Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a smart move in the modern workforce. Your company’s long-term resiliency might even depend on it.
Outsourcing opportunities can be a domestic or global venture, depending on your company’s needs and resources. Whether onshore, offshore, nearshore, the outcome is virtually the same: increased customer engagement and a more dynamic brand package that suits the multi-channel mode in which today’s customer operates.
Consider a few fast facts about the outsourcing market:
–Research predicts that by 2022, the global market will reach over $262 billion in cost benefits.
–The BPO industry is growing at a healthy pace with technologies like automation, cloud computing, and social media tools being at the forefront of the industry’s evolution.
-Forecasts predict that startups will be more mutually dependent on BPOs in 2018.
Why outsource?
The industry is lucrative, and it beckons for businesses to engage with it.
Imagine being equipped with an array of tools and technology to deliver the most frictionless solutions to customers anywhere, anytime, with industry experts guiding the selection and implementation process. Through integrated, omnichannel customer experiences, people are free to choose how to interact, whether on the go or at home.
Email, social media, and live chats all supplement traditional voice calls with real, world-class customer experience experts and support specialists trained to optimize their solutions using the outsourcing technology of tomorrow.
Think of the potential in having a dedicated team specially trained to provide support across a dynamic system. That’s the power of integrating humans and machines to outperform the outdated approaches to service, and doing it better together than either could on their own.
Outsourcing your business processes strengthens a company by providing a centralized customer engagement strategy. Vastly different than a traditional call center, whose stagnant model no longer works in the on-demand world of today, the right outsourced contact center can fully facilitate any omnichannel experience your company implements.
Some of the benefits of outsourcing include:
- Cost reduction: In-house labor and facility costs are slashed, and the potential for variable-cost fee structures.
- Enabling your business to focus on its core while metrics and data are handled.
- Higher-quality customer experiences because of the specialized, integrated nature of your contact center team.
- Possible expansion nationwide or globally through establishing your presence with a BPO vendor.
- Flexibility to grow or shrink your business as needed.
- Brand recognition: as your company becomes known for delivering great experiences, more customers will come and (more importantly) more customers will stay.
Contact center agents can go above and beyond the call of service. In addition to straightforward solutions, there is a factor of empathy that doesn’t exist in traditional sales and support models. Much more than a building full of people taking phone calls, agents support customer lifecycles, tackling retention programs, cross-selling to market research and tracking leads. It’s a package deal, and it shows itself in customer satisfaction and return.
A good contact center functions like part of a business ecosystem rather than as an extension. A harmonious relationship between the brand and the contact agents that provide the customer experience delivers a less static, more engaging system of support whose success is reflected in customer satisfaction ratings and ROI.
How to choose the right business process outsource
Part of the process of selecting a vendor to work with is identifying the factors that help you align with a good BPO match. Starting with clearly defining your needs, goals, and outcomes, you can then source your vendors. Analyze the risks and benefits, and make a decision based upon those factors for whom you’ll manage a collaborative relationship.
A few tips to keep in mind:
- Look for a BPO that will increase your sales while conserving your resources.
- Work with a company that values its employees as much as you do.
- Find a vendor who can work with the necessary flexibilities, growth challenges, and technological advancements that you envision for your own company.
You’ll know you’ve found the right vendor when you feel like you’re working as part of a collaborative effort, seamlessly handling customer experiences, and finding yourself with more time to devote to your own core needs and bottom line.
