Outsourcing services to an outbound call center can help you streamline your organization processes and improve the capabilities of your in-house staff.
You will gain access to a host of benefits when you outsource your services to an outbound call center.
These upsides include a workforce of trained professionals with the capabilities necessary to accomplish many different tasks simultaneously.
You will also gain flexible hours, in addition to being able to take advantage of improved response times and higher performance levels.
There are many ways you can use outsourcing services to improve your business.
But first, it’s crucial to understand what exactly an outbound call center is and how it differs from an inbound one.
What is an outbound call center?
An outbound call center is any business with operations that include making outgoing calls to clients and prospective customers.
Outbound call centers, by their business’s nature, focus on services that reach out to a business’s clientele or target customers.
These services range from sales and marketing, appointment setting, collections, and market intelligence to business-to-business (B2B) lead generation.
Unlike most business process outsourcing (BPO) services (e.g., payroll management, social media management, content creation), the services offered by an outbound call center are customer-facing.
These services are done through different communication channels, such as email, live calls, or live chats.
An outbound call center may specialize in only one platform or offer multichannel or omnichannel capabilities.
Inbound call center vs. outbound call center
Though both inbound and outbound call centers involve communicating with customers, there are many differences between the two.
One of the most obvious differences is who calls whom.
As stated earlier, outbound call centers make calls to their customers.
On the other hand, customers are the ones who reach out to inbound call centers.
The services offered by these two call centers also differ.
Inbound call centers usually handle:
- Customer and technical support
- Order and payment processing
- Product or services inquiry
Meanwhile, an outbound call center offers:
- Telesales and telemarketing
- Appointment setting
- Lead generation
- Market research
- Debt collection
BPO firms providing call center services often have both inbound and outbound call services.
Call centers with this type of mixed services are called hybrid call centers.
5 outbound call center outsourcing processes
An outbound call center can take over many customer-facing business processes for you.These services include:
Lead generation
Lead generation – the process of identifying potential customers, or leads – is one of the most common tasks done by outbound call center agents.
Outbound call centers employ different methods (e.g., cold calling) to successfully reel in new leads.
They utilize sales call data and reports understand target customers better and make more effective lead generation strategies.
As more leads mean better chances of acquiring new customers, businesses of all kinds benefit from having better lead generation through outsourcing.
Debt collection
Financial institutions, such as banks and debt collection agencies, may outsource their debt collection processes to an outbound call center.
Debt collection refers to the process of collecting delinquent debts or other payment dues from customers.
Collecting debts and other dues can be time-consuming and taxing for businesses. Debtors can change their addresses and contact information without notifying the agencies.
Thus, delegating this process to outbound call centers with experience in debt collection will save businesses both time and money.
Telemarketing and telesales
Telemarketing – gauging your target market’s interest in your products or services – and telesales can also be delegated to outbound call centers.
Outbound call centers often use premium and proprietary software (e.g., customer relationship management and automatic call routing software) for better results.
Telesales is a closely related business process focusing on selling products instead of building a list of potential customers.
Market research and surveys
Outbound call centers can be utilized when conducting customer surveys for market research.
These call centers have access to tools like CRMs that make gathering market intelligence more efficient and give more reliable results.
Another way outbound call centers gather business intelligence is by doing follow-up calls after a customer or lead has interacted with a company.
Customer retention
Keeping existing customers satisfied with your services is another way outbound call centers can help your business.
Interacting with customers beyond trying to sell products or services is one way to ensure their loyalty to your brand.
You can use outbound call center services to reach out to your customers and give them updates on upcoming sales and other promos you might have.
Customer data can also be used to your business’s advantage and show your business cares about its customers.
Improve your business’s efficiency through outbound call center outsourcing
Outsourcing your business processes to offshore BPO firms or call centers can significantly improve your business’s efficiency.
These firms invest in the often-leading-edge technologies needed to stay on top of their industry.
Thus, businesses that outsource to an outbound call center are assured that their processes are executed much faster and with less chances of errors.
