Call center outsourcing is something that’s getting a lot of ‘buzz’ in the business journals nowadays.  Businesses are much less complacent about their future business survival and therefore much more open minded to new ideas.  For that reason, when they hear that they can use call center outsourcing to cut certain of their business costs by as much as 30-60% it really gets their attention.

Labor is one of the biggest costs, and biggest headaches of most businesses today.  Call center outsourcing effectively eliminates the great majority of that cost and hassle.  With call center outsourcing, the outsourced offshore operators can do virtually anything that your existing employees can do yet they’ll do it for much less money and often with more tender-loving-care.

One of the most important steps the business needs to take when considering call center outsourcing is to understand that their operators won’t have quiet the level of English proficiency, in most cases, of their native-US English speakers, but because of the cheaper labor cost they’ll be able to get two or three times the activity from them.  That means that any loss of efficiency is more than made up for by a greater ROI.

Even in the case of native-speaker call center operators, sometimes they’re having a ‘bad day’ and they’re not always to most courteous.  With offshore operators however, they always hold their jobs in very high regard and are well known for their great patience and focus on doing a good job.  With call center outsourcing you always get an exceptional customer service value.

Once the US business has selected a call center outsourcing services provider, it’s next very important to keep very close contact with them.  Sometimes business owners think that all they have to do is sign on the dotted line and then head off to the beach.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  The reality is that the call center outsourcing services company becomes your ‘extended employee’ and you need to ensure that they get guidance and feedback on the tasks and performance.  It’s not much different than working though a middle level manager in your own company.  The only thing that changes is that you won’t actually see them physically ‘around the office’ like you would you traditional employees.

Call center outsourcing has been around for quite some time now but it’s still something that most businesses don’t like to discuss.  Somehow, even though more and more businesses are compelled to use call center outsourcing in order to keep costs down, they seem to feel their customers will think less of them if they know that the company doesn’t use 100% ‘home-grown’ operators and service agents.

But make no mistake about it; call center outsourcing is the way business will have to be done in the future.  Everybody talks about the world becoming smaller but they often don’t stop to realize that there just isn’t that much difference between having someone answer a business phone line in the other side of your country versus the other side of the globe.

Sometimes business owners worry about the detectable accent of call center outsourcing service company operators.  But considering that even people from different parts of the same country can’t always understand each other, what could possibly be wrong with using call center outsourcing operators from another country as long as they speak passable English?

In the case of the Philippines, which is generally regarded as the Number One offshore call center outsourcing destination in the world, their culture is about as close to that of the US as possible.  They buy many of the same products, watch many of the same movies, adore many of the same movie stars, follow the same fashion trends and learn their English in a school system closely patterned after the US model.  It’s almost the same as talking to somebody from the US.

In fact, many Filipinos have been to the US, want to go to the US, have many friends who have been to the US or presently live there.

Point is, it should be pretty obvious that no matter where the call center outsourcing services agent is, it shouldn’t make any difference as long as they can do a good job.

One thing for sure, more and more companies are using call center outsourcing services and the ones that do are enjoying the benefits of great operator service at rates that seem more like 1950 than 2011.

As call center outsourcing becomes more an accepted business model for US companies, it’s valuable to bear in mind that there’s a right way and a ‘less-than-right’ way to approach such a move.  US companies who invest in call center outsourcing without doing their own due diligence of the process and the process providers stand a less chance of success than companies who ‘do their homework’ first.

US companies need to remember that they’re working with foreigners.  Nothing can be taken for granted.  Don’t assume that the call center outsourcing agency you’re talking to understands your businesses as well as you do.  If the process you want to use them for requires specialized language training or product knowledge, you’ve got to provide it.

If you’re dealing with a large, established call center outsourcing service provider, they’ll know what they need and they’ll ask you for it.  But be careful that you don’t get into a relationship with a company that looks good ‘on paper’ but blindly says they can do anything you want.  They’re only working with the value proposition and tools you give them.

For example, in the case of outbound telemarketing, don’t expect them to develop your script for you.  Even if they can, it’s going to cost you more to have them do it than for you than to develop one yourself and just give it to them.

Also don’t be surprised if they want you to pay weekly for a month or so at first until they develop a closer business relationship with you.  Because of the international nature of call center and client relationships, it’s not unheard of for clients to ‘skip’ on their bills for a month or so and only the largest international call center outsourcing providers have the legal resources to pursue collection of such relatively small amounts.

Before you sign any contracts, the most valuable thing you can do is to make a trip to their point of origin, meet their management and tour their facility.  You can learn a lot just by walking around a ‘healthy’ call center outsourcing facility.  If you see a lot of busy, focused, intent agents servicing clients, you can be reasonably assured you’ll get the same service.  On the other hand, if their facility seems old, underutilized and their staff isn’t professional and/or doesn’t speak good English themselves, it’s not reasonable to think their processes are going to go any better.

Luckily there are plenty of medium sized call center outsourcing providers who do give good service, at good rates and have good management and reporting procedures.

Call center outsourcing for US companies is more affordable than most people realize.  When all the costs involved in US companies supporting an ‘in house’ call center, it becomes obvious that they can get better process at less cost by outsourcing their call center functions offshore.

Offshore outsourced call center agents can be had for less than $10 in some cases.  Even though this is still more than the US minimum wage, when you factor in the other costs involved for maintaining an ‘in house’ call center, the in-house cost rises appreciably to well over $20 US.

And it’s important to remember that the $10 US rate for offshore outsourced call center agents is all inclusive.  There are no other costs for factors such as benefits, facilities, insurance, etc.  Thus it’s easy to see that planning and budgeting for call center operations is much easier when outsourcing is considered.

This also means that companies in distressed areas of the US who are faced with local labor shortages are able to stay in their local area and continue to service their local market if they want.  Since they can outsource their call center offshore they’re able to keep their core personnel, for example their sales personnel and/or their service personnel, in their local area.

Call center outsourcing is, in effect, a partnership between the client company and the outsourcing company.  It’s very important for client companies to realize that they must work very closely with their call center outsourcing partner in order to get the maximum utilization of that expense.

Call center outsourcing companies tend to have much less turnover than US companies, thus, over time they tend to service their clients even better as their agents become more familiar with the client processes they’re doing.  This process is similar to an employee become more familiar with their job.  Since so much of the business process takes places over the phone and/or digitally nowadays anyway…whether an employee is ‘local’ or outsourced offshore is becoming less and less critical.

US companies all the way from San Francisco to Seattle, to Salt Lake City, to Miami to New Haven are discovering the ease and advantages of call center outsourcing and it’s not only good for their bottom line but also helps the customers too.

Call center outsourcing today has basically arrived as a mainstream business and marketing option.  While it’s true that most business owners don’t understand fully the best way to get the most out of call center outsourcing options, companies and processes, nevertheless they know that call center outsourcing will save them money.

The basic advantage of call center outsourcing is one of cost.  The call center agents, usually in developing countries, who do this kind of work for 30-60% less on an hourly basis than their counterparts in developed countries.  That’s too much money, i.e. money saved, to ignore.

What the business owner needs to remember is that the majority of these offshore call center outsourcing agents are going to have a discernable accent and thus their efficiency level is not going to be equal to native English speakers.  The good news is…your ROI (return on investment) is still going to be higher (for most types of processes) because you’re going to be able to afford a lot more call center agent time.

So you’ve got two factors to figure into the decision to use offshore call center outsourcing.  Factor number one:  you’ll get as much as 300% more calls for the same amount of marketing expense.  Factor number two:  You’ll have about 30% less efficiency because of the language differential.

The reason why offshore call center outsourcing is still a good deal is because the net effect of it is still very positive for the number of sales, leads generated, appointments set, data verified, tech support issues resolved, etc.  The only time when offshore call center outsourcing might not be a wise decision is when there’s a need for the operators to get into a lengthy discussion, in English, with the callers.  These operators can do wonderful jobs as long as they don’t get too far from their basic script.

That’s not to imply that call center outsourcing can’t provide the client with agents who speak good English.  On the contrary, they can…but it’s not going to be cheap.  Those agents are available but they cost more on an hourly basis and they tend to work for large, well established companies who are willing to pay for the quality they bring to their tasks.

Many prospective clients think they’re going to be able to have premium quality call center outsourcing language skills for budget prices around $7.00 – $10.00 range.  That’s simply not the case.

So the key issue for prospective users of call center outsourcing services is to be realistic in their expectations and give their call center agents tasks that are appropriate for their linguistic skill levels.  When that’s done, offshore call center outsourcing is capable of paying big dividends.

Call center outsourcing sometimes seems like a major step forward into unchartered territory at first.  But one thing is for sure:  companies who have had a well run call center outsourcing operation going for awhile would never go back to doing it all ‘in-house’.

For many businesses, there comes a time when they’ve grown as much as they can under their existing business model.  Often that business model includes certain assumptions on whether or not they understand or should consider call center outsourcing.  Frequently they don’t understand how affordable and easy call center outsourcing really is.

One of the conditions that prompt companies to seriously consider call center outsourcing is when their business gets so big that they have large amounts of incoming calls requiring information from a live person.  This can be a good thing as long as the company can find a cost effective way to filter those inquiries and separate the profitable calls from call that require minor information or administrative assistance.

Any conscientious company will want to have English speaking personnel answer all their incoming calls but, as stated, it’s not always profitable or possible.  Especially during hours that the company isn’t normally open.

Many companies are discovering that they can offshore outsource their call center for pennies on the dollar of what it would cost in the US.  Once they start to get business or further inquiries from people who called during the hours everybody else was home with the family or out clubbing…they really begin to appreciate the value of outsourcing.  With these offshore-outsourced call center operations, they save money and make money at the same time.

Call center outsourcing is especially a smart thing for a business that does business in multiple time zones. That’s very common in the US of course.  There is at least 4 hours difference between East coast and West coast time…5 hours if you count Alaska.  In that situation it’s very easy for business to miss early morning call-ins or late afternoon call-ins.  In such a situation, call center outsourcing makes all the sense in the world…and it makes money.