Outsourcing Customer Service to Latin America

Outsourcing Customer Service to Latin America

by Guatecall Inspiration News

Outsourcing customer service is one of the most crucial parts of any business.  With today’s competitive business environment and more educated customers as well as the ease of finding information about products and companies, the key differentiation between one company and another is the customer experience and interaction with its clients. Whether it’s through voice, web chat, email or social media interaction, customer experience is the most important element in the success or failure of a company. This is why it is so important to have the best possible relationship with your customer experience outsource provider.

The management of your company and the outsourcing call center must be on the same wave length and become an extension of the business. Good customer service can often be the key to increased sales, customer satisfaction, customer retention and brand reputation.

On the other hand, poor customer service or for that matter even marginal or inconsistent customer service through all the different channels at the customer’s disposal often leads to unhappy customers, diminished brand reputation, loss of customers and poor sales. For these reasons alone, whenever a company decides to outsource their customer service, they need to partner with a provider that will make their company’s customers a top priority.

There are some basic guidelines when searching for a call center:
Credibility:
Credibility matters when a business is entrusting another business with an important task. For this reason, see how long the company has been in the outsourcing business.
Also ask for some client testimonials and recommendations as well as from industry experts.

Skills:
What is the English fluency of the call center’s existing agents?  Since bilingual services are so important for the U.S. market today, do the agents speak Spanish as well?  What is the accent level like?  Spanish accents are also different from country to country.  Try to pick a country that has a neutral accent.  Guatemala, in Central America, is known as a top location for neutral bilingual accents.

Customer service skills need agents that are customer centric by nature.  Some key characteristics are being humble, polite and great listeners.  Contact center reps who are outside of the box thinkers and can come up with creative solutions are always a benefit and the ability to create first call resolutions using all the skill sets above is of key importance to not only the customer experience but controlling the costs of the company.

Location:
Geographical Advantage: If the BPO or contact center is located in time zones that are 7-12 hours difference from the location of the company it is serving, then there is less opportunity to solve management concerns on the fly.  Most top level executives and management work during the day shift so there is a clear need to be located either in the U.S., Canada or for a cost saving and bilingual Spanish support, near shore in Latin America.

Due to the time zone similarity and lower price structure, Latin American and especially Central American call centers have become a popular destination for high level customer service.

Cultural Similarity – Customer service is all about dealing with people. Having a positive customer experience with people becomes much easier when both the customer and the agent are on the same wavelength.  If a customer is looking for items, for example, that just came out that is all the rage, the customer service rep should be on top of those trends and point the customer in the right direction.

Pricing: 
Last but definitely not least, pricing plays a key role in customer service.  There is a need to balance budget with a high a level of customer service and experience.  Many U.S. and Canadian companies are finding that Central America offers a great balance of a highly skilled bilingual workforce coupled with a more cost efficient pricing structure than their local outsource providers.

A Shameless Plug:
If you are looking for a higher quality contact center with a strong focus on the customer relationship, strong training principles and a highly interactive and dedicated management and staff located in Guatemala, Central America, look no further than GuateCall.

We are an American managed BPO and contact center that provides Superior Services.
We believe that every point of contact, from our employees, to our customers and their customers, is an opportunity to make a positive impact on people’s lives.  We work as a seamless extension of your team by integrating our services and management to work hand-in-hand with yours, at every point of contact.

-Our employees become your brand advocates
-Our management team looks for ways to benefit the customer
-Our environment is conducive to happy and lateral-thinking employees

 

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall. GuateCall is a Nearshore contact center provider of multi-channel bilingual services located In Guatemala, Central America. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 Ext 116 or by e-mail.

Bilingual Latin American Contact Center Solutions Provider- GuateCall

Bilingual Latin American Contact Center Solutions Provider- GuateCall

by Guatecall Inspiration News

Latin American contact center solutions providers have become increasingly popular in offering contact center solutions. With so many contact center solutions providers in Latin America, Central America and South America to choose from, which contact center solutions company is right for your business?

A few quick thoughts come to mind.

  1. There is an obvious cost saving to consider when outsourcing nearshore contact center solutions  over outsourcing to a US contact center.  A nearshore center is generally 30%-50% less expensive than US contact center solutions providers. There is also differences in price points between one nearshore center to another nearshore center due to different factors such as quality of service as well as size and overhead.
  2. Contact center solutions companies in Central America, South America, as well as the Caribbean are able to attract higher skilled employees such as college students and graduates.
  3. Latin American contact center solutions providers have an advantage of being staffed by bilingual agents speaking Spanish as well as English. There is no need to pay a premium for Spanish support.

There are the clear benefits of saving money and staying in a nearshore environment with a high skilled labor force. The question is will the customer experience be what your customer is expecting from your business?

Contact center solutions outsourcing to a Latin American contact center can therefore be a daunting task. Which country in Latin America will serve your needs best?  There is Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Argentina, The Dominican Republic, Mexico, Belize, Brazil, Jamaica, Colombia and many more.

The reduction in telecom rates, the emergence of the Internet, and the pool of educated, bilingual agents in Central & South America have caused a boom in the contact center solutions outsourcing industry in these countries.  Both large nearshore contact centers as well as smaller boutique nearshore contact center solutions providers have established themselves as capable contact center solutions providers in customer service, web chat, email and the back office service industry. Many of the contact centers can be an excellent choice for applications that require English, Spanish, or Bilingual agents. Choosing the correct center for you is the critical next step.

Which contact center is right for you? 

The factors such as management, size, price and customer service come into play.  I would suggest getting to know GuateCall, which is our contact center solutions provider based in Guatemala, Central America.  We are American owned and run and our hands-on management is a key differentiation factor between our contact center and other contact center solution providers in Latin and especially Central America.  We work as a seamless extension of your team by integrating our services and management to work hand-in-hand with yours, at every point of contact. We strive to make your customers happy.

People like to do business with people they like!
Our contact center solutions team is consistently trained about the value of a happy customer and the efforts needed to maintain this relationship. At every point of contact we strive to deliver a service that exceeds your expectations, thus elevating your brand and identity.

As your search for Bilingual English and Spanish customer support takes you to Latin and specifically Central America, with all the advantages nearshore contact center solutions providers have to offer, take a look at GuateCall, located in Guatemala City.  We can discuss your specific contact center needs and determine if we are the right fit for YOU.

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall.  GuateCall is a nearshore contact center located in Guatemala Central America/ Latin America. Our contact center solutions offers multi-channel bilingual English and Spanish services. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall and its services in voice, chat or email in both English and Spanish, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 or by e-mail perry@guatecall.com .

 

10 Leadership Quotes in Our Customer Service Training!

10 Leadership Quotes in Our Customer Service Training!

by Guatecall Inspiration

At Guatecall, we pride ourselves on our constant training of team leadership and therefore resulting high quality of customer service that we provide. Here are some quotes that we enjoy and we hope you enjoy them too!

1: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
-John Quincy Adams

2: “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
-Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder

3: “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

4:“The true mark of a leader is the willingness to stick with a bold course of action — an unconventional business strategy, a unique product-development roadmap, a controversial marketing campaign — even as the rest of the world wonders why you’re not marching in step with the status quo. In other words, real leaders are happy to zig while others zag. They understand that in an era of hyper-competition and non-stop disruption, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something special.”
-Bill Taylor, from article “Do You Pass the Leadership Test?”

5: “Leaders instill in their people a hope for success and a belief in themselves. Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals.”
-Unknown

6: “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.”
-Theodore M. Hesburgh

7: “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”
-John F. Kennedy

8: “A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.”
-Jim Rohn

9: “The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them.”
-John Maxwell

10: “The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.”
-John Maxwell

Latin America- Fastest Growing Outsourcing Destination

Latin America- Fastest Growing Outsourcing Destination

by Guatecall Inspiration News

With demand for a better customer service experience at an all time high, companies are finding the need to outsource more of their multi channel customer services to contact centers that have the experience necessary to handle the heightened demand of today’s customers.

The global market for outsourcing is rapidly expanding and near shore locations such as Latin America and specifically Central America have become a go-to area for outsourcing services such as Voice, Email and Chat.

Guatemala and specifically Guatemala City, with its advanced technology and highly skilled and educated workforce, has become a go-to destination for some of the top companies in the United States and Canada.

Major outsources are servicing the American as well as Canadian markets and now are expanding to the European markets.  Telus, EGS, Allied Global, Xerox, Genpact, Capgemini, 247 Customer &  Intouch are some of the bigger players in the Guatemalan market today.

GuateCall, a boutique contact center also located in Guatemala City, is uniquely situated in this Central American market and offers companies looking for a higher end customer service experience at an affordable price an opportunity to outsource services to a nearshore location.

There are some major overall benefits when outsourcing to Latin America and specifically Guatemala, Central America.

  • Guatemalan people are known for their customer service skills and that mentality is a major benefit when the needs for quality customer service experiences is at an all time high.
  • Guatemala has a very neutral accent so customer service representatives are much easier to understand and speak with than Indian or other call Centers in the industry.
  • Guatemala not only has a clearer accent in English but is known to have the most neutral accent Spanish in Central America as well. This allows bilingual conversation to flow smoothly no matter which region a Hispanic customer is calling from.
  • The Geographic proximity to the United States and Canada is a great benefit for Latin American outsourcing. Guatemala is Central time zone located and just a short flight for multiple cities in the U.S.

If your customer service experience is in need of some extra help and are looking to increase customer loyalty, referral business and retention of clients in this highly competitive marketplace, feel free to reach out to us to learn how customer service from GuateCall can differentiate your company from its competitors at an affordable price!

 

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall.  GuateCall is a contact center in nearshore Latin American/ Central America. Our call center is a provider of multi-channel bilingual English and Spanish services located In Guatemala. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall and its services in voice, chat or email in both English and Spanish, pleas reach out to me at 713-474-2222 Ext 116 or by e-mail.

The Life of the Customer

The Life of the Customer

by Guatecall Inspiration News

Companies are realizing that customer satisfaction is a key to growing their business. With the cost of gaining a new customer on the rise and with the many options customers have of where to spend their hard earned money, emphasis is being placed on increasing the customer experience at every touch point. Multi channel service is growing rapidly via phone, email, chat, social media and face to face interactions.

Within these channels, many companies have formed teams of specialists to service the customer to the best of their abilities. Even specialized teams within teams are created, ie sales teams, retention teams, escalation teams, dispatch teams, follow up and survey teams and the list goes on. The purpose of each is to create and maintain a happy customer who will continue to do business with the brand and create future referrals.

Company management will often be the first to tell you that they are all about customer satisfaction. In the quest to increase customer satisfaction many have been measuring the quality of each interaction with the customer by implementing internal and external quality assurance teams, CSAT surveys etc.

So why do so many companies lose business even though their customer satisfaction scores show positive results?   I’m reminded of the lecture I saw on Ted Talk when Simon Sinek said “Customers don’t buy your products or services, they buy how you make them feel.”

The thing with feelings is that they change over time. With all the different departments and the way customers have to interact with a company, management needs to create a “feeling” that is consistent among all channels through all customer interactions. More than that, when a person from a sales department speaks to a prospective customer, the feeling that the customer gets should be the same as when the next sales person receives a call from the same customer and more than that, if that same prospect sends an email or a web chat, that same feeling should resonate.  Easier said than done, yes, but  companies willing to invest in the total customer experience will reap the rewards of more business from existing clients as well as a boost in referral business.

Two examples come to mind.  I was having lunch with a few friends yesterday and one said that he’s looking to replace the windows in his home.   He remembered one of the guys at the table had just put in new windows less than a year ago, so his questions to him went something like this: “So I’m looking to replace my windows and I spoke to a couple different companies and I’m getting quotes and stories that are all over the place.  You just replaced your windows, didn’t you?  Who did you use?  Do you trust them?  Would you recommend I use them or in hind sight use someone else?  Did you have any leaks later and how quickly did they fix it?  I was also told that lifetime warranties are just a sales gimmick so I don’t think that really matters.”

Now being that I’m in the contact and call center industry and part of a company that is nearshore in Latin America and since we have an account that deals in residential services (not windows) and we handle their phone sales and customer service and also dispatch their contractors, handle their social media, respond to the emails, chat services as well as follow up survey for after job satisfaction, I was very interested in where this conversation was going!

The response was that he wouldn’t go out on a limb and recommend anyone.  He got quotes from three different companies and went with one of them. They were pretty good.  The salesperson gave him a good deal and at least he didn’t have to watch the installers while they were working because it seemed like they were doing a thorough and clean job.  As far as leaks, he had a window that leaked a few months in and after a couple of calls they came out and fixed it free of charge.  He said “You know how these things go.  To go out and install new windows they’re quick, but on warranties you need to hound them a bit to get what you need done.  It’s just how it works in these types of industries”.

It’s just how it works in these types of industries. Really?  “Why should it be like that in these types of industries?” I interjected.
“Because they already made their money on the sale” he responds, “now everything else takes away from the bottom line. So when I call sales I get an answer right away, but to get a person to service me after the job is done, I tend to call a couple of times, stay on hold for a while… but it doesn’t matter, I’m persistent.  They get it done eventually.”

It would have been great for the window company to be in on this lunch.  A person just asked his friend for a referral on a 20-30k job and since the follow up was ok, he didn’t get a rave review.  The feeling the company has left an existing customer was OK.  It wasn’t that he was dissatisfied.  It wasn’t that he wasn’t going to do business with them in the future, but he clearly was not a raving fan.  He was not an advocate for the business and did not refer them business.

Today’s challenge for companies is to see and measure the customer satisfaction through the life of the customer.  Every point of contact matters.  Teams must communicate the same message to their customers through all points of contact during all stages of the customer interaction. They must identify what that customer cycle is and truly understand how they are perceived in that cycle today. Then they should measure their performance in that cycle and build cross-functional teams to support those functions that need improvement as well as build open channels of communication between teams.

As best-selling marketing author Seth Godin wrote:
“Don’t touch it, you might break it.” This is, of course, the opposite of, “Touch it, you can make it better.” What’s the default where you work?

So go out there and create a process to support and enhance those customer life cycles and create a culture of constant improvement.

 

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall.  Our contact center is a Latin American Nearshore call center provider of multi-channel bilingual English and Spanish services located In Guatemala,Central America. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall and its services in voice, chat and email in both English and Spanish, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 or by e-mail.