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Tag: call center business

Call Center BPO: Everything You Need to Know in 2024

Posted on by Nadine Sampson

Source: DepositPhotos.com - Lic#11310033 ID#27446420

Wondering if outsourcing your communication processes to a BPO is the way to go? Learn how a BPO in a call center works and what the advantages of using a BPO for your business communication needs may entail.

What is BPO (Business Process Outsourcing)?

Businesses often choose to outsource communication-related services to a BPO in a call center. In other words, these businesses hire a third-party organization to handle business processes like customer service, sales, marketing, and so on.

BPOs are call centers that take on a company’s business processes so as to ease the various burdens they may face. Companies have used such services for years as a way to reduce communication-related and hiring costs.

What Services Does a BPO Call Center Offer?

A call center BPO offers a variety of communication-related services including:

1. Lead generation and sales calls: Agents make calls based on lists of predetermined prospects and leads. They track leads, qualify them as valid leads, make sales pitches, and follow-up with interested customers. The goal is to increase sales for their business clients.

2. Market research-related services: This includes agents trained in marketing services who interact with potential customers and target demographics to understand the customer base better. The goal is to identify customer needs, expectations, and preferences so that the business client can serve these customers better.

3. Customer success and interaction services: Customer success focuses on proactively taking care of existing customers, welcoming new customers, making follow-up appointments, collecting feedback, checking in on customers, and more.

4. Customer service and technical support: Customer service reps answer calls and offer assistance regarding products and services, as well as IT, technical, and troubleshooting help to customers.

Benefits of Using a BPO in a Call Center

From small businesses to large corporations, all types of businesses can take advantage of BPOs and call center outsourcing services to boost their customer support and sales endeavors. Here are some reasons to consider outsourcing:

1. Cost-savings:
By utilizing a BPO in a call center, you can reduce costs that would otherwise be spent on running in-house customer service and sales teams. Additionally, you do not have to spend additional capital on call center software and equipment, and its maintenance.

2. More advanced call management tools:
Contact centers are equipped with all the right tools and advanced technology to handle large call volumes effectively. Common features include:

    • International call forwarding
    • Call routing strategies: time-based, location-based, skill-based, and more
    • Call recording: inbound and outbound
    • Advanced IVR
    • Outbound calling with customizable caller ID capabilities
    • Call center reports and analytics
    • And more

These services boast better call management to ensure calls don’t go unanswered and callers are served efficiently.

3. Low staffing requirements:
Since your BPO takes care of hiring and training reps, your business does not have to worry about training agents and evaluating performance on a regular basis. This can further save you money and time, which can then be spent on marketing services and product development.

4. Offer reliable, accessible, and around the clock customer support:
Some call centers tend to have multiple geographic centers and cater to international business needs. Because of this, your business can provide around the clock sales and customer support to your customer base in different regions and time zones. This way, your business is always reachable, increasing customer satisfaction.

Is Call Center Outsourcing the Right Option for You?

Deciding whether you need to outsource your communication needs depends on the size of your business and pocket. Consider what your business needs to improve sales and customer service. Can your budget handle in-house call center software? To learn more about cloud call center software, speak with our experts at 1 (877) 898 8646 today!

How To Boost Your Own Virtual Call Center

Posted on by Meryl D'Sa-Wilson

Starting your own cloud or virtual call center is an easy task to accomplish with the right tools and essentials. Here we will look at the different aspects to consider to ensure you do the best for your call center.

Virtual Call Center: What You Need

The key to running a successful virtual call center — or any business for that matter — is having a strong business plan and a clear idea of what the end goal is. Therefore, be in constant communication with your team so that everyone is on the same page. Provide refresher training materials to maintain the desired standard. As the center’s manager, you must provide agents with the resources they need to make sales and create strong connections.

Establish Virtual Communications Channels

To function as a virtual call center, you need cloud-based communication solutions from a phone service provider such as United World Telecom. Start by getting a toll free, local, or international virtual business number. Calls made to this number will be routed over the internet. This makes it inexpensive for you and your customers to be in touch. This is important when establishing communication channels between your business and its contacts.

Part of being a reputable organization is making it accessible and reachable. If interested prospects have to jump through hoops or wait long periods to hear from you, then they will most likely take their business elsewhere. So, have an easy-to-remember business number, active social media accounts, click-to-call ads and widgets like our CallMe Click feature. All of this is to ensure that customers can connect with you quickly.

Get the Necessary Equipment and Software

Now for the equipment needed. Considering you are running a cloud call center, most of your employees and agents will be remote workers. Therefore, you need software and technology that can support remote working.

Content and project management systems that work online can be very helpful in tracking data, calls, tasks, projects, to-do lists, and more. Additionally, you may want to make use of a customer relationship management (CRM) system to track customer data and call information.

Furthermore, you may even want to consider investing in outbound calling and call recording software. Outbound calling lets you customize your caller ID by displaying a specific number from your list of purchased numbers. For example, consider that you want to call a client in Saudi Arabia. You can use United World Telecom’s outbound calling service and have the outgoing caller ID display a local Saudi Arabia number, instead of your actual number.

With United World Telecom’s call recording software, you can record and store calls for up to 6 years. Use these recordings to train new employees, find strengths and weaknesses, as evidence against liabilities, and more. Additionally, check out our article about how to successfully run your virtual call center with outbound calling and call recording to learn more.

Train and Take Care of Your Employees

Now, the most important aspect of running a cloud call center is ensuring that your employees, reps, and agents are doing their jobs right. Offer training, webinars, seminars, web-based workshops, incentive programs, and more to encourage them to do their best. You also need to ensure that they have a good understanding of the different programs and software being used.

You can include call recordings in performance analyses to highlight what agents are doing correctly and what areas need improvement. Be in constant contact with them and be prepared to resolve upcoming issues and concerns.

Advertise and Promote Your Virtual Call Center

Running a virtual call center may seem like a daunting task. But if done correctly with the right employees and right tools, you can get the most out of it and enjoy doing it at the same time. For more information, contact us at 1 (877) 898 8646 or talk to an expert today.

Tips for Running a Successful Virtual Call Center

Posted on by Meryl D'Sa-Wilson

Source: DepositPhotos.com - Lic#11796646 ID#27446420

Thinking of opening a cloud or virtual call center? Well, you are in luck. It is now easier than ever to start and run a full online call center, thanks to advancements in telecom technology. You will business phone service with features and tools that assist your communications. Outbound calling and call recording software are two must-haves for a cloud call center to be successful.

Running a Virtual Call Center

As a virtual call center, you will be working with inbound and outbound calling for different businesses. That means you will engage in making and receiving customer calls. These calls revolve around technical and product support, sales and lead generation, and more. To run a successful call center, you must adopt important virtual communication tools. Let’s look at how outbound calling and call recording, specifically, can boost business dealings.

Benefits of Cloud Call Centers

With a virtual call center, your business can go beyond its immediate location and restrictions and enter global spaces. And, your teams become more equipped to manage calls, assist customers, and maintain productivity even when working virtually or remotely. Here are the top reasons to run a cloud call center:

  • Mobile and flexible
  • Scalable and reliable
  • Low infrastructure and maintenance costs
  • One unified platform to connect distributed teams
  • Options for multichannel communication
  • High cloud communication security
  • Global reach and coverage
  • Call analytics and metrics tracking.

Top Virtual Call Center Features

Two of the main cloud call center features include outbound calling and hosted call recording. These features have been growing in popularity recently with more and more call centers switching over to the cloud.

Benefits of Outbound Calling

Outbound calling refers to calls made by a company to its customers. This can be done in-house through a virtual outbound calling service or by outsourcing to a call center. Outbound calls occur for sales and telemarketing, feedback or verification purposes, or to update contact lists and customer data.

You can get outbound calling for your business by signing up online. Purchase virtual numbers from United World Telecom and customize your caller ID to display one of these numbers. For example, you can have local and international numbers for different cities and states. Then, when you call a specific location, you can use a local number instead of a toll free or international number that customers are not familiar with. Unknown numbers are often ignored. Individuals are much more likely to answer the call of a local number. Outbound Calling, therefore, enables you to make long-distance and international calls with that location’s caller ID.

With outbound calling, you can follow up on customers, send them appointment and payment reminders, update customer data, collect feedback, raise funds, and more. This service gives you yet another means of staying in touch with clients and strengthening relations. Here are some tips to improve your outbound calling strategy.

Call Recording for Quality Assurance

It’s simple: you cannot operate an efficient call center without good agents. One way to monitor and train your reps is by recording calls and reviewing them. This is a good way to maintain quality assurance and call center standards. It also enables record-keeping which can protect your virtual call center from business and personal liabilities and misunderstandings. More and more corporations are adopting call recording software to keep records of their customer and contact list.

A call recording service from United World Telecom lets you record up to 100% of your calls and store them as MP3 files for up to 6 years. Additionally, you can add Call Recording to Outbound Calling to record outgoing calls as well. You can add this feature to your cart when shopping for virtual numbers.

This service can also be used to maintain compliance, depending on what sector the business you are representing comes under. For example, the financial services industry functions under the Dodd-Frank, MiFID II, and GDPR regulations and finance companies must keep up with their laws. While using call recording software, make sure you are aware of local and state regulations. Some countries do not allow recording unless one or both parties consent verbally or in their contract agreements. And so, it is important to keep these regulations in mind when choosing to record business calls.

Get Outbound Calling and Call Recording with United World Telecom

Boost your communications and sales by adding Outbound Calling and Hosted Call Recording to your office phone system. Contact us to find out how you can use these services or sign up for a virtual number and start building your virtual call center today!

How To Create a Call Center Business Plan

Posted on by Becki Meerbeek

Source: Stockphoto.com O# 100221373798 - ID#100067081677

Starting your own business can be an exciting but frightening endeavor. You know that you want to be your own boss, manage your schedule, and may even want to work from home. But you may feel challenged in choosing a successful way to write a business plan that allows for all this. Creating your own call center gives you the business opportunity to make money from any setting, whether home or office. And allows you to create your own schedule to manage your income how you see fit using various call center solutions. So, how does one get started on writing a business plan to open a call center? Additionally, what does one need to ensure success right off the bat?

Determining What Your Call Center will Do

Call centers are used by many industries for a number of things. Call centers can help to increase sales production, offer customer service, set appointments, provide debt collection, and more. Call center agents can pick up inbound calls or may make hundreds of cold calls a day. To best determine how to go about starting your new call center business, you’ll first need to decide what your center will do by determining what you’ll offer.

Considering the Number of Employees You’ll Need

Before opening a call center of your own, you’ll need to determine the number of agents needed to manage the business successfully. There are centers of all sizes, but you don’t want to begin with too many agents, as you’ll quickly drown in overhead. On the other hand, you don’t want to hire less agents than you need, as you’ll struggle to accommodate all of your client needs. Think about your customer needs, how many consumers you plan to help on a daily basis, and how long it takes to help one customer on average to best determine how many agents you may need.

Furthermore, consider employment numbers in the future. So, if you plan for your call center to grow substantially, make accommodations for this before the hiring process begins. You don’t want new employees getting to your workspace to find they don’t have desks or phone lines. So, if it’s in your business plan to add agents down the line, make sure that’s something you can afford and are prepared for.

Business plan for call centers
Source: Stockphoto.com O#100174295798 – ID#100067081677

Choosing an Office Space or Home

Whether or not you’ll be hiring agents who work from home or accommodating them with a business space is important when determining a call center business plan. For example, if most of your agents have offshore contracts, you may not need the office space you initially planned for. Choose your office space based on the number of employees you know you’ll need to work in-house. On the other hand, if you know you want to provide your employees with a place to work, make sure you consider the location. Opening an office near the company brand can help to promote brand fluidity and trust in employees. Furthermore, it’s obviously helpful to choose an office space that’s near more employees. A shorter commute makes things easier for all.

Determining Call Center Solutions

Call companies have their own needs as they provide specific services. So, one of the final things you’ll need to consider when determining your business plan is your solutions. Choose solutions which can best help provide for your consumers. For example, if you’re opening a call center business that provides customer service support for a third party, you might want to implement call recording. This allows you to record all company calls to determine if your customer service strategies are working. Another example is if your company is an outbound cold calling center, you may want to purchase virtual toll numbers. This allows consumers to answer calls for free and forward them to any type of line!

Closing: Help with Starting Your Call Center Business

United World Telecom offers a number of call center solutions which can help to take your business plan to the next level. If you want your new business to succeed, you can help prepare yourself for success with our top-rated phone features and virtual phone number solutions. To learn more about how we can equip your new call center business with the solutions you need, contact us today.