From the ratio of outsourcing call centers to self-built call centers, the world average data is: outsourcing call centers account for one-third and self-built call centers account for two-thirds; In the United States, outsourced call centers account for about 15%, and self-built call centers account for about 85%. According to China call center industry system integrators, in their projects, the call centers built by the industry account for 80%, and the outsourced call centers account for about 20%.
Although outsourcing call centers have been established for a long time, before 2005, most of them were in the initial stage and did not really develop, which has a great relationship with the economic development of our country and the competitive structure of enterprises. After 2005, especially after the second half of 2006, we deeply feel that the days of outsourcing call centers have obviously improved and the market demand has obviously increased. In particular, the use of call centers for various sales activities is gradually accepted by enterprises, and there is an obvious upward trend.
Although the call outsourcing market is obviously warming up, there are still many problems to be solved:
First, the cost is high and the profit is low.
One of the characteristics of call center is its high cost. On the one hand, the hardware cost is high; On the other hand, personnel costs and management costs account for a large proportion of the call center. At present, the direct purpose of cooperation between many enterprises and outsourcing call centers is to reduce costs, so outsourcing call centers adopt various methods to reduce operating costs in order to maintain low profits. According to the author's understanding, in addition to some large and medium-sized call centers strictly following the national regulations in personnel employment, many small and medium-sized call centers do not hesitate to violate the relevant national regulations in order to reduce costs, such as not providing insurance for agents, and the working hours of agents do not meet the national regulations.
Second, powerful enterprises are more inclined to cooperate with large outsourcing call centers.
The customer sources of large-scale outsourcing call centers are similar to those of software outsourcing industry, and generally have their fixed channels. They establish long-term and stable cooperative relations with one or several partners. As far as I know, Nokia cooperates with a large outsourcing call center, and the monthly outsourcing price of each seat is more than 10,000 yuan. Despite the high cost, Nokia will not easily change partners. On the one hand, they can bear such high outsourcing costs, on the other hand, they have very high requirements for their partners. For some small and medium-sized outsourcers, even if the price is much more favorable than that of large call centers, it will not be considered. Therefore, although outsourcing call centers are willing to undertake long-term and stable projects, it is difficult for those outsourcing call centers that lack strength and scale to do so.
Thirdly, it is a challenge to outsource the technical support of call center to undertake inbound projects.
From the business analysis of the outsourcing call center at present, outbound call projects account for the vast majority of the outsourcing call center, and outbound call projects should test the operation management and project experience of the call center. For outsourcing call centers, on the surface, the income of incoming items is higher than that of outgoing items, but incoming items test the technical level of call centers and occupy a lot of resources such as databases. Due to the lack of technical strength and other reasons, the inbound project is a great test for small and medium-sized outsourcing call centers. In addition, large-scale pit stop projects (more than 50 seats) also need system support such as scheduling software. In addition, the inbound project is very different from the outbound project in the performance evaluation of agents, which is a great test for outsourcing call centers.
Fourth, the market is not standardized and the competition is disorderly.
According to the rough statistics of call center industry personnel, there are more than tens of thousands of call centers without legal operation qualification in China. Many so-called call centers have telephone lines and temporary staff, which are far from up to standard. These nonstandard call centers are precisely the characteristics of enterprises that have demand but refuse to spend too much money, and the price is much lower than that of regular call centers. The existence of these informal call centers will not pose a threat to large and medium-sized outsourcing call centers, but the lack of basic service norms will confuse the market to some extent. Many people don't like selling telephone calls and market research, which has a lot to do with the irregular service of these informal call centers.
For outsourcing call centers, we should not only base ourselves on the industry, but also seek the long-term development of enterprises, and strive to reduce costs and improve profits from the aspects of process and scale. Specific can be considered from the following aspects:
First, segment customers and control costs.
According to different service groups, the seating personnel are reasonably equipped. The assembly line business only needs to be equipped with general quality seats, and the piece-by-piece assessment method is adopted. As long as there are no problems in the process, the normal implementation of the project can be guaranteed. For high-end customers who need to provide personalized services, such as financial management, they should be equipped with high-quality professional service personnel. For these employees, we should give them some encouragement and attention to reduce their brain drain.
Second, seek value-added services.
In order to survive, it is difficult for outsourcing call centers to develop further only by relying on their existing operations. It is necessary to recognize the advantages and disadvantages of the call center, give full play to its advantages and seek value-added services. Seeking value-added services can get higher income for call centers and help customers turn from services to profits. The author expounds the value-added service from both horizontal and vertical aspects. Horizontal refers to extending existing services or modules. For example, the call center has a large number of database resources, which adds value to further data mining and analysis; Vertical refers to tapping the needs of existing customers. The reason why large and medium-sized outsourcing call centers can maintain long-term and stable cooperative relations with large customers is because these call centers are constantly digging deep into customer needs and making customers and outsourcers more closely integrated.
Third, give full play to the advantages of talent training.
Compared with self-built call centers, outsourced call centers have many advantages in personnel skills training. Because there are many projects contracted by outsourcing call centers, there are many ways to train seats. Outsourcing call center can incorporate the training of agents into its main business, especially at this stage, the demand for agents in various industries is very great. The outsourcing call center can take this opportunity to train personnel, on the one hand, to provide them for their own use, on the other hand, to cooperate with the self-built call center in the form of human assignment.
Fourth, pay attention to technical support.
In the call center industry, the technical team is a very important factor that distinguishes it from other competitors. Perfect technical support ability can ensure that enterprises can respond quickly when serving different customers, and put forward and improve solutions according to customer needs at the first time, because users are constantly improving their business and putting forward new demands. From the development of call center, no matter which generation of call center, it is inseparable from the support of technology, and its upgrading and the introduction of new service methods are closely related to the development of technology. Therefore, call centers should attach importance to technical support, especially outsourcing call centers, and try their best to solidify their experience into a system, continuously improve operational efficiency, reduce operating costs, and open up new service areas and methods.
Fifth, turn the experience of call center outsourcing into value.
As mentioned in the third point, we can give full play to the advantages of outsourcing call center personnel training and send talents to self-built call centers, which is also one of the ways to replicate experience. For outsourcing call center, there is a set of scientific management methods from the application of technical equipment, data collection and mining, to the service ability and skills of personnel. In addition to personnel training, experience is also reflected in technology and management. Some people say that the service itself has barriers. With the experience of outsourcing call center, we can help enterprises break down service barriers, and these are the places where value is generated.
Judging from the whole national planning, the country is advocating innovation ability, and also hopes to transform products with information technology, and change from extensive development mode to intensive development mode. As a typical means of high-tech application in service industry, call center is representative. This platform covers technical means and human services, does not rely on resource consumption, makes full use of the most abundant human resources in industrial structure and technical conditions, and provides traditional services and marketing services. The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games has brought many business opportunities to the call center in China, and many services related to the Beijing Olympic Games need the support of the call center. Under the influence of the Olympic Games and this World Expo, the call centers in China will grow even more. For outsourcing call centers, it is necessary to seize the good opportunity to serve international competitions and let enterprises develop rapidly.