Ask,Why,Outsource,Normal,false business, insurance Ask Why Outsource?

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Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;mso-para-margin:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}Asking thequestion "Why Outsource?" would seem to be counter to generaleconomic movements and run against prevailing industry beliefs. Many companiesare outsourcing as standard procedure, following industry trends. Yet, thequestion needs to be asked. After all, call centers have been supporting theneeds of customers since the telephone was offered to the public, and cost hasalways been a factor in the history of call centers. Even from thebeginning, Alexander Graham Bell at the Boston Telephone Dispatch company hiredthe first female telephone operator, Emma Nutt, on September 1, 1878 for tworeasons: lower costs and higher customer satisfaction. Bell determinedthat women were better behaved than young men. Women had pleasant voices thatcustomers—most of whom were men—preferred. They could also be paid less andsupervised more strictly than their male counterparts. Since then, women haveobtained equal treatment and equal pay, but the ability to calmly handlecustomers with courtesy and patience has set standards that have lasted formore than 100 years. Businesses arestill challenged to find ways of minimizing costs and maximizing profits whileretaining their customer through service excellence.  So when making the decision to outsource,businesses are seeking outsourcers with abilities to deliver high customersatisfaction plus cross-sell/up-sell revenue instead of being just a low-costprovider. Many businessesalso realize they are not that good at running their own call centers and arelooking for an outsourcer with core capabilities in call center operations andcustomer service. The top outsourcers have tens of thousands of agents in callcenters around the world with the best technology available and the ability toleverage their scale and efficiency in ways your company cannot duplicate. Still, you needto know how to project the load for inbound and outbound calls, the life cycleof the product or services, and the level of service to be maintained. This mayvary between outsourcing inbound services and outbound services. For outboundcall centers, planning the workload is relatively easy. The number of agentswill be dependent on the number of calls to be dialed. In contrast, therate that inbound calls will be received is harder to predict. You may not getany calls for minutes, and then receive a rush of calls at one time. Thus,forecasting your call patterns is critical to determining whether to outsourceor not. If the staffing model is too high, the cost benefits are minimized. Ifthe staffing model is too low, customer service will suffer. Businessesoperating internal call centers should have historical reports with how manycalls are received in late August versus those received during the holidaysbetween Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Thesame reports should tell you how many calls are received Monday versusThursday, or even for specific times of the day. Analyzing the data shouldreveal patterns that can be used for forecasting, as long as factors that couldalter the patterns are taken into consideration. Your forecastingmay improve over time, but it is impossible to accurately predict how manycalls you will receive at specific times, days, or seasons. The only fact youcan count on is that call flow will not be even. From time to time, agents willbe idle. At other times, callers will be waiting for the next available agent. So why ask ifyou should outsource? The answer depends on establishing the expectations ofhow an outsourcer will handle your calls. There are many variations onoutsourcing with no off-the-shelf solutions. Each solution depends on yourbusiness expectations, goals, and objectives. Moreover, you need to be sureyour unique needs will be met and your outsourcer is capable of meeting yourexpectations for cost and customer service. © 2011 Geoffrey Best.