Business process outsourcing (BPO)

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a strategic business management approach where companies that want to improve efficiency and reduce costs delegate non-core business functions, such as human resources, finance or customer support, to external third-party providers.

Contact centres extensively use BPO services because of high staffing and infrastructure costs, management complexity, fluctuating call volumes and to meet the need for specialised customer service expertise. Offloading contact centre functions to BPO providers helps companies:

• Enhance efficiency: BPO providers have the experience, know-how and infrastructure to streamline contact centre operations, resulting in improved response times and increased customer satisfaction.
• Reduce costs: Outsourcing contact centre functions can significantly lower operational expenses, as BPOs often absorb staffing, training and infrastructure-related costs.
• Drive growth: BPOs offer the flexibility to scale contact centre operations according to business needs without incurring additional overhead costs.
• Access specialised expertise: BPO providers possess domain-specific knowledge, enabling them to better manage customer interactions across various channels.
• Focus on core business: Outsourcing contact centre functions allows businesses to allocate internal resources to strategic initiatives and growth, rather than managing complex, non-core functions.

Leveraging agile customer experience (CX) software specifically designed for contact centres, BPO providers can tailor their service delivery functions to suit an organisation’s business requirements. This flexibility affords companies a range of versatile service options, including:

• Choosing to offshore, nearshore or onshore their call centre, depending on labor, costs and oversight needs.
• Fully outsourcing call volume and closing their internal call centre, or only sending overflow volume to the BPO contractor.
• Directing sales calls to their BPO partner while keeping service calls in-house.

By providing and more effectively executing a wide range of services that adapt to and align with business needs and priorities, call centre BPO providers are an attractive option for companies that want to efficiently and affordably enhance the customer experience.