Call Center Outsourcing Pricing Around the World

00:00Hi guys, Tom Laird here. You've heard me break down contact center technology on the podcast time and time advice from a call center geek, a weekly. a podcast with a focus on all things call center. center. Call center operations, hiring culture, technology and education. We're here to give you actionable items to improve the quality of yours and your customer's experience. This is an evolving industry with creative minds and ambitious people like this guy. Not only is his passion call center operators, he's our host. He's the CEO of Expivia Interaction Marketing Group and the call center geek himself. Tom Laird. Welcome back, everybody, to advice from a call center geek. My name is Tom Laird. I'm the CEO of Expivia Interaction Marketing Group. Expivia is an outsourced call center located here in the Northwestern I want to thank you all for listening. We have now hit over 4,000 downloads on the podcast, which blows my mind compared to when And I started this a couple months, months ago on a Christmas going to try to into our second year.

02:32I was told, because I have a little bit of cold to stop sniffling into the microphone so if I do that I apologize I try not to and try to edit out any of that if I the I guess I slipped a couple times last episode. Because, but also I was told because we do have a following that instead of at the end I need to do some things from a public service announcement at the beginning so I'm going to do that so So I or any of the topics that we discuss here. [pricing remark omitted]

[Gap 03:46–04:10: no reliable transcription]

04:10Okay so today's topic we wanted to discuss and and take a little trip around the world. I am a call center outsourcing owner and CEO. Another topic that everybody asks a lot is how much do things cost all over the rworld? How much does it cost for someone to outsource to the Philippines or to India India or to a near shore location, how much does it cost in the United States or Canada? So what I want to do today is hopefully kind of educate a lot of you b who may be looking to outsource or just kind of wonder what does it really the cost that a call center, and that's a call center's bill. So on the inbound side, there's really, You know, one that maybe it's not as difficult, there's not as much training, it can keeps prices down a I a little bit because I.

05:42You know, minutes for this range from- you're That's one of the reasons that most of our programs are anywhere from a four to eight week train. It's very difficult. I the dedicated agents. You're not going to find that anywhere near shore here in the States but that's another option that is that's why I say kind of two and a half different options. And that's really for on the inbound side that's kind of what you, you'll see so obviously shared a dedicated and then kind of a monthly fee. The other kind of thing that you know customers are still looking for is they're still you know customers that are looking for outbound call centers right and basically those just summed up into outbound hourly rates right so where you're just paying for a per hour rate more prior rates when we talk about some some pricing around the around the world and then the other the other pricing structure on the outbound side is on the pay for performance or strictly commission based which you know they're all call centers that will take that I'd be very careful of some of those centers but basically they'll take just a premium on what they sell and then obviously Obviously you have a hourly plus commission-based call center, so they're going to basically recoup their expenses, so agent costs, maybe some telephony costs, and then anything on top of that they're going to ask for a commission.

08:09So some of those inbound and outbound centers play in that world as well. But let's talk about the overall. [pricing remark omitted] So that's kind of where you're looking. Now that's just the average, right? [pricing remark omitted]

09:28[pricing remark omitted] Now granted, understand that that's an all-in cost, right? So that's not just paying for the agent, that's paying for everything. So from the agent to telephony charges, to your supervisor, to all the QA, to client service support, to reporting, to IT. So everything is rolled into kind of one cost. [pricing remark omitted] It doesn't make sense, there's a ton of cost savings that you can get from that. But I would tell you, don't just look at the cost savings, Rook at the value added.

10:21Nobody wants just kind of a butt in a seat anymore. You know, you wanna get the speech analytics, the really cool stuff that, that the outsourcers who just, this is their only job can provide you. So that's one of the things, don't get freaked out at that 26 to 28, and the value that that includes, that's kind of a little bit of a, I guess a cheap plug again, or a little bit of a biased speech for the outsourcers. All right, so let's move to kind of near shore. So we're talking, you know, Mexicoagascar is a little different, I I'm a little,, We're a little different, but we're talking,, Mexico, a little different, of call centers, and you're looking. these agents of, a lot of people, these agents of Mexico are going to understand that. They understand the American culture where if you go a little bit farther south, to more the Latin American countries, you can lose some of that.

11:39Now, not all everybody's, you said there's some really good call centers out there that you know, kind of understand that that's kind of why there's a little bit of a higher price and a higher premium for the Mexican agent, you know, compared to somebody, you know, a little bit farther south. Alright, so let's go now leaving the United States leaving North America, leaving the near-shore call centers. Let's get on our plane and fly over to Western Europe. Normally, Western Europe is pretty expensive. There's a lot of high tax countries over there, so there's a lot of higher regulated minimum wages over there. [pricing remark omitted] when you look Now, if you move to Eastern Europe

[Gap 13:01–13:26: no reliable transcription]

13:26and so it's a pretty cool The savings aren't as much as they used to be, but they're still significant. Same thing with India. But the Philippines, you're anywhere from 18, I'm sorry, 18, eight, you know, for a low-end call center in the Philippines to, you know, in that 13, 12 to, let's say 12 to 14, so 13 dollar range, you know, that's about where you are in the Philippines. Understand that it is cheaper, but understand that you need to make sure if that's where you're going, What can your customer base take from a foreign call center if you are in a United States company and a US company, right? Because there are really good call centers in the Philippines that have very well-spoken and English associates and there's some that are more in the countryside, that kind of have left that city metropolitan area. [pricing remark omitted]

14:51You have to see what your customer base is willing to deal with as well when it comes to language. The other thing with language is India and Pakistan, right? they're about the same. [pricing remark omitted] But again, it's the same thing, just like the Philippines, understanding what your customer base can do. Now these are very highly skilled agents, right? But the language barrier can still be, can still be something to get through. The other thing that I have seen in talking to people as well, they're very black and white agents, right? And when I say that is, they're gonna follow a script, they're gonna follow it to a T, but for them, it's very difficult to sometimes be a little bit quote unquote creative with any type of customer service issue to understand how to really go to that next step of engagement.

15:51And that's just a cultural thing. And that's also something that we've really trained into these associates to kind of keep them, I guess, into right where we want them to be. So there's some pluses and minuses to that. [pricing remark omitted] Then you're getting into the United States where the average is anywhere from 26 to 28. We can then look at Eastern Europe, Thank you. [pricing remark omitted] The question that you just have to ask yourself again, and I've said this a couple times in.

16:52You know, what can your customer base handle, right? What type of questions and what type of service are you gonna be able to offer there? We have seen a lot of customers that have decided to, instead of putting 300 seats in the Philippines, that they're gonna, gonna put a hundred seats and try to really utilize one, a mixture of then of United States agents and then self-service to try to kind of level off cost and also try to hit sweet spots and what customers are really looking for now. So that's kind of my, I guess a little bit of a trip around the world. Again, a get a lot of questions asked about how much it costs to go here, how much does it cost to go there. Hopefully this can be a little bit of a sounding board for youing or something that you could pass on to people to kind of give them a rough idea of how much they'd be looking when you're looking to budget some things for your first outsourcing.

17:41And hopefully that helps a little bit with some little bit of hardcore numbers. So again, thank you guys, you guys that's that's what I got for this week I'm gonna try to get over this cold hopefully next week I can sound a little bit clear I think I have done a really good job of not sniffling into the into the microphone but again if any of you can please like our Facebook post a post a review on on either Spotify iTunes or whatever whatever outlet you guys are listening to the podcast on keep please passing this around too I mean this thing's really you know like I said we're over 4,000 downloads super excited for that and you know we're a have some more information on I would like to give that book out when we talk about call starting games I'd like to give it for free so especially for the first 30 days that's kind of what we we did with the initial book so there'll be some some more information on that as well but alright guys that's what I got for you this week thank you I hope you found that useful and I will 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.

18:53First 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, 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 advice from a call center geek on Amazon. This podcast is sponsored by ExpiviaUSA.com.