We have all heard cliches like think big and fake it till you make it ; now you can act upon them. As a small business owner, you have one good reason to think big. Outsourcing handling of your incoming calls allows you to act like a big business with access to expertise, efficiency and economies of scale that most big companies enjoy.
There are no set in stone guidelines regarding the time and suitability of outsourcing your incoming calls to a call center service. You can consider hiring a service when faced with one or more of the following situations:
1. You want to save money
If your business call volume demands heavy investment in infrastructure, customer relationship management software and in house personnel, then a call center service can be quite useful. By spreading their employee and technology costs over many customers, these services keep their costs considerably low and allow you to obtain significant cost savings. You may enjoy additional savings if you outsource to an offshore service center since they are cheaper than those based in developed countries like Canada, UK or US.
2. You do not have the customer service expertise
If you do not have sufficient experience and expertise in the customer service field and are currently unable to develop it, you should consider outsourcing your call volume to a call center service.
3. You want to test new programs
Call centers provide your business an inexpensive and easy way to test new products and programs before you invest money and resources in training your in house employees.
4. You want to learn how to run a call center
If you do not have enough experience and knowledge about call center operation and want to learn how to run it and build intellectual capital, then a call center partner can be a good starting point for you.
5. You expect significant growth in business
If you are expecting significant growth in call volume following a new product launch or other major events and do not want to spend resources on hiring new employees and equipment upgrades, you can outsource your incoming calls to a customer service provider.
6. You have variable call volume
Businesses often experience seasonality and unpredictable changes in call volumes that are difficult to access and plan. In such situations, a call center service can help you to handle spikes and call overflows. Either you can opt for seasonal assistance or spot overflow where the provider takes care of sudden increases in call volumes.
7. You consider phone based customer service a non core function
If providing customer service through telephone is not one of the key objectives of you current business plan, you can outsource incoming calls.
8. You want to change your business model
Major decisions such as shift to a 24x7 tech support service or support in multiple languages can also trigger the need for hiring an outsourced call answering service.
9. You want to handle many types of calls
You can hire a call answering service to take orders, provide customer and tech support, answer messages and qualify inbound leads.
10. You have straightforward sales, service and support requirements
If your sales and service requirements are simple and easy to meet, they can be economically and effectively handled by a call center service. These services are seldom suitable for complex sales cycles and tech support that requires in depth troubleshooting.
Hiring a call center service is a major decision for your business. Carefully assess your needs, business plans and available resources before making a decision.
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