Maximising cost efficiency with outsourced call centres

Finding the right balance between outsourcing and insourcing has always been difficult for businesses. In customer experience, when talent, technology, and facilities require substantial and ongoing investment, leveraging a third-party CX specialist to provide strategic insight and access to advanced delivery models can unlock value, both in the short and long term.

Outsourcing call centre operations can be a strategic move for businesses seeking to enhance their Customer Experience (CX) while improving cost efficiency. By removing the distraction – and associated costs – of managing a call centre this approach allows companies to focus on their main products and services and entrust customer service to a provider who specialises in CX as their primary offering.

Let’s walk through the strategic benefits – particularly cost benefits – to outsourcing your call centre operations:

Overall Cost Savings

One of the main reasons companies choose to outsource their call centres is for cost benefits. Outsourcing eliminates the significant overheads associated with maintaining an in-house operation, which includes hiring, training, salaries, benefits, technology and cyber-security infrastructure, and facilities expenses.

Several outsourcing partners also operate in offshore regions with lower labour costs, which translates to considerable savings on staffing costs alone.

That said, many businesses have the impression that using offshore services results in lower-quality delivery, which is not necessarily the case. For example, at TSA, rather than running an entirely offshore operation, we adopt a model we call “Smart-shoring” – a hybrid strategy that delivers the best of both worlds.

Our teams operate concurrently across Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines. Managerial responsibilities, plus more complex and sensitive customer queries are handled onshore; with simplex non-customer-facing work in the Philippines. The cost savings are there, but so are the oversight and cultural alignment that ensures service quality.

Reduced Capital Expenditure

Technology is constantly being created or updated to improve efficiency and enhance the customer experience. Consequently, the burden on companies to stay up to date with industry advancements is expensive.

It’s not just continually updating tech infrastructure but also deploying it to your staff and training them to use it alongside whatever your particular business focus may be. Partnering with an outsourcer alleviates this financial strain by taking the tech expenditure off your hands and easing the burden of keeping up with these ongoing and substantial investments.

Scalability and Flexibility

Outsourced call centres provide scalability that can be challenging to attain with an in-house team. This is particularly evident during peak seasons or unexpected surges in call volumes, where immediate increases in staffing levels are necessary to meet demand.

An outsourced centre can draw on employees from varying programs, including offshore teams, to quickly adjust staffing levels, deploying trained and highly competent staff to deliver quality service even when call volumes are unpredictable. Improved staffing results in better response times and faster transactions, which boost conversion rates and elevate your brand’s profile. And, by eliminating the high upfront costs associated with local-only staffing, companies can balance quality alongside cost efficiency.

Access to Specialised Knowledge and Expertise

While many businesses find it easy to accept that CX outsourcing will yield cost savings, there’s a perception that it will also detract from the quality of support being offered. How can a third-party understand your business’s customers as well as your own people do?

In fact, outsourcing generally translates to enhanced customer experience. Specialist CX companies equip their teams not only with the latest tech tools for the job but also with specialised training and expertise development that ensures customers are dealing with professionals who are dedicated to customer service. In fact, at TSA, we are confident in the quality of our tech and the skills of our people that we offer what we call a “Challenger Model” to prospective partners. It’s where we set up a team to work alongside a business’s internal customer care team so that we can compare efficiencies and drive innovation and performance.

Time Zone Advantages

The reality of customer experience (CX) today is that customers expect support to be available whenever and wherever they need it. As instant communication becomes the norm in a marketplace that never sleeps, companies face critical decisions regarding cost versus customer care. Balancing these factors is essential to maintaining high service standards without incurring excessive expenses.  

Given that peak online shopping times fall outside regular business hours – with 32% of purchases occurring between 7 pm and 10 pm – smart-shoring provides a cost-effective solution. It allows for round-the-clock customer care without the prohibitive costs associated with local penalty rates.

Conclusion

CX outsourcing can significantly enhance cost efficiency for businesses while maintaining or even improving customer satisfaction. By focusing on their core competencies, businesses can enhance operational efficiency and optimize resource allocation by delegating non-core functions to specialized partners.

To maximize the benefits of CX outsourcing, it’s crucial to select a reliable and experienced partner committed to quality and innovation. Achieving similar cost efficiencies with an in-house contact centre or an Australian-only contact centre operation would be challenging, particularly when aiming to offer round-the-clock care and the flexibility to meet and exceed customer expectations.

TSA are Australia’s market leading specialists in CX Consultancy and Contact Centre Services. We are passionate about revolutionising the way brands connect with Australians. How? By combining our local expertise with the most sophisticated customer experience technology on earth, and delivering with an expert team of customer service consultants who know exactly how to help brands care for their customers.