Pilot Project Archives - Nexus Teleservices

In-House vs Outsourced Call Center In New Economy

NEXUS TELESERVICES — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 12:00:31 +0000

In-House vs Outsourced Call Center - In New Economy Everything Has Changed

The conversation of an in-house vs outsourced call center has changed dramatically in the new economy of 2020. While businesses have always needed to be flexible and nimble to adapt to external changes, few were prepared for an implosion of the “normal” economy.

Despite risk management plans, recent events have challenged the survival of businesses due to a spectrum of risks. Chiefly these have been economic, regulatory compliance, financial, operational, and competitor risks. Accordingly, for many businesses, the most obvious adjustment has been the transition to remote work from home employees.

So, with this recent business transition to remote work from home, let’s discuss more about an in-house vs outsourced call center strategy, before reaching a decision as to what is best for your company.

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In-House vs Outsourced Call Center Overview

A company decision between an in-house vs outsourced call center is driven by its need to improve performance. For instance, this might be company growth, revenue, service quality, competitiveness, profitability and other factors.

Call center outsourcing is a decision by a company to subcontract its call center management function to an external third-party vendor who does it for a living. Generally, a company reaches this decision if the call center management function is NOT perceived to be their core business value or it is something they are very uncomfortable with doing.

Now let’s discuss why an outsourced call center offers a company significant advantages in the new economy.

1 – Saves Time

A company’s decision between an in-house vs outsourced call center starts with the latter’s saving time for its management. In simple terms, proper time management is crucial to business success, whether it is the owner, a manager, or a member of the workgroup.

The underlying assumption is that the call center function is NOT a core focus of the company. So the company management is involved in managing the provider relationship and not the call center operational details. Consequently, company management saves time for more productive business activities.

Successful companies use call center outsourcing to maximizing their productive use of time. Specifically, their management prioritizes and focuses on what is important to the success of the company and delegate the rest.

2 – Reduces Costs

Between an in-house vs outsourced call center, the latter provides significant cost savings for a company’s call center functions. Consequently, with the global economy near-standstill, companies are under extraordinary competitive pressure to adapt and reduce costs to survive.

Your company can reduce costs related to facility space, infrastructure, call center technology, support, capital, and most significantly, labor. So this can produce significant savings since labor is the highest percentage of the call center function. For example:

Lower Personnel Recruiting | Rotation | Retraining
Reduce Salaries | Benefits | Taxes
Offset Labor Regulations | Health Risk Legal Liabilities
Reduce Human Resource Administration Burden
Lower Operational Management Burden

3 – Reduces Risk

The COVID-19 pandemic has created economic damage that is already the largest economic shock the world has experienced in decades. Accordingly, your company likely faces a multitude of risks in today’s uncertain business climate.

Economic Risk

While an economy naturally fluctuates with highs and lows, the US economy is currently imploding, with negative growth, high unemployment, and low consumer confidence. Consequently, your company needs to ensure healthy cash flow, by maintaining a tight budget with low overhead. Correspondingly, shifting from an in-house to an outsourced call center provides you a means to achieve this.

Compliance Risk

Your business faces an abundance of laws and regulations (Federal and State) to comply with. For example, consumer data protection, employee occupational safety, health, and others. In particular, COVID-19 guidance and regulations, seem to shift like the wind. Between an in-house vs outsourced call center, the latter is more experienced and current with regulations that affect the call center industry.

Security And Fraud Risks

If your company uses online services, it is at risk of data breaches, identity theft, and payment fraud. While a traditional in-house vs outsourced call center addresses these risks differently, transitioning company in-house to work-at-home personnel changes the paradigm. Unless your company has the technologies to monitor and ensure remote personnel compliance, it will prove to be a technical nightmare. Basically, using an outsourced call center is likely a better solution.

Operational Risks

Whether internally, externally or usually a combination, your company will likely experience a loss of business continuity. Since a call center function is inherently complex, this can be related to a national disaster, servers, networks, power outages, people mistakes, etc. Whether it’s a people or process failure, these adversely impact your company in terms of money, time, and reputation. Accordingly, when comparing an in-house vs outsourced call center, the latter is more knowledgeable and experienced in keeping your company’s business running.

4 – Simplifies Scaling Up Or Down

Using an outsourced call center allows your company to adapt to the changes in your economic environment and phase of business evolution. Moreover, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have created significant uncertainty for all economic players. In short, your company is challenged by the planning, funding, systems, staffing, processes and technology to adapt to this changing environment. For example, using an outsourced call center allows you to:

Adjust Support Staffing Due To Seasonality (COVID-19) Highs/Lows
Flexibility For Staffing Business Expansion And Contraction
Expand Service Coverage (Markets, Languages, Multiple Time Zones)
Launch New Products, Services And Promotions
Supplement Staffing With Specialized Skill Sets For Changing Circumstances

5 – Increases Flexibility

A company that is flexible responds to change by evolving. Consequently, the most flexible companies do not fight change. But rather, they accept and adapt as a normal aspect of the changing business environment. Accordingly, using an outsourced call center allows your company to:

Increases adaptability to changes in technology and customer expectations by leveraging the skill sets and infrastructure of an outsourced call center.
Improves company employee retention by focusing on core company needs.
Strengthens the company talent pool by diversifying staffing via the company and outsourced call center.
Spreads the call center function role across multiple locations (domestic and offshore) allowing continuity.
Adjusts staffing, resources, and cost structure as business demand changes.

6 – Improves Efficiency

The decision between an in-house vs outsourced call center may reflect the economic pressure to improve the efficiency of your company. Basically, efficiency measures how well your company converts inputs like capital, labor, and materials into outputs like revenue, products, and services.

There are three main areas of your company’s efficiency that greatly benefit from using an outsourced call center: financial, labor, and operations. So, let’s discuss each in greater detail.

Financial Efficiency

Financial efficiency measures your company’s expenses as a percentage of revenue. Consequently using an outsourced call center saves time, reduces labor costs, simplifies company scaling, and increases flexibility. So, this reduces your company’s expenses and increases its revenue.

Labor Efficiency

Labor efficiency is the measure of employee output in an hour of work. As shown above, redistributing labor activities based on priority, value, skillset, and cost improves the total level of workgroup output. Also, adapting an outsourced call center’s technology improves your company work staff allowing for increased productivity and flexibility.

Operations Efficiency

Operations efficiency is related to your core company’s processes such as manufacturing and service delivery. Because this is where the majority of business costs occur. Basically using an outsourced call center saves time, lowers labor costs, and strengthens adaptability. As a result, the whole area of your company’s operations is streamlined over time.

In-House vs Outsourced Call Center Conclusion

For companies in the new economy of 2020, the decision process of an in-house vs outsourced call center has changed dramatically. In reality, the benefits of using an outsourced call center are compelling to long term business survival.

Your company is constantly being challenged to improve its performance by its employees, customers, competitors, and investors. Accordingly, we have presented outsourced call center benefits that can help your company navigate the “new normal economy” and the uncertainty that lies in the future. Finally, your decision to migrate from an in-house to an outsourced call center can be done in distinct stages, while reducing risk and gaining valuable experience.

Please call us at (888) 339-6699 to discuss how our call center outsourcing services will serve your business needs or Contact Us.

The post In-House vs Outsourced Call Center In New Economy appeared first on Nexus Teleservices.

B2B Lead Generation Pilot Project – Call Center Outsourcing

NEXUS TELESERVICES — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 14:31:45 +0000

B2B Lead Generation Pilot Project - Balance Outsourcing Risks And Rewards

For many companies new to the experience, outsourcing a B2B lead generation, appointment setting or customer win-back program requires a test of faith. Basically, this uncertainty is understandable given the investment of time, money, resources, and associated business risks. Consequently, the best way to address these issues is by starting with a modest B2B lead generation pilot project with your call center outsourcing provider.

A B2B lead generation pilot project offers more than a chance to test a new call center provider. Rather it can also test new methods, platforms, or even potential audiences. Accordingly, this makes them useful to a company’s marketing and sales teams at nearly any point in their business development.

So, let’s discuss more about what it is, where it fits in, the benefits and related factors you should consider before moving forward with a B2B lead generation pilot project for your company.

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B2B Lead Generation Pilot Project Overview

Business-to-Business (B2B) lead generation is part of the marketing and sales development process of most companies. That is to say it is in charge of the front-end of the sales cycle: identifying, connecting with, and qualifying leads. Generally this involves cold calling prospects and following up with top-of-funnel leads to schedule sales appointments via the telephone or face-to face.

B2B lead generation is crucial for a company since pre-qualified sales leads are a key element of its success. Because the sales cycle begins by finding suspects that becoming prospects, which then become qualified sales leads. Then, the company sales personnel attempt to convert pre-qualified sales leads into customers.

Once you considered the above, here are tips that can help you structure a B2B lead generation pilot project that results in long-term success.

A B2B Lead Generation Pilot Project Starts Your Outsourcing

Your decision to use B2B lead generation outsourcing should be based on clear objectives of your marketing and sales strategy. Consequently, your pilot project process and obtained results need to be aligned with these objectives. For example, reasons to consider outsourcing are reduced costs, improved quality, increasing scalability, investigating different methods or technologies.

Whatever your pilot project objectives might be,t it’s important that the right people in your company understand how outsourcing can attain it. Because without support from higher-ups, even a promising pilot project may not be approved for future expansion. Specifically, be sure that the pilot project is endorsed by someone in a position to make changes to the marketing and sales processes based on the results of the pilot project.

Balancing Act

Making the most of a pilot project requires investing by both your company and the call center outsourcing provider. Because a good B2B lead generation pilot project is really a balancing act. Specifically, it should be small enough to minimize your company’s risks yet large enough to be an accurate test of the call center’s capabilities. Finally, the evaluation metrics used at the end of the pilot project need to clearly determine whether your company should shift and move forward or reconsider.

B2B Lead Generation Pilot Project Tips

As mentioned, a B2B lead generation pilot project can be used to test the benefits of outsourcing portions of your company’s marketing and sales functions. Accordingly, based on WHY you choose to outsource will determine which benefits are most relevant and important in evaluating the pilot project.

So here are tips related to a B2B lead generation pilot project using the analogy of an airplane flight.

Before Taking Off

1 – Define Goals And Expectations

A pilot project needs to be clear about what it is testing for and how it will be evaluated. Basically, this ensures that both your company and the call center outsourcing provider understand the desired goals and how to best approach the project. Furthermore, the goals should be aligned with solving a major company business challenge.

Consider the following company marketing and sales goals:

Outsourcing For Cost Advantage
Need To Improve Quality
Testing A New Process (In-house Versus Outsourcing)
Evaluating A New Market
Outsourcing For Scalability

2 – Clarify And Then Clarify Again

Once you have agreed upon the goal(s), ask all the questions and clear up ambiguity with the call center outsourcing provider. Correspondingly the outsourcing provider will have MANY questions about your company based on their prior experience with other clients.

Topics that will require clarification might include:

Have Other Methods Been Considered?
Is There Room For Experimentation?
What Are The Outsourcer’s Key Issues To Success?
Which Key Metrics Will Determine Success?
When Is The End Date For The Pilot Project?

3 – Visualize The Journey

While your final destination is to have a successful B2B lead generation pilot project, do not neglect how it will be like working with your company. When preparing for your pilot project make sure that the journey is carefully thought out (i.e., your flight plan).

In brief, this is where your company gets to build a relationship with your outsourcing provider. Earning their trust is crucial if you decide to move forward with the pilot project. So, take off preparation helps a smooth flight and is as important as landing smoothly.

Your flight plan might take into consideration:

Focus On Where Lead Generation Economics Are Most Forgiving – Lead generation needs to consider the average size of the deal and the probability of purchase. Consequently, a pilot project combining a high potential average order size with a high probability of purchase gives the most room for mistakes and course correction.
Keep It Simple – Lead generation is complex so don’t attempt to optimize everything. Instead, handle things in stages and look to narrow the scope.
Make It Long Enough To Allow For Course Corrections – Pilot projects are trials in streamlining, so allow for adjustments, proper sampling, and gathering sufficient results.
It Should Be Based On What You And Your Outsourcing Provider Can Control – You can only control the quality of sales leads, not what the sales personnel does with those leads.

Once Airborne And Cruising

1 – Communicate

You and your call center outsourcing provider may be in the same state, country or different continents. Regardless of distance and timezone shift, a B2B lead generation pilot project requires working “in synch” with discipline and openness of communication. Both parties are responsible for this process and its success.

The technology exists to essentially have immediate, direct access between parties via Internet applications such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, WhatsApp, and Skype. Basically, there is no excuse to not reach out with a quick message, question, or email when there is the need to communicate.

As part of the onboarding process, you and your outsourcing provider should have established the communication channels, responsibilities, and contact points. Nevertheless, avoid the potential bottleneck of just one contact point. Instead have a backup, since time rarely is an ally of a pilot project. While sharing information can be easy, don’t forget that it is harder to do concisely and effectively, particularly if there are differences in cultures.

2 – Be Transparent And Honest

Your company and the call center outsourcing provider should be aware of its strengths and weaknesses. Accordingly, open discussions between both parties about what skills may be available or otherwise lacking offers potential positive returns in a pilot project. When both parties are given the time to learn the technical skills lacking, it will pay off long term. Specifically, after the pilot project, both parties, acting as a team, will be ready to scale production.

This also means admitting when it turns out that the pilot project is NOT a good fit between the parties. Whenever this occurs, it may not necessarily a sign of weakness, but of awareness of the differences. Also, better to part ways now, rather than when you scale up production and the risk of failure is higher.

3- Need To Invest More

A B2B lead generation pilot project consists of learning and adjustments between your company and the outsourcing provider. Accordingly, a frank discussion is needed between parties when there are changes in the goals of the pilot project.

When these changes reflect the real-world experience of the pilot project, normally the outsourcing provider needs to adjust assigned resources. Consequently, the outsourcing provider needs to invest additional staffing and production hours or slip the pilot project schedule. Alternatively, the outsourcing provider is forced to consider reducing quality or profitability, likely resulting in losing the outsourcing relationship.

4 – Plan To Upscale Production

Your B2B appointment setting pilot project should plan for success, which implies upscaling production. While the pilot project has a modest scale for risk management, it needs to provide the framework for natural growth. Consequently the process, technology, quality, and communications need to reflect a transition to a larger scale.

During the pilot project is when bottlenecks, inefficiencies and problems need to be identified and resolved to allow scaling up. As a result both your company and the outsourcing provider will need to be flexible, patient and adaptable. Simply put, changes for the better are to be expected during the course of the pilot project.

Fasten Seatbelts For Landing

1 – Presentation Delivery

For all the effort invested in your company’s B2B lead generation pilot project, it requires a formal presentation. Basically, your audience will be those who sponsored it and those who will decide whether to expand it. Then to help your cause it will require supporting commentary by your company’s marketing and sales personnel. Finally, commentary from your outsourcing provider provides an external perspective for your company’s management.

2 – Post-Mortem

When the B2B lead generation pilot project is over and did not result as planned, it is valuable to do a post-mortem. Basically, it is now the opportunity to step back from “living the process” to learn from the experience.

A post-mortum will help you and your company management determine:

What Was Good And Should Be Continued.
Things That Need To Be Changed And Improved Upon.
What Was Bad, Should Be Stopped, Or Changed.

It is important to learn from the pilot project experience to ensure that your team grows moving forward.

B2B Lead Generation Pilot Project Conclusion

For many companies new to outsourcing marketing and sales functions, a B2B lead generation pilot project is a prudent business decision. Accordingly a pilot project helps determine how a business outsourcing relationship can evolve.

A B2B lead generation pilot project is more likely to be successful with clear objectives aligned with your business strategies. When it is effectively managed, with strong pre-planning, during execution, and after completion, it fosters productive long-term business relationships. Finally, the pilot project should result in a win-win relationship for both parties.

Please call us at (888) 339-6699 to discuss how our call center lead generation services will serve your business needs or Contact Us.

The post B2B Lead Generation Pilot Project – Call Center Outsourcing appeared first on Nexus Teleservices.