In our Nearshore Outsourcing Guide, we cover the many benefits to partnering with a nearshore contact center. One of the main benefits as compared to offshore options is the location, which makes it easy to travel and visit your vendor when needed. But what does this look like in a time of minimal travel and a new work-from-home culture?With the current state of the world, maybe you, your nearshore partner, or both have transitioned to a work-from-home (WFH) environment. Many offices have been vacant since 2020, and employers have started investing in their home-office tools and resources. While we’ll eventually return to global travel as normal, many companies (including ourselves) have found that the WFH set-up could be a more permanent solution than originally anticipated.
A question you may ask yourself now when considering a nearshore vendor over an offshore or onshore options is, what is the benefit when location is no longer a factor? This would be a fair question to ask, and we have some important advantages for you to consider.
Operational Efficiency
Don’t forget that cost savings are still a major benefit when comparing nearshore vendors to your onshore or in-house options. Operational efficiency is more than just the cost you save in partnering with a nearshore contact center, it’s also the opportunity that the savings gives you. Use the money you save in labor costs to re-invest in technology, tools, or other resources to help you better serve your customers and employees in this new normal. If you haven’t considered outsourcing previously, this may be the perfect time to take advantage of the savings benefit that nearshore outsourcing provides, so you can make necessary adjustments in other aspects of your company:
- Give your in-house employees a budget to upgrade their at-home workspace.
- Invest in virtual training technology to replace traditional in-person workshops.
- Upgrade your customer service with automation tools, equipped with artificial intelligence.
- Provide virtual enrichment opportunities to employees who are looking to expand their skillsets, with programs like Coursera.
- Start a budget for virtual team bonding events, using a professional service like Ten Spot.
Nearshore Resources
For most nearshore locations, the contact center industry is a large driver of income for the city and country as a whole. For that reason, the surrounding cities are invested in the success of the industry, and contact centers have formed partnerships with local institutions to optimize their resources. Institutions such as universities and trade schools actively work together with their local outsourcers to build profiles for the types of employees they’re looking for. These profiles include specific skill sets, industry pre-requisite knowledge, and certain languages. Many of our bilingual and trilingual agents come straight from local universities with an eagerness to apply and refine their skills.
As schools graduate their students, they collaborate with contact centers to provide opportunities through open houses and recruiting sessions. Nearshore contact centers are then able to expand their market locally, while also fitting new talent into the right programs for their experience and interests. The nearshore agent pool is educated, and they also have a willingness to learn and ability to adapt.
Actively Participate in the Global Community
The global community becomes more and more important as we settle into this virtual world dynamic. We are no longer separated by boarders and have a unique opportunity to expand our understanding of community. We’re not just connected to our neighbors or the coworker in the next cubicle, we’re connected globally with no boundaries in this WFH environment. When partnering with a nearshore vendor, you have the opportunity to actively participate in this global community in a few ways:
- Contribute economically, by providing jobs and a stable salary to families who then have the opportunity to earn money with honest work in their home country.
- Benefit from the diversity by exposing both your team and your vendors to different cultures, while working together toward a common goal.
- Join the conversation around global community, and what it means to you and your company to expand your horizons and take on tough dialogue around race and culture through your own experience.
These are just a few of the existing benefits to sticking with or deciding to expand with your nearshore partners. Feel free to contact us for more details on what Callzilla has to offer with our WFH programs, automation projects, E-Learning tools, and more.
About the Author: Neal Topf
