From product warranties to payment issues, call centers handle a wide range of customer service issues on a daily basis. For businesses both big and small, call center outsourcing can help save time and money while improving productivity, boosting customer satisfaction rates, and promoting overall business growth. If you’re a business owner interested in outsourcing call center services, here’s what you should keep in mind.
Inbound versus outbound call centers
Outsourcing your business’ call center requires choosing between an inbound and outbound call center. Inbound call centers handle inbound calls from both current and potential customers regarding questions or issues related to your products or services, while outbound call centers focus on making outbound calls to drive in potential business.
Since inbound call centers are the primary method of communication for many businesses, it’s crucial to consider a number of call center software companies before choosing outsourcing services. Inbound call centers can benefit greatly from an interactive voice response system (IVR) software, which uses dual-tone-multi-frequency (DTMF) tones on the phone keypad to automatically route callers to the appropriate agent. IVRs boost efficiency and customer satisfaction by helping customers avoid lengthy queues and the need to repeat themselves to multiple agents.
Outbound call centers make outbound calls and are focused on sales and marketing to drive business, make sales, and bring in new customers. Outbound call centers require a competent and thoroughly trained sales team in order to make successful warm and cold calls. Bright Pattern’s call center software provides features to track agent performance, average call times, and levels of customer satisfaction. In addition, the software offers tools for training to ensure consistency across all interactions.
Cloud-based call centers
Since it can be difficult to know how many agents are needed during the expansion of a business, hiring remote agents is a preferable option for many businesses. By integrating cloud-based communications, you’ll be able to build remote offices and hire agents at your own pace.
Cloud-based call centers require little overhead cost and allow you to hire the agents best suited for the needs of your business. Bright Pattern’s cloud-based call center platform can integrate with other systems, enabling business owners to outsource call centers quickly and efficiently with little to no downtime. Business owners can also choose to receive software updates, maintenance, and online support without any disruption in the operation of the call center.
Choosing the right call center for your business
Whether your business should outsource an inbound or outbound call center depends on the volume and needs of your current customers. If your business needs to focus on offering better customer service, an inbound call center can help boost customer satisfaction rates while providing technical support. Meanwhile, if your business is looking to expand and drive in new customers, consider an outbound call center.
Regardless of what type of call center you choose, you’ll need the right call center software in order to guarantee a successful operation. Make sure to choose call center software that will enable you to maintain consistency and quality throughout all customer interactions. Additionally, features like call monitoring, call tracking, and data analytics can help you measure agent performance, trends, and call outcomes.
All in all, it’s important to keep in mind that the success of any call center depends on the right software. When outsourcing your call center, remember that the ideal call center software should not take a “one-size-fits-all” approach to the operations of your call center.
Since each business has unique needs, your call center software should be able to scale to fit your operations. Whether you choose to implement an inbound, outbound, hybrid, or cloud-based call center, make sure to choose an efficient solution to help promote the growth and success of your business.