subject: Read This Story Before You Hire A Call Center Services Provider [print this page] The business world has become a lot more complicated and advanced than it used to be a decade ago. The functions of an organization have vastly grown and managing them all is just not possible for them. Hiring a call center services provider to take care of their various non core business processes has emerged as the new trend in the business world. Whether it is seminar registration services or back office services, they outsource them to offshore outsourcing service providers. However, choosing the right vendor for outsourcing your various business requirements is very important as their services and capabilities would directly affect your business.
You must read this story before you start looking for an inbound call center services provider for your requirements. This story is about a man named Eddy. Eddy lived in New York and had just started an online shopping portal where users could buy clothes and various other accessories. He now needed a customer support team to take care of queries from his customers. Eddy was a smart and intelligent man (at-least he thought so) and was well versed with new technologies and internet. He immediately did a Google search and shortlisted around 15 vendors who were offering services that he required.
He started a detailed study of each vendor to determine which one was better. One of the vendors in particular seemed too good as his website boasted of many great features and facilities. Further, the price was also very low therefore it seemed to be the best choice. Eddy immediately filled in the request a quote form on this website and also sent requests to a few others (just to be on the safe side).
He got a quote from most of them in just a few days. Again he liked the quote of the same company. He immediately finalized the deal and hired 20 agents for inbound call support services. He even made a handsome advance payment to the company for setup purpose along with one month of advance payment for their services.
The vendor was able to create the setup and get the system working in approx two weeks. Things seemed alright for a few days but soon they started getting ugly. Eddy made a call to his own call center (I told you he was smart) and what he experienced was nowhere near the services promised by them. First of all, the voice quality of the phone at the other end was very poor. As if that was not enough, the agent on the other end was barely able to speak correct English in the correct accent.
He complained but there was not much improvement. However, things moved liked that for a few more days when Eddy came to know that some other online shopping company got access to his customer list along with all their details. He couldn"t understand how this could have happened. On researching, he found out that someone at the service provider"s end had stolen the data and sold it to his competitor. Eddy got mad and started shouting at the vendor. He was consoled and told that the responsible person was removed from his job and was handed over to police (as if that would compensate the loss).
Eddy wanted to leave the service provider and find some new one but could not do so as he had already spent a lot of money on him and investing such a huge amount again was just not feasible. Things moved on from there and there was no major problem for another month. But then the worst happened. There was a flood at the vendor"s location and the delivery center was literary half submerged in water. The call center solutions and services were completely stopped. Moreover, this time the data was actually wiped off, it was gone, as all the systems were useless and there was no backup plan for such situations.
Eddy was broken when he heard what had happened. He couldn"t see any hope now. Eventually, he had to close down his business as he had lost a lot of money and there was no way he could have arranged for more money. He realized that he made a huge mistake in the hiring process and started wondering what he could have done to save all the money and his business.
Here is a list of things that he could have done to save his business.
1. He should have checked the voice quality of phone before hiring the call center services provider.
2. He should have also checked the quality of the agents beforehand.
3. The disaster recovery and backup plan must have been seen and reviewed before finalizing the deal.
4. Eddy should have given proper attention to data security features.
5. He should have checked organization and escalation flow.
6. One of the most important things to do was credibility check through reference clients.
7. Lastly, the payment should have been made on weekly or biweekly basis so that it would have helped in proper business execution of both parties. Further, advance setup cost should have been given only on demand and after checking the things mentioned in the above list.
