Outsourced or In-House Call Center? How to Choose The Best
Customer experience has increasingly grown in priority over the last few years, and for good reason. To put numbers to that statement, 73% of customers agree that customer experience helps to drive their buying decision. And, 89% of consumers have moved to a competitor following a poor customer experience with a brand. Regardless of your business and its model, an emphasis on what your customers want needs to be at the forefront of any CX decision if you want to retain customers as well as continue acquiring new customers.
Top customer engagement ranges from inbound and outbound calls to text and social media messaging, depending on how your customer base has indicated they want to communicate with your customer service team. After all--the better you engage with your current customers, the happier they’ll be, which increases customer retention and leads to customer acquisition more easily.
As an expert in customer experience management, we’re reviewing the pros and cons of both types of call centers--in-house and outsourced call centers.
IMPORTANCE OF CALL CENTERS
Call centers are so important to helping a business grow because customer service agents are the middlemen between the business and the clients. While the call center team doesn’t determine the company’s culture and how they handle customer service, they are on the front-lines and represent what your company stands for. Therefore, these customer interactions are key players in your CX quality--from phone conversations to live chat messages.
Being an outsourced call center partner for companies that put customer experiences and relationships at the forefront, we come across the same question time and time again.
And that question is:
“What’s the difference between an in-house call center and working with an outsourced call center?”
While there are many differences and a variety of pros and cons, let’s first discuss what both of these types of call centers are.
IN-HOUSE CALL CENTER
An in-house call center is one that is within a given company. The company itself employs all team members as well as servicing all equipment. An in-house call center involves hiring a dedicated team to manage, run, and perform call center activities.
OUTSOURCED CALL CENTER
An outsourced call center is a business model in which one works with a call center partner outside of the organization to perform specific call center functions, sometimes referred to as “business process outsourcing.” They can either outsource all of their call center or one-off programs, however they see best fit.
Do you know the difference between customer service and customer experience? Read the difference in this post and how both play a huge role in customer retention and acquisition.
Now that the definitions of both types of call centers are out of the way, let’s go over the perceived pros and cons of each.
IN-HOUSE CALL CENTER PROS AND CONS
PROS
1. Direct control over call center activities
Just like anything else, when the business entity is under your roof, you are able to make decisions more quickly on issues that might come up.
2. Personal Touch
When the call center is within the organization, and essentially working on one brand, the worry of misaligned branding and conversations goes out the door. When taking calls for one business, call center agents can receive extensive training on how to handle any and all situations that come up.
Related Post: 5 Ways to Improve Customer Experience
3. Increased Security
Having an in-house call center means that security of data and client information is minimized because they’re not being shared with an outsourced call center.
Related Post: 5 Customer Engagement Trends Your Business Needs to Implement Now
CONS
1. High setup cost
It’s no secret that contact centers are expensive to get started. From infrastructure and compliance certification to staffing, the in-house call center team is responsible for managing and funding it all.
2. Maintenance costs
The costs for a call center don’t stop at setup. You’ll need to invest in management and call quality coaches to continue to improve your customer service, as well as setting contingency funds aside in case any issues arise. You’ll also need to consider staffing. Call centers naturally have a higher turnover, so not only will you be in charge of training new customer service agents, but you’ll also need recruiters continuously searching for qualified team members to hire.
3. More non-productive time
Non-productive time can also be viewed as “non-billable” time. Since the organization is in charge of all the extensive training and coaching, they are required to pay their live agents during this time, even though they aren’t actually performing calls with customers. On top of that, if there is a low call volume at any given time, the organization still needs to pay their agents, even during wait times.
4. Loss of focus on core business activities
Not every business’ core focus is on customer service--and that’s okay! Whether the company’s focus is on production, sales, or any other goal, an in-house call center has the ability to take away from the business’ core goals. Taking business dollars to implement a successful call center can also have a negative impact on other departments, from spending actual dollars or supplying more man power, rather than using those resources for core business activities.
Related Post: 10 Reasons Why Only Having an Internal Call Center May Be Costing You Money
OUTSOURCED CALL CENTER PROS AND CONS
PROS
1. Ability to financially plan more accurately
If you choose to partner with an outsourced call center, you’ll know the expense from the beginning and are better able to budget accordingly. Therefore, you won’t need a contingency plan or funds set aside in the event that an issue arises in the call center. What you agree on in your contract is what you can expect to pay.
Related Post: 3 Key Benefits to Outsourcing Customer Support
2. Reduced cost
Call center outsourcing means that your company doesn’t need to foot all the bills that go along with starting and running a call center. Your business won’t be required to manage any fees outside of those agreed upon in the original contract.
3. Reduced risk
With reduced cost with outsourcing customer experience, comes reduced risk. Adding an internal call center to your business is a big risk financially. When you outsource to an outside call center, you’re leaving the financial risk to someone else.
Related post: The Most Underrated CX Trends and Why You Need to Pay Attention to Them
4. Increased productivity
With an outsourced call center partner, your internal team can focus on what they’re best at, such as production, sales, and distribution. An internal call center would only add more responsibilities to your team’s plate, causing them to lose focus on their primary job function. And ultimately, an increase in productivity could lead to more money, right?
Client Success: Integrating Customer Support Resources to Strengthen Customer Relationships
CONS
1. Less control
Because the call center is located outside of your business, you’ll automatically have less control over the agents working on your programs. One key way to prevent this decreased control is to partner with a call center that values transparency with their clients to keep an open line of communication. At Incept, our CX clients are able to regularly monitor and listen to call recording in order to ensure our agents are providing the best customer experience.
Related Post: 5 Ways to Give Your Customer Support a Human Touch
2. Potential confidentiality concerns
Along with the loss of control comes potential confidentiality concerns. Since you are outsourcing, another business will have your clients’ information, increasing the risk of sensitive information being exposed. Your business can prevent this by scheduling regular meetings to check in on the call center’s processes and ensure all of their questions on handling various calls get answered too.
3. Potential language barriers
Depending on where your business is or where the outsourced call center is located, there is a potential for language barriers. When considering an outsourced call center partner, you’ll want to ask questions about the breadth of languages they can support along with whether or not they are able to hire agents proficient in a specific language.
4. Geographical constraints
We always hear in real estate. “LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION,” and most of the time this holds true. Because you’ll want open communication with your outsourced call center, it’s location in relation to your business is important.
Are you okay with a substantial time difference and a long flight if you choose to hire an off-shore call center? Or would you rather hire within the United States? For some, a call center within driving distance is best for them. Whatever your preference, keep that in mind when looking into a business partner.
ABOUT INCEPT
Incept is an outsourced call center service that brings true conversational marketing back to customer experience. Our team of customer service representatives and experts partner with your team to improve the outcome of customer interactions and satisfaction, promote and protect your brand, and accelerate growth.
We’ve worked with some of the largest brands in the world to develop CX campaigns with one main goal - strengthen relationships at every touch point. From inbound phone calls and technical support, to organic and paid social media campaigns, to live chat, Incept is one of the best call center outsourcing vendors to assist all your CX and lead generation needs.