Outsourced or in-house call centre: Which is better?

Communication isn’t just key to every business, but its lifeblood as well. Without effective communication, businesses will find it hard to reach existing and potential customers, thus resulting in a failed business-to-customer relationship.

Today, businesses leverage one of the two categories of call centres to cater to their customer’s queries and demands. While these two categories of call centres are designed to provide optimum customer service, you should understand that one is deemed superior to the other. And we are about to find out which is.

But, before delve into that, let’s consider what outsourced and in-house call centres are, including some pros and cons to help guide your decision.

In-house call centres

An in-house call centre is simply a call centre that is situated or established within a company. The company sets up the necessary equipment and employs team members to handle the tasks designed for this unit.

An in-house call centre involves hiring a team of experts to head, manage, operate, and carry out all call centre tasks.

Pros

Control overall call centre activities:

Because an in-house call centre is under your roof, you can monitor all activities closely, ensuring that all is done to your satisfaction.

Personal touch:

When a call centre is situated in a company, the worries of wrong conversations and the possibility of things going south are thrown out of the door. Team members assigned call centre activities have the opportunity to learn how to handle any situation that may arise.

Security

The company’s data and client details are secured due to the absence of a third party.

Cons

Cost:

The cost of setting up the necessary equipment to keep an in-house call centre up and running is one reason why you may want to consider leveraging the services of a telemarketing company.

Maintenance:

After purchasing the necessary equipment to facilitate an in-house call centre, you will have to set aside funds to maintain the facilities and equipment regularly. Such expenses can affect your overall business expenditure.

Loss of focus on core business activities

With the attention of your staff on your call centre activities, your core business tasks could lag. To prevent this, it makes sense to outsource this task to a call centre.

Outsourced call centres

Contrary to an in-house call centre, an outsourced call centre is a setup in which a company works with a telemarketing company outside the organization to carry out necessary call centre functions.

A company can either outsource all of its call centre or one-off programs to a telemarketing agency or a portion of the tasks.  The decisions boil down to the business’s needs.

Pros

Reduce cost

By outsourcing the call centre tasks to a third party, you tend to free your business from costs associated with equipment and hiring fees which could amount to several thousand dollars.

Reduce risk

While establishing an in-house call centre comes with some benefits, you’ll be doing it at the risk of your finances. To prevent this, all you have to do is place the burden on a third party and watch them handle your customer service professionally.

Increased productivity

For a business to function optimally, workers need to zero in their attention on the core areas of the company. However, this would be difficult or impossible if you have workers running around to handle various call centre activities. Here is where outsourcing this task to a call centre comes in handy.

By taking this critical step, you’ll save your team the trouble of multitasking and increase productivity in the process.

Round the clock customer service

Unlike an in-house call centre, a third-party call centre provides round-the-clock service. Anytime, any day, come rain or shine, these telemarketing agencies are available to offer you optimum call centre services.

Cons

Less control

When you outsource your company’s call centre, you might end up having less control over teams working on your programs, unlike in the case of an in-house call centre.

Confidentiality concern

Aside from having less control over employees who carry out your call centre activities, you may also have confidentiality concerns. How secure are your customer’s data in the hands of the third party? Remember, a data breach could put your company in a bad situation.