Would you trust them with your customers?

NOTHING is more important than trust and value when it comes to entrusting your most valuable assets, your customers, to a third party.  And value is not something that can be defined in a brochure.

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes.  Imagine their problems and queries.  Imagine how you would want those problems resolved in an ideal world.  And imagine how you would want to be treated when you make that call.

Does your outsourcer have those skill sets?   Are its agents motivated, skilled, experienced and supported by the processes and technology needed to deliver first call resolution, time after time?  Do they have the skills, knowledge and information to notify customers about appropriate offers/products/services during that contact to add extra value?  If not, then you may need to reconsider your outsourcing strategy.

My tips:

1 Properly define your objectives Ensure that your goals are compatible with those of your outsourcer.  They must be motivated to perform and able to fulfil your business needs at an acceptable price.  It’s amazing the number of outsourced relationships where the two sides start off with different goals and objectives.

2 Don’t think you can just “tack on” a call centre operation To be successful, it must be an integral part of an end-to-end customer management process that, for example, may start the moment a customer picks a product off a shelf, and which involves all of your departments that the customer may come into contact with — sales, support, billing and service centre.

3 Ensure that the people at your outsourcer feel a part of your company.  Make sure they are informed, that there are regular meetings to exchange information and ideas — and that they are surrounded by branded messages.

4 Pick a company that can work with you at a strategic level so that it can quickly and proactively respond to changes in your business.

5 Ensure your outsourcer can provide a broad range of services.   As well as basic customer call handling, these include value-added services such as specialist customer service, outbound customer acquisition, debt collection, customer retention, technical assistance, cross-selling, upselling, staff accounts, activations, credit management, customer registrations, customer lifecycle management and back office functions.

6 Pick an outsourcer that can understand complex product propositions, for example broadband/ phone and TV “triple play” packages.

7 Ensure that your outsourcer can maximise each customer contact.  This could be introducing customers to new products and services and educating them about ways that they can get more from existing products and services.

8 Pick a company that is flexible in its work practices, such as virtual call centres and home working.

9 Establish how you will measure performance, not just the number of calls handled, but how well they are answered and how happy the customer is at the end of the process.

10 Don’t underestimate the management time required to make it work.  It takes real teamwork — but the benefits in terms of reduced overall contact handling costs, higher customer satisfaction and more efficient contact handling will make it worthwhile. 

Steve Norman, business development director, Garlands Call Centres; steve.norman@cjgarland.co.uk