Call Center Outsourcing
Call center outsourcing by Telephone Answering Service provides
comprehensive customer call handling solutions for companies of
all sizes throughout the United States. All calls are answerwed
right here in the United States by live
operators. Companies considering outsourcing customer calls
to a call center like Telephone Answering Service generally do
so for the following reasons:
One of the most prevalent reasons for outsourcing is a company's
rate of growth. The limitations associated with facility size,
call center equipment, employees, and cost factors can cripple
a company's growth the point of stagnation. While company managers
and suppliers may be poised for company growth, the call center
may not be able to handle the demand if the product meets with
accelerated levels of success.
The other most prevalent reason for call center outsourcing may
be insufficient profit margins or elevated costs. These line items
directly correlate to the running and management of the call center.
Typically, labor will account for 70% of the costs associated
with running a call center. The best in-house call centers in
the US claim efficiency ratings of 70-80%, with average and poorly
performing call centers operating well below these figures. The
efficiency of a call center agent relates to the overall productivity
of the agent and the ratio of time spent on the phone with customers
versus work breaks, inactivity, lag in calls, etc. Investment
in such sectors of the company will rarely make any return on
what the company invests if the sector does not include the company's
main sales force.
Perhaps the primary skill set of the company does not revolve
around the customer service call center. Call centers take a wide
variety of skill sets to manage, yet the returns on in-house call
center services are often miniscule compared to the time and resources
they consume. This is reasoning behind automated call features
and menu driven phone systems. If a company has limited experience
in operating a call center, it is not unusual for the cost of
the in-house call center to exceed its forecasted returns.
Many of today's call centers are overtaxed by the customers calling
in. Efficiency within these call centers may be waning due to
an increase in sales, an increase in customer service issues as
products age and become dysfunctional, or due to increased call
volume associated with a product recall. Nothing will alienate
current customers faster than excessive hold times because the
call center is overburdened or the operators providing poor service
due to being over stressed..
Perhaps the volume the call center receives doesn't justify the
cost of having a staff on hand 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Another possibility is that the call center volume fluctuates
throughout the day. From 9am-5pm, an in-house call center may
take the marjority of the calls, while Telephone Answering Service
manages the overflow and after business hours calls. With proper
synergistic systems and electronic integration, having Telephone
Answering Service handle overflow calls and after hours calls
will greatly increase the overall efficiency of the in-house call
center and improve company profitability..
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