Ten Critical Items to Think About Before Outsourcing Your Call Center or Creating an RFP

00:00Hi, guys. Tom Laird here. You've heard me break down contact center technology on the podcast Time again. Now it's time for me to help you with your challenges. As your contact center technology advisor through our new company Expivia Digital, I can help you with things like CCaaS selection, any type of AI implementation, and nice studio and integration services. It's the same honest advice you hear on the geek applied specifically to your operation. Visit ExpiviaDigital.com to get started. That's ExpiviaDigital.com. Call Center Geek, a weekly podcast with a focus on all things We're here to give you actionable items to improve the quality of yours podcast where we give you actionable items bluntly, that you can take back to your call center to not only improve the agent performance and quality, but also to hopefully improve the customer experience. My name is Tom Laird. I'm the CEO of Expivia Interaction Marketing Marketing Group.

01:19Expivia is a 500 seat BPO call center. Our outsourcers are located here in Northwestern Pennsylvania and welcome. We're here at cool announcements, and we hit our 1000th podcast episode download over this past week, which has blown my mind. This thing is doing a little bit more than I thought, which is awesome. The next thing I'd like to ask is if you have found any type of value out of this, please post a review. I don't want a review bag, but I'm kind of review bagging. Just maybe on iTunes or on Spotify, wherever you guys are listening to this from, it would really help. You know get the message out to more people and you know I'd love to hear you know, some of the things that you think about the podcast upheas positive negative, you know Whatever you think, you know, I'm all open to some type of review Also, if you get a second, please head over to the advice from a prospective Facebook page I'd love to get some conversation and not things new and not many people have been interacting with that So I'd love to hear again what what you guys agree with me. Disagree with me I'd love to have a laid-back conversation on I think some fun things.

02:47What we wanted to use today's episode for is to talk about some things that I've been actually receiving a little bit of feedback on in some emails from people dedicated on some things to look for when you're outsourcing. Again, I'm treading lightly here as I own an Again, I'm treading as I own a call center, but I'm not trying to sell a sell anything here and that would defeat the whole purpose and the whole mission of the podcast. I'm just going to talk to you about some things that some call center outsourcers do differently than internal centers and some of the things that you need to be aware of when you're setting up an RFP, when you're going to on site visits, when you're talking to different call centers, whether it be onshore, nearshore, offshore and what are some of the things that you this, owning and operating a call center outsourcer.

03:49So again, I don't want this to come off as a sales pitch. It's proper size a lot of the call centers and I have a little bit of a ratio that I think you know I don't think that the your call center Program, you, know should be less than than three to four to five percent of the call center floor that it's going to be at So you don't want a 20 seat Program in a call center. That's a 1500 seat operation right, you know It just isn't going to get the value. It's not going to get the quality aspect It's not going to get the attention that it really deserves. So you have to be careful. The type of companies that you're going to, again, you know, we're a boutique, there's a ton of really good, you know, 500, 1,000, 1,500 seat, you know, maybe have three sites with three, 400 seats each that handle those 20 to 30 to 50 to 70 to 70 programs.

05:10Now if you, you're obviously a large organization, you have, you know, 2,.000 seats to outsource to some of the big multinational players that can do some really cool diversification things where you can put certain things offshore, certain things near-shore, maybe more higher value or VIP type customers here in the states. I, you know, you have a little bit more options. So I'm not going to tell you that a large call center is bad, because I don't think they are. I'm not going to tell you that a small call center is always better, because it's not, the You need to find the niche and the rights for your program that will make the quality aspect and make it worth the organization's time to really do your program the right way. Number two is track record of management, which a lot of people really don't think about, but you need to really see how long they've been in the game.

06:05There's a lot of shady things that can happen in the call center space, especially when and you're looking near shore There's a little bit less risk, there's still risk, But, you, understanding, making sure that not only is the company reputable, but two, that the management has an understanding of your business model, has an understanding of what type of program that you guys are trying to run, and I've had some experience that in the past. There are call centers that do everything, from healthcare, to sales, to direct response, to insurance, to just sales only. Whatever you need, as niche-y as it is, Somebody's out there for you, so just look and make sure that you have a good fit there. Number three is super important, and that's the client support method. One of the biggest failures that we see when a company outsources their program or their customers to a customer support center or BPO is that the client support method's terrible.

07:35You know, maybe it's just a nine-to-five model. You know, maybe they have to put a trouble ticket in, right, to each different department. There's disjointed service where, you know, If I have an issue with my production, I got to call production. If I have an IT issue, you got to call the IT people. This is where a boutique I think is kind of cool and a smaller type call centers can really differentiate. Here at Expivia, for example, you get two client services managers that are pretty much dedicated to your program and you have 24-7 access and that includes to me. So I'm always checking my phone. I am always on email. Same thing with our client support people. We always have somebody on call for weird after hours. But your phone call will be answered every single time. The first time it rings directly even bypassing our receptions go right to your client services manager.

08:27Any emails will be answered in under 10 minutes. Those types of things a lot of the smaller call centers can really do a real bang up job on. But make sure that you understand the methods of support for the call center that you're dealing with. Number four is make sure, and this kind of gets into the culture aspects and there's a couple of different culture aspects, but number four is associate match. Remember this call center that you choose, they need to be an extension of your brand. You have to make sure that this call center that you choose, we match demographics, we match personalities, we match different types of things that are going to go well with your customers. If you're a startup and you're trying to hit up, you have a new cool app that's targeting you know people 18 to 24 well then you know you're gonna probably want to have some type of support method and agents that are in that that same world not all the time but I think as an as an overall kind of just as a rough rule you need to be very careful of what type of associates they're going to put on your program are they a match for your brand are they a match for your car are they a match for your culture number five is is vitally important especially in the time that we live in now and that's proper technology. So you know make sure and a lot of this is this is where a lot of people get into trouble too because a lot of people you know that do outsource if they have a smaller company they're not sure really what proper technology means and again you can get some help out there there's a lot of call center brokers there's a lot of people that will kind of guide you that I can help you with that. But understand you know the baseline of what you need right from a technology standpoint so you know Do you need call recording?

10:07Are you going to need virtual cues or virtual callbacks? How can you do monitoring? Can you do live monitoring through just having a portal that you can double click on an agent, put your cell phone number in, and start listening to calls? Or do they have to call in and set up a monitoring session with the client? Speech analytics, do they have capability for the future? Do they get into chatbots? Are they into the AI scene? Are they a multi-channel facility? How are they going to connect to your systems? Making sure that this company can understand all that is coming to you and basically telling you how it should be done and I think that that's the main thing here is if you're pulling information from them and they're kind of just real slow playing it, maybe their technology offering isn't really up to snuff. Most call centers are pretty bad ass.

11:00Most of us out there understand that we are a bridge between a software company and a call center. We have to be able to do things that your internal call centers can't or what's the point of outsourcing. It's not all about cost. A lot of this is about the customer experience and we have found that to offer that customer experience, the technology piece is a huge, huge part of it, not only from servicing the customer but getting data and analytics back to make really, really high-end decisions will affect the program and the company for the future. The technology piece, make sure that that does not get pushed by. Talk to a lot of different call centers, push them on their technology. Try to get the cool stuff that you can or at least discuss it so that they can talk to you about it so you get a really good for where they are.

11:47Number six is understanding your cost structure and understanding where you want to place this. of questions on Tom we want to outsource we're not sure if we should go on offshore should we do a hybrid should we go near shore you know what should we do and you know that's that's a difficult decision I am pretty biased when it comes to the US centers I think and you know there is a benefit the huge plus if you have USA customer support I think that shows that your You're going to pay a little bit more for it, but it shows the value that you're giving and that you think your customers are worth it. Having said that, there's a lot of programs that do really well offshore. There's a lot of tier one, those types of programs that maybe are cost prohibitive in the states that you can get away with.

12:44I will say get away with though offshore. A lot of this though does come to dollars and cents and a company's making a culture decision based on a lot of different factors but you know it's not just price but taking into account what the effect of having their program offshore and nearshore will be. Sometimes it doesn't matter but you know we found that you know for a lot of different companies it does matter so you know the other thing that's kind of happening now in the spaces is people are going to this hybrid model to where you know their their VIP or high-end customers are in the states and you know some of the the lower tier one type support that that can get handled easily is offshore you know so there's a lot of different types of models that that do work we were also seeing a lot of onincerity because of technology so you know people are using chatbots and they're using self-service to take care of their tier one and then tier two tier three is done in the states again that's a culture issue it's a price issue how worthwhile is your support to be done, you know, here in the states or near shore or offshore.

13:53Number seven, and if you have listened to anything about me, you understand, and I probably even use the word culture 14 times in this podcast episode, but number seven is company culture. You have to have a culture fit when it comes to the outsourcing call center that you're using. There's a lot of very laid back call centers. There's a lot of very strict financial type call centers in the outsourcing space. It all depends on really what you're looking for and making sure that there's a match. So this is where a site visit becomes really, really important. Understanding things like is the call center paperless? Is there an energy and a really cool vibe that you feel when you get out on the floor? You care about that. Do the associates look like they want to be there? Again, demographics, those types of things. What type of agents do they have?

14:40Who are they hiring? Are they hiring high school students? Are they hiring people with a college degree? What does the center look like? Does it look clean? Does it look like they've put a lot of time in to build up their employee engagement platforms? Are they having fun on the floor? Again, some of that might not be important. I think it is, especially when you're outsourcing your customers to another organization. Make sure that there's a culture fit that matches what you're looking for in the organization that you have and also just the people in the management aspect too. When you talk to them, you get along. Is there a connection there? really important to the viability of the program. Number eight is education. Dig deep into how they do initial training and initial education, but for a new rep that's off the floor, I'm sorry, off the street, you know, if they're just hiring them and throwing them in training for two days and throwing them out on the floor, that could be an issue.

15:36I guess depending on what program you have or what your training aspect or what your rep structure looks like. Again, I don't want to just talk about Expivia, but a lot of the really high-end BPOs, I know do a full week of education and training before there's any type of program training. So these are legal aspects, these are culture issues, these are HR functions, making sure they understand all your corporate policies, what's to be expected. That's a huge piece of it. So make sure you dig into the initial train, and then just as important, how do they want to do training and education on your program? If they ever push back that they don't want the clients on site, I would run away. We really love our clients to be especially involved in that initial train to really get this done right the proper way. So make sure that you're invited to be as much of a piece of that initial training as possible.

16:29Also find out about ongoing training. We do here at Expivia. We give all of our associates one hour of unbilled training every single week on every single program and we talk a lot of things about soft skills and engagement and how to make sure that you're delighting the customers and you're saying the right things. Make sure that there's a culture piece of this. Make sure that you know the call center that you're discussing and you're talking to isn't just saying hey we train on clicking here and clicking there and then they'll get through this as quick as we possibly can. Make sure that they take the time and they go over soft skills and how to really talk to the customer not just you know where to click and what to click so that's a that's a huge piece of it you know the other thing is how do they do all of their QA so you know with this training piece you know how many how many associates are going to be scored per week how do they do it to the you speech analytics are they just trying to kind of listen to calls and that's fine but making sure that that's in line with what your quality aspects are that you have a benchmark for them that you give that to them to hit is It's really important from setting an expectation for the call center.

17:39Number nine is scalability and flexibility. Very few programs just have 30 or 40 or 50 agents all day long, all year long and they just truck along with that. There's a lot of scaling up, scaling down, peak times, Christmas, sometimes it's summertime. Make sure that the call center is large enough that they can scale and also that they're They're not going to get hurt if you have to pull 10 reps off. Also, ask what happens to those associates. A lot of times you don't want to lay them off. You're paid for a lot of training. They're really highly educated. Make sure that they can find another place for them or how that whole process of scaling and flexibility will work out for them. Number 10 is probably number one or number two on the most important, and that's security. your call center that you're going to use PCI compliant because that should be the minimum.

18:36That's no longer like a high standard. That should be the minimum. I wouldn't even really talk to call centers that are not PCI compliant. Then you get into HIPAA and SOC 2 compliance. Look at some things that they do from a policy standpoint that a lot of the BPOs do so like we're totally paperless. So there's no pens, there's no pencils, there's nothing that's in the call center booth that's allowed. If anything needs to be set up in the booth and it's laminated, those types of things. The other thing that we're maybe a little bit crazy on is cell phones and we have a strict no cell phone policy. We do most of our stuff when it comes to reps doing things wrong. We try to really celebrate when we do things right and correct off the floor very quietly while cell phones are the only exception to that rule.

19:29So we kind of, I don't want to say lose our minds, but if your cell phone is seen or heard on the call center floor, it's an automatic suspension. We don't mess around with it. There's too much that can happen with cell phones. So we've just totally tried to take them out of the equation. We have specific texting in cell phone areas that are off the floor that they can use. But once they're on the floor, if that goes off in their pocket and it gets heard by management, that's a suspension. So again, make sure that the security aspect that you're looking at and you're dealing with matches the security element that your organization has and the expectation that you're looking for. It's hard. Outsourcing can be difficult. It can be a very stressful situation. In the age of social media, your customers now have a voice to shout out if they feel that your company is not providing good service.

20:21Choosing to outsource to the right organization for your company, it can be a blessing. Being the wrong partner can be an absolute headache. That can be said too though for your internal center. If you're not providing a level of service that can be second to none, that can be held up to the expectation of your customers, then look at some of these awesome BPOs. There's a lot of really, really cool, not super expensive call centers that are out there even on the nearshore or onshore model that can really help your customer experience, turn your call center into a profit center and really improve the customer experience. So again, that's my kind of take on 10 things that you need to look at. So just to recap, looking at the proper size, the track record of management, how are they going to support you from a client services standpoint, making sure that you have a good associate match from a demographic standpoint, their technology should be second to none and should be advanced what you're doing in your internal call center.

21:17This is a big piece of this from the offshore and hybrid model to take a peek at understanding the call center's culture, making sure that it's a good fit. How do they educate? How do they do QA? Scoping all that out. Is the call center going to be flexible with you when you go through your peaks, your up and downs, and then do they have a PCI compliant, are they SOC 2 compliant, are they HIPAA compliant? type of security measures they taking to protect you, to protect your data, and to protect your customers. Okay, so that's my 10 tips. If you have any questions on any of this, please shoot me an email, tlayeredatexpevia.net or go on Twitter. You can DM me. I'm also on our Advice from a Call Center Geek Facebook page. Love to, again, hear from some of you. So that's episode 11.

22:12I hope that that's helpful. Please again, if you get a chance and if you find some value, post a review, again, review bagging. And then again, as I always say, just as a cheap plug, there's a book. It's called Advice from a Call Center Geek book. It's on Amazon. Just kind of Google Advice from a Call Center Geek in about 98 pages. It's super quick to read, but it really discusses a lot of things that we talk about in the geek in kind of a book format. [pricing remark omitted] So again, thank you guys very much, and I'll talk to you next week. This has been advice from a call center geek. Thanks for listening. Subscribe to the show so you're the first to hear next week's episode jam packed with actionable takeaways. You can implement ASAP. Chime in with your thoughts on the episode on Twitter at from underscore geek and on Instagram at call underscore center underscore geek. Also take a look at our contact center operations book, but the same name advice from a call center geek on Amazon. This This podcast is sponsored by Expivia.

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