Are you looking forward to cutting some costs during this pandemic or you just want to display your business as a vast enterprise that has offshore connections and contacts? In any case, opting for a call centre might be your best choice. Why? Let’s discuss call centres and how much does it cost to hire a call centre in this article.
Why Businesses Should Opt For Call Centres?
There are numerous reasons why you should consider selecting a call centre for your business. Let’s talk about some of the major reasons why a business should at least consider outsourcing to a call centre.
It Helps In Reducing Costs
As we know most of the call centres are in developing countries like Pakistan, India and Philippines, it is obvious that the weaker economy allows you to spend less for the same type of service in the UK.
You do not need a fulltime staff or a big office to run all your units. Simply get your project outsourced to a decent call centre and they will take care of your business requirements while you sit at home, save some extra quid and plan your next vacation.
It Helps Save Time
It obviously costs time and money to have staff on the phone all the time. Just by outsourcing your daily incoming or outgoing calls to an offshore call centre, your core staff and you can save a bundle of time to focus on other strategic issues of the business.
It Improves The Quality Of Customer Service
Hiring a call centre means that you are hiring professional services for less money. Consider the fact that there are call centres that hire, train and introduce young professionals in the call management industry. Based on this, businesses can actually expect better call quality from their outsourcing partner.
This can help you improve the overall quality of your customer service. In countries like Pakistan, there is a whole bunch of people with exceptional spoken skills, attention to detail, understanding of technology and a vision to improve – which can obviously lead to an improvement and attention towards the telephone as well as the customers/queries that reach your business through that medium.
Round The Clock Services
Most of the contact/call centres offer services 24/7. This service can be availed if you do not want to miss a single call that comes on your business. Line. Fun fact: you can hire round the clock services for as much as it would cost you to hire a single person for a few hours.
It Helps With Call Analysis through Quality Assurance
For you, your business phone might be just a way to interact with your customers and business associates. For a call centre, this is their bread and butter – this is what helps them, employee people, to earn money and help you save some.
Call centres also have a proper call analysis and reporting set up where they have senior and more experienced managers on top of the agents observing each and every call, pointing out the errors and telling them a correction procedure.
This is a highly-professional setup where the managers will often get in touch with your main guys (or you) to discuss the quality of calls and everything else.
Relax And Let them Handle Your Work
All you have to do is to hire a call centre for your business, stay in touch with them on a monthly/bi-monthly basis, ensure that they are the best fit for your company and your work is done! It is their responsibility from then onwards.
But What Type Of Call Centre Is Good For My Business?
This must be a question hovering in your mind. To determine what call centre is best for your business, you need to understand the different types of call centres that exist.
- Onshore Call Centres
- Offshore Call Centres
Onshore Call Centres
Onshore call centres are located within the same country and offer services to handle your business. Some advantages of hiring an onshore call centre are:
- Increased customer satisfaction
- A better understanding of the area and niche of business
- Improved engagement with the customers
- Zero language barriers or communication problems
With all these advantages, the major disadvantage that lies in onshore call centres is:
- Costs are pretty much the same or a bit higher than hiring in-house staff and a LOT more than offshore outsourcing
Cost To Hire A Call Centre: Onshore Outsourcing
If you are in the UK, the costs of hiring an onshore call centre are:
- £ 14.90 – £ 20 per hour (it can be more depending on the type of services you are looking for)
Offshore Outsourcing
Offshore outsourcing refers to the process that you have hired an international company from another country. There are two types of offshore outsourcing:
- Nearshore outsourcing (to nearby countries like Eastern Europe)
- Farshore outsourcing (to far off countries like Pakistan, India etc.)
There are a lot of advantages associated with offshore outsourcing:
- Extremely lower in costs due to a weaker economy and foreign exchange
- 24/7 services at low rates
- Resourceful setups
- Skilled call centre agents
- Availability of energy backups
- Access to the best technology
However, having an offshore call centre can result in:
- Barriers in communication
Cost To Hire A Call Centre: Offshore Outsourcing
If you are in the UK, the costs of hiring an offshore call centre are:
- £ 2.50 – £ 10 per hour (it can be more depending on the type of services you are looking for)
Types Of Payment
There are three different types of methods of payment if you are looking for an offshore call centre.
Hourly Payment
The hours spent by a call centre handling your business call are calculated through a reliable software and billed to the business a monthly or bi-monthly basis depending upon the contract. You will only have to pay for the time they have worked at a fixed rate discussed in the contract.
Performance Payment
This is mostly a common payment method in outbound call centres where you are also looking for a noticeable improvement in your business. You will only have to pay for the results achieved by the call centre.
Hourly And Performance Payment
This is one of the ideal and best payment methods. You can pay them a discussed and contracted payment along with some incentives based on KPIs to improve the performance.
End Verdict?
Call centres are a great way to minimise your costs and get better results. While some businesses like to go for onshore outsourcing, offshore outsourcing is the key to success especially if you are looking forward to saving some decent money and growing as an enterprise altogether.
