation. Establish a communication plan and regular meeting schedule between the two teams and contingency plans to handle unexpected situations for example large volume spikes and business interruptions). Develop goals and metrics that truly measure what’s important and what is key to success.