Call Center Outsourcing Service - Pros and Cons

Many mediums to large sized businesses are shifting towards outsourcing customer service operations. As a result, many call centers are known as 'customer care centers' 'contact centers' or 'service bureaus'. Due to the increasing popularity of customer services, call centers are becoming huge business enterprises in themselves. Typically, the call center works 24/7, with employees coming in shifts to carry out their designated duties.

In the West though, there is a raging controversy about the benefits and drawbacks of outsourcing work. So, what are the pros and cons of call center outsourcing service?

Pros:

• Availability: Businesses with a global presence are required to provide round the clock service to their customers. For the average business owner, matching business hours with clients located in different parts of the globe is a challenge. Round the clock availability is often vital to customer allegiance. By employing for customer service, it becomes possible for the business to offer immediate service to customers, any time of the day and night.
• Time: When a business makes use of call center outsourcing service, it frees up precious resources for more useful activities like developing core competency or sales and so on. Thus, the company can dedicate its trained resources to business developmental activities.
• Cost: One of the most important reasons for the development of call center outsourcing service is the cost savings. If a company were to employ their own trained personnel for the job, they would have to invest in new equipment or scheduled upgrades in equipment over and above the cost of hiring, training and retaining employees. If round the clock service is required, the cost may go up even more. On the other hand, customer services are much more affordable as the outsourcing partner generally charges competitive rates for the same.

Cons:

• Communication problems: One of the main concerns that some companies have when outsourcing work is the problem of communication. Serious problems could arise if terms of service are not laid down properly and if requirements are not laid down accurately at the time of engagement.
• Security: Reputed outsourcing partners generally employ powerful information security tools to encode data and thus prevent the theft of data. That said, data transfer could never be 100% foolproof. That is why it is vital that you shop around for an outsourcing company that has established credentials in the market.
• Regulations: Since most companies employ offshore outsourcing, laws and regulations pertaining to these may vary from country to country. Terms of service may be subject to regulations and policies, and these need to be considered carefully.

As you can see, the cons of outsourcing may largely be avoided by working with a reputed company.
 
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Melville_D_Jackson

Various BPO Services

Internet and better communication strategies made various outsourcing services easier. Low pricing, rapid service and accurate result also attract business for outsourcing. There are many types of bpo services available in market depth. In call centers, a particular process task is outsourced. An example would be payroll. BPO services work could be either back office related or front office work. By front office functions we mean customer oriented work like marketing, answering calls, technical support and so on, whereas internal work like billing and purchase come in the back office bpo services category.

Book keeping, business consultancy, call centers, DTP, data entry, proof reading and editing, typesetting, handwriting services, marketing, medical billing and transcription, web design and development etc are all services that could be put under the BPO services category.

The new global scenario requires that each organization find its own niche field that can add value to the world economy. Thus companies now try to focus their resources on areas that give maximum yield. As a spin off of this trend, service providers who focus on narrow business providers these enterprises need also emerged. Thus the term BPO services came into being around 1995. The proliferation of the Internet and its emergence as a business tool helped to make call centers highly popular.

The sub categories of services that comes under BPO services:

Customer Contact Management

Finance / Accounting Processes

Logistics

Travel Management

Telemarketing

Health care

Utilities

Apart from these, Human Resources is emerging as another highly useful outsourcing services field, Consulting, Insurance, Documentation, Telecommunications are all sectors that are catching up on the bpo services trend.

Inbound Call center services would include Answering service, Customer Care Service, Order Taking Services and Debt Collections.

Outbound Call center services would include Center Appointment Setting, Telemarketing, Market Research Services, Voice Broadcasting Service, Virtual Assistance Services and Lead Generation Services.

Description: In present era of globalization, it is required for any type of business to manage all data and information handy and easy accessible. In this competitive business world no one can afford time so the bpo (Business Process Outsourcing) services have become most favorite term.

Advantages of Outsourcing to India

India offers many advantages that make it the favorite outsourcing services hub in the world. Thanks to its large pool of computer literate and English-speaking professionals, India is still the leader in delivering the world-class bpo services to the rest of the world. The wide gap between personnel costs in India and developed countries has enabled foreign companies for outsourcing jobs. India has exceptional resources and availability of highly skillful professionals that turn out a capable, proficient and a low cost work force.

There are a lot of advantages in setting up call centers in India:

The "English" Advantage

India has the highest number of English speakers among other developing countries. In India, English is taught in schools and Indians start conversing in English right from school. This has proved to be advantage to India, because with the coming of call centers, and the internet as the medium, Indians could readily cater to the bpo services industry because of their fluency in English.

Effective Communication

Outsourcing has only become possible because of the improvements in the way we communicate today. Advancements in calling, emailing and chatting have made communication throughout the course of a project easy. Since communication has become so fast, easy and simple, distance is no longer a barrier between two organizations, no matter where in the world the organizations are located. Companies no longer hesitate to set up call centers in India because of such advancements in communication.

BPO companies in India can send the completed work to organizations in the US for reviewing many times and work can go back and forth with ease. This is yet another reason why outsourcing services to India has become an ideal choice for outsourcers.

The cost advantage

Companies have been able to save 30-40 percent by outsourcing services to India. Infrastructure costs in India are lower thus saving significantly on capital. For organizations who are still in there initial days of operations, every penny spent, counts. They need to cut down on their costs. Outsourcing here would prove to be enormously beneficial. India, where quality is available at a competent price, huge reduction in costs is a guarantee. Outsourcing, rather than carrying out operations in-house, certainly looks to be lucrative. Outsourcing services is proving to be extremely cost effective for organizations that are going for it. Outsourcing enables companies to do-away with the expenditure on bench labor, as the bpo services company allocates the bench employees to projects for other clients or bears the cost of inefficiency.

Time Zone Advantage

Earlier the distance between countries was a barrier, but today this distance has become an advantage! India, for example has a different time zone when compared to US and Europe. This has also increased the volume of outsourcing services to India. For India, this is a major advantage as jobs sent during the evening in the US can be completed in India during the day and sent back to the US. This has increased delivery time and organizations in the US are happy about this. The time zone advantage between India and US has increased job outsourcing to India.

Globalization

Globalization brought along with it several factors such as, lower costs of communication, transportation and production. Globalization has also broken down barriers such as, trade barriers, cultural barriers, language barriers etc. With the coming of globalization, the relationship between countries has improved and the world has become a much smaller place with no boundaries and no distinction between countries. With the advantages that globalization has brought in, outsourcing services industry has been on the rise.

In the wake of outsourcing and BPO services being a big revenue generator for the Indian economy, the government has taken appropriate measures to ensure that prospects derive maximum benefit from their experience of working with the Indian professionals.

Big Workforce advantage

Prior to outsourcing, India's large population was a major drawback to the country's growth. But with the coming of call centers, it has proved to be a boon to India. The people in India are satisfied to work for lesser salaries and what people earn from the outsourcing services industry is much higher than what they will earn elsewhere. The large number of human resources has enabled India cater to even large volumes of job outsourcing. India can thus meet any need that job outsourcing offers with its readily available human resources. India's human resources are skilled, professional, highly educated and talented. This advantage of India has resulted in setting up a lot of international call centers in the recent years.

This manpower is skilled and quality conscious. The cost of such qualified manpower is the lowest-50% to 60% cheaper in the world.

New India

With an incredible growth in the outsourcing services sector, India has emerged as a new nation regarding the following factors which earlier crippled India's growth in business. With democracy, support from the government, more freedom for businesses, fewer restrictions and regulations, lesser interest rates and fewer restrictions concerning outsourcing, India has become a more ideal place for bpo services.

Description:

India offers many advantages that make it the favorite outsourcing services hub in the world. Thanks to its large pool of computer literate and English-speaking professionals, India is still the leader in delivering the world-class bpo services to the rest of the world.