It is a common principle in business for companies to focus all of their attention on their core competencies and outsource everything else. Outsourcing is quite a hot topic in business now as companies attempt to increase profits and cut costs.
As a company analyzes and attempts to define their core competency, it gives them a chance to decide what they believe they can do best in-house. This includes hiring the best people and providing training for those staff.
In a computer software development company for example, this will include hiring the best programmers, business analysts, project managers, sales and marketing. The company’s core competency is software development and other things such as payroll and HR could be outsourced to another company, who has the skills and technology to complete that task, often for a cheaper rate than if the software development company handled that work.
Now, what happens when the company releases a product and they start having customers call in with problem?. Who is going to take the calls and handle the complaints and problems? Where technology is concerned people have a strong tendency to just try and work out the product themselves, without reading the documentation. Many problems could be solved if customers actually sat down and read the manual before starting.
Programmers do not make the best support staff and they could easily be demotivated in their jobs if they have to handle customer complaints. This is an ideal situation for a company to use an outsourced call center .
With some basic training in the company’s products and creating a knowledge base for operators to provide the most common answers to problems, the call center operators can deal directly with support issues.
It can be an expensive cost providing office space, computers and telephones to employees, especially if a company is located in an expensive city like New York. Call centers can be located anywhere in the country or even around the world.
Call centers are not just for handling customer support issues. They can also be used to generate new leads, through cold calling potential customers. Potential leads can then be passed onto the company’s sales team who can then meet with potential clients. Nothing can excite a sales person more than having lists of per-qualified potential customers.
The core competency of a call center company is dealing with potential and existing customers by telephone and email. By outsourcing this type of work, it enables companies to focus on what they are truly good at, at the same time cutting staffing costs.