Contact center

What is an Outsourcing Company?

An outsourcing company handles various supporting processes of contracting companies. These supporting processes are activities that are not central to the company's business but cannot be done away with. Examples include payroll, customer service, accounting, IT, etc.

A great outsourcing company is someone that has proven expertise in the process to be outsourced, that has access to resources and technology not otherwise available to the contracting company. For a contracting company to fully leverage the advantage of outsourcing, it is preferable that the outsourcing company will have it's own key performance indicators to help drive innovation and growth for the contracting company.

Outsourcing evolved a lot during the past decade, it is no longer all about customer service outsourcing. Nowadays, it is very common to outsource other functions such as finance & accounting, lead generation, software development or digital marketing. Outsourcing is also applicable to any industry and any business size, as long as the job can be done in front of a computer, then it can be outsourced.

Outsource Accelerator's directory lists over 700+ outsourcing companies in the Philippines. All of these are carefully selected for innovation, expertise, and technology that will benefit our clients. We also provide you with guidance on how to maximize the potential that such expertise gives you in growing your business.

What is a Call Center?

A Call center may refer to a physical center where an outsourcing company conducts various customer contact services that act as a front liner to customers. Call centers comprise of a team of agents who are trained for the product or service being offered. A call center may also refer to a type of BPO setup where a client gets a remote team to handle its customer service hotlines and attend the client’s customers in its behalf.

In call centers, agents often does inbound or outbound call handling. The former talks about customer service, order processing or technical support. The latter focuses more on telemarketing, promotions or selling. In this setup, it is the call center agent who initiates the call to potential customers.

A call center employs agents who act as representatives of their client’s behalf to deal with questions, concerns, and complaints of the customers. Aside from that, call centers can also function as sales hotlines and telemarketing teams. Outsource Accelerator provides you the best call center outsourcing companies in the Philippines, where you can save up-to 70% on staffing cost.

What is Customer Service Representative?

A customer service representative is an individual who interacts with customers on behalf of the company, usually to address their concerns. They are the front lines of service providers in customer support. They know first-hand how satisfied and dissatisfied customers are with the services they availed. 

A CSR possesses a lot of skills they need to effectively deliver customer service. This includes good communication and problem-solving skills, quick wit, and interpersonal skills. Other terms may include customer service associates, and customer service advisors or consultants.

Their duties depend on what type of customer service they handle, whether inbound or outbound. Inbound CSRs are the ones who handle incoming calls, chats, or emails from customers, attend to their concerns, do basic troubleshooting, and help them navigate a website or app.

Outbound CSRs, meanwhile, deal mostly with lead generation, billing reminders, appointment confirmation, and market surveys. Unlike inbound CSRs, they are the ones who reach out to customers for these concerns either through cold calling or emails.

Outsource Accelerator provides you access to great customer service representatives that you can outsource from the Philippines starting from $6 per hour, where you can save up-to 70% on staffing cost. We have over 3,000 articles, 200+ podcast episodes, and a comprehensive directory with 700+ BPOs… all designed to make it easier for clients to learn about, and engage with customer service outsourcing.

What is Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)?

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the engagement of services from a third-party provider. BPO uses various technology-enabled services to hasten the delivery of services. The business activities could be back-office such as, but not limited to, payroll, accounting, human resources, or front office jobs like customer service, sales, and marketing, etc. In the case of content providers, these business activities could mean hiring writers, remote editors, or virtual assistants.

BPO speeds up processes and enhances efficiency. Companies that outsource some of their business activities use their time on core services and competencies. With this shift in focus, companies improve their current processes that may result in improved customer satisfaction. BPO helps companies divert their resources to more critical business strategies. Often, companies find it impractical to hire a full-time position in-house because of the cost associated with doing so.

When a business engages an external specialist to manage and operate some of its internal processes, it's referred to as business process outsourcing. Such ‘processes’ include customer service, accounting and finance, or sales. It is different from hiring an agency to do specific tasks, as the outsourcing provider (BPO) is more concerned with the ongoing production of labour-intensive tasks, instead of the higher-level strategy and guidance.

Now, business process outsourcing has broadened and is more akin to staff augmentation, or staff leasing.

There are many benefits to outsourcing, as well as some downsides and risks. The common benefits include:

The business process outsourcing sector is a vast industry, generating over $200bn annually, and employing many millions of people worldwide. Some examples include:

Facebook and Uber outsource many of their operational functions, including content moderation for Facebook, and customer service for Uber

A medium business with 50-500 staff might outsource the labour-intensive accounting and finance functions to a team in the Philippines.

It is common for small business owners to have a Virtual Assistant (VA) working for hem full time, remotely from the Philippines.

The type of business process outsourcing can be characterised by their specialisation, location, and size.

Business process outsourcing is in the human resources and professional services sector. However, their services extend across all industries. The majority of BPOs are generalist, in that they offer a full range of professional services, although some specialise in certain verticals (ie accounting, or animation).

Business process outsourcing typically operates form developing nations such as the Philippines, India, and Colombia. They typically have cheaper cost-of-living and bigger populations. Different locations offer different advantages.

The bigger BPOs employ more than 250,000 people. They are huge, global operations. Medium-sized BPOs range from 500-5,000 staff and offer a full range of services. The smaller BPOs might have 1-500 people.

Collectively, business process outsourcing provides any kind of staffing solution. Common functions of BPO include:

A wide range of BPO companies in different parts of the world provide utmost services to their Western and local clients. Many of them have even earned awards and recognitions by award-giving bodies due to their performance on both the roles they take and on their way of taking care of the employees.

Check out the top BPO companies in several outsourcing destinations below:

Outsource Accelerator is the most trusted source for independent information & advisory for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). We have over 4,000 articles, 200+ podcast episodes, and a comprehensive directory with 700+ BPOs… all designed to make it easier for clients to learn about, and engage with, business process outsourcing.