In today’s hyper-competitive market, effective communication with customers plays a very crucial role for many businesses. However, with multiple conflicting tasks to juggle each day, it can be hard to find the time for you and your staff to answer the phones.

Achieving the perfect balance between productivity and Customer Service can be challenging but fortunately, there is a solution. When businesses are playing catch-up with their Technical Support and Customer Service, or simply just need to augment its number of leads, many turn to call centre outsourcing services.

However, in the rush to outsource their customer service support, many larger companies and small start-ups are getting on the outsourcing bandwagon without a clear idea of what makes a top notch call centre partner. This can result in lost opportunities to effectively maximise the power of call centre outsourcing.

So, how do you know which call centre is a good fit for your business? To help you out, we have listed in this post some criteria that apply to a high-quality call centre.

Systems

The first quality of a good call centre provider that you can easily check is their systems. It is very important to make sure that your chosen call centre partner have updated equipment and technology infrastructure in order to get the job done on time and with a high level of quality. It is also essential to choose a provider that has a good IT team who are always there to assist agents in case of equipment malfunctions.

Management Style

When choosing a call centre outsourcing company, you need to make sure you get along with their management team and they are capable of managing a team of agents to maximise productivity and performance. A high-quality call centre has a management team who are not hesitant to engage in issues about customers and makes sure that the success of your business is their top priority.

The key people who will communicate your business goals to your outsourced call centre agents will be able to do so effectively and keep in touch with you to update you regularly to ensure success. They are also flexible enough to respond to changes in your requirements, as well as communicate with you and your agents if any issues arise and need to be addressed immediately.

One of the signs of a top-notch management team is they have a structured process for communication and follow-ups, as well as well-defined metrics for measuring success. If they have these things in place then it’s a sure sign that your chosen outsourcing company is great.

Agents

It doesn’t matter how good the management team is or how sophisticated their technologies are, if the person sitting on the chair receiving a call from a potential customer is not a high performer, the campaign will not be a success. Even if you have a well-written script, it will not make any difference if the agents themselves lack the right knowledge – or worse, are unprofessional and disrespectful to customers.

Before you sign a contract with a call centre, make sure you see their portfolio or references, or at least talk to the agents casually to hear how they speak on the phone. Doing so will give you peace of mind, knowing that your customers are being treated well by professional agents.

Training

Another quality you need to look for in a call centre is the quality of training that their agents are required to go through. There are some call centres that encourage clients to be involved in the training, while others utilise the expertise of consultants and call centre experts to hone the skills of their agents. The former however gives you a great opportunity to educate the agents on the ins and outs of your industry and your customer base. Additionally, it’s a great opportunity to create buy-in and accountability between you and the agents now that they have had face-time with a company executive (even if it may be via Skype!). With the Global Outsourcing model you have the flexibility to be as involved or removed as you like in this process.

Experience

Another quality that makes a good call centre is extensive experience in your industry. A call centre who has mostly handled customer service-related calls is not essentially going to be good at scheduling medical appointments and handling patient intake. Similarly, a call centre who takes calls for a law firm may require a different skill set than a call centre that handles product purchases. You need to do some research about the outsourcing company’s experience in the industry. You can also ask for references within your industry to see how well they have been able to handle these types of calls for your peers.

Local Support

Local support is essential when creating a long-term alliance with the outsourcing provider. Many Australian business owners are hesitant to send part of their business to other countries such as the Philippines despite its close proximity to Australia. Global Outsourcing has developed a model to address this issue by providing these businesses with an Australian-based team that not only provides immediate support but also ensures that calls are handled efficiently and handled with care.

Having a local support team ensures that all your urgent needs will be attended to and communicated to your agents immediately, thus resulting in faster turnaround times and minimised time-lag between requirement analysis, idea creation, development, and execution. This way, the quality of calls is ensured and your customers will be very satisfied with your service.

In summary, a high-quality call centre partner will be able to deliver top-notch infrastructure, management, and agents paired up with superior experience and local support. As a business owner, these qualities are the ingredients that will guarantee the success of your call centre outsourcing project, thus selecting the right partner that possesses these qualities is critically important.

If you’re looking for a high-quality call centre solution, your search ends here. Global Outsourcing ticks all of these boxes and has all the people, systems and processes to guarantee success. Request a consultation today by calling 02 8916 6469 or contact us online.