It always feels good to clear out some trash, so you know tossing out call center costs and worries will feel great!
Running any kind of operation can bring lots of costs and worries, but in-house call centers can be especially draining. If you’re debating whether an outsourced call center might make things easier, the good news is yes, it can make things a lot easier!
But just saying that is not much help by itself. Where exactly can you expect to save some money? What kinds of worries will you be able to clear away? If you’ve read our previous posts on the Total Cost of Ownership, you already know that some of those costs can be obvious and pretty high, while some others can be a lot harder to identify or calculate. Hopefully our list today will help you get started.
As you look through the list, you’ll probably find that you have already thought of several of those, and there will likely be a few more that you might feel are a bit trivial or overstated. But depending upon your location, the availability of space, easy access to new talent, and many other factors, the time or cost of any of these could vary from being negligible to extreme. And even a few “negligible” costs can add up, or escalate considerably if outside factors change.
So with all that said, here is our list of 25 call center costs or worries that you can toss away by outsourcing your call center:
- Constantly trying to find and hire new agents because of the high agent turnover rates most call centers face.
- Constantly training and retraining that stream of new agents.
- If you provide 24-7 call center service, finding at least 4.2 times more people than you would need for regular business hours… even without having anyone available to be called in when agents call in sick or if they leave unexpectedly.
- Finding an IT specialist to stay on top of technology and security issues, and keeping up to date on training for new technologies.
- Payroll and HR, health plans, benefits, insurance… all those mandatory employee-related costs that have to be paid but can be hard to predict. You’ve already budgeted salaries? Maybe so, but even some employers are shocked to realize that the miscellaneous extra costs can add another 10% — no, wait… even up to 20%! — to the budget of an in-house call center.
- Management and administration costs.
- Computer-telephony integration, and keeping the system compliant with new standards and technologies.
- Tying your call center into your existing CRM and other systems.
- Land and/or building costs for the call center.
- Electricity, telephone, and water costs for the operation.
- Janitorial and maintenance costs.
- Buying and maintaining call center furniture and supplies: chairs, workstations, washrooms, kitchen areas, etc. It may sound trivial at first glance, but the cost of having 30, 40, 50 or more extra people in your building can be very, very high!
- If your business grows, expansion plans and costs. Do you have extra space in your current location? Will you need to add on? Move to a new location? Split staff between two or more locations?
- Insurance costs for the building.
- Insurance costs for the staff.
- Taxes for the added land, facilities, and systems.
- Depending upon where you’re located, parking spaces, snowclearing, etc.
- Security costs for the physical call center facility, plus the data-storage facility.
- Software upgrade and installation costs.
- Security measures and costs to protect against hackers, viruses, and other attacks.
- Quality control, including monitoring, tracking and training to resolve identified issues.
- Backup systems for all data.
- System redundancy and emergency power supply in case of power failure.
- Ensuring your call center facility meets any city, regional, state/provincial, or other legal requirements. Some areas have mandatory standards for lighting, aisle widths, and other considerations that may not be expected when initially planning your facility.
- Adequate classroom space for ongoing staff training.
What do you think? Did we miss any? Do you agree or disagree with any in particular? Let us know in the comments below, and please contact us if you’d like more information on what a great nearshore call center outsourcer can do to reduce costs and worries in your operations!
