Are you looking to:
- boost productivity and efficiency among your team?
- improve customer satisfaction and results?
- free up internal teams to focus on core business?
- streamline your processes and workflows?
If so, a BPO call center partner can help. Not only can a great BPO call center manage day-to-day operations of customer service and support, but BPO outsourcing can also help boost productivity, improve processes, integrate customer data and analytics, improve QA processes and more.
However, finding a great BPO call center is often easier said than done. And with so much on the line, it’s essential to find a provider who can offer great service now, and in the years to come—no matter how much your business grows or changes. So how do you find that perfect fit?
Here’s eight key features to look for in a BPO call center to ensure they’ll provide a great partnership that gets results.
Feature #1: Multilingual Support
While multilingual support might seem like a “nice-to-have,” especially for companies who focus primarily on a US-based audience, the data tells a different story:
- 72% of consumers said they’d be “more likely to buy a product with information in their own language.”
- 56% of consumers said finding information in their own language is more important than price when it comes to purchasing decisions.
- 68% of consumers would switch brands if another brand offered support in their native language.
And with 68 million US residents speaking another language besides English at home, multilingual support isn’t just an added bonus for the customer experience. It’s actually a decision-making factor that’s more important than price, and relevant for satisfaction and loyalty. Multilingual support can also improve your customer service overall, by improving conversion rates, lowering call attrition, and so on.
At Global Response, we have improved clients’ customer service, expanded customer bases and strengthened orders and return support through expanding or implementing multilingual support staff.
When looking for multilingual support, make sure that your potential partner provides high-quality language support in the languages that matter most to your customers. Many offshoring companies offer multilingual support, but their agents are more likely to be fluent in languages that are less common in the US and Canada. However, nearshoring companies with agents housed in Mexico, Puerto Rico or Latin America, are more likely to have bilingual agents fluent in Spanish or French, which are much more common with a US audience.
Feature #2: Experienced Agents
Similarly, the overall experience and expertise of your BPO call center’s agents will make or break your call center outsourcing experience. With high-quality, experienced and well-trained agents, your BPO call center can function as an extension of your brand and integrate seamlessly into your processes and workflows.
However, lower-quality or less experienced agents can quickly send your customer service into a tailspin. Customers will notice—and be frustrated by—agents who aren’t knowledgeable about your products and policies, who have low language fluency or who are slow or unempathetic. As such, finding a BPO call center who has highly experienced agents is a must.
At Global Response, our agents are the best of the best, whether you decide to onshore, offshore or nearshore your call center. We pride ourselves on developing true brand specialists who can speak for your brand with deep knowledge of your product and insight on your customer. Of course, that’s how we’re able to deepen brand loyalty, improve brand reputation and strengthen customer relationships for our clients.
Feature #3: Flexible Pricing and Scalability
When working with a BPO call center, flexibility is a must.
Ideally, this flexibility should be available in terms of both pricing and scalability. Flexible pricing models ensure that your call center can be a fit for the long term, growing with you and your team as you do. In addition, scalability empowers your team to scale up or down based on demand, seasonality or just overall growth.
For example, at Global Response, we’ve helped teams scale up quickly for high-demand seasons, while easily scaling their team and agents back when the demand slows. With flexible pricing and scalability, you only have to pay for what you’re using. Achieving this in-house is difficult—the costs of sourcing, hiring and training new agents is a massive investment, and if agents are only needed for a short time before demand slows again, scaling is either impractical and unaffordable.
This is why many companies with seasonal demand turn to BPO outsourcing to manage their call centers. However, this is only an effective solution if your provider offers flexibility.
Feature #4: Advanced Technology and Infrastructure
The importance of modern technology and infrastructure in today’s customer service and experience can’t be understated either. As you’re looking for a BPO call center provider, it’s essential to ensure that your provider will be able to grow with you—not just in terms of agent support and scalability, but in terms of technology and infrastructure as well.
A lack of focus on technology or innovation can signal other problems as well, such as lower-quality agents and solutions, and of course, weakened results. A BPO call center that offers world-class technology and infrastructure likely has the resources and focus to offer higher-quality solutions for your customer service.
What sorts of call center technology and infrastructure should you be looking for? That depends on your needs and goals, but in general you should look for:
- advanced IVR and call routing capabilities
- automation and AI tools
- chatbots or virtual agents
- self-service solutions
- omnichannel support and robust CRM solutions
Remember: modern solutions are often powered by modern technology. If you want to keep up with customer expectations and modern benchmarks, you’ll likely need sophisticated and modern infrastructure to do so.
Feature #5: Quality Assurance and Monitoring
One of the most important, yet overlooked, features to look for in a BPO call center is a solid quality assurance process.
Ready to perfect your CX?
A quality assurance (QA) process monitors and analyzes customer calls and interactions based on an agreed-upon rubric of quality or success to improve quality and consistency across your customer service interactions. This typically requires dedicated QA agents or managers, as well as QA software and processes.
Not only can a QA process provide valuable feedback for agents and improve quality and consistency, it also gives agents a clear rubric to follow when it comes to customer interactions, clarifying exactly what makes for a “good” customer interaction.
As you evaluate a BPO call center, be sure to ask questions like:
- What will your QA process look like for our team?
- Who is involved in the QA process and how is quality determined?
- How will you measure success and improvement for our customer service?
- What does data processing/reporting look like for your clients?
At Global Response, we use QA processes heavily to increase customer satisfaction. We collect and implement customer insights based on the data and analytics we find in our QA processes, and share every metric and result with our clients through our transparent practices. Not only are our clients happy, but their customers are happy, too—and that’s our ultimate goal.
Feature #6: Customized Solutions
As your business grows, and your needs and goals grow and change, you’ll want your BPO provider to be able to grow and adjust with you—which means a provider who is not only flexible, but also offers customized solutions so you can get exactly what you need. After all, your organization is unique, so your solution should be too.
Our team offers specialized solutions tailored to your organization, so we can provide support in any area you’re getting stuck. Our goal is always to improve and streamline your business processes so you can improve customer support and grow your brand—without all the busy work. For example, we offer customized solutions in areas such as:
- coupon program or loyalty program management
- data entry and storage
- customer surveys and feedback
- data analysis and scanning
- document routing
- database updates
- transcriptions
- SMS support
- and much more!
Our BPO services are flexible and customizable to meet your needs, not to check a box on our service list. Do your potential providers offer the flexibility and customization you’ll need, now and in the future?
Feature #7: Omnichannel Support
Despite customers expecting seamless omnichannel support, 78% of customers feel that “omnichannel support is rare or never happens.” As such, offering true omnichannel support can help set you apart as a brand.
What’s more, the benefits of omnichannel support are huge:
- 70% of consumers “spend more with companies that offer fluid, personalized, and seamless customer experiences.”
- 70% of customers expect anyone they interact with on the customer service team—or at your company in general—to have full context on their history and experience (which requires an omnichannel strategy and robust CRM).
- High-performing companies are more than twice as likely to be taking an omnichannel approach to customer service.
Not only does omnichannel support improve customer experiences and strengthen customer loyalty (and spending), but it, in turn, makes your company more profitable and stable as customers look to companies who personalize their experiences amidst changing market tides.
As you’re evaluating providers, be sure to keep in mind the difference between omnichannel and multichannel customer support. Multichannel customer support simply refers to being available to customers on multiple channels, say, phone, email and Facebook messenger. However, omnichannel support refers to a strategy that prioritizes consistency and connectedness across all channels.
For example, if a customer first contacts your customer service via Facebook messenger, and later calls in, with omnichannel support, your agent picking up the phone call will already know the customer’s interaction history, previous purchases, and potential concerns.
Our approach to omnichannel support seamlessly integrates databases and systems so your customers feel supported by a human touch at every turn. With a streamlined and unified customer journey and personalized support on every channel, your customers get exceptional service that meets them where they are and feels effortless.
Feature #8: Proven Track Record and Client References
Finally, look for a BPO provider with a proven track record of obtaining results.
Without a proven track record, how can you really know that your BPO call center will be able to deliver on your goals? As such, it’s essential to look for results you can trust. Look for client references, reviews, or testimonials, or you can even ask to speak to 1-2 of their current clients about their experience.
In addition, many call centers have case studies on their website demonstrating experience and results with past clients—look for case studies that demonstrate experience with your industry and with your goals or needed services.
Don’t just look for service levels or improved AHT either—look for demonstrable business results, such as improved customer conversions or increased sales as the result of better customer service.
Finding the Right BPO Call Center Partner
By looking for these eight features, you can eliminate the majority of low-quality BPO call centers and find one that is the right fit for you. When evaluating a provider, be sure to ask the following questions to ensure a holistic understanding and review of their services:
- How flexible are their solutions and pricing? Is customization available to fit your needs?
- Are their solutions and teams scalable? Can you easily and affordably scale up and down to meet demand as needed?
- What client references or case studies do they have to demonstrate their expertise?
- What do their QA processes and customer analytics look like?
- Do they offer omnichannel support and modern, advanced technological solutions such as chatbots or automation? Can they integrate with your tech stack?
- How much focus do they place on agent training and experience?
- Do they offer the services you need, such as multilingual agents or loyalty program support?
- Is their culture and communication style a good fit with your team?
Finding the right BPO call center partner starts with asking the right questions. If you’re looking for a customer-first, experienced BPO call center, connect with Global Response and see how we can help meet your needs. Our customer experiences and BPO services are powered by technology, but perfected by people—modern solutions with a human touch.
To see how we can help achieve your goals, connect with an expert from Global Response today.
