Remember, even if you let locals handle the call themselves, this does not guarantee that you’ll be able to

Not patronizing a company that outsource calls… Aww c’mon.. think about it.. Do you think locals can do better? Making your own helpdesk will not only be very difficult and expensive, but also you cannot guarantee that the agents you employ will have the adequate knowledge and reasoning compared to established contact center representatives.

It’s really informative. I’m a young entrepreneur learning this industry and i bet what you have shared here is helpful not only for the company you wrote this but for all who happened to see this. I highly appreciate your post.

Cheers,
Harry Smith

Why not seperate yourself from other companies and show that you are not outsourcing. This may actually gain you more customers and more profits. Most people prefer to speak to someone in their own country, and think that a company is cheap if it outsources to places like India.

Personally, I dont like dealing with companies that have outsourced their operations, and have stopped being a customer of various companies due to this reason

Being up front and honest with your preferred outsourced partner will find you well ahead of the game and will ensure you retain adequate staffing levels depending on seasonality. This means also that whilst staffing to a quarterly/monthly level you will not be seen to be in the news every time the markets drop regarding job losses.

Many options have been mentioned however Northern Ireland has not yet been mentioned. In Northern Ireland you have the best qualified workforce who are easily trained and readily available. Cost of living is still relatively low as opposed to the rest of the UK and you will be able to get value for money as well as staff who are on top of the game. Looking for a call centre who will employ graduates is a costly excerise as well as the fact that once a job comes in their chosen field they will not show the same loyalty as someone who you can mould into your perfect member of staff.

In Belfast there are numerous centres with proven experience such as the-gem (proven multilingual expertise), techmahindra and firstsource. All with strong top down management.

In my opinion outsourcing is definitely the way forward in the current and future climate and means your overheads internally can be reduced dramatically – ie how many companies have open office space that cannot be filled say 75% of the year. You are paying the costs for this building when you could be paying someone else only for what you actually use? It makes perfect sense.

Good luck and this has helped.

Mark

It is Multilingual and the grasp on the English language is superb with the majority of the staff having studied in the UK or America. Unlike the UK the guys on the helpdesk all have at least one degree.

Whatever you choose just make sure it is not a knee jerk reaction and it is the ideal solution for you!!!!

Unless you don’t have clear and concise policies and procedures in place chances are the calls would get routed back to the main call centre at twice the cost. Therefore your spending more money and no FCR (First Call Resolution).

-Operator asks customer a question,
-Customer replies, I have too much on my plate at the moment, I am really not interested.
-Operator responds, can I call you back after you have finished you dinner then.

Another customer was advising an operator that her father had passed away and wanted his details removed from their database, very easy request to process you would think. but boy the response was “so your father has now been extinguished”.

It may sound funny but to a recently bereaved customer the impact was almost un managable.

Good luck with your choice