BPO vs Call Center vs Outsourcing – Which is Which?

It is always possible to grow your business on your own or with a business partner. The inception of the idea is yours, after all. This is when a lot of American entrepreneurs or Western entrepreneurs in general turn to outsourcing.  That is a viable way to accomplish the things you want but you need to make distinctions between what people call the different kinds of contact centers.

Of course offshore outsourcing is sometimes customizable but there are companies that operate only one way or another. What you want is a Flexible Remote Staffing partner. And it simply makes sense for your operational costs.

First, you need to be familiar with Business Process Outsourcing BPO, the most common definition which holds contact centers and other outsourcing activities in check.  BPO’s generally consist of Private Offices that offer to outsource certain services that Employers, like yourself can no longer perform by themselves.

BPO vs Call Center vs Outsourcing is a Complex conversation but you can simplify it.

The BPO industry is huge and it encompasses a lot of industries ranging from eCommerce, Finance, Publishing and even Healthcare. There are many different job functions that an entrepreneur can outsource but it all depends on how they deem it fit in terms of saving on some labor costs.

Outsourcing is basically an agreement where an organization, such as yours hires another company to do several activities that they choose to do in an offshore office instead of internally. BPO’s and call centers in general are synonymous. But there are some BPO’s that don’t rely on Inbound or Outbound calls.

Sometimes BPO’s can employ Virtual Assistants, Data Entry Specialists or simply are a Day Shift office that prepares Digital Marketing materials for people in the States. So an outsourcing firm can very well be a BPO without a single call center agent in it. If there is something that allows you to focus on your Core Business, then you can think about using that outsource service to boost your operational capacities. The point is to find a remote office that can still allow you to work in real time but for cheaper labor costs than you would in hiring local workers.

BPO Characteristics

Usually, if you outsource to a country such as the Philippines, the BPO Industry generally compensates their workers better than all the other sectors  in that given region.  This is important. You don’t want a sweatshop call center. You want a company that takes care of its workers as much as it cares about you.

Because if the turnovers are low then that means your business is able to run in full capacity. And as shown earlier, a BPO can encompass many functions even if you don’t need customers calls as part of your regular operations.

1. Day Shift or Night Shift

Often, a call center, particularly if they have US or UK clients will need to operate at night in the Philippines. This is to ensure that they can attend to your day to day activities while you are working in regular hours.

The same can be true with a BPO.

But for optimal functioning, you can assign your workers to work in Day Shifts, such as when you’re in Australia or New Zealand. While contact center workers are generally used to it, it’s possible to work on opposite hours as long as you Train your workers and keep in touch with them such as making Virtual Calls.

2. On Site Management

Sometimes, for a BPO, you can have on site management there. If you’re in England for example, maybe some of your business partners would like to oversee your Offshore office themselves.

But if this isn’t feasible, the best way to do that is hire a remote staffing company with a Results Coach. This person is to serve as your eyes and ears on the ground. So that you will be able to monitor operations easily.

3. Seat Leasing

There is another arrangement that is project based. Sometimes, a BPO would simply hire workers for a given period of time, offer them the Computers and the Space and allow them to perform their tasks for you. But this isn’t a long term contract. Seat leasing is short term and it can be an option you might consider.

The best thing about seat leasing is that even if the project is short term, In Philippine Pesos, you would still be paying your employees relatively high.  For the worker who constantly has to hustle for freelance, then these arrangements are way, way better because they already have the Computers and equipment.

What is a Call Center?

For a business to be a Call Center, in terms of semantics, it generally should be focused on taking customers calls. More often than not, they take inbound calls, outbound calls, do chat support and any Customer Support functions that generally improve efficiency of your operations.

If this saves up on labor costs, then why not hire a call center.

But a contact center, just like traditional BPO’s are places where you leave people in a box and simply set the standards you want and the quotas you want for their performance.

Again, the labor costs depend on all the employees you hire, and what packages that specific contact center is going to provide you./

IT Support

Information technology is a crucial part of any business these days. Such as as important in hiring a contact center. Usually, you would need your operations to be functioning optimally 24-7.

This is why it’s important to hire a Managed Remote Office rather than a freelancer because typically they have IT and Tech Support. If their gadgets are functioning properly, it will follow that all your operations will be optimized as a result of that.

Call Center Agents with Perfect Spoken English

Now, here’s a good distinction. If you hire a BPO and a team of Virtual Assistants, you don’t need them to speak perfect American English.  Of course, any BPO worker would need to possess some level of finesse with the English language. But call center agents require impeccable spoken English. And it’s best if their English even rivals yours or ours as Americans!

Telesales

Telesales can be done in any other BPO arrangement, but normally these are the bread and butter of contact center operations. Although Customer Support is usually what outsourcing thrives on, cold calling or telemarketing or telesales is an essential part for any operations that wants to thrive.

Outsourcing – What is the Best Kind?

Outsourcing companies are those that agree to take on a number of employees or group of employees to perform a specific function for a client, typically abroad, such as yourself and they serve in turn as their offshore satellite office.

Simply put the best kind of outsourcing partner is one that allows you to have the best of the best worlds. It enables you to manage your ecommerce or supply chains but also they have the HR and admin to take care of compensating your employees.

As mentioned earlier, it’s good if your remote employees are well paid. This makes them highly motivated to help the customer experience.

Outsourced Remote Staffing is best then if it follows the Managed Services model.

Managed Services is a different kind of BPO, and certainly a different kind of call center because you outsource but are still able to manage operational control.

You can live chat your employees or you can call them. You will be informed but you don’t have to overpay someone back home when you can offshore the tasks here in the Philippines but while being ensured that their salary, human resources needs and every other function is well taken care of.

Outsourcing has always been a part of day to day experiences. You don’t make bread yourself, you outsource them to a baker. In like manner, most eCommerce or business people choose to outsource majority of their global operations to an offshore office.

Find Out More about how you can hire a Remote Staffing team while still managing your offshore staff as if they are like field staff.