You probably heard or read about Business Process
Outsourcing (BPO) and Call Centers but you need insight on what kind of
business they have and how they do business.
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is contracting of certain
business activities to third party service providers. The third party service
providers are responsible for hiring the needed manpower. They also make sure
job assigned to them are carried out to the best of the satisfaction of the
outsourcing company.
Outsourcing of business could be offshore or onshore. Offshore
outsourcing is relocating the business process from one country to another
country. Onshore is simply domestic contracting. These service providers are
responsible for their employees’ compensations and benefits. Rate of salaries
and compensations is base on the currency of the country where service providers are located.
In the Philippines some businesses like telecommunications, banks,
travel agencies, opt to outsource their marketing department. I for one
upgraded my internet service through a telemarketer. I made sure though they are legitimate. I
checked with my internet service provider before I signed up with them.
A Call Center is the third party service provider that handles calls
assigned by outsourcing companies. Call handling could be inbound or outbound.
Inbound is accepting calls from the customers of the outsourcing company. Outbound is calling out to the customers of
the outsourcing company. One example of outbound Call Center, are telemarketers
selling products and services to customers. Likewise there are, non-voice Call
Centers. They communicate by chatting to the customers of the outsourcing
company.
In outbound call center, after calls are made by a call center
representative. Another department processed the orders through the back end.
The back end people are responsible for shipping, sending communications to
customers, correcting orders, all other functions that cannot be done by a front
line call center representative. Call center representatives are also known as
call center agents.
For inbound call centers, a frontline call center representative assist
calling in customer. Do the best to resolve
the issue, customer is calling about during the call. If issue cannot be
resolved on the call, frontline agent would pass the issue to the back end for
resolution. Inbound call center agent has to provide customer with estimated
time frame as to when the issue will be resolved. Back end representatives may
not be located in the same country where call centers are outsourced. For
telecommunication outsourcing companies, resolution of the issue could mean
dispatching their local technician.
Depending on the urgency of the issue, a customer may become irate if he
wants to get the issue resolved during the call. There are some issues that resolution
is beyond the control of the representative. This is where some calls become
difficult to handle. If customer asks for a supervisor or manger, the call will
be transferred to an escalation agent. If an escalation agent is not available
the team lead or team captain can take the call. How do you handle irate
callers? I will have separate discussion on that on the next blog post.
Why do call center center representatives work at night? It depends on
the outsourcing company. In the Philippines most outsourcing companies are from Canada, United Kingdom and United States. We have
to follow the working hours of these countries. Why are these companies
outsourcing? I could think of two main reasons. One, to outsource is cost
efficient, secondly more manpower is needed.
Some of my readers may be working in the same industry where I am. Possibly
in your urgency of getting a job you have not asked what kind of business
industry you are in. I hope I have given you some bits of information, to
answer some inquiries of those getting curious why you work at night. Now, you
have bits of knowledge about Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Call Center
business.
