How to Choose Which Call Center to Hire Based On Your Company Needs

More and more businesses are outsourcing support to third-party contact centers, and you’ve decided to hire a call center for your business as well. So how do you choose which call center is right for you? Start with these 10 questions.

1. What Kind of Support Do You Need?

Determine what your company needs from a call center. Do you need 24-hour service? Emails answered? Online chat representatives? Appointment scheduling? Do you need inbound or outbound services? When you narrow down the support you want to outsource, you can see if a prospective call center can provide what you need.

2. What Is the Call Center’s Track Record?

You want a call center with a history of great performance. To evaluate this, get references or speak with other clients to see how the relationship is working. It’s also important to look for a track record in your industry or with your type of clientele. If a center already successfully handles a competitor, then you know that they have the ability to hire, train, and support similar customer interactions. (If you go with them, just make sure you will have dedicated agents for your business, not sharing agents with your competitor.)

3. Do They Have the Right People and Resources?

The right call center should have staff that meets your requirements and those needed by your customers. Depending on your industry, this may mean that staff would need technology certifications, certain language proficiencies, or other experience in your particular field. There are call centers that specialize in certain industries such as retail and even medical.

4. Can They Integrate With Your CRM Solution?

One of the most important criteria in choosing a call center is its ability to manage your customer database. Ideally, a call center can seamlessly integrate customer support data into your CRM, which will give you a more complete understanding of your customers.

5. Do They Have Social Media Integration?

57% of consumers reach out to brands on social media with a question; 45% use social media when they have an issue with a product or service. Customer support via social media is expected to grow, and a call center that can efficiently handle these interactions gives your business a competitive advantage.

6. How Do They Interact Internally and With Customers?

An outsourcing provider is representing your company and brand. Consider how they would fit into your organization as a whole. How well do they manage both their own people and customers? You could meet with the team leads who would be servicing your account to get a feel for this.

7. What Do Their Technology and Infrastructure Look Like?

One of the advantages of using a call center is access to the latest telecommunications technology. Does the call center have the technology needed to partner with your business? If not, are they willing to invest in it?

8. Where Is the Call Center Located?

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the trend was for companies to outsource their customer support offshore. But that trend appears to be reversing, as companies look toward providing greater customer satisfaction. Look for a call center in a location that best fits your infrastructure and customer needs. If you have a large customer base in global markets, then offshore call centers in those markets might be a good option.

9. What Are Their Security and Privacy Measures?

Investigate the security measures the call center has in place. How is your data stored and separated from other clients’ data? What is their disaster recovery plan? Some vendors are cloud-based, and others are on-premise. Make sure that the technologies and processes meet any regulatory standards your company must adhere to.

10. What Will It Cost?

Of course, you’ll want to select a call center with the highest performance at the lowest price. Just make sure you understand how much you will be charged and when. For example, do they charge you for customers’ time on hold? Do they charge by rounding up to the next minute or the next second? It’s a good idea to compare costs from competing vendors.

ROI Solutions has been providing a variety of award-winning call center services for over a decade. They’re happy to answer all these questions and put their expertise to work for you. Contact ROI Solutions today to see how they can meet your company’s needs.