Nearshore Call Center Outsourcing: The Benefits of Working with a Nearby Partner

Nearshoring, offshoring, onshoring—when it comes to outsourcing, does location really matter?

Picking the right outsourcing partner should be a careful decision. Yet, too many companies simply choose the cheapest or the easiest option they come across.

However, with the rise in outsourcing—and especially the rise in nearshoring in particular—it’s important to understand the pros and cons of each option before you lock yourself into a contract.

Working with a nearby partner can have heaps of benefits—but is nearshoring the right choice for you? In this article, we’ll outline the advantages of nearshore outsourcing, as well as how to consider quality control and risk management, so you can choose a partner that can deliver the results you’re looking for.

Understanding Nearshore Call Center Outsourcing

First, what is nearshoring, and how does it compare to onshoring and offshoring?

Nearshoring is a BPO outsourcing solution that allows organizations to outsource non-essential business processes to less expensive talent regions without geographically distributing your business too broadly. In short: nearshoring involves working with an outsourced team in a geographically nearby country, as opposed to hiring domestically or outsourcing to a different region.

Offshoring, by contrast, involves outsourcing to a geographically distant region. For US-based businesses, this is most often India or the Philippines. Onshoring, then, refers to work that is outsourced domestically.

While each of these outsourcing solutions offers distinct benefits and drawbacks, nearshoring offers a myriad of unique benefits that offer a great balance between the benefits of onshoring while reducing the drawbacks of offshoring. In this way, it often acts as a “best-of-both-worlds” solution for businesses who want to reduce costs and improve flexibility, while still prioritizing alignment, communication and quality performance from their outsourcing team.

In the next section, we’ll highlight some of the biggest advantages to using a nearshore call center.

5 Advantages of Using a Nearshore Call Center

Outsourcing offers many benefits for growing companies. Not only do you benefit from additional expertise and added resources, but those resources typically come at a lower cost than hiring in-house. And, as more and more companies and teams become increasingly distributed and remote, managing outsourced teams feels easier than ever.

With that said, does it really matter where your outsourcing partner is located?

Location does matter—and in some cases, it can make or break your outsourcing partnership. To start, here’s five benefits of working with an outsourcing partner that’s nearby.

Similar Time Zones

One of the main advantages nearshoring has in comparison to offshoring—and even some onshoring options!—is the benefit of similar time zones. While offshoring companies usually have an 8-12 hour time difference, nearshoring companies are typically located in Mexico or Central America, where the time zone is likely only an hour or two different—if at all—from your company.

In some cases, it may be even easier to work with a nearshoring partner than an onshoring partner. For example, a Los Angeles firm working with a partner in New York would have a larger time zone gap than an LA-based firm working with a nearshoring partner in Hermosillo, Mexico, which is in the same time zone as LA.

And of course, similar business hours offers many benefits:

• better communication and collaboration
• easier overlap for meetings and calls (no 2am phone calls to the Philippines!)
• easy expansion into extended hours service for your customers
• more clarity on working hours expectations

Proximity

Similarly, working with a nearshoring partner offers you the benefit of proximity. Not only is this helpful for time zones (see above), but it’s also helpful for in-person collaboration, quality control and your involvement as a partner.

When you want to travel to your outsourcing provider to provide training or oversee quality of day-to-day operations, would you rather take a quick flight to Mexico, or a 15-hour flight to the Philippines? The bottom line is: the easier it is to meet face-to-face, the more you’ll do so. And the more you meet face-to-face, the more you can be involved, collaborate with your outsourcing provider, ensure alignment on quality standards and get the results you’re looking for.

Cost-Savings

Nearshoring is one of the most cost-effective outsourcing solutions. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s the cheapest. However, the old adage rings true in outsourcing as it does in other areas: you typically get what you pay for.

With nearshoring, you reap the benefits of cost-savings by hiring employees who live in areas with lower costs of living. While it’s much cheaper than hiring domestically, you still get high-quality employees who are familiar with US language and culture.

In addition, with nearshoring, your outsourcing partner handles business needs and expenses such as recruitment, training, benefits, equipment, office leases, software and other related contact center costs. Since these overhead costs are much lower when nearshoring compared to working in-house or domestically, you benefit from cost (and time!) savings in tangential expenses as well.

Flexibility

Of course, flexibility and scalability are two major benefits of any outsourcing partnership. But nearshoring partners provide an optimal balance in terms of flexibility and scalability. How? Nearshoring offers you:

• the ability to hire more easily, outside of the ebbs and flows of the US labor market
• a wider talent market with more employees available
• flexibility to scale agent numbers up or down easily, as they’re employed by your outsourcing provider and not in-house
• pay-for-what-you-use payment plan options, allowing you to optimize costs
• more flexible service terms than offshoring (generally)
• ability to offer 24/7 or extended hours coverage

The increased flexibility that comes with outsourcing to a nearshore partner is a major benefit for companies who want to be nimble and agile as they grow.

Communication and Collaboration

One of the biggest perceived downsides of outsourcing is language or communication barriers between agents and customers. While this is a common problem with offshoring clients, it’s less so for nearshore employees. After all, many employees at nearshore outsourcing providers have spent time studying or working in the US and are familiar with linguistic nuances, customs and preferences.

In addition, not only are nearshore employees more well-versed in English, but they also typically are fluent in other languages that are important for a US consumer base as well. For example, many Latin American employees will speak Spanish or French, two languages that are commonly spoken in the US as well.

Working with nearshore providers means you can expand your customer service to offer more bilingual options, which can make customers feel seen and understood—literally!—thus improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Quality Control and Performance Monitoring

When it comes to an outsourcing partnership, finding ways to manage quality and monitor performance is a must.

What does that look like with a nearshoring partner?

For one, the proximity of a nearshore partner naturally offers more control. You can be more involved since it’s easier to collaborate across similar time zones, or even go visit and be a part of developing systems, overseeing workflows and managing processes. In addition, nearshoring partners’ familiarity with culture and communication makes quality and performance easier to maintain as well.

However, even if you’re not flying down to your nearshoring provider’s center every week, current call center technology makes it easy to oversee things remotely. For example, many cloud-based contact center platforms allow you to access dashboards, review calls and operational data, and perform other quality checks from anywhere with internet access.

Nearshore Call Center Outsourcing: Cost and Risk Considerations

Of course, any type of outsourcing or business partnership is not without risk. However, understanding how to manage and mitigate that risk is a key component of finding the right outsourcing partnership for your organization.

For example, while nearshoring provides cost savings compared to offshoring, it also often provides a less risky option. When your outsourcing partner is located near your place of operation, they’re likely to be more familiar with US-based businesses, laws, and regulatory considerations.

When looking for an outsourcing partner, ensure that they have the proper certifications and regulatory or compliance verifications to mitigate risk for your business. For example, all contact centers should, at the most basic, be PCI-compliant and SOC-2 compliant. There may be other certifications or compliance regulations relevant to your industry as well, such as HIPAA.

In addition, asking for testimonials and looking at case studies and reviews from previous or current clients will give you insight into your potential outsourcing partner and their level of risk management. While nearshoring will naturally lower some risk, it’s essential to still vet providers carefully.

Nearshoring offers a host of benefits for companies looking to outsource—but is it right for your company? If the benefits discussed above sound advantageous to your organization, consider reading our full guide on nearshoring and how to decide if it’s the right choice for your brand.

When you’re ready to get started with a nearshoring partner—or if you just want to talk to someone about how nearshoring can help your brand and business goals specifically—connect with an expert from ROI CX Solutions today. We can help you choose the best outsourcing provider for exceptional customer experiences that get your team results.