Weighing up call centre offshoring pros and cons
Weighing up call centre offshoring pros and cons
What are the call centre offshoring pros and cons you should be aware of before jumping into the offshore world? For some, it’s a scary thought; sending your services to a place beyond your physical reach, where you can’t just walk the floor, soak up the buzz of a bustling team, be social and stop for a chat, compare misguided tattoos, mentor agents in a jam, ring a Wolf of Wall St bell if you have one, and deal out praise when someone hits a target. For others it’s an exciting idea, with the potential to help a business become lighter and yet also expand their service reach. So what’s the truth in either perception? Let’s find out by weighing up call centre offshoring pros and cons.
On the pros side
Up close, there’s no denying the benefits of call centre offshoring, helping you to:
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Expand service reach to the next rung
Offshoring can save companies 30 to 80% in reduced labour costs. This is a huge savings that can be used to expand service delivery and compete at the next rung up.
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Offer customer support that never sleeps
You can have several offshore teams located in key time zones around the globe. Catering for international customers or clients that need 24hr support.
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Cut the weight of running costs
With your teams offshore, you won’t have to invest in expensive office rentals, infrastructure and more. No more Arnott’s teddy bear biscuits to buy, printing paper to recycle, or toilet rolls to replace. And this will help save your sanity and wallet over time.
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Not have to deal with staff retention issues
Most offshore call centres will take on all the daily running of your teams. This will include hiring, training and dealing with staff absenteeism, giving you more time to focus on your customers.
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Answer more calls and keep your customers happy
The combination of offshore services and call centre software means you can scale to call volume demand. It also means you can plan for business expansion while still delivering the best customer support.
On the cons side
While there are many pros to offshoring, there are also issues that it can bring, including:
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You jump in, only to realise you can’t afford it
Many offshore call services only deal with companies that have high call volume demands. If your call volume demand is too low, the costs of this kind of service could be higher than staying on-shore.
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Cultural differences annoy your customers
This can happen to the best of your offshore call centre teams. Some customers can be incredibly intolerant of overseas call centre agents, from their accents to manner or turn of phrase. This is because, when it’s not local or close, customers can perceive this as being detached and of less value. And this is a hard attitude to break, no matter how professional your agents are.
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You’re being charged for phantom calls
Do you really know what you’re being billed for by your offshore call centre? If your offshore team is using it’s own phone software, this can be a hard thing to judge. With so many agents on the job, going through the detail of this may be an impossible task to achieve.
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Converting leads isn’t as easy as before
Offshore agents will often be working for multiple clients and may not be instilled with the same passion and drive as in-house agents who only work with your products. This is hugely important when it comes to building rapport with customers and driving more lead conversions.
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Client data isn’t as safe
Without using your own software, how can you be sure your customers personal data is being properly protected? Who has access to it? Where does the data go? Without full transparency, your customer’s personal details may be at risk.
Offshoring pros and cons – why choose one over the other?
As you can see, when weighing up offshoring pros and cons, you could go either way. This is particularly true if the offshore call centre you choose is using its own phone software and systems.
However, there’s no reason why you can’t change this equation. The simplest way is to use your own contact centre software for all your teams, no matter their location. If you do, you will effectively eliminate much of the debate around offshoring pros and cons. It will give you full management capabilities to train, track, mentor and keep all your agents close, all from one centralised platform.
And this is what’s really making waves in the call centre world, and perhaps a more important question to ask. ‘Do I have call centre software or not?’ If you do, this will change the way you look at offshoring as a whole. Borders will fall away, transparency will be achieved, and being offshore may start to feel as close as being local.
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