Looking forward to making your operation more cost-efficient while improving delivery? An offshoring call center is the top-tier solution you didn’t know you needed to balance your budget.
Offshoring call centers seem to have been on the rise for many years when it comes to business strategies to optimize costs, and it just makes sense. Moving your operations to countries with lower labor costs and a skilled talent pool, allows you to save on valuable resources without sacrificing on quality. However, understanding how to do it right requires a deeper look into a set of different factors that will contribute to your success.
In this article, we will focus on a series of elements that made a lot of companies eager to adopt this method of operating their business, to set you up for success as well.
Understanding the Basics of Offshore Call Center: Key Factors Influencing Cost
The first thing you need to learn when considering offshoring solutions is the key factors driving your overall cost. Some of the most important factors include:
- Location: Geographical location is one of the most determining factors in your operational costs. Popular regions like Southeast Asia or Latin America offer lower costs than their domestic alternatives. According to Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/call-center-outsourcing/) for example, in 2023 while an agent in India generally charged $6 to 9$ per hour, one in the US would $26 to 30$ per hour for the same service.
- Operation Complexity: It may seem obvious to some, but the type of service or services you offer plays a big role. It is different to run a simple inbound call service or a technical support or sales operation. The level of complexity of the roles and skills you need might change how much of the cost reduction you aim for you will get.
- Infrastructure: On top of wages, you have to take into account how much you will have to invest in the different tools and resources your agents may need. Omnichannel communication software and a good Customer Relationship Management system (CRM) are crucial for maintaining a quality and timely service where your customer inquiries are managed efficiently.
- Training and Managing Agents: In any volatile industry you need to invest in training programs constantly to keep up to date with industry standards. Moreover, hiring local managers and supervisors is also key to monitoring everyday operations, and those roles depending on the expertise level required, are usually the most expensive ones on your offshore call center.
- Compliance: Depending on your offshoring location choice you will be required to comply with international standards in data protection or privacy laws for example. Meeting HIPAA, ISO 9001 or PCI DSS (https://www.callzilla.cx/blog/which-is-the-best-call-center-certification-to-outsource-your-company/) standards, to name a few, is a must and will require additional investment on your side.
Beyond Costs: Additional Advantages of an Offshore Call Center
The many upsides of offshoring don’t end with money. Sure, you will be saving on office space and many other costs, but it goes further. Offshoring also adds value in other aspects of the business, like the access to a more diverse and deeper talent pool, the ability to scale or deescalate operations, and improved availability time-wise of your operations.
A bigger talent pool means you have access to more diverse perspectives and points of view. This influx of new ideas can bring additional benefits for you in the long term. Offshoring companies like Callzilla let you pick personally the agents you will be working with, further enhancing interpersonal relationships and choosing based on specialized technical skills or language mastery.
While growing your business, offshore call centers give you the flexibility to scale up or down your operations as needed quicker than your onshore setups without the risk of heavy capital investment in the latter. Also, the ability to manage operations in different time zones enables your service to be available 24/7 meaning improved customer satisfaction.
Finally, offshoring has been demonstrated to reduce employee turnover. Inhouse callcenters high turnover rate drives your recruitment and training expenses up, while lower attrition rate in popular offshoring locations labor markets mitigates these risks.
Cost and Quality: A Balancing Act
There is a sweet spot that is achieved when you manage the perfect balance between saving as much as possible while also keeping or improving service quality. Many entrepreneurs worry that their savings will get lost due to difficulties in communication or cultural barriers. As we mentioned before this comes down to investing in training, monitoring performances, and having the best quality assurance possible.
More specifically giving priority to communication, sensitivity and language training programs, your agents will be more aligned to your primary market needs. Tracking key metrics such as first call resolution, customer satisfaction, call upscaling and net promoter scores among others can help you to be certain you are getting the most out of every penny.
As companies do everything in their power to stay competitive, offshoring call centers is the solution that is seen as reliable and cost-effective. Location, turnover rates, salaries, cultural differences, everything plays a role you will have to put on a scale to see what works best for you.
Have any doubts? Contact Callzilla today and get an even deeper dive into how offshoring can solve many of your needs easily and seamlessly.
