Outsourcing Customer Service to Latin America

Outsourcing Customer Service to Latin America

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.

Obsessing about Customer experience

Obsessing about Customer experience

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Obsessing about Customer experience with a few employees is one thing, but if you’re looking to scale, focus on creating a structure that allows your employees to deliver a meaningful customer experience.

In reality, that’s easier said than done. Creating structure that allows employees to give a superior customer experience consistently and maintain that level of excellence in scale is a big undertaking.

If you ask most company leaders they’ll tell you they want to give a great customer experience. Employees also want to give a great customer experience. Lets face it, we’re all customers. The thought of treating others as we would want to be treated is great. So why do companies fail so miserably so many times?

We’re not all the same.

Yes, the end goal is we all want to feel good/satisfied interacting with a company, but what we consider good/satisfied is not necessarily the same for another person. What motivates one person does not necessarily motivate another. What one wants, isn’t necessarily what another wants. There has to be different ways of helping people in order to achieve the ultimate goal of customer satisfaction, or as we say here at GuateCall, “Meeting and exceeding expectations.”

Creating a great product or offering a certain service takes time, effort, training, fine tuning and constantly looking for ways to improve. Creating the customer experience we want to deliver takes the same amount of consistent planning, training and effort. The kicker is most companies are good at bringing a product or service into the market. They may be good at promoting and selling the product and even servicing the product, but as the company grows there is a strain in management’s time and so most of the energy is placed on sales and marketing. Customer service or experience is usually left for people to patch together as a reaction to growth needs. Usually this patch has a general training, key metrics that need to be hit and a QA system that rewards or punishes the customer service representatives based on adherence to key elements of the interaction with the customer. As customer complaints rise, CSAT scores and other measurements are added. More reward and punishment naturally follows and at this point the customer service representatives are more interested in reaching their bonus and protecting their job than they are delivering a great customer experience.

Being customer focused is no different than bringing products or services to market.

  • It takes effort.
  • It takes time.
  • It takes a commitment to excellence.
  • It takes building a culture that encourages the customer experience to be a priority.

Most companies do not have the level of experience or staffing necessary to create such an environment.

Outsourcing to a company that specializes in creating the customer service experience is a great way to increase customer satisfaction while continuing to focus on what the company does best. At GuateCall, we have years of experience delivering superior services. Our team will work hand in hand with yours to create the processes necessary to become a seamless part of the organization.

This article is written by Perry Silber. Perry Silber is one of the founders of GuateCall. GuateCall is a nearshore contact center located in Guatemala Central America / Latin America. Our location allows us the ability to increase our service levels while still being priced competitively. If you would like to learn more about our call center and its bilingual English and Spanish services in voice, chat or email, reach out to me at 713-474-2222 or by e-mail perry@guatecall.com .

Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing Call Center Services

Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing Call Center Services

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There are advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing call center services. Outsourcing is a business practice used by many companies to reduce costs, improve efficiency or when outsourced correctly both. This is accomplished by using external third party vendors to do tasks normally done by internal staff.

How does a company decide whether call center outsourcing is right for it? Each company should create an advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing list. Put advantages on one side, disadvantages on the other and see what’s best. Sometimes you will find that you should outsource all call center services. Sometimes you will see an advantage in keeping certain processes in house and outsourcing other processes. Each company needs to decide what’s best for it based on their circumstances and business targets.

Here are a few Advantages and Disadvantages of outsourcing call center services. Its important to keep in mind that what is an advantage for one company could be a disadvantage for another:

  • Outsourcing enables companies to focus their attention on their core competencies.
  • Outsourcing saves money. When calculating the cost of management, overheard, technology, training, space, payroll, hiring, firing, taxes incidentals and more, outsourcing to a call center lowers the overall cost of operations.
  • Outsourcing to a call center that specializes in certain tasks allows for operational efficiencies. This will not only save money, but increase customer satisfaction, revenue and the like.
  • Outsourcing call center services to a legitimate company, allows the benefit of using up to date technology. Technology is constantly changing and legitimate outsourcing companies have IT management on staff to keep up with the changes.
  • Since the main resource of outsourcing is people, outsourcing service providers focus their attention on recruiting, training and maintaining good people. This allows companies the flexibility to scale quickly and to focus their energy on other tasks.

It’s important to have a proper strategy in place to minimize disadvantages of outsourcing call center services such as:

  • Sharing company data with an outsource provider
  • Losing control of daily activity that is being outsourced
  • Partnering with a call center that does not adhere to the same standards in terms of quality of service, adherence to policies and other sensitive aspects of the business
  • Being a small fish in a big pond. Since the call center has other customers, there is the need to make sure that the business receives the proper attention from the management and staff to meet and exceed expectations
  • Lack of cultural understanding of the customer and even lack of understanding the culture of the business being represented can alter the image the company is trying to project.

From my experience, the majority of disadvantages are due to poor site selection and lack of planning. Though there are advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing services, the many benefits that outsourcing brings far outweigh its disadvantages.

Once you have decided on outsourcing call center services, it’s important to decide on the correct call center for your company. There is outsourcing onshore, nearshore and offshore. There are advantages and disadvantages to all three such as cost, cultural affinity, ease of understanding and quality of service. Learn more about choosing a call center here: https://guatecall.com/how-to-choose-the-right-outsourced-call-center/

If bilingual skills are important, it would also be a good opportunity to select a location that can handle the language without a need to increase labor wages. An example would be if needing bi-lingual English Spanish call center services, it would be best to outsource nearshore where the Spanish language would be readily available.

My biggest advice when choosing a call center would be to partner with a management team that shares the same vision as you and understands the needs of your company. Together you can create an action plan and constantly fine tune it to meet and exceed the company’s targets. Feel free to reach out to me to speak more in depth about this or other outsourcing topics.

This article is written by Perry Silber. Perry Silber is one of the founders 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 call center 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 .

Call Center Scripting

Call Center Scripting

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A call center “expert” was just explaining to me why call center scripting has no place in the customer service environment. I mentioned that only BAD scripting and POOR delivery of the script has no place in the customer service environment. We agreed to disagree.

Call center scripting is a valuable tool. When used correctly, it helps a call center agent deliver the correct message, consistently and with confidence.

I know that call center scripting gets a bad rap. We’ve all received telemarketing calls from agents that are clearly reading from a script or have called a company for service and had to deal with a scripted customer service agent that could only say canned responses that where totally useless.

Is that a scripting issue? I think it’s most likely a training issue, a management issue or a mix of both.

When actors deliver their “scripts” in the movies, we sit and watch for two hours without once thinking to ourselves, wow, he really followed the script well. This is because good actors are professionals. They hone their skills so that the script sounds natural. As though the words where theirs. Same with a call center agent.

A scripted sounding agent is a product of lack of training, lack of desire or a mix of both. Usually caused by poor management or a client that does not want to pay for training and believes that agents can just be thrown into the deep end and learn to swim as they go.

Call center agents that sound scripted need more training. They need to understand the business they represent, their customers and the call flow. They need to memorize their scripts. They should know that script inside and out. They need to understand where the emphasis needs to be placed and the pace necessary in delivering. They should practice it until people believe it’s their own words coming out of their mouths.

But what about customers questions? What about building empathy? I have scripts for that too haha! I’m just kidding but just partially. I do find that most customers questions tend to repeat themselves over and over. For this I would suggest creating FAQ (frequently Asked Questions) scripts and you guessed it, have the agents know those just as well as the other material.

In coaching customer service, listening skills are key. There are many opportunities within a conversation to build like and trust with the customer. Even though we have a script for agents to follow, if agents are trained well, they can find “bonding opportunities” with their customers. In fact, it should be encouraged that agents find these opportunities within the call if only for a moment.

A script takes agents on the road from start to finish of the call in the most efficient way possible. Learning how to take a quick detour on the trip to bond with the customer is the icing on the cake for great customer experience.

Call center scripting is designed to scale a great message across a large group of agents. When used correctly, it offers consistent and measurable results and most importantly, great customer service!

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 .

Call Center Quotes – 10 Leadership Call Center Quotes – Call Center Motivational Quotes – GuateCall

Call Center Quotes – 10 Leadership Call Center Quotes – Call Center Motivational Quotes – GuateCall

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10 Leadership Call Center Quotes in Our Customer Service Training!

At Guatecall, we pride ourselves on our constant training. We believe very strongly in having consistent leadership training and one of our favorite things is having call center quotes given by our attendees during training.

The great thing about call center quotes during leadership training is it allows for an opportunity to research great leaders, read about them, their books and share with the class a little bit about the person and how they personify a leader. We also share  “call center quotes” from this person and explain how we can use these call center quotes as part of our call center speak on the floor with agents. This gives our agents some positive thinking moments throughout the day.

Our supervisors constantly refer back to training they are given and apply things from it like our call center quotes on the floor. We’ve learned that our call center quotes are a fun way to give some quick motivation to our call center agents. It helps put a smile on a call center agent’s face which gives the extra push to do good on the call.

Here are some call center 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: “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
-Napoleon Hill

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: “The Quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves”
-Ray Kroc

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

We hope you enjoyed some of these call center quotes and can utilize these and others in your training. What are some of your favorite call center quotes? Here is to great customer service and experience for your customers!

 

call center outsourcing

call center outsourcing

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Call center outsourcing helps businesses deliver best in class services to their clients and prospects. Heavy competition and reduced margins are becoming today’s norms and given that, companies are looking for a competitive advantage. Call center outsourcing companies help businesses be more competitive, allowing them to focus on their core competencies. Call center outsourcing gives companies the flexibility they need to focus on what they do best and still deliver a high touch and effective service to their clients and prospects through the use of a call center outsourcing company.

Businesses have major investments and decisions to make when setting up call centers to help with customer interaction in-house. The first question is do they have the experience necessary to set up a call center? If they do that’s great! If not, the first risk is hiring the right person to manage the whole call center setup process. After that, there are plenty of needs such as experienced call center management, call center technology, call center agents, the space necessary for today as well as considerations for growth. There is training, retraining, HR, QA, supervisors, payroll, benefits, taxes, labor laws and the list goes on and on. This is why the majority of companies, large and small choose to use call center outsourcing services.

Call center outsourcing has major benefits such as:

  • Experienced management
  • Experienced agents
  • Low start up cost
  • built in infrastructure
  • scalability
  • Latest technology
  • HR and recruiting departments
  • Experienced Supervisors & QA Staff
  • Bilingual Capabilities

The key to successful call center outsourcing success is to understand your business needs, be able to articulate your vision and team up with a call center outsourcing company that shares your vision and will do whatever it takes to help your company succeed!

Part of helping your company succeed is to make sure that you get the most value for your money. Call center outsourcing companies range from very inexpensive offshore call center locations to US call center outsourcing locations that can reach $28 an hour or even more.

Finding the right balance of price and quality services is crucial for success. This is why we believe using GuateCall, our nearshore call center outsourcing solution will be of great benefit. We are nearshore which means you have access to talented agents that are less expensive than US agents but have similar if not better abilities. This gives a company the financial flexibility to hire the correct amount of agents necessary to give the best possible customer experience.

GuateCall has been in business for over a decade and have consistently become the best performing call center outsourcing provider for our clients year after year. Our CSAT scores as well as our statistics have been #1 of each of our customers month after month. We set the standards that other call center outsourcing centers and even in house call center teams strive to achieve. Our enthusiasm and desire to help our customers creates an environment that is conducive to high achievement.

When evaluating cost, quality, service, flexibility, scalability, technology, experience and culture, GuateCall comes out ahead of our competition. We reduce overhead and invest in paying our employees hire salaries than other call center outsourcing companies which reduces turnover for our customers. We invest heavily in technology and redundancy to make sure our service offerings are reliable and consistent. We also constantly reward our agents on a job well done through public recognition and monetary incentives. This keeps our employees happy and motivated.

Are you looking for bi-lingual call center agents as well? The US Hispanic population is a major consumer group that is growing in size and income. Companies would be wise to consider this market when looking to grow sales.

GuateCall, Our bi-lingual call center outsourcing company, is located nearshore in Guatemala, Central America. Guatemala is a major call center outsourcing destination for the largest fortune 100 businesses. This gives us a large pool of experienced and talented bi-lingual agents in the local call center outsourcing industry. We select from the top 20% of that work pool to work with our customers. This gives our customers the best call center outsourcing experience as they work hand in hand with a talented and experienced team that has its sole focus on the success of the business.

Call center outsourcing services include:

  • Inbound customer service
  • Web-Chat
  • E-mail services
  • Market Research
  • Appointment Setting
  • Retention
  • Cross Sale & Upsale
  • Answering Services
  • B2B & B2C Services
  • Outbound offerings

There are lots of call center outsourcing companies to choose from. The key is to find a provider that best delivers on your needs. That aligns with your vision and that can build a lasting relationship with your business.

As a premier call center outsourcing company, We strive to find creative ways of improving processes and use technology to improve current systems. Our call center outsourcing will improve your business success by using our experience and award winning team while saving you money in the process. Give us a try!

 

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall. GuateCall is a Near-shore contact center provider of multi-channel bilingual English and Spanish call center services located In Guatemala, Central America. Whether through voice or chat, we can provide superior services to your organization. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall and our outsourced call center services in Latin America, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 or by e-mail perry@guatecall.com.

 

 

 

Bilingual Latin American Contact Center Solutions Provider- GuateCall

Bilingual Latin American Contact Center Solutions Provider- 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 .

 

English Spanish Call Center: Outsourced Bilingual Inbound Customer Service

English Spanish Call Center: Outsourced Bilingual Inbound Customer Service

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Outsourced Bilingual Inbound Customer Service to our English Spanish Call Center

Outsourcing bilingual English and Spanish call center inbound customer service involves planning, implementation and constant monitoring to maintain the highest level of service possible. Outsourcing to a company that specializes in high quality bilingual customer care is imperative.

At GuateCall, we continually look for ways to improve your customer’s experience and have consistently rated as the highest performing outsource provider to our customers. Our QA team live monitors our call center agents and looks for areas of opportunity when giving feedback. Sometimes just a high five for a job well done makes all the difference.

Inbound customer service can come from multiple channels such as:

  • Phone calls
  • Web chat support
  • Email services
  • Social Media interactions

Delivering a great customer experience starts with proper planning and implementation. GuateCall has been in business for over ten years and our management has led customer service teams for well over twenty years. This experience creates a clear understanding of the value of the customer and the need to go above and beyond.

U.S. vs NearShore Outsourcing Services 

The U.S. based outsourcing provider is a great option for companies to outsource with. One of the biggest setbacks with outsourcing in the U.S. is the high turnover rate of call center employees. Also, the price of doing business with a U.S. outsourcing call center is typically between $23 to $30 an hour. This makes outsourcing the correct amount of call center agents a bit challenging.

At GuateCall, we become your brand advocates. We are able to service your clientele with our bilingual agents in both English and Spanish for one competitive price. GuateCall’s Nearshore call center is located in Guatemala. Just south of Mexico, Guatemala is known for its scenic landscape, friendly culture, warm service and robust nearshore call center services industry. The coffee is amazing also, but we’ll leave that for another discussion 😉  The Guatemala inbound customer service industry has consistently received accolades from the biggest corporations in the U.S.

Being nearshore allows companies to outsource to a highly trained bilingual staff, while significantly reducing the cost per agent. This will give your company the ability to dedicate the correct amount of agents to best service your customer’s needs.

Bilingual Customer Service Agent recruiting

Delivering a great customer experience starts with great customer service representatives. At GuateCall, we hire the top 20% of the market. We have a great reputation among agents in the call center industry in Guatemala which helps recruit staff quickly.

If you have a need to outsource all or part of your inbound call center services such as customer care, order taking, order processing, retention, appointment setting, web chat support and email response services, give us a call. You’ll be glad you did!

 

A DIME A DOZEN-How to Choose a Bilingual Inbound Customer Service Call Center Outsourcer!

A DIME A DOZEN-How to Choose a Bilingual Inbound Customer Service Call Center Outsourcer!

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Inbound customer service outsourcing call centers are so plentiful, they seem as though they are a dime a dozen. Many countries have inbound call centers that will help you with the outsourcing of your customer service support, email support, web chat support as well as back office services.

What makes inbound customer service outsourcing support different from one country to the other and one outsourcing call center to another outsource call center?

When deciding on a location for outsourcing your bilingual inbound customer service and support, consider the following:

  • Country
  • Cultural affinity
  • Cost
  • Size of outsource call center
  • Management

Choosing a country when outsourcing inbound customer service that is in close proximity to your target market helps increase face to face interaction between your team and the outsource provider. Shorter flights are not only more cost effective, but are less draining on your employees. The similar time zone is also a major benefit to increasing communication between your company and the outsource call center provider. Email response is faster and a quick phone call, even multiple times a day, is easily managed.

Cultural affinity plays a major role when selecting an inbound phone support outsourcer for customer service calls. When outsourcing to nearshore outsourcing call centers, the agents working in those centers are familiar with their nearshore neighbors and most likely have family and friends that live in the U.S. and Canada. They are also highly influenced by North American TV, music as well as other media. This influence greatly increases bonding on customer service phone calls.

Cost control does not have to mean a reduction in customer service. Spending the time to find the right outsource call center provider helps control costs, while looking for ways to increase your customer service experience. Inbound customer service outsource call centers located Nearshore (close to the U.S.) offer a significant savings to their U.S. and Canadian outsource providers. More so, they also offer bilingual services, such as Spanish, usually at no additional expense. Nearshore inbound customer support outsourcing can also be cost controlled by a mix of other services such as email response and web chat response. These services are usually offered in both English and Spanish. Other languages are also available.

Who says size doesn’t matter? 🙂  A key to finding the right inbound outsource call center partner is deciding on the size of the company you want to work with. There are multiple call center sites in different nearshore locations offering phone support, email response, web chat support and BPO services. Many have well over 1000 seats per center. There is also the smaller, more nimble call centers that run from 100 to 500 seats. For medium to smaller companies, these size centers have the ability to offer a more personalized customer service experience while still being large enough to be technologically advanced and current in the latest outsourcing technology and processes.

Management is a key element in the outsourcing process. It’s very important that management’s style from both the customer and the outsource provider share the same vision and common beliefs when it comes to providing customer service support. Having a clear understanding of the targets needing to be achieved is a given. A good outsource management team will also find creative solutions and find ways to help reduce overall cost to benefit ratios. Better yet a good outsource provider will have a team learn the business and help suggest ways to increase revenue while maintaining costs to net a higher revenue to cost benefit.

GuateCall has built a reputation of delivering high end bilingual English and Spanish call center and BPO services from Guatemala, Central America. The Multi channel services offered include but are not limited to phone, email, online chat and social media response. GuateCall offers its services to companies in the United States, Canada as well as throughout Latin America in countries such as Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and a host of other Central and South American Countries. The key to GuateCall’s success is its ability to become an extension of the brand it represents and instilling a can do attitude within the culture of the company. This helps build a great customer experience for both the end consumer as well as the outsourcing client.

GuateCall is located just a short 3 hour flight from Multiple destinations in the United States, such as Miami, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Newark and Atlanta. This major convenience allows for more face to face contact opportunities with our clients.  With its beautiful scenery and friendly people, Guatemala is an ideal destination to mix both business and pleasure.

Another great benefit to the bilingual Guatemalan call center agent is their accent neutrality. It’s a given that we employ agents that are easily understood in English, but did you know that Guatemala is famous for its accent neutral Spanish? No wonder Guatemala has become a hot spot for learning Spanish by so many tourists. Our bilingual agents can help your business tap the $1.2 trillion U.S. Hispanic consumer market by being able to communicate with your clients not only with an easily understood Spanish accent but with a cultural connection as well.

Guatemala is a major player in the inbound customer service contact center outsourcing space and provides contact center support to many of the top Fortune 500 and 100 companies in the U.S.  This leads to a tremendous pool of qualified, well versed employees in all ranges of work from inbound customer service, click to chat services as well as email response and all types of back office work.  Needless to say, at GuateCall, we target the top 20 percent of the contact center workforce in Guatemala. This gives us access to a well versed, highly tenured and skilled staff. Since GuateCall is not a public company, as most of the call centers in Guatemala are, we have the ability to cut a lot of the fat from our competitors prices and offer the highest standards at a fair price.

Isn’t it about time you learned more?

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall. GuateCall is a Near-shore contact center provider of multi-channel bilingual English and Spanish services located In Guatemala, Central America. Whether through voice or chat, we can provide superior services to your organization. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall and Call Center services in Latin America, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 or by e-mail perry@guatecall.com.

 

Outsourced Call Center Services – Top 3 Reasons To Outsource

Outsourced Call Center Services – Top 3 Reasons To Outsource

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Outsourced call center services are at an all time high. Customer’s expectations are at an all time high as well. Businesses are looking for ways to differentiate themselves from their competition and meet their customer’s needs. Outsourced call center services allows companies the ability to cater to customer’s expectations while maintaining the flexibility needed to control costs.

Companies must find outsourced call center services companies to meet the demands of their business.

Outsourcing companies are plentiful. They key is to find the outsourced call center services company that is the best fit for where the business is now and its plans for the future. The outsourced call center services company you select needs to be managed with the same priorities as you would have in house and communication between management and employees must be fluid.

Most larger companies choose to outsource their customer service, web-chat, back office services and other call center services. There are multiple reasons for this. One of the main reasons is the ability to spend their resources on increasing their brand awareness and allow specialized call center services companies to help with customer interaction. Also due to their size, they can use different outsourced call center services companies in different parts of the world to best maximize their cost to value ratio.

Today’s outsourcing environment and more specifically technology, has helped level the playing field in the outsourced call center services space.

Smaller companies now have the same access to outsourced call center services as larger businesses. As technology advanced, smaller boutique outsourced call center services providers have jumped into the market and have created the ability to help service smaller companies. Smaller businesses now have the ability to take advantage of outsourced call center services which were not around just a few years ago. With more call center outsourcing companies using cloud services, it is now a more simple process to have outsourced call center services used in a more transparent manner. Live call monitoring, QA calibrations, real time data entry and reporting are just a few of the ways that companies can feel more secure and part of the process when it comes to working with call center outsourcing services companies.

Here a few benefits of outsourced call center services:

Experienced management

Today’s companies are under more pressure than ever to do more with less. It’s great to know that when outsourcing to a reputable outsourced call center services company, you not only get a great call center agent, but an entire infrastructure of management that helps from recruiting staff, to motivating them, to monitoring the quality of calls and taking care of things such as payroll, absenteeism and other employee related issues. Just as important, an experienced management team spend time to understand your business and help advise and implement ways to benefit the utmost from the outsourcing relationship.

 Scalability

Call centers focus a lot of time, effort and resources to hire the best talent. A dedicated HR staff is constantly recruiting talent that fits their client’s needs. With larger spaces and room for growth, call centers can quickly ramp up when a customer needs increases. More so, since ramping up is a normal occurrence in the outsourced call center services industry, management is well versed and capable to handle the needs of their client quickly and efficiently.

Cost

Lets face it, the cost to run an efficient call center is high. The rent, maintaining the facilities, equipment as well as the operations management and staffing are a major drain on a company’s budget. Call centers have the benefit of spreading these expenses across their entire client base allowing for a more affordable solution. There is also the cost of salaries, health insurance, retirement plans, lunches, prizes, the list goes on and on.

When comparing costs of outsourced call center services, companies can choose outsourcing onshore to a local area call center. They can outsource offshore to drastically reduce the cost of labor or they can choose nearshore, greatly reducing cost while still having most of the onshore conveniences.

GuateCall, which is located nearshore in Central America, is perfectly situated to help your business. Located just south east of Mexico in Guatemala, we offer high end bilingual English Spanish call center services and superior customer interactions while reducing costs by 30-50%. We offer inbound, outbound and a blended service, as well as web chat and email response. Our multicultural, fully bilingual staff will help deliver the high touch service customer’s have grown to expect while still controlling costs with our lower labor rate in Guatemala.

At GuateCall, we pride ourselves on being an extension of your brand and working hand in hand with your team to meet company targets while upholding the vision of your company. Take the opportunity to reach out to us and see how GuateCall will help your business grow!

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall. GuateCall is a Near-shore contact center provider of multi-channel bilingual English and Spanish services located In Guatemala, Central America. Whether through voice or chat, we can provide superior services to your organization. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall and our outsourced call center services in Latin America, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 or by e-mail perry@guatecall.com.