Contact center outsourcing is a strategy that involves hiring a vendor to provide some or all of a company’s contact center services, including:

• Installing and updating necessary software
• Providing physical locations for call center services
• Maintaining the technological components of your contact center
• Hiring for each task, including call center agents, software engineers, and others
• Providing back-end services, such as accounting and quality assurance (QA)

Vendors employ offshore, onshore, or nearshore facilities. OutPLEX uses nearshoring to avoid the problems associated with far away offshore facilities without the high costs of onshore options. Nearshore facilities offer low costs, geographic proximity to your customers, and great talent.

It is important to note that outsourcing your contact center services does not mean completely giving up control of the contact center. The vendor only takes responsibility for everyday, time-consuming tasks such as:

• Onboarding, training, and retraining employees, as well as assigning employees to particular jobs
• Doing routine maintenance on hardware and software, and responding to unexpected technical issues
• Maintaining facilities such as physical call center locations
• Researching customers, technology, and new developments in customer support

High-level tasks like strategic planning and goal setting remain with you. Vendors can provide helpful advice, yet the authority remains with you to make such important decisions as:

• The types of messaging you want to convey to customers through each channel
• Priorities among goals or objectives
• The overall contact center strategy
• What channels do you want to include in your contact center and what functionalities do they have

Outsourcing your contact center services to an experienced vendor can cut your contact center costs while saving you the time and trouble putting together a contact center from scratch.

What few downsides to contact center outsourcing exist can usually be mitigated by good planning and open communication with your vendor. For example, do not sign an outsourcing contract until you have:

• Researched the vendor by visiting their site, reading customer reviews, and so on
• Met with the vendor’s representatives in whatever way is most comfortable and convenient for you (in person, via video chat, etc.)
• Had the chance to ask as many questions as you have
• Received satisfactory answers to all of your questions
• Reviewed the contract with both your legal team and the vendor

Call OutPLEX at 1.866.531.5773 or visit us online to learn more about the benefits of contact center outsourcing.