In House Versus Outsource: Why Hiring a Third Party Contact Center Might Be a Better Choice for Your Business

Outsourcing refers to contracting service providers to perform specific tasks instead of hiring employees. Human Resources, manufacturing, customer service, marketing, and accounting roles are common positions filled by outsourced professionals.

Whether you run a small business or a large corporation, outsourcing may be the key to success in the global marketplace. There are several reasons to consider outsourcing services, including your company’s contact center.

Save money on employees.

Hiring and training staff is time-consuming and expensive. Outsourcing services allow you to shift the human resources responsibilities to the service providers, which means you don’t have to pay for professionals to provide training and interview candidates for open positions. You will also save money by eliminating performance rewards, the cost of staff bonuses, and your company’s insurance costs because you don’t need to provide health insurance for contractors.

Reduce location-based costs.

When you secure a contact center as a service provider, the contact center can function from anywhere in the world. Even if your company is based in New York or another location where real estate is expensive, your contact center can perform effectively from rural areas where it costs less to operate.

Contact centers have sophisticated AI software that processes calls, provides data to customer service representatives, and processes queries from multiple sources, including faxes, emails, phone calls, and social media. Their representatives can respond to all queries efficiently, which promotes customer satisfaction. By working with a business that is specifically trained in customer interactions and customer expectations, you’ll know you’ll be providing an exceptional customer experience without having to take any of the training or responsibility for call center employees upon yourself. This way, you know you’ll help your business retain customers.

Avoid staff scheduling concerns.

When you have employees, you have to balance requests for time off, impacting your ability to perform specific tasks. For example, you may have to ask the contact center and marketing staff to cancel vacations if you’re in the middle of an aggressive promotional campaign and need all staff present. When services are outsourced, you don’t need to worry about staff vacations conflicting with your business plans. The service providers you contract will ensure they have sufficient staff for the project.

Maximize the use of your skills.

Small business owners and professionals who work long hours may be required to step in and perform other tasks during off-hours or when regular employees are absent. You may find yourself answering phones and addressing customers, even if that isn’t your area of expertise. When you have to fill roles you aren’t ideally suited for, you’ll be more likely to experience frustration, and other tasks you usually perform may fall behind schedule. Contracting marketing, design contact center agents or service providers, and other outsourced professionals will allow you to use your talents and stay on schedule while ensuring other crucial duties are completed.

Fulfill compliance requirements.

Outsourced professionals are responsible for knowing what legal requirements they must fulfill and ensuring they comply with local bylaws and regulations. This is another responsibility that you can shift from human resources staff to the outsourced company, knowing that you’ll have full reliability from your service provider and no legal liability in the mix.

Increase your flexibility.

Outsourcing professionals enables you to be flexible with your operations. You may opt to contract a contact center with contact center agents from around the world, which will allow your contact center to stay open 24 hours a day. Being available in this way creates customer loyalty, which is good for business.

Gain access to global business knowledge.

Outsourced professionals work for multiple clients and gain business knowledge while performing their duties. When you contract outsourced professionals, your business can benefit from their knowledge. Based on the customer data they collect, they may recommend more effective service delivery methods or customer service strategies to improve your company’s customer satisfaction ratings and fulfill client needs.

Reduce your company’s liability.

In some cases, outsourcing services can reduce your liability if a client sues you. The law varies from place to place. One of the variables considered is control. Suppose you had no control over the outsourced services’ hiring and training practices and did not oversee their professionals’ performance management. In that case, the U.S. Department of Labor may not hold you liable for lawsuits related to tasks performed by the outsourced company.